Is the Venice Biennale still suitable ?
——— Paolo Baratta, President of the Venice Biennale for the last twenty years or so (go to our website to read our interview with him published in 2015) was pleased to announce that 5,300 accreditations had been distributed to the international press for the pre-opening days held last 8, 9 and 10 May. I do not know whether that number included the “privileged” people who, after having purchased a gold, platinum or diamond card (respectively 300, 500 and 2,000 €), are granted the right to mingle with the crowd of professionals on said days – along with a few other benefits. Still, that’s a lot of people and although the event has spread from the national pavilions (1) to the town’s more remote back streets, there is a lot of jostling around and shuffling along going on in the gardens and the Arsenal. If Mr Baratta had been one of those 5,300 journalists sent there
for three days by their paper to bring back the wisest article on the most important international contemporary art event, would he have been as pleased? Would he have been patient enough to queue up for two hours before being able to enter an overcrowded pavilion (this year apparently, it was the French pavilion that broke the record for the longest wait), knowing that would take away his opportunity to visit other pavilions in the short time allotted to journalists? Since these days are the ones dedicated to international competitions with awards at stake (2), one can suspect a few artists of devising simple methods such as forcing the public to walk through a narrow passageway or showing them a film lasting more than half an hour in a space meant for twenty-five spectators at best, in order to cause a crowd at the entrance and thus create buzz. Another option is that of artist Aya Ben Ron who, in the Israeli pavilion, makes visitors take a ticket like in a hospital waiting room, only to end up in a hospital atmosphere, for that matter. Not the most cheerful experience, but at least one gets to relax on a deckchair... Since I am lucky enough to write for a monthly, and therefore have a bit more time than my colleagues from daily papers, I have gotten into the habit of slightly postponing my visit to the Biennale. I recommend this solution. Mornings, in the days that follow the inauguration, the Arsenal and the Giardini are all yours. Gradually, well-versed tourists will join you there, but they are never really many, are rather pleasantly attentive, and at least less hysterical than many of the professionals that have arrived before them; they are here for fun, not because they have to. However, drawing from personal experience, I do advise against visiting too late in the season. At some point, the technical means which many installations now require start falling apart, and maintenance is not always in perfect running order. As one can observe by the contents of museums a few vaporetto stations away, good old oil paintings on canvas are still what best withstands the test of time. There aren’t many at this year’s Biennale and, as one can gather from reading Catherine Francblin’s article (see page 62), they can rather be found in the offsite exhibitions. To her selection, I would add Adrian Ghenie’s exhibition, The Battle Between Carnaval and Feast, at the Palazzo Cini gallery. The young Romanian artist was one of the revelations of the 2015 Biennale. Although he has become a real star, he proves that he is still able to reinvent his work. For the person visiting the Venice art Biennale, the question of time is all the more crucial because moving images tend to be increasingly replacing still ones. Even more than its previous editions, the 2019 Biennale offers a huge proportion of video and film installations.This magazine, which takes a particular interest in the exchanges between cinema and plastic arts, is not one to criticize such a principle. But it is precisely because of our great curiosity that we ask the following question: is the arts Biennale suited for presenting these works? How can the visitors, who walk for kilometres without really knowing ahead of time what they will find, decide to linger in one theatre rather than another, choose to stay (often standing up, or sitting on a hard platform…) in front of one film rather than another, knowing that many of these films are medium-length or even nearly fulllength! A few images caught midair are not necessarily very representative. Can we keep on combining in the same course works that do not require the same length of time to grasp? Étienne Gilson once playfully noted that while “one can easily bring together thousands of people to listen to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony […], how many spectators would be willing to spend an hour sitting in front of Tintoretto’s Paradise at the Doge’s Palace?”Today, the question could be: how many visitors appreciating a painting in just a few minutes or even a few seconds, would be willing to spend more than half an hour in front of a film, knowing that dozens of others are waiting for them? They will watch one or two. To the rest, they will devote the time they would devote to a painting. Long ago, Dominique Païni had started reflecting on the following topic: “exhibiting cinema”. It is high time for “exhibitions” to consider better ways to show films made by artists. But would their administrators want that? Major exhibitions keep getting bigger and bigger while showing more and more works that require more and more time.The attention span of human beings, even of the most educated ones, being finite, not many venture to analyze anymore, even less to synthesize. The farther the Biennale spreads, the less it makes us think. Those who were given curatorship of the international exhibition (Ralph Rugoff for this 58th edition) have clearly understood that, and offer thematics that become year after year more and more vague or catch-all.Therefore, it is no wonder that, as some people like me who seek ideas rather than entertainment still regret, debate is no longer a part of art.
(1) Currently, there are 90 countries participating in the Biennale. Some countries that have more recently arrived and obviously cannot build a “real” pavilion in the Giardini, are given a space at the Arsenal. Others must find spaces for rent in town. Needless to say, they don’t all have a view of the Grand Canal and are not always very easy to find, even with a smartphone. (2) Golden Lion for Best National Participation, Lithuania, artists: Lina Lapelyte, Vaiva Grainyte and Rugile Barzdziukaite; special mention to the Belgian pavilion, artists: Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys; Golden Lion for Best Participant in the International Exhibition: Arthur Jafa (USA); Silver Lion for PromisingYoung Participant: Haris Epaminonda (Cyprus, lives in Berlin); special mentions:Teresa Margolles (Mexico) and Otobong Nkanga (Nigeria, lives in Antwerp).