Page 12 - La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
58TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION

The International Jury Regarding this, we have discussed our relationship with the market, but
again, a partial vision of the Exhibition might consider it a high-society
The Board of Directors of La Biennale di inauguration followed by a line six months long for “the rest of the world.”
Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta has Others might consider the six-month-long Exhibition the main event and
appointed, upon recommendation by the inauguration a by-product. Moreover, the visitors of the Biennale,
the Artistic Director Ralph Rugoff, the who are actually a community in themselves, are statistically tourists (a
International Jury of the 58th International tautology in a small city) and thus... we are suspected of compliance with
Art Exhibition (11 May > 24 November 2019) selling strategies.
composed of the following members:
For this short-lived criticism, let me recount a short story we were told in
Stephanie Rosenthal (Germany), President our childhood: the story of the old father, the young son, and the donkey
of the Jury, is the Director of Gropius Bau going to town.
in Berlin, one of Germany’s leading public The old man rides the donkey and the people passing by say “look at
galleries for contemporary art. She has that selfish man, he lets the child walk on this horrible path, look at his
curated many major monographic and poor little feet.” The father reacts, they switch places, and a new group
international group shows, and served as of passers-by say “look at that selfish boy, full of energy but he leaves
Artistic Director of the 20th Biennale of to his poor old father the fatigue of walking.” They feel a bit humiliated
Sydney in 2016. and decide to both ride the donkey together and the comment is
“barbarians, that’s a true exploitation of animals!” Finally, they decide to
Defne Ayas (Turkey/The Netherlands) is both dismount, just in time to hear “look at those two idiots, they have a
currently serving as Curator at Large at donkey and they’re walking!”
the V-A-C Foundation in Moscow. She was
director of Rotterdam’s Witte de With Art In short, our mission is simple, albeit not easy: to offer artists a place
Center for Contemporary Art (2012–2017) where they can dialogue as freely as possible and offer visitors an intense
where she commissioned and organized encounter with art.
group exhibitions and monographic shows.
Prior to that, Ayas acted as the curator of the During these years, we have increased the number of visitors and found
Pavilion of Turkey in the 56th International Art a new partner. Over the course of the past years, the double cost of
Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. transportation in the lagoon obliged us to ask for additional support, and
our expressions of gratitude and our wall labels included many market
Cristiana Collu (Italy) is general director of participants. The increase in the number of our visitors has allowed us
the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e to considerably cut back on this practice, as you can see in the drastic
Contemporanea, Rome. Beforehand, she reduction in our expressions of gratitude, both when
was director of the Museo di arte moderna presenting the works and in the catalogues, with the exception of a few
e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto since “special” presences (characterized by the high cost of their realization
2012. She previously directed the MAN_ and/or transportation). Our visitors have become our main partner; more
Museo d’Arte of the Province of Nuoro. than half of them are under 26 years of age. Calling notice to this result
Sunjung Kim (Korea), is President of the seems to me the best way to celebrate the twenty years which have
Gwangju Biennale Foundation. For many passed since 1999.
years she was the director of Art Sonje
Center, one of Seoul’s leading contemporary We want to offer them an open gym, where they can feel involved in
art spaces, where she initiated the Real DMZ encounters with the works and the artists, in the direct discovery of the
Project, working with international artists in “other” which the work of art offers. To us, it is important that, when
Korea’s demilitarised zone. entering the exhibit, the “public” becomes “visitors,” who then become
“viewers” of the works. First, the necessary disorientation, then the
Hamza Walker (USA) having spent over involvement, followed by the discovery; it is almost a fencing drill.
two decades curating shows at Chicago’s To share this direction is one of the reasons we have asked Ralph Rugoff
Renaissance Society, he is currently Executive to collaborate with us on this twentieth anniversary.
Director of LAXART, a long-standing non-
profit art space in Los Angeles. Walker is the More than ever, the process of expanding our eyes and our minds is
recipient for the 1999 Norton Curatorial Grant facilitated if it takes place in an environment in which people can breathe
and the 2004 Walter Hopps Award. He was independence and trust, and creating trust is a long-term concern.
also awarded the 2010 Ordway Prize for his
work as both a curator and essayist. Paolo Baratta, President of La Biennale di Venezia

12 WORLD of ART