There were over 100 sites outside of the Giardini and Arsenal that exhibited works connected to the biennale. If you took a walk between the two main sites you might have encountered one of Hector Zamora's many blimps throughout the exhibition. This one above is stuck between the narrow streets of Venice. I assume there were many throughout, but I just stumbled upon one of them. I did however see some of the work he had inside the Arsenal. Here (below) is a few of the blimps hanging from the ceiling. This half deflated blimp stuck between two old structures (above) seemed to resonate with the state of the economy and the not-so-grandiose turnout of this year's biennale. Apparently, the crash of the art market has left the Venice Biennale operating with 1.5 million dollars less than in 2007.
Hector Zamora is a Mexican artist who seems to be getting plenty of exposure as of recent, having exhibited in the Sao Paolo and Busan biennials in the past recent years. His work looks to create "social interventions that manifest themselves as architecture or sculpture, as a collective action or an installation in a public space".
Hector Zamora also created a corresponding video (above) inside the Arsenal of hundreds of computer generated blimps slowly moving over the city of Venice.
Another piece that seemed to correspond with the budget cuts was in the Nordic pavilion. I had mentioned in the previous post that Russia hosted the exhibition with the "most" artists for their pavilion, but I was mistaken. The Nordic pavilion hosted the work of Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. Their project consisted of them inviting a group 24 more artists to transform their two large pavilions into mock homes/mansions. Below is the pool of a fictional art collector- with him in it. The dummy, made of silicone-so his skin looked very realistic, was placed as if having just committed suicide. Inside you got to walk about his mansion and look at his eccentric collection of art, everything appeared as if the accident outside had just happened- music left playing, etc..
A site specific piece that I enjoyed was "Keep Something for a Rainy Day" (below) by Att Poomtangon from Thailand. This colorful structure 'combined social sculpture with environmentally friendly technology' and was functioning as a water pump and purifier, providing clean water for the visitors of the biennale.
German artist Tamara Grcic's site specific installation outside in one of the canals that meets the Arsenal, looked as if a campsite. Each large inner-tube had a bright orange tent covering with a microphone hanging down from the rafters, right over each tent. The sound component did not correspond to the images below, at times you could hear sounds from an office: fax copy machines, people chatting, computer sounds, modems, etc.
This next piece by Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping hung from the ceiling in this beautiful old room inside the Arsenal resembling a large octopus creature. In fact, it was a large re-creation of the Hand of Buddha - a type of tree used in Chinese medicine. These sculptures scale brought the viewer into a fantasy realm, where the ambiguity of the spiritual and creaturely beings came together.
The lights in the back are from another artist whom I will cover in a section about 'lights and strings' (my favorite individual works in the biennale) - but thats for later. In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy these large scale works in the biennale. I'm off to enjoy my last week in Paris.
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