Ode to Taiwan, Scotland, Latvia, Croatia, and New Zealand

Alrighty. The Venice Biennale has been on view to the art world for the past couple of days. However, the rest of the world is not admitted until the actual opening on June 7th (because we don't have press passes or direct museums, etc.). Basically. But wait! Some of the pavilions outside of the Giardini and Arsenale are actually open to the public now. These satellite spaces are used by the homeless countries and exhibitions (organized by a curator, not a country). Yes, high school has continued.


In 1893, the Venice Biennale was arranged to commemorate the 25th anniversary of King Alberto and Queen Margherita, with the first showing in 1895 (it was so big it took two years to organize). At that point all the art was in one building, almost all European countries. The years progressed and the amount of art grew, pavilions for specific countries were built within the Arsenale and Giardini (where the bulk of the Biennale occurs), and the exhibition got bigger. Between World War I and World War II, under Facism and Mussolini, the Biennale started to feature Italian artists more than others. In fact many countries were annoyed that the prizes were focused on nationalistic artists. However, after the world wars the people in charge decided to re-assert the original intentions of international participation. Since then it has grown with the amount of countries and the diversity of the countries participating. Yes, the countries that have built national pavilions within the official area are almost all European, and it does show off some seniority.

Today, on my way to class, we (Carrie Tuccio, Katie Vota, and I) visited five satellite exhibitions and one monographic exhibition featuring Mona Hatoum. These were all top notch exhibitions. The space was used well and incorporated within the pieces, and many pieces were in fact responses to the space they were shown in. Martin Boyce, the representative of Scotland, scouted out the space in Venice a while ago, then created the piece spefically for that work. It was an astounding series of abstract sculptures relating the natural landscape of Scotland with the Venetian landscape and architectural surroundings. Latvia was another one of my favorite with Miks Mitrevics with "Fragile Nature" and the connection between humans and nature, and how fleeting they are.

I enjoyed these spaces because of the reality check of them: the buildings are used for something else, and sought out by the countries and exhibitions represented in them, and used well by them. Frankly, these spaces feel like found jewels where the pavilions, from what I have seen so far (which is not much) may be more of a fair or festival with heavy nationalistic overtones. But, we will see. Or, really, I will see and report back with honesty.

Back to being an art tourist!