Page 59 - La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Martin Puryear: Liberty / Libertà
BIG BLING, 2016, PHOTO Commissioner/Curator: Brooke Kamin Rapaport.
JORDAN TINKER, (C) MARTIN Exhibitor: Martin Puryear.
PURYEAR, COURTESY Venue: Giardini
MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY.

The 2019 U.S. Pavilion is commissioned and curated by Brooke
Kamin Rapaport, Deputy Director and Martin Friedman Senior
Curator of Madison Square Park Conservancy in New York. The
exhibition marks the first time in the history of the Biennale
Arte that the U.S. Pavilion will be organized by an institution
whose visual art program is focused exclusively on public art.
The Conservancy and Puryear previously collaborated on the
commission of his monumental sculpture Big Bling in New York’s
Madison Square Park in 2016. Martin Puryear: Liberty/Libertà
meditates on liberty as an essential human theme and continues
the artist’s exploration of abstract forms culled from global sources.
Featuring a monumental installation for the forecourt of the U.S.
Pavilion and new sculpture, the exhibition challenges expectations
and demonstrates how everyday forms are a source that can be
elevated into highly resonant objects transforming perception,
inspiring individuals, and questioning history. “For more than five
decades, Martin Puryear has created a body of work distinguished
by a complex visual vocabulary and deeply-considered meaning.
His exacting method and subtle power of nuance has influenced
generations of artists internationally,” (excerpt)

ZIMBABWE

Soko Risina Musoro (The Tale without a Head)
KUDZANAI VIOLET HWAMI. Commissioner: Doreen Sibanda, National Gallery of Zimbabwe.
PHOTO-MATT-CREW Curator: Raphael Chikukwa.
Exhibitors: Georgina Maxim, Neville Starling , Cosmas Shiridzinomwa, Kudzanai Violet Hwami.
Venue: Istituto Provinciale per L’infanzia “Santa Maria Della Pietà”. Calle della Pietà Castello n. 3701 (piano terra)

The theme of the National Pavilion is rooted in an epic poem by
Herbert Chitepo; a Nationalist icon, which details the appearance
of a sojourner at a King’s Court, who proceeds to question the
Socio-Economic and Political turmoil faced in that text’s Nation
state’s discourse. The identification of this text with regards the
overall theme mirrors the advent and intensification of false
news, and the effects that culminate from untrusted source
interventions. In any dispensation where order reigns, chaos
occupies medium and the message intended can mar issues
that, operationally, are smooth, ultimately weakening Societies
through their misinterpretations. What ensues in the end is the
need for verification, leading to new norms where fumbling
through the darkness in search of resolution to issues are the
mode of living in many states. A panoramic view of Soko Risina
Musoro originates from Cosmas Shiridzinomwa; whose Paintings
are motivated by light as a source of Form, Kudzanai Violet
Hwami and Neville Starling, who have different exegesis on
memory, and Gina Maxim, who coalesces new narratives from
an experiential footing. The discovery of a solution to a spiritual
drought that grants access to Truth and that points to a balanced
and reciprocated future.

WORLD of ART 59