Page 52 - La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
58TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION

PERU
“Indios Antropófagos”. A butterfly Garden in the (Urban) Jungle

CHRISTIAN BENDAYÁN. “AMAZONAS” Commissioner: Armando Andrade de Lucio.
[“AMAZONS”]. 2007. OIL ON CANVAS Curator: Gustavo Buntinx.
269X220CM. (MODEL FOR THE Exhibitors: Christian Bendayán, Otto Michael (1859 – 1934), Manuel Rodríguez Lira (1874 – 1933), Segundo
AZULEJO MURAL TO BE EXHIBITED AT Candiño Rodríguez, Anonymous popular artificer.
THE BIENNALE ARTE 2019)
Venue: Arsenale

“Indios antropófagos” is essentially a paradox: a post conceptual
exploration of the fiery sensorial impact of Amazon culture
on certain (neo)baroque horizons in contemporary Peruvian
art. Christian Bendayán has been well recognised as one of
the protagonists of that tropical eruption. The pulsion always
throbbing in his work, however, is also energized by a critical
reconsideration of the Amazon as a constructed image. A mise-en-
scène thus becomes a mise-en-abîme - or viceversa. An operation
that is made evident by the rhetorical quotation marks that are
an integral part of this exhibition’s title: a visible act of citing
related to the frequent inscription of similar phrases on early 20th
century postcards showcasing exoticised images of jungle natives.
Postcolonial subjects whose difference became exacerbated into
an absolute otherness: the alterity of the supposedly ‘primitive’-
not the primordial––was hence used to justify the ‘civilising’
incursion of the State and the Market in the ‘wild lands’. At times
those postcards prudishly overprinted false drapings on the naked
presences. In other instances the intent was rather to eroticise the
exposed anatomy, highlighting the carved and painted bodies. In a
keen reversal of such procedures, Bendayán makes of those skin
markings the cutaneous ... (excerpt)
PHILIPPINES

Island Weather
NOAH BY MARK Commissioner: National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)/Virgilio S. Almario.
JUSTINIANI (2011) Curator: Tessa Maria T. Guazon.
PHOTO CREDIT: MARK Exhibitor: Mark O. Justiniani.
JUSTINIANI
Venue: Arsenale

It is often difficult for humans to notice life forms that exist on
a scale different from theirs, such as microscopic organisms,
the slow workings of toxic agents, or durational processes of
decaying organic matter. By heightening the visitors’ awareness
of the materiality of the space and the artworks, and by
assimilating their bodies to other life forms, the exhibition
attempts to establish a connection with more-than-human
agencies.
The biennial gardens are bordered by the Venetian Lagoon, a
tourist-infested city, and hubs of mainland industry, all spurring
contemplation of the eco-crisis, the erosion caused by centuries
of mass tourism, and the survival prospects of marine species
native to the lagoon, which compete for space with massive
cruise ships. The pavilion itself is susceptible. (excerpt)

52 WORLD of ART