Poster for documenta 15th Kassel in 2022
The start of 2022 is destined to be an unusual year. Since the end of January, the Venice and Whitney Biennales have announced the list of participating artists, and last October, the 15th Documenta Kassel also released the list. As the top events in the art world, what are the highlights of these three important exhibitions? How has it changed in the past? Today, Harper's Bazaar Art analyzes it for you.
When the three major art exhibitions meet...
Whitney
20
22
Biennale
👨🏼👩🏾 🦱 Curators:
David Breslin
Adrienne Edwards
💡 Subject: Remain silent
（Quiet as It's Kept）
⏰ : April 6 - September 5
📍 : The Whitney Museum, USA
💰 Entrance fees: $25
Venice
👩🏻 Curators:
Cecilia Alemani
💡 Theme: Milk of Dreams
（The Milk of Dreams）
⏰ : April 23 - November 27
📍 : Venetian Armoury
Napoleon Garden
💰 Early bird ticket: €70.50
Kassel
Documenta
👯 ♂️👯 Curators:
Art group Ruangrupa
💡 Theme: lumbung
(A kind of "granary" in Indonesia)
⏰ : June 18 - September 25
📍 : Kassel, Germany
💰 Single-day ticket: €27
⬅️ Swipe ➡️ left and right
Have you all watched the Winter Olympics lately? If the highest level of sports is the Olympic Games, then there are three major art exhibitions of equal weight in the art world - the Venice Biennale in Italy, the Documenta in Kassel, Germany, and the Biennale in São Paulo, Brazil, which were founded in 1895, 1955 and 1951 respectively, and are in a leading position in terms of scale, scholarship and authority. The Whitney Biennale, a bellwether for American avant-garde art, was founded in 1932 and was originally held annually, but changed to a biennial from 1973.
Lorenzo Quinn,Building Bridges, Venice Biennale 2019
Renate Bertlmann, Discordo Ergo Sum, Austrian National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2019
According to the original trajectory, the Venice and Whitney Biennale should be held in 2021, staggered from the five-year Documenta in Kassel. However, due to the epidemic, the first two have been postponed, and the three major exhibitions will be held in the same year for the first time since 1997. The São Paulo Biennale has already been held in 2021 after the postponement, otherwise 2022 would have been even more lively.
Marta Minujín《The Parthenon of Books》，2017年，Photography: Roman März
Increase in the number of exhibitors or decrease?
This
| region | total | Post-80s | Post-90s |
| 213 | 48 (22.5%) | 11 (5%) | |
| 63 | 19 (30%) | 9 (14%) | |
| 51 | / |
Last
| 79 | 26 (33%) | 1 (1.2%) | |
| 75 | 45 (60%) | 2 (2.7%) | |
| 163 |
Note: Documenta 2022 does not announce the age of the artists
The Venice Biennale consists of two parts: thematic exhibitions and national pavilions. At the beginning of February, a total of 213 artists and groups from 58 countries participated in the theme exhibition, of which 180 were participating for the first time, with a total of more than 1,000 works on display. In terms of numbers and size, Venice is undoubtedly far ahead, and has increased significantly from 79 and 120 people in 2019 and 2017, which may be related to the rare inclusion of 95 deceased artists.
Chiharu Shiota, "The Key in the Hand", Japan Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, 2015
At the end of January, the Whitney Biennale also announced the list of exhibitors, which is less than the 75 in 2019 and the same 63 in 2017. Of these, 59 live in new york and los angeles, and two artists, Sable Elyse Smith and Wu Tsang, will also participate in the Venice Biennale.
Whitney Biennale 2019
Documenta Kassel, which was announced last October, appeared to have the smallest number of attendees, a significant decrease from 163 in 2017. But in fact, this is related to the fact that the participating artists are mostly in the form of teams - as few as a few, as many as a dozen people. In addition, Uzbek artist Saodat Ismailova will participate in exhibitions in both Kassel and Venice.
Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Documenta Kassel 2017
In terms of age distribution, the proportion of post-80s artists participating in Venice and Whitney has declined, while post-90s artists have risen sharply. It can be seen that the young "back wave" has begun to enter the mainstream vision. Overall, the number of exhibitors this year has not been greatly affected by the epidemic, and it can still maintain or even exceed the previous level.
Voice of China
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, "It's Hard to Help Yourself," Venice Biennale 2019
Since the 1980s and 1990s, Chinese artists have been participating in international art exhibitions and have become regular visitors to Venice and Kassel, including contemporary art pioneers such as Cai Guoqiang, Liang Shaoji and Yue Minjun. From 19 exhibitors in 1999, accounting for 1/5 of the total number of participants, to the establishment of the China Pavilion in 2003, China's voice at the Venice Biennale can not be ignored.
This year, there are three artists participating in the Venice theme exhibition: Zheng Bo, Lu Yang and Li Shuang. The theme of the exhibition at the National Pavilion of China is "Meta-Scape", curated by Zhang Zikang, director of the CAFA Art Museum, and participated in the exhibition by artists Wang Yuyang, Xu Lei, Liu Jiayu and the AT team (a joint project of the Institute of Science and Technology Art of cahoots of CAFA and the Brain and Intelligence Laboratory of Tsinghua University). It can be seen that the combination of art and technology will be the core of the Chinese Pavilion.
Wang Yuyang, "Artificial Moon 2", installation (motor, screen, computer, wire), sphere diameter 400cm, 2020
Compared to the previous edition with the participation of only one Chinese artist, documenta in Kassel this year invited two (groups) of Chinese artists and two art institutions, namely: Chengdu-based artist partners Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, Taiwanese artists Zhang Enman and Sakuliu Bawavalon, Guangzhou's "Pineapple Core" (BOLOHO), and the Asian Art Archive established in Hong Kong.
Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, Water Museum, 2015-2018
Women, Collective and Pluralistic
Venice Biennale
Keywords: female power; avant-garde art of the 20th century
The biennale, with Cecilia Alemani, artistic director of New York's High Line Park and Italian curator, as the chief curator, is titled "The Milk of Dreams," a dark fairy tale of the same name from the 1950s by surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. At the same time, the exhibition is divided into three different directions: the manifestation of the body and its deformation, the relationship between the individual and technology, and the connection between the body and the earth.
Inside page of The Milk of Dreams by Leonora Carrington
Leonora Carrington, Self Portrait (also known as The Inn of the Dawn Horse), oil on canvas, 65×81.3cm, 1937
From curators to thematic inspiration to the up to 90% of female participating artists (192 in total), feminine energy is undoubtedly one of the highlights of this exhibition. It covers a wide range of eras and regions: from Maria Sibylla Merian, an artist born in 1647, to jadé Fadojutimi, Christina Quarles, and others, as well as art creators from all over the world, such as Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Artist Jadé Fadojutimi, born in 1993
Jadé Fadojutimi Myths of Pleasure, oil on canvas, 140.5×140.5cm, sold for £1.172 million in October 2017, is his most expensive work.
At the same time, the exhibition features a whopping 44% proportion of deceased artists, with a total of 95 (7 males), and in addition to surrealism, will also focus on the creation of lesser-known or far-underestimated female artists in various avant-garde art genres of the 20th century. This curatorial concept is what Alimani calls "time capsules."
After two years of turmoil, whether it is female medical staff, sports athletes or other female workers, people have seen the resilience and energy of women. This biennale is undoubtedly a response and systematic retrospective of women's creativity in the field of art.
Artist Christina Quarles
Christina Quarles, "ALL THA STARS MAN, THA STARS LOOK BEAUTIFUL TONITE," Acrylic, Canvas, 127×101.6cm, 2016
Documenta Kassel
Keywords: collective and solidarity
In the past two years, group creation has become the focus of attention in the art world: Irish art group Array Collective won the 2021 Turner Award, and the first time finalists in 40 years are all groups; ruangrupa, a nine-member group from Jakarta, Indonesia, has been selected for art review's annual "Power 100" list for the past two consecutive years, ranking second and third respectively.
Documenta Kassel featured Ruangrupa as artistic director, the first time an Asian curator has held this position. The exhibition uses the concept of a local Indonesian "granary" (lumbung), which refers to farmers who do not take home the harvested rice, but store it in a collective rice barn so that everyone can access it. The list of exhibitors does not indicate the nationality of the artists or groups, but is divided by time zone and divides the exhibitors into nine "majeli" (Indonesian for "council").
Kassel's list of exhibitors will be published in the German magazine Asphalt, and the income will be used to support the poor and the homeless.
Collective, collaborative and community are the focus of Documenta. This is also inseparable from the context of the times in which we live, where contradictions, conflicts and barriers are more likely to arise in situations where travel is restricted, isolated from each other and in an information cocoon. Communication between people is invaluable, especially in engaging in dialogue between art creators of different ethnicities, identities and gender orientations.
For a long time, artists have often worked alone, emphasizing individuality and difference. In today's increasingly complex political, ethnic, social and ecological problems, solidarity and collective creation may be more helpful in exposing or solving difficulties.
Andreas Angelidakis, 68 blocks of ruins, Documenta Kassel 2017
Guillermo Galindo, Fluchtzieleuropahavarieschallkörper, Documenta Kassel 2017
Whitney Biennale
Keywords: Moving forward in controversy
Compared to Venice and Kassel, the Whitney Biennale is more regional, focusing on the current state of American art. The theme, titled "Quiet as It's Kept," inspired by common phrases from Nobel literature laureate and black female writer Toni Morrison, jazz drummer Max Roach, and artist David Hammons, expressing concerns about racial issues.
David Hammons《How Ya Like Me Now?》，1988年
Throughout the last decade, racial and political controversy has hung over the Whitney Biennale. In 2014, for example, the exhibition sparked protests over its lack of diversity, and in 2017, white artist Dana Schutz's painting "Open Casket, based on a 14-year-old black teenager who was hanged, caused an uproar. In 2019, Warren Kanders, vice president of the Whitney Museum, sparked a boycott over alleged arms sales to Israeli military groups, eventually leading to eight artists voluntarily withdrawing from the exhibition.
This year, the Whitney Biennale is undoubtedly more diverse, the result of years of pressure and restraint from all sides. However, the decline in young artists also raises doubts that they are more inclined to play the safety card, although curators say it is to better reflect cross-generational communication.
Artist Dana Schutz
Protesters wrote "Black Death Spectacle" on t-shirts in front of Dana Schutz's painting Open Casket.
Spring snow melts, the weather warms up, and the art world begins to come alive. The three major art exhibitions were held in the same year, and there were great changes in terms of scale, number of participants and themes. It can be seen that gender, race, collective creation, technology and ecology issues will continue to be at the core. There seems to be nothing new under the sun, but it can only be said that the chronic disease cannot be solved overnight.
As the two curators of the Whitney Biennale put it in a statement: "Many of the underlying problems are not new, but when they stack up, become more serious, or become ubiquitous, they create a different environment in which the past, present, and future are all closely linked and mutually causal." We have organized this exhibition to reflect such a changing era. ”
Editor, Wen Zhang Jianlei
This article is original by Harper's Bazaar Art Department and may not be reproduced without permission