Brunswick Arts works with many of the world’s great art institutions and festivals. Here we highlight how the Venice Biennale engaged with the urban fabric of the city.
Every two years in early June, the city of Venice plays host to what many consider the Olympics of the art world – a major contemporary exhibition where competing national pavilions act as shop windows for the home-grown talent of many countries. Yet as the art world becomes increasingly frontier-defying, so too the Venice Biennale has learned to redefine the function of these seemingly anachronistic embassies of art. It is telling, for instance, that the German pavilion this year staged a solo show of British artist Liam Gillick. Similarly, the Ukrainian Pavilion’s Steppes of Dreamers exhibition was the result of a collaborative effort between Ukrainian artist Illya Chichkan and Japanese fashion designer Mihara Yasuhiro. Some of the images on these pages illustrate the different ways in which national pavilions, specifically China and Ukraine, responded to the overarching theme of this year’s Biennale: Making Worlds.
The Biennale itself has expanded well beyond the site of the national pavilions, and curated exhibitions and installations now occupy the city’s naval shipyard and the palazzos on the Grand Canal as well as public spaces. Countless public institutions, art foundations, corporate donors and private collectors recognize the opportunities that the Venice Biennale affords to raise awareness of their work and vision. The images featured here also capture the varying ways art has engaged with the urban fabric of the city. Antique dealer, art collector and interior designer Axel Vervoordt, for example, used the understated but exquisite Palazzo Fortuny as the backdrop for his show In-finitum, in which contemporary works are juxtaposed with modern and old masters to explore the relationship between art and the passing of time. Similarly the Moscow-based Stella Art Foundation staged its survey of the Russian avant-garde in the 18th century Ca’ Rezzonico and invited contemporary artist Alexander Ponomarev to dock his SubTiziano in the Grand Canal.