Environmental issues mark several exhibits about water. Ayse Erkmen of Turkey turns a room of the Arsenale into a purification plant for water piped in from the canals. Sigalit Landau of Israel also pipes in canal water, but it’s symbolic of a project of hers promoting collaboration between Israel and Jordan.
The first Iraqi pavilion portrays the ravaged ecology and culture of the war-torn country. Azad Nanakeli, one of six expatriates in the show, baptizes himself in a video alongside a parallel image in which the water becomes a reddish haze. In an adjacent space, three dry spigots deposit a puddle of empty plastic bottles. Lack of clean water is a more pressing emergency than civil war and terrorism, according to the brochure accompanying the show.
Having attended nearly every biennale since the late 1980s, I know that most of its myriad offerings tend to be mediocre, lacking the aesthetic refinement and emotional power that reward extended contemplation. But some works are just plain fun. Japanese artist Tabaimo’s hand-drawn animations of cityscapes transmogrifying with plants and abstract patterns are projected onto curving walls and mirrors, turning the small interior of the Japanese pavilion into an expansive multimedia fun house.
The top prize for a work in the “Illumi-nations” show went to London-based American Christian Marclay for his amusing movie “The Clock” (2010), a 24-hour compilation of thousands of clips from films and television, each with a clock or reference to the time of day, the whole thing synced to the actual time where it is projected.
But I especially like a sculptural installation by Urs Fischer. The Swiss American artist made a life-size effigy of his melancholic artist friend Rudolf Stingel contemplating a replica of a 15-foot Renaissance marble statue by Giovanni Bologna and placed a lone desk chair resting nearby. The odd thing is, all three components are wax and have burning wicks melting them away. As they dissolve they elegize the vanity of aesthetic experience and artistic aspiration — a fitting symbol for the pumped-up, attention-seeking smorgasbord of contemporary art that is the Venice Biennale.
Kaufman is an art critic and reporter whose In View blog is at jasonkaufman.info.
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