Category: Works

In commemoration of the Gwangju Biennale’s 30th anniversary, the Gwangju Biennale Foundation presents the Collateral Event at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia Madang: Where We Become Us, a special archival exhibition set to take place at the Il Giardino Bianco Art Space in Venice, Italy, from April 20 to November 24, spanning a total period of 221 days.

Unfolding across three distinct sections, the exhibition reflects on three decades of the Gwangju Biennale’s history while envisioning a future of sustainable human communities. Madang: Where We Become Us aspires to be a powerful platform for the Gwangju Biennale, to engage deeply with the international community, and to foster shared understanding and empathy around the Biennale’s foundational values of democracy, human rights, and peace.

Gwangju Biennale: Celebrating 30 years as a global cultural madang
Since the establishment of the Gwangju Biennale in 1994, the Gwangju Biennale has evolved into Asia’s leading contemporary art biennale, integrating artistic expression with the “Gwangju Spirit,” which encompasses the principles of revolution, democracy, and community.

Pavilion of Poland
60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

REPEAT AFTER ME II
by Open Group (Yuriy Biley, Pavlo Kovach, Anton Varga)
Curated by Marta Czyż

Commissioner: Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland Interim Director of the Zachęta — National Gallery of Art: Justyna Szylman
Polish Pavilion office: Michał Kubiak (deputy commissioner), Anna Kowalska

April 20 – November 24, 2024
Pre-opening Days: April 17–18–19, 2024
Opening: April 18, 11am

Repeat after Me II is a collective portrait of witnesses to the ongoing war in Ukraine, presented in the form of an audiovisual video installation. The protagonists of the film at the Polish Pavilion are civilians with refugee experience, speaking about the war through the sounds of weapons they recall, which they invite the audience to repeat. The Open Group art collective and curator Marta Czyż have thus created a military karaoke of the future, joining the public and war witnesses in dialogue. Repeat after Me II is an installation by the Ukrainian Open Group collective, made up of two films. These videos were created in 2022 and 2024. All the people they feature are refugees, speaking of their war experiences through the sounds of weapons they recall, then encouraging the audience to follow their lead. The artists use the karaoke format. Yet here the accompaniment is not hit songs, but shots, missiles, howling and explosions, and the lyrics are descriptions of deadly weapons. This is the soundtrack of a war. The juxtaposition of these works from 2022 and 2024 shows the drastic continuity of memory, as well as the changes in war technology.

My Art Guides Venice Meeting Point
April 16 – 21, 2024
Navy Officers’ Club, Arsenale Venice

Established in 2015, the My Art Guides Venice Meeting Point is a platform created by Lightbox. Taking place during the pre-opening of La Biennale di Venezia 60th International Art Exhibition, the VMP fosters international dialogue around contemporary art, creating collaborative opportunities between visual artists, art organisations and the international art community, as well as cultivating a deeper public engagement with the arts. The Venice Meeting Point, just around the corner from the entrance to the Arsenale, takes place at the Navy Officers’ Private Club.

This year’s main partner is Alserkal Initiatives with Cité internationale des arts, who present the collective exhibition “When Solidarity Is Not a Metaphor”, curated by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, which imagines solidarity as lived practice.

The exhibition offers a counter-space to the reigning agendas of war, patriarchy, and colonialism, and their toxic impacts on human and non-human ecosystems. The exhibiting artists—alumni, residents, and collaborators of both the Cité internationale des arts in Paris and Alserkal Initiatives in Dubai—challenge the understanding of ‘solidarity’ as merely an object of theorising and discourse.

At the VMP you will also find the X Muse Art Bar which each day from 5 pm will host various personalities and artists as: TAN art critics Louisa Buck and Ben Luke, Delfina Foundation with a performance by Moe Satt and Vadim Grygorian book preview with
Marcos Lutyens performance.

VMP Bistrot this year is created by Massimo Santi who will set up his Santi Listening Bistrot, combining excellent food and music, to complement the Club’s offerings during the Biennale opening days. This project is realised in collaboration with Lightbox and the renowned Venetian wine bar Vino Vero, which will take care of selecting the wines.

To reserve your table or organise your event at the Venice Meeting Point, please go to listeningbistrot.produzioniprivate.it
Please note that it is also possible to book your table for dinner or organise your event after 8pm, by reservation only.

Programme

Radical is a regional monographic magazine solely dedicated to the art of natural wine. Delve into the essence of each region through the unique perspectives and expertise of passionate winegrowers. The magazine serves as an indispensable travel companion, which functions like a comprehensive map to navigate from one wine region to another. Discover handpicked recommendations for authentic dining and natural wine experiences along the way.

The first issue is the prototype for what promises to be a series of future publications, the culmination of nearly two years of dedicated effort by the Vino Vero team.

Vino Vero, a natural wine shop established on Venice’s Fondamenta della Misericordia in 2014, expanded its reach to Lisbon in 2019. Since its inception, it has evolved into an essential destination for aficionados of fine libations and a gathering spot for winemakers traversing Venice. Vino Vero is a place of research, dialogue, and camaraderie, fostering an inviting atmosphere for both wine enthusiasts and creators alike

Radical is the brainchild of Matteo Bartoli and Mara Sartore, among the founding members of Vino Vero, and already known for My Art Guides – a series of guides dedicated to major contemporary art events. Radical takes its inspiration from the Meridiani dell’Editoriale Domus, a magazine that in the 1980s and 1990s was an inexhaustible source for embarking on journeys to discover our Bel Paese.

The magazine is aimed at those who love to travel – first and foremost to drink and eat well, discover wine regions, and learn about their different wine-growing realities, it offers a roadmap for epicurean adventures that resonate with a growing community of enthusiasts

The choice to launch in Veneto felt organic, given that Vino Vero, which marked its milestone tenth anniversary this February, originated in Venice. Vino Vero has revolutionised the way of mixing by introducing a wide range of wines, including prestigious selections, and embracing the concept of uncorking any bottle, even for just a single glass. Since its inception, Vino Vero has catalysed a rapid proliferation of similar establishments across the city, leading to Venice’s rightful claim as the epicentre of the natural wine movement.”

There are other reasons for starting in the region of Veneto: it was here, in the most productive region in Italy, that the natural wine movement in our country began, with the Vini Veri association founded by Angelino Maule, from which he later detached himself to continue his important work of dissemination through VinNatur. Radical therefore photographs and recounts a moment of fundamental change in the history of the way of making and drinking wine.

Radical by the numbers: 208 pages filled with captivating imagery and insightful narratives, featuring in-depth interviews with 42 passionate winemakers. Discover a meticulously curated list of 116 wineries, conveniently categorised by province, alongside 128 establishments where one can savour not only the cuisine but also exquisite natural wines. Complementing this wealth of content are three introductory texts, thoughtfully designed to provide context and welcome readers of all backgrounds, regardless of their expertise in the subject. Because at the end of the day, the love for good wine transcends expertise—it’s a joy meant for everyone to savour.

The inaugural edition of Radical was masterfully orchestrated by Esmeralda Spitaleri, whose expertise was honed during her tenure at Vino Vero and later as the shop’s social communication lead, alongside the creative collaboration of Lightbox. Steering the selection process of the 116 esteemed winemakers featured in the magazine was Stella Croci, cellar manager of Vino Vero Venezia. This invaluable roster was meticulously curated over years of exploration, tasting sessions in bars, visits to wineries, participation in trade fairs, and collaborative brainstorming with the dedicated team members: Ronny Steffen, Nicola Favaro, and Camilla Cremaschi.

At the core of Vino Vero lies a commitment to continuous learning, making it not just a wine shop boasting over two thousand labels, but also a dynamic force propelling the natural wine movement forward. Radical stands as Vino Vero’s tribute to this movement and its rich history

Radical will be presented in Venice on 22 March on the occasion of Vino Vero’s tenth-anniversary celebration.

Radical, Lightbox Editions, pp.208, language: Italian, price: 30€

Ydessa Hendeles: Grand Hotel
Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia

The Art Museum at the University of Toronto is proud to present Ydessa Hendeles: Grand Hotel as an official Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Wayne Baerwaldt, working in collaboration with Project Producer Barbara Edwards, the site-responsive exhibition is mounted in the prestigious Spazio Berlendis adjacent to the Fondamente Nove in the district of Cannaregio. In Grand Hotel, Ydessa Hendeles explores the critical themes of cultural identity, displacement, intergenerational trauma and loss linking the past to the present.

Informed by the artist’s family history of persecution and migration, Grand Hotel offers a visceral experience that addresses perceptions of cultural identity and otherness. In a setting that calls to mind The Merchant of Venice and the historical Jewish Ghetto, Grand Hotel presents a timely questioning of the psychosocial dynamics that construct our world. For more than two decades, leading galleries and institutions in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East have presented Hendeles’s unique, large-scale compositions, inviting viewers to find their own resonances in historically informed creations that are at once intensely personal and broadly relevant. Grand Hotel is the newest iteration in the artist’s body of work.

Pavilion of Serbia
60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Exposition Coloniale
by Aleksandar Denić
Curated by Ksenija Samardžija

“Exposition Coloniale” in its visual abundance, deals with places which become social memorabilia, or the anxiety left by a society. Capturing the moment where history becomes a biography, Denić uses experience related to Heiner Müller’s theory about the constant need to question the system of thought and values through art’s capacity to make reality impossible.

The exhibition is conceived as a heterotopia, a concept expounded by Foucault through the interplay of space with accumulated evocative elements. Denić is a master of manipulating spatial elements to create a distinct dialectic, resulting in an architectural situation that is both visually striking and conceptually provoking.

Through the transformation of spatial elements, he creates a tension that is not solely derived from the physical work itself, but rather from the interaction between the viewer and the multi-layered narrative. The inclusion of music and sounds, lights, heating systems, and other sensory elements adds to the complexity and further blurs and disturbs the boundaries between the physical and emotional realms. The result is a dynamic and engaging spatial experience, that relies on realistic components that are completely reinterpreted and originally built.

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The contemporary art project “Vetrina” inaugurates the second series of presentations this February. Having previously explored the theme of nature through the site-specific works of the first nine invited artists, the focus now shifts to the theme of activism. This cycle will involve women artists who, through their artistic practice, have always provided space for reflection on the contemporary world.

In 2024, the Vino Vero “Vetrina” will exclusively host diversely active and provocative women artists. Launching this new cycle is Loredana Longo (Catania, 1967), a multifaceted artist who uses a variety of techniques and materials to realise her work, which mainly consist of site-specific installations, sculptures, performances, and photographic and video documentation.
Vetrina#10 is produced in collaboration with the Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea (FPAC) gallery.

Her research can be summarised in what the artist defines as “aesthetics of destruction“, a set of often provocative gestures in which she destroys and reconstructs her subjects, creating striking and scenographic works. She is best known for a series of works called “Explosion“, in which Longo builds real theatre sets that she then destroys through an explosion, only to rebuild everything, leaving incomplete parts as evidence of what has happened. The whole process is documented by a video projected next to the explosion scene.

For the series of works “Carpet“, Loredana Longo burns the surface of Oriental carpets, embossing phrases of Western public figures with fire, creating a tension and crossover between two different worlds and cultures. The artist selects both short and meaningful phrases, words that may be used in various circumstances, creating a collection of precious aphorisms. The ability with which Longo uses a variety of materials and techniques is certainly one of her fundamental strengths. Fire is undoubtedly the medium most frequently used by the artist in the realisation of her works.

“Vetrina” is a series of exhibitions curated by Mara Sartore for Vino Vero, in collaboration with Lightbox. Throughout 2024, Vetrina will showcase the work of three women artists who all share the characteristic of a strong personality, yet their creative flair and artistic career paths differ significantly. The challenge is to present artworks within a confined space in direct contact with the public, where the display window becomes an integral part of the artistic work itself, no longer merely an exhibition space.

Loredana Longo (Catania, 1967), a graduate in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania, is known for her versatility and use of various techniques and materials in her works, which range from site-specific installations to sculptures, performances and photographic and video documentation. Her “aesthetics of destruction” is most evident in the EXPLOSION series, where the artist creates and destroys theatre sets by means of explosions, leaving incomplete parts as evidence, documented by video. The FLOOR series focuses on huge concrete floors, while in VICTORY she burns images representing dramatic situations. With more than 20 years of national and international experience, Loredana Longo stands out for her mastery of multiple materials and techniques, always paying attention to detail and demonstrating a strong social commitment through art.

Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea (FPAC) was founded in Palermo in 2003 with the intention of maintaining two privileged vantage points on contemporary art: local and international. For more than ten years, the gallery was based at the Vucciria, in the heart of Palermo’s historical market. Now it is located at the Quattro Canti, the city’s noble centre, and it still maintains its original mission with a programme that presents a broad and transversal research, representing established artists such as Stefano Arienti, Per Barcaly, Letizia Battaglia, Liliana Moro and Assume Vivid Astro Focus; mid-careers such as Stefania Galegati, John Kleckner and Loredana Longo; and younger artists such as Ignazio Mortellaro and Keiran Brennan Hinton. In 2017 Francesco Pantaleone inaugurated the second location of his gallery in Milan in the Porta Romana area, in order to offer his artists, the public and collectors a second display in northern Italy and to further develop what has been carried out in recent years in Palermo.

The 60th International Art Exhibition, “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere”, organised by La Biennale di Venezia, takes place from April 20 to November 24, 2024. Curator Adriano Pedrosa draws inspiration from works by Claire Fontaine, exploring the phrase coined by a Turin collective fighting racism and xenophobia in the early 2000s. The exhibition delves into the challenges of global movement, addressing crises related to language, translation, ethnicity, and identity.

Pedrosa’s vision centers on artists who embody the foreigner experience, including immigrants, expatriates, diasporic individuals, and refugees, particularly those traversing the Global South and North. The exhibit spotlights the queer artist, the outsider artist at the margins of the art world, and the indigenous artist treated as a foreigner in their own land. This thematic focus, known as the “Nucleo Contemporaneo,” aims to celebrate the diversity and contributions of these artists, addressing issues of race, gender, sexuality, wealth, and freedom.

In addition to the contemporary nucleus, the exhibition incorporates a “Nucleo Storico,” showcasing 20th-century art from Latin America, Africa, the Arab world, Asia, and a special section dedicated to the worldwide Italian artistic diaspora. The choice of Adriano Pedrosa, a Brazilian curator, adds a unique perspective to the Biennale, marking the first time a curator from a Latin American country leads the event.

Pavilion of Chile
60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Cosmonación
by Valeria Montti Colque
Curated by Andrea Pacheco González

April 20 – November 24, 2024
Finissage: Performance “Nube, Prado y Picnic al pie de la montaña” – Saturday 23 November 12pm
Performance Location: Lion of Piraeus, Campo dell’Arsenale, Venice

Cosmonación is an invitation to reflect upon concepts of nationhood, exile, migration and diaspora. Valeria Montti Colque’s project connects the audience with the contemporary debates around the tension between questions of “Who I am” and “Where I am”, in the intricate process of territorialising life with diverse identities. The term “Cosmonation” is borrowed from the anthropologist Michel S. Laguerre, who affirms that diasporic communities do not sever relations with their places of origin but remain attached to their ancestral lands through different ways, materials, and spiritual practices. In this way, they inhabit an extended, multi-localised nation, a cosmonation that unifies geographically distant territories.