Last week the art world descended on Venice for the opening of the Biennale, which will run through Nov. 27. Masses of devotees came together to celebrate Bice Curiger’s directorship of the 54th International Art Exhibition, “Illuminations,” to attend banquets in fancy palazzos, on private boat parties and at rent-your-own-island dinner parties (as Frieze magazine did to celebrate its 20th anniversary) — and to check out some art. This year, there was also plenty to see from the perspective of architecture and design.
The talk of the opening was the Fondazione Prada’s new Venetian address in the freshly restored Ca’ Corner della Regina, an impressive 18th-century palazzo. There, the curator Germano Celant brought together an interesting mix of work, including sculptures by Anish Kapoor, Michael Heizer and Jeff Koons, playful pieces by Damien Hirst and an installation by Louise Bourgeois. The exhibition also includes a scale model of the OMA/Rem Koolhaas-designed Fondazione headquarters, which are scheduled to open in Milan in 2013. And as part of the full Prada experience, the museum attendants are impeccably dressed.
Another great space with an almost magnetic attraction is the spectacular Palazzo Fortuny, where the designer Axel Vervoordt has, for several biennales now, curated wildly popular shows. This year’s effort, “Tra,” includes some 300 artworks from all over the world that are shown to genuinely fascinating effect throughout the three floors of the palazzo. Artists like Marina Abramovic, Fernand Léger, Auguste Rodin and Lucio Fontana, and even the designer Enzo Mari, are all part of the mix.
Meanwhile, back in the Giardini, the public gardens that are the “sanctuary” of the Biennale, the longest-line-to-get-into-a-pavilion award went to Britain, where the artist Mike Nelson installed his labyrinth piece, “I, Imposter.” Only 40 people were allowed in at a time, and the wait was more than an hour. But once inside, you were transported from Venice to Istanbul. Nelson spent three months transforming the pavilion beyond recognition — even removing part of the roof — and into a series of crumbling Turkish courtyards and artisan workshops that remind viewers of the two cities’ intertwined histories.
At the Arsenale, the Biennale’s other main site, highlights included Urs Fischer’s life-size wax candles, one of them a replica of Giovanni da Bologna’s 16th-century sculpture “The Rape of the Sabine Women,” which will slowly but dramatically melt as the exhibition goes on. On the same theme of time passing was Christian Marclay’s 24-hour film “The Clock,” which juxtaposes clips from the history of cinema into an entertaining study of time (and for which Marclay won the Golden Lion award for the Biennale’s best artist). Moving along, we were completely absorbed by the Turkish pavilion’s “Plan B,” where the artist Ayse Erkmen’s simple, almost minimal and fully functional purification system drew upon Venice’s complex relationship with water. A cool tote bag was designed by Konstantin Grcic especially for the project and could be seen on the shoulders of the more stylish Biennale visitors during the press days.
Traveling the byway between the Arsenale and the Giardini, we stumbled upon something unusual amid the lines of Venetian laundry that were hanging out to dry. “Flags for Venice,” produced by the Swiss Institute, was a refreshing take on the pop-up phenomenon — not to mention one of the most interesting and eye-catching installations from a graphic point of view. Twelve artists were invited to design a flag to represent a new group — real or imagined — resulting in stylized works like “The Classic Migraine Flag” or the “Immigrant Flag.” The show was only up for six days, but there is a very nice catalog with the flags in the form of postcards.
Although some areas of Venice are best avoided during the high tourist season, we braved the Piazza San Marco to see the Olivetti showroom. Designed by the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa in 1957 as a showcase for Olivetti’s high-design typewriters and business machines, it reopened to the public in April as a museum and cultural center, thanks to the space’s owner, Assicurazioni Generali, and the Italian cultural institution Fondo Ambiente Italiano. In Scarpa’s hands, classic Venetian materials like marble, teak, stucco and mosaic were given a modernist twist. (Scarpa even factored in smart solutions for the high waters that regularly flood the piazza.) We loved the staff entrance, hidden in the exterior wall of the shop, as well as the original wooden fixtures, including the storefront logo and window blinds. And if you make it there, you might even find that you have the space to yourself. It’s one of the few places in Venice not (yet) overwhelmed by art pilgrims.
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