The process of globalization, the uneven level of development, turmoil and war, the inherent injustice of society, etc., with the development of the convenience of transportation, has caused a global displacement of the population in the past few decades, and behind the physical position of the population, or the real space change, it is precisely the estrangement between different cultures that are constantly dispersed, and the separation from their own original regions, so that people can accept different cultures in new places while constantly striving to seek their own identity.
Above: Real view of the venue of the 2022 Venice Biennale
Below: Arsenale Venetian Arsenal from the water
Among them, art, as a common language of mankind, seems to have been given the mission of communicating and understanding between different cultures, and artists not only provide a translation of other cultures through their own creations, but more importantly, they provide a narrative of the culture they carry, and such a pure, personal narrative is an important part of the global cultural wave that has been swallowed up and lost. As Hannah Arendt empathizes with refugees (immigrants): "We have lost our home, and it doesn't just mean losing our familiar daily lives. We lose our language, which means we lose natural reactions, concise gestures, and unhindered expression of emotion. ”
Above: Cecilia Alemani, chief curator of the 2022 Venice Biennale, and President Roberto Cicutto
Below: Exterior view of the Venice Biennale Arsenale
Above: Padiglione Centrale. Central Pavilion, Photo by Andrea Avezzù
Below: Cecilia Alemani, chief curator of the 2022 Venice Biennale
This year, the 59th Venice Biennale was held as scheduled. The Biennale has a total of 213 exhibitors from 80 countries and 31 concurrent events in parallel. The exhibition, which is mainly located in the Giardini and Arsenal branches, includes 1433 works on display and 80 unique projects dedicated to creation. At the same time, most of the pavilions worked themes, from the peat swamp protection in Patagonia to the cultural resilience of black women, from the economic recession in Italy to the symbolism of the Ghanaian flag, from the German pavilion as a political place itself to the Croatian pavilion's Nothing theme and so on. Continuing the centuries-old tradition, the Venice Biennale has always provided a clear and profound footnote to the writing of modern and contemporary art in the world with its avant-garde posture and authoritative arguments.
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Start/Middle/End). In 2022, a specific place installation in "Milk of Dreams" curated by Cecilia Alemani. Photo by Roberto Marossi
Under the direction of Cecilia Alemani, the biennale will run until 27 November under the theme "The Milk of Dreams". As the general director and lead curator of the High Line Art High Line Public Art project in New York, Cecilia Alemani focuses on major exhibitions of contemporary artists and served as chief curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
"Milk of Dreams", from the absurdist eponymous work of the surrealist writer Leonora Carrington, first published in the 1950s and first published in English in 2017. Alemani was drawn to the book Milk of Dreams because it captured "a magical world in which life is constantly reacquainted through the prism of the imagination". Carrington's paintings also convey female desire from her own perspective. In Alemani's view, the Venice Biennale 2022 will be a turning point in the history of art, and the extensive roster of contemporary female artists participating in the 59th Venice Biennale will set the tone for future biennales. The Biennale pays special attention to three themes: "The Manifestation of the Body and Its Deformations", "The Relationship between the Individual and Technology", and "The Connection Between the Body and the Earth". Roberto Cicutto, president of the Venice Biennale, said, "Cecilia Alemani has focused her 'through the deformation of the body and the definition of human nature' on a series of questions about 'the doubts that pervade science, art and mythology in the present age'. ”
One of the most exciting artists in the Giardini, Arsenale and 80 national pavilions throughout the city of Venice is Latifa Echakhch, who will represent Switzerland at The Concert. The Moroccan-French visual artist, winner of the Marcel-Duchamp Prize and has also exhibited at the Centre Pompidou and the Tate Modern, said her art "has no other goal but to question the world around her". Echakhch's work is "inspired by how everyday objects are transformed into symbols of identity, history, and mythology."
Above: Installation diagram, Latifa Echakhch, La dépossession, 2014;
Below: Latifa Echakhch, L'air du temps, Installation of the 2013 Marcel-Duchamp Prize winner, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2014
Another exhibition not to be missed is the exhibition by American artist Mary Weatherford at the Grimani Palace Museum. Her powerful exhibition "The Flaying of Marsyas The Peeling of Marsyas" reflects her conversations with the late masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance painter Titian in 1570-76. Equally ambitious is a thought-provoking retrospective of 100 paintings and drawings by South African artist Marlene Dumas, on display at the iconic Grassi Palace.
American art will feature prominently at the Venice Biennale 2022. The work of American modernist sculptor Ruth Asawa is part of the main exhibition, while Simone Leigh will take over the much-anticipated American Pavilion. The artist describes how she "created a polyhedron that blends sculpture, video and installation, all stemming from her ongoing exploration of the subjectivity of black women".
At a time when Europe is shrouded in war, the highly anticipated Venice Biennale will offer a sense of hope and inclusiveness colliding. The crisscrossing waterways of the water city divide the city into attractive blocks, coupled with a free creative atmosphere, make this Venice Biennale a public practice beyond the exhibition itself under the epidemic.
Official guidelines for the 2022 Venice Biennale China Pavilion
The National Pavilion of the Venice Biennale can be seen as a platform for cross-cultural exchanges, and the theme of this Chinese Pavilion, "Yuanjing", is based on the development of science and technology so far, which is a re-reading of traditional Chinese culture.
Curator Zhang Zikang keenly captured that at the moment of global scientific and technological development, especially many achievements in artificial intelligence, brain and intelligence laboratories, China and developed countries can be said to be standing at the same height, so how to view such a scientific and technological development more diversely and more objectively, it is still necessary to return to their impact on people's lives and thoughts. With such a returning posture, he proposed the exhibition theme of "Yuanjing", "Yuan" has an initial and infinite meaning in the Chinese cultural context; "Yuan" is a word that evolves with the times and superimposes meanings with the evolution of the times, and can be understood at multiple levels.
In his view, China has its own unique perspective of viewing the world, of course, there is also a dimension of interpretation from a Western perspective, so in the process of thinking about curating, but also combined with the perspective of his own art educators, he maintains a multi-dimensional aspect, selecting four groups of Chinese artists with different educational experiences, different genders, and different creative methods, in order to reflect the development system of Chinese art from seeking improvement to modernization, until today's dialogue with the world, so as to show people China's unique way of looking at the world And thus the gulf of cultural exchange between the East and the West, and the connection with the world. The scientific and technological elements are an entry point, because in his view, "in recent years, the most significant synchronization with the world is the development of the digital process", in his observation, Chinese artists and world artists have shown a certain overlap in observation and creation, which is not unrelated to their own life experience and educational experience.
Interior view of the Chinese Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale
The Chinese Pavilion is located in the Arsenale exhibition area of the Venice Biennale, following the exhibition route into this historical building complex, the first thing you see is Wang Yuyang's outdoor work "Snowman" (2021) in the garden, the size, material, color, etc. of this sculpture are defined by code, the name "Snowman" is a computer-generated work, and then randomly selected words from the text, which has nothing to do with the form and material of the work. The production process of the work is completely in the virtual world, and its completion symbolizes an ideal, complete objectivity, rationality, a real thing. However, just as people imagine an ideal world such as Taohuayuanji, the interpretation of the work will supplement various dimensions because of each person's experience, upbringing, etc., and participate in the process of completing the work, which is the way human beings perceive the world.
The dynamic details of Liu Jiayu's participating work "Virtual Pole Quiet Du"
Entering the interior of the building, located below, Liu Jiayu's work "Virtual Pole Quiet Du" can be said to echo the "realm" created by this cultural image. "The placement of the 21-meter-long AI-generated topographic sculpture at this time also means that the space 'here' is already part of the 'Meta Realm'. Through the new media device as a buffer zone, which is used as a transmission port, the real information of the real world is continuously imported into the virtual world at the same time, and then the echo of the virtual world is fed back to the 'meta-realm', based on the deep learning and computing of artificial intelligence, guiding the viewer to perceive the invisible reality in the void realm. It is in this process of exchanging information between the virtual world and the real world that Liu Jiayu completed the actual simulation of "qi", which can be felt and ineffable in Chinese culture. The turquoise solid object in front of you can't help but be reminiscent of the rolling mountains in traditional Chinese landscape paintings, but it is not so clear and certain, like clouds, it can be transformed into an animal. Liu Jiayu shows us "through the virtual world to illuminate the real world we can not capture the picture", so that the audience can eliminate the fear of the sacredness of traditional culture, enjoy the perception of diverse open possibilities, "so as to more deeply understand the true meaning of nature to human beings".
Circling around these two topographical sculptures, scattered around the museum is the AT team's work Jungle (2021). Born from the collaborative research process of the Institute of Science and Technology and Art of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Brain and Intelligence Laboratory of Tsinghua University, the AT group members are committed to exploring and practicing new paths and possibilities for the intersection and integration of art and science and technology in today's era of multidisciplinary and multi-field cross-development. Twisting and turning back, you can see Xu Lei's work "Xinghui" (2021), which is called "Correspondances" in English, from a poem by Baudelaire, but the whole refers to the cosmology and speculation of Chinese. In Xu Lei's view, "we need to translate the ideas in it to audiences around the world through the expression of contemporary art, which is not only a diversion of Chinese culture, a renovation of ancient ideas and methodologies, but also a supplement to the puzzle of contemporary art." The geometry in the installation "Xinghui" adopts the role of the mold in the spatial perspective of 45 degrees of oblique angle, so that these pictures present the image of superposition, extension and change, and this is the "Chinese 'change' view, two births, three births and all things." ”
From the choice of artists and the presentation of works, the exhibition of the China Pavilion is to use digital technology as the entrance to all this, through the artist's translation, trying to bridge the separation between traditional Chinese culture and current life, and conveying China's unique cultural imagery to the West that enjoys the same technology through the combination of art and technology, and the combination of exhibition artists from the 1960s to the 1990s reflects that the differences between generations disappear under the role of art and technology. It can be said that the use of scientific and technological means at the artistic level has formed a kind of decolonization and hegemonic language, so that the world that may be full of contradictions, conflicts, and estrangement can have a system of symbiosis, unity, and integration.
With so much to watch and experience, the Venice Biennale is often described as the Olympic Games of the art world, a long and dizzying viewing experience for participants. In addition to the two main venues, Giardini and Arsenale, there are numerous official and unofficial venues located off the pitch. We will also see some first-time exhibitors: Cameroon, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Uganda and Uzbekistan, among others, while the Nordic Pavilion will be taken over for the first time by indigenous Sámi artists.
Picking a must-see in more than 90 national pavilions at home to Giardini and Arsenale may not seem like an easy task, but there are some of the things we're most looking forward to------
-German Pavilion-
德国馆:Maria Eichborn, "Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft [Maria Eichhorn Public Limited Company], 2002, Maria Eichhorn / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021
German artist Maria Eichhorn, known for her witty and contrasting conceptual works, presents her new work at the German Pavilion in Giardini. She offers a bold, minimalist installation: the German Pavilion appears empty at first glance, and most of its architectural skeleton is exposed and torn apart for the viewer. It is a installation about the "destroyed site", the austere architecture and the almost invisible wall text. The text satirically proposes to "give the pavilion away", and the exposure of the building skeleton is not arbitrary, but actually exposes the addition and expansion of the museum during the Nazi regime, and once found, there will be disturbing revelations.
-British Pavilion-
UK Pavilion: Sonia Boyce "For you, only You", Video Installation, 2007, DACS/Artimage 2022
"Does the voice have an identity?" Sonia Boyce's flagship British Pavilion offers the viewer a highly interactive artistic experience, with an overall sense of improvisation made up of video, sound effects, wallpaper and sculptures. The artist himself explains: "Few people will question the great challenges we have faced in the past two years, and through such collective experiences and journeys, I want to create a work that experiences the unstoppable creative spirit of human beings." ”
Sonia Boyce's pavilion work depicts the influence of black women in British music production through layered sound installations. Boyce, in collaboration with four singers Poppy Ajudha, Jacqui Dankworth, Sofia Jernberg, Tanita Tikaram, and composer Errollyn Wallen, presented an installation that expands on her work, the Devotional Collection (1999–present), which includes more than 20 years of research spanning three centuries, honoring black female Musicians in Britain. Devotional Collection and layering devices use contingencies similar to vinyl records, CDs, posters, images, ticket stubs, etc., placed on mesmerizing golden wallpaper and pedestals to create a pious altar of sound.
-American Pavilion-
美国馆：Simone Leigh, 2021. Artworks © Simone Leigh. Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery.
Sculptor Simone Leigh's American Pavilion exhibition will be one of the headlines this year, with sculptural arrangements that run through the interior and outdoors exploring ideas about history, race, gender, labor, and monuments intended to elevate and promote the cultural narrative of black women in their culturally social lives, ahead of a major solo exhibition at the Boston ICA in 2023. As Jill Medvedow, curator of the ICA Alan Matilda-Persian Pavilion and co-patron of the U.S. Pavilion, puts it: "The scale and grandeur of Simone Leigh's art appeals to viewers and critics for visibility and a sense of power; it is inquiry, timeliness, and urgency."
-Danish Pavilion-
Danish Pavilion: Uffe Isolotto "Pangaia (New Age Headache), 2016.
If one word is used to describe recent world events, it is perhaps surrealism in reality, as is Uffe Isolotto's Danish Pavilion (with the theme: "We Walk on Earth"), which invites the viewer into an incredible world where elements of Danish pastoral life merge with eerie sci-fi phenomena, haunting to form an uncertain image about a future.
-Canada Pavilion-
Canada Pavilion: Stan Douglas London, 9 August 2011, 2017. © Stan Douglas.
Canada selected video artist and photographer Stan Douglas as the pavilion artist for its 2022 Venice Biennale. His work, which has previously been exhibited at the last four Venice Biennales, often centered on narratives of historically marginalized people. At the Venice Biennale, Douglas will pay special attention to 2011 and 1848. The former was the year of Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring; the latter was a year of upheaval across Europe. Inside the Giardini at the National Pavilion, Douglas will be showcasing four large photographs, but be sure to visit another location of the exhibition at the same time, the Dossoduro neighborhood, where he will exhibit a new dual-screen video installation that is expected to be a major attraction. The artist's striking work will compare the socio-political events of 2011 with those of 1848, delving into topics such as journalism, the struggle against the lack of democratic freedoms, and the disintegration of the sovereign elite.
-Ghana Pavilion-
Ghana Pavilion: Nana Opoku, (Afroscope) Dreamer Series, 2021
Following its debut at the 2019 Art Biennale, Ghana will launch a group exhibition, Black Star, featuring large-scale installations by three artists. Na Chainkua Reindorf, Afroscope and Diego Araúja. The exhibition reinterprets and deconstructs Ghanaian culture by displaying images of Ghana's flag, national football team and most striking national monuments, while also symbolizing Africa's connection to the diaspora.
-Brazil Pavilion-
Jonathas de Andrade, The Fish, 2016.
Jacopo Crivelli Visconti has just finished organizing the 2021 São Paulo Biennale and has begun planning the Venice Biennale 2022. He chose Jonathas de Andrade, an artist whose videos have garnered widespread acclaim abroad. De Andrade's work often focuses on Communities in Brazil that lack representation and voice. The new installation Com o coração saindo pela boca [With the heart coming out of the mouth] draws on numerous oral expressions and idioms in Brazil, quoting the human body to express feelings and behaviors. Visitors can expect to see photographic impressions, sculptures (containing interactive genres) and a video piece that deals with themes surrounding popular culture, nostalgia, eroticism, and political criticism.
-Kazakhstan Pavilion-
Kazakhstan Pavilion: ORTA collective, Alexandra Morozova inside the Circular Cardboard - Light Generator of Genius, 2022.
The interdisciplinary group ORTA (Alexandra Morozova, Rustem Begenov, Darya Jumelya, Alexandr Bakanov and Sabina Kuangaliyeva) will dedicate their pavilion exhibitions to the life and work of Almaty artist, writer and inventor Sergey Kalmykov (1891-1967). Lai-PI-CHU-CHU-PLEE-LAPA Center for New Geniuses is an experimental research station that explores the central idea of Kalmikov and the most important of his many altered images, namely "The Builder of the Great and Immortal Flying Tower Vortex". Curious? You are not alone.
-Australia Pavilion-
Australia Pavilion: "Marco Fusinato: Disaster"
Sound artist Marco Fusinato will represent Australia at the 59th Venice Biennale, while Alexie Glass-Kantor, executive director of Artspace Sydney, will organise Fusinato's exhibition. In his work, Fusinato explores modes of perception, which were also included in the main exhibition of the 2015 Venice Biennale curated by Okwui Enwezor. The artist's work also appeared in the museum's first ever exhibition of sound art at the Museum of Modern Art, which was exhibited in 2013. Fusinato's pavilion is called "DESASTRES" because the artist was unable to enter his studio during the strict lockdown in Australia, and the work was made entirely at home. Fusinato himself will play electric guitar at the Biennale, an enigmatic project that will serve as a continuation and reinterpretation of the artist's long-standing interest in the thin boundaries between order and disorder.
-Japan Pavilion-
Japan Pavilion: "Dumb Type"
The groundbreaking arts group Tumbl Type, known for its immersive installations, video productions, and performances, examines the consumer culture of the modern and technology-driven era. Its new work for the Japan Pavilion is based on an 1850s geography textbook that promises sensory saturation in an "era of post-truth and marginal space." Dumb Type's work is a collective founded in 1984. Its members include Shiro Takatani and special participant Ryuichi Sakamoto, a group that often criticizes the flow of information in mass media through sprawling installations. Commissioned by the Japan Foundation, Dumb Type's Venice Biennale pavilion seems to be dealing with the current upheavals through art, as can be seen from the artist's statement released by the exhibition hall in 2019: "In a fragmented and chaotic world, the systems we believe in are on the verge of collapse, what once seemed to be facts now seems uncertain, and people regard what they want to believe as 'truth'".
-Iceland Pavilion-
Iceland Pavilion: Sigurður Guðjónsson, installation view: Perpetual Motion, 2022.
The Iceland Pavilion, which opened for the first time at The Arsenale, will host polyhedron works by Sigurður Guðjónsson, who is known for his organic and highly technical synergies that harmonize between vision, audio and space. According to project curator Mónica Bello, CERN curator, the artist's exhibition promises to provide an integrated experience that stretches the senses, revealing "the richness and elegance of matter."
Known for its time-based media works that pit artificial machinery against technological relics, Guðjónsson invites viewers to rethink the experience of "abstraction" through a sensory-distorting video work that amplifies the form of metallic dust when attracted to magnetic rods. This microscopic observation of matter not only produces subtle images, but also creates an atmosphere of trance and meditation through the use of moving images and a dull background music.
-Ireland Pavilion-
Ireland Pavilion: Niamh O'Malley, Shelf, 2017.
Niamh O'Malley's exhibition "Gather", the main artist of the Irish Pavilion, began in the artist's workspace at temple Bar Gallery + Studios (TBG+S) in Dublin, where stone, steel, wood and glass were shaped, composed and assembled. Known for his tiny sculptures and video works, the artist's interests focus on the harmony between landscapes and how objects and spaces can converse with each other.
-Italian Pavilion-
Italian Pavilion: Gian Maria Tosatti
Unlike most countries that participate in the Venice Biennale, Italy has tended in previous years to hand over its pavilions to multiple artists to curate and arrange exhibitions simultaneously. For the first time ever, the Italian Pavilion will display the work of a single artist. Gian Maria Tosatti received the honor for his large-scale environment-specific site installation that will occupy the entire Tese delle Vergini space. This powerful, disturbing work, titled "The History of the Night and the Fate of the Comet," is a story of duality: man and nature; sustainability and territory; morality and profit. This work will also discuss a range of epic themes related to the economic and industrial development of Italy today.
-Austria Pavilion-
奥地利馆：“Invitation of the Soft Machine and Her Angry Body Parts”
Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl will represent Austria at the exhibition. To subvert traditional exhibition forms, the artists promised that their exhibitions would focus on the pavilion's unusual structure, which included a colonnade that ran through its interior. Entitled "Invitation of the Soft Machine and Her Angry Body Parts An Invitation to the Soft Machine and Her Angry Body Parts," their exhibition will be divided accordingly into two parts, with each artist accounting for half. Knebl will investigate socio-political issues in the 1970s, while Scheill will create what he calls "accessible, 'accessible' paintings"; both sections will present research and discussion of natural desires and their associated politics. The Austrian Pavilion will be curated by Karla Kraus, Director of the Museum of the Fondation Moderne Ludwig-Vienna.
The Venice Biennale is more than just a single exhibition: it is a wave that washes away the existing system of the art world. The annual Biennale hosts a number of side events in museums, palaces and commercial galleries throughout the city. Together with many national pavilions throughout Venice, there are plenty of exhibitions to visit.
With so much going on in the city, it's no surprise if viewers stumble upon events and exhibitions they haven't heard of before. As part of the Biennale, recurring venues used as exhibition spaces include the Palazzo Mora and Ca D'Oro in Cannaregio and the Cavalli-Francetti Palace overlooking the Academier Bridge. If visitors have time, they can visit the Prada Foundation's contemporary exhibition space in Ca' Corner della Regina, which also houses the historical archives of the Biennale.
The dossier Wallpaper* has selected here some of the satellite exhibitions of the Venice Biennale:
-Homo Faber "Tracking Venice"-
"Tracking Venice", a device arranged by Zanellato/Bortotto at Homo Faber. In collaboration with De Castelli, the panels, using copper, brass and steel, were treated with different oxidation and brush techniques, recreating the mosaics of St. Mark's Basilica.
In a dark gallery at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, a series of mosaic boards stand out in the light, and their colorful surface sheen creates a kaleidoscopic effect. 2022 Homo Faber presents an exhibition of unique contemporary craftsmanship that will run until May 1, 2022 – these decorative panels are made of copper, brass and steel, employing around 50 different oxidation and brush techniques, a tribute to the 12th-century mosaic flooring of st. Mark's Basilica in the city – a contemporary reinvention of centuries of craftsmanship in the area.
Dubbed "Tracing Venice," the veneto-based design studio Zanellato/Bortotto and De Castelli's metalwork experts spent months conducting in-depth research and collaboration to mimic how the original mosaic was eroded by floods. "We want to reflect on the fragility of cities," Daniele Bortotto said. After being exhibited at the Homo Faber event, the installation will travel to De Castelli's Milan showroom for the 2022 International Furniture Fair, where collaborators then hope to sell the works to raise funds for the restoration of the cathedral's floor.
The foundation has mined 12 curators to curate these exhibitions. German designer Sebastian Herkner, British design writer Tapiwa Matsinde and American experimental theatre director Robert Wilson (2010 Invited Editor of Wallpaper* International Edition), etc. The theme of this year's event is "Living Treasures of Europe and Japan", which aims to push outstanding craftsmen out of their comfort zones in order to reinvent traditional skills for contemporary life.
-Anish Kapoor Solo Double Exhibition -
Top: Anish Kapoor, Diana Blackened Reddened, 2021, Oil on canvas, triptych; Medium: Anish Kapoor Studio, 2020. Bottom: Anish Kapoor, Anonymous, 2020 Steel, Canvas, Silicone, Paint.
During the 59th Venice Biennale, Anish Kapoor will host two solo exhibitions at the same time. The first exhibition was held at the revered Galleria dell'Accademia, where Kapoor, who represented The United Kingdom at the 1990 Venice Biennale, will be the first British artist to be awarded the exhibition honour. A second exhibition will take place across the canal at the 18th-century Manfren Palace, which was acquired by the Anish Kapoor Foundation after years of vacancy and will become its headquarters once the restoration is complete.
Count Manflin, a wealthy tobacco merchant born in Croatia in the 18th century, transformed the first floor of Manfree Palace into a public studio. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Venice and has been visited by cultural celebrities such as Lord Byron, Georges Ruskin and Edward Manet. After Manfren's death, the collection was sold, and many masterpieces—including Giorgione's The Tempest—eventually became and remained in the Academy's collection. In both spaces, Kapoor will take his artistic direction through iconic past works and newly presented paintings and sculptures.
-Angela Su Hong Kong Pavilion-
Hong Kong Pavilion: Angela Su "The Magnificent Levitation Act of Lauren O", 2022.
Unlike most pavilions here, the hong Kong pavilion's exhibitions are not recognized as national works by the Biennale and are therefore not eligible for the Golden Lion Award for Best National Participation. However, it is officially seen as an accompanying satellite exhibition. The Hong Kong Regional Pavilion is dominated by visual works by artist Angela Su. Angela Su's multi-faceted works explore the relationship between the viewing angle and the human body through the use of transfiguration, fluidity, and suspension. In addition to her in-house exhibitions, she will present a special exhibition "Arise, Hong Kong in Venice" with the M+ Museum of Contemporary Visual Arts in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC). As Doryun Chong, Executive Director and Chief Curator of M+ Museum, puts it: "Angela Su is known for its multifaceted approach and performance arts, and her work symbolizes the gradual maturity of Contemporary Art in Hong Kong and its growing international recognition. “
Chen Shiying "Totem TOTEM"
Chen Shiying's solo exhibition "Totem" exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
Chen Shiying, a leading jewelry artist, visual artist and innovator in the Chinese world, returned to Venice following the 2021 large-scale titanium sculpture exhibition Titanium: A Dialogue between Matter and Time and Space, launching the art exhibition TOTEM during the 59th Venice Biennale.
Chen Shiying has pioneered a number of patented inventions, including: the application of titanium in jewelry creation, Shiying cutting, jadeite cutting and polishing patent technology, stone inlay technology, vacuum magic, and Shiying ceramics that are five times harder than steel. "The concept of the exhibition comes from my personal contemplation and curiosity about the mysteries of life, nature and the universe," he says. I focus on exploring the mysteries of matter and form, as well as understanding the difference between imaginary space and real physical matter. ”*
Part of the Chinese Pavilion text: Sara Yuan
Editor: Xinxin
Images and texts are from the Venice Biennale official and various artists and gallery institutions