Page 17 - La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

May You Live in Interesting Times will no doubt include artworks that reflect upon
precarious aspects of existence today, including different threats to key traditions,
institutions and relationships of the “post-war order.” But let us acknowledge at the
outset that art does not exercise its forces in the domain of politics. Art cannot stem
the rise of nationalist movements and authoritarian governments in different parts of
the world, for instance, nor can it alleviate the tragic fate of displaced peoples across
the globe (whose numbers now represent almost one percent of the world’s entire
population).

But in an indirect fashion, perhaps art can be a kind of guide for how to live and think
Biography in ‘interesting times.’ The 58th International Art Exhibition will not have a theme
Ralph Rugoff
per se, but will highlight a general approach to making art and a view of art’s social
function as embracing both pleasure and critical thinking. The Exhibition will focus on
Ralph Rugoff has been the Director of
the work of artists who challenge existing habits of thought and open up our readings
the Hayward Gallery of London since of objects and images, gestures and situations. Art of this kind grows out of a practice
2006. Opened in 1968, the Hayward of entertaining multiple perspectives: of holding in mind seemingly contradictory
Gallery is considered one of the and incompatible notions, and juggling diverse ways of making sense of the world.
most leading public art galleries in Artists who think in this manner offer alternatives to the meaning of so-called facts
the United Kingdom. Rugoff was the by suggesting other ways of connecting and contextualising them. Animated by
Artistic Director of the XIII Biennale de boundless curiosity and puncturing wit, their work encourages us to look askance
Lyon in 2015 titled La vie moderne. at all unquestioned categories, concepts and subjectivities. It invites us to consider
multiple alternatives and unfamiliar vantage points, and to discern the ways in which
“order” has become the simultaneous presence of diverse orders.
Between 1985 and 2002 he wrote art
and cultural criticism for numerous
May You Live in Interesting Times will take seriously art’s potential as a method for
periodicals, publishing widely in art
looking into things that we do not already know - things that may be off-limits, under-
magazines as well as newspapers,
the-radar, or otherwise inaccessible for various reasons. It will highlight artworks that
including Artforum, Frieze, Parkett, explore the interconnectedness of diverse phenomena, and that convey an affinity
The Financial Times, The Los Angeles with the idea, asserted by both Leonardo da Vinci and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, that
Times, The Los Angeles Weekly and everything connects with everything else.
published a collection of essays,
Circus Americanus (1995), in which he May You Live in Interesting Times springs from a belief that interesting art creates
explored cultural phenomena of the forms whose particular character and delineation raise questions about the ways in
which we mark cultural boundaries and borders. Intelligent artistic activity involves
American West.
creating forms that call attention to what forms conceal, and the functions that they
fulfil. The Exhibition will highlight art that exists in between categories, and which
During the same period he began
questions the rationales behind our categorical thinking.
working as an independent curator,
organizing exhibitions such as Just
May You Live in Interesting Times will aim to welcome its public to an expansive
Pathetic (1990) and Scene of the
experience of the deep involvement, absorption and creative learning that art makes
Crime (1997). possible. This will entail engaging visitors in a series of encounters that are essentially
playful, taking into account that it is when we play that we are most fully “human.”
A former Director (2000-06) of CCA This will mean tweaking aspects of the exhibition format where possible to make
Wattis Institute, at California College sure they are sympathetically aligned with the character of the art being presented.
of the Arts in San Francisco, he has
curated numerous group shows at Finally, May You Live in Interesting Times will be formulated in the belief that human
happiness depends on substantive conversations, because as social animals we
the Hayward Gallery over the past
are driven to both create and find meaning, and to connect with others. In this
11 years, including The Painting of
light, the Exhibition will aim to underscore the idea that the meaning of artworks
Modern Life (2007), Psycho Buildings
are not embedded principally in objects but in conversations - first between artist
(2008), The Alternative Guide to the
and artwork, and then between artwork and audience, and later between different
Universe (2013) and The Infinite Mix
publics. Ultimately, Biennale Arte 2019 aspires to the ideal that what is most
(2016); he also has curated major
important about an exhibition is not what it puts on display, but how audiences can
retrospectives and solo exhibitions use their experience of the exhibition afterwards, to confront everyday realities from
by Ed Ruscha, Jeremy Deller, Carsten expanded viewpoints and with new energies. An exhibition should open people’s eyes
Holler, Tracey Emin, George Condo to previously unconsidered ways of being in the world and thus change their view of
and Andreas Gursky. that world.
Ralph Rugoff, Curator of the 58th International Art Exhibition

WORLD of ART 17