The central expo “Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind” at the 52nd Venice Biennale aims to put “Art in the Present Tense”. With 25 exhibitions and pavillions, more art is scattered across the island.
Works by about 100 artists and groups are shown at the Arsenale and the Italian Pavilion in the Giardini, among them several site-specific installations, curated by Robert Storr.
But the first art we encounter is not in one of those exhibitions, but in one of the small passages on the main island.
While a certain doubt creeps up to you walking through the carefully kept run down streets of Venice, a feeling that you’re not in one of the older parts of civilised Europe but rather in a recreated decor of that, none of that echoes through in the exhibition spaces. Oddly enough it’s the Biennale that gives Venice back its authenticity, by placing it in contemporary culture.
The exhibition draws large crowds that occupate the island looking for works and site-specific installations by about 100 artists and groups, shown at the Arsenale and the Italian Pavilion in the Giardini.
Numerous pavillions offer just as many interior concepts, making even a week’s stay feel short. As an exhibition, the Biennale is a rather eclectic one, but not in a bad way. To me, each separate exhibition is more interesting than the uninhabited shell that is left of the former Viennese grandeur.
Gallery
what | Venice Biennale
where | Venice