Laura Gascoigne

Identity crisis | 11 June 2011

Laura Gascoigne on how the Venice Biennale is searching for its place in art history

Laura Gascoigne on how the Venice Biennale is searching for its place in art history

Picture one of the world’s largest private yachts moored at the quayside of the Riva dei Sette Martiri, protected by a metal perimeter fence and a security detail. Now imagine two battered sea freight containers dumped in the shape of a tau cross on the quay just out of spitting distance of the security fencing. One is Roman Abramovich’s 115m superyacht Luna; the other is a Haitian pavilion showing Vodou-inspired sculpture by the Grand Rue Sculptors from the slums of Port-au-Prince.

Welcome to the opening of this year’s Venice Biennale (until 27 November), bigger than ever and more deeply riven with contradictions. The 54th International Exhibition, ILLUMInations, has been selected by art world queen bee Bice Curiger — curator of the Zurich Kunsthaus and editor of Parkett — who, to judge from interviews in the magazine Bice! put out in her honour, follows the postmodern tendency to view art as a visual branch of philosophy. In answer to one question about her soul, she suggested that talk of the soul was ‘rather passé’ — which may explain why her show is a little soulless or, in materialist terminology, flat.

There are a few high points in the Corderie section of the exhibition in the Arsenale. One is Urs Fischer’s monumental copy of Giambologna’s ‘Rape of a Sabine’ in candle wax, with burning wick. Another is James Turrell’s ‘Ganzfeld Piece’, a magical installation of seemingly palpable coloured light. A third is Christian Marclay’s masterpiece of film-splicing, ‘The Clock’: you can tell the time by it, it provides viewing sofas to flop on and it deservedly won this year’s Golden Lion for Best Artist in the Exhibition.

Neither of the last two works, though, are exactly news; both have already been shown in London, ‘The Clock’ twice.

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