May 20, 1997
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Art Infomation Index - Jun. 24, 1997
[Art Information Special 1]La Biennale di Venezia
Art Information Back Number Index
La Biennale di Venezia
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[Art Information Special 1]
Overview This international exhibition is held biennially in Venezia, an island city in the Adriatic Sea. The main site is Giardini di Castello on the eastern part of the island, where there are pavilions of different countries, and the rest of the sites are spread aross various areas of the city. The general commissioner selects the main theme of the exhibition and the overall direction of the exhibition, and each country's commissioner determines which artists will represent his/her country. This system is called the "Venetian method", often contrasted with Documenta, where one director decides the theme as well as the participating artists. Recently, increasing numbers of international exhibitions are held on a biennial basis in different countries, and they are all called "Biennale", in Italian. This is probably in honor of La Biennale di Venezia. History This exhibition has a long history, with its origin dating back to 1893, when Italy was just united as a Kingdom. Commemorating the marriage of King Umberto I and Queen Marghrita, the Venetian municipal assembly resolved the holding of an international exhibition, and the 1st exhibition was held in 1895. At first, there was only one pavilion (Italian pavilion), and the architecture, the works, and the exhibiting method were said to be very conservative. From about 1910, pavilions for other countries were built, and countries which did not have a pavilion exhibited in the Italian pavilion. In the 1930's, the Biennale was placed under the control of the Fascist government, and in 1934 (the19th exhibition), Hitler, who was in Italy to visit Mussolini, came to see the event. Award presentations were started in 1938 (the 21st exhibition). After several years of discontinuance due to the Second World War and Italy's internal conflicts, the Aperto section was established for young artists in 1980. In the last exhibition in 1995 (the 46th exhibition), they celebrated their centennial anniversary (the Aperto section was canceled). The Awards The presentation of awards began in 1938. However, due to the students' movement in 1968 (34th), it became suspended from the 35th exhibition in 1970. The awarding was resumed from the 42nd exhibition in 1986. Since then, the exhibition has taken on a political aspect different from the pre-war era, where the participating countries seem to be engaged in a "backstage" competition for the prizes. The reason why the Biennale is often called the "Olympic Games of contemporary art" is not only because many countries participate, but also because nationalism becomes promoted due to the participating artists representing their country and working hard for the awards. Japan's Participation According to the historical record, Japan sent art works at quite an early stage in 1897 (the 2nd exhibition). The works exhibited were art and craftwork such as the Japanese paintings by Gyokusyou KAWABATA and sculptures of Kouun TAKAMURA. Japan's full-scale participation was since 1952 (the 26th exhibition). In 1956, the pavilion designed by Takamasa YOSHISAKA was completed, and is still used to this day. However, since the building has aged, there are talks of rebuilding a new pavilion. The Japan Foundation is the organizing party for this event for Japan. The Japan Foundation selects a commissioner through its advisory organization, the International Fine Art Council, and the commissioner makes the selection of the participating artists. Since last year (the 46th exhibition) was the centennial anniversary, a competition was held for the first time to nominate the Japanese commissioner, and Junji Ito was selected. The argument over the selection of Ito still remains fresh in our memory. The 47th Biennale di Venezia The exhibition is held from June 15 to November 9. Prior to this, there is a press announcement on June 11,12 and 13. The general commissioner for this year is Germano Celant, and there is no comprehensive theme. A special event will be held at the Italian pavilion and Corderie dell'Arsenale (formerly a ship building house), which was the location for the Aperto award. This event, titled "The Future, the Present and the Past", is a collection of contemporary art from the last 30 years. Sixty-five artists are providing their works for the event, such as Marina Abramovic, Richard Artschwager, Daniel Buren, Dinos and Jake Chapman, Francesco Clemente, Tony Cragg, Jan Fabre, Luciano Fabro, Michael Heizer, Ilya Kabakov, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Longo, Agnes Martin, Mariko MORI, Claes Oldenburg, Panamarenko, Cai Guo Qiang, Gerhard Richter, Julian Schnabel, Haim Steinbach, and Franz West. It seems that Celant is trying to include artists from the previously canceled Aperto Award. There are 30 pavilions from different countries. Including the exhibitions in the Italian pavilion, 57 countries are participating. The artists include Rodney Graham (Canada), Fabrice Hybert (France), Gerhard Merz (Germany), Rachel Whiteread (Great Britain), Stephen Antonakos (Greece), Mariko MORI (Scandinavia), Ik-Joong Kang (Republic of Korea), Komar and Melamid (the Russian Federation), and Robert Colescott (U.S.A.). The name of Mariko MORI stands out among the others. Where most of the names are written in katakana characters (or mostly alphabets), her name in Chinese characters appears twice. Moreover, she exhibits her work in the Scandinavian pavilion. This recent trend of "borderless" arrangement is what makes the Venezia Bienale interesting. In the Japanese pavilion, Rei NAITO, selected by the commissioner, Fumio NANJO, will be exhibiting her work. At first, the 47th exhibition was rumored to be postponed to the next year, but the execution of the event was decided at the end of November last year, and the news reached the Japan Foundation last December. Since there was no time for the competition to nominate a commissioner as they did last time, the Foundation chose Fumio NANJO, who was the former assistant commissioner of the Japan Pavilion and was experienced in international exhibitions, to serve as the commissioner. Rei NAITO, born in 1961, graduated from Musashino University of Fine Art. In 1991, at the Sagacho Exhibit Space, NAITO created an artwork titled "One place for the earth", an installation made of delicately created objects placed inside a huge tent. The work to be exhibited in the biennial is said to be an extension of this work. The visitors will go inside the tent, and experience the work under a serene light. Commissioner Nanjo says that until now, Japanese contemporary art has mainly introduced pop art or techhnological art to the overseas art scene, and that he wanted to exhibit something more spiritual. The problem is that only one visitor at a time can enter this tent. Moreover, Naito wishes each visitor to stay for at least 10 minutes. Even if the time is reduced to 5 minutes, no more than 100 visitors can visit the tent a day. Also, the tent is open to the audience only when Naito is at the exhibition, and for the rest of the time, they are only allowed to peek inside from the entrance of the tent. This means that most of the people have no chance to experience this work. Naturally, there will be complaints and dissatisfaction, but according to Nanjo, this arrangement is also to present an issue from a critical viewpoint towards the trend of the recent international exhibitions, where a visitor only looks at a piece for no longer than two seconds. We will see if this attempt will become successful or not. [Makoto MURATA/Art Journalist]
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Makoto MURATA
Documenta X
DOCUMENTA http://www.documenta.de/
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[Art Information Special 2]
Overview This is an international art exhibition that is held every 5 years in Kassel, Hessen, located around the center of Germany. Documenta and La Biennale di Venezia are two of the biggest art exhibitions. Different from Venice, an executive director goes through the whole planning and selection process on his/her own, thus the process is very clear-cut. Many directors from the past were curators from small countries surrounding Germany, including Harold Szeeman (Switzerland), Rudi Fuchs (the Netherlands), and Jan Hoet (Belgium). The chosen artists tend to skew to the advanced European countries and the U.S., and extremely experimental works. Before the reunion of East and West Germany, the town, Kassel, served as the center of publicity for the West, because it was located close to the border of East Germany. This aspect probably conveys the poitical dynamics which is not seen in Venice. The venues are at the Orangerie, Neue Galerie, documenta-Halle, and other locations within the city centering around the Fridericianum Museum. The event is operated by the Documenta Limited Company whose capital is contributed by Kassel and Hessen. History Documenta was established by Arnold Bode, an artist, designer and architect from Kassel. In an attempt to revive modern art that had discontinued since the1930's, at the first1955 exhibition, the exhibition presented avand-garde art that was labelled as "decadent art" by Hitler. From the third exhibition (1964), Joseph Beuys participated, whose presence became vitally important for Documenta ever since. Even after his death, his works have been exhibited in1987 (VIII) and 1992 (IX). At first, Documenta was a quadriennale, the exhibition being held once every 4 years, but from the 5th exhibition in 1972, once in five years is the established schedule. There are more and more visitors every time the exhibition is held, and especially in the previous event in 1992, the number of people reached 600,000. Japanese artists such as Noriyuki HARAGUCHI, Jiro TAKAMATSU, and Syuusaku ARAKAWA exhibited for the first time at the 6th exhibition in 1977. For Documenta VII (1982), On KAWARA was the only Japanese artist, and for VIII (1987), Tadashi KAWAMATA , Toshikatsu ENDO, and Mika YOSHIZAWA were chosen. For IX (1992), other than KAWAMATA who exhibited for the second time in a row, there were Hidetoshi NAGASAWA, Katsura FUNAKOSHI, Yuji TAKEOKA, and Kazuo KATASE. However, the total number of Japanese artists is less than 20, again indicating that there is a skew torwards Western artists. Documenta X Documenta runs for a 100 days from June 21st to September 28th. It will be open to the press on the 19th and the 20th. The executive director is Catherine David, a curator at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. The participating artists will not be disclosed until the press release, but is assumed to be around 250 people. The theme is "Manifestation Culturelle", presenting the diversity of modern culture also in areas besides fine art, such as the movies, music, philosophy, literature, architecture, and so on. Calling it the "100 days-100 guests", during the 100 days' period, guests from various genres will be invited every day and will have an open discussion at the documenta-Halle. [Makoto MURATA/Art Journalist]
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Skulpture Projekte '97 in Münster
Skulptur Projekte in Munster http://www.artthing.de/ muenster/
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[Art Information Special 3]
Overview This is an international art exhibition held once in a decade at Münster, Nordrhein-Westfalen in the northwestern part of Germany. It started in 1977, and this will be the third exhibition. The plan is to invite artists and to install their works in the public spaces they choose, such as a church, a park, or the wall of a building. Although Münster is not such a big city, because the works are scattered in various areas of the town, it is quite exhausting to look at them by foot. Rental bicycles are available. The audience first receive a guide at the State Art Museum, and go on an orienteering trip around the city using that guide. As one looks around for the works, he gradually becomes familiar with the city itself, and it comes to seem that getting to know the city was the first objective and the sculptures were merely the means to do so. The works could also be called temporary public art. After the exhibition period, some works are taken down, and some remain. It is a unique exhibition which re-questions art and the "public" aspect. Skulptur. Projekte in Münster 1997 The exhibition period is from June 22nd to September 28th. The curator is Kasper König. About 70 artists are planning to submit works; Carl Andre, Daniel Buren, Richard Deacon, Katharina Fritsch, Douglas Gordon, Hans Haacke, Rebecca Horn, Ilya Kabakov, Tadashi KAWAMATA, Martin Kippenberger, Reinhard Mucha, Tony Oursler, Nam June Paik, Huang Yong Ping, Charles Ray, Yutaka SONE, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Rachel Whiteread, and others. [Makoto MURATA/Art Journalist]
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May 20, 1997
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