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Venice Biennial – living myth

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In the world of contemporary art, the Venice Biennial is one keyword that everyone knows. Representation at the Biennial is a kind of national duty and opportunity, just like the Olympics or Eurovision. It is a landmark, used to measure the maturity and status of the artist and the country he/she represents.

On the picture: Damien Hirst. The Fate of A Banished Man

As is the case with any curated art exhibition, the biennial’s curator also plays a very important role, having to deliver a public message that moves mountains. This year’s 57th International Art Exhibition provides new ways to look at the world and celebrate mankind: French curator Christine Macel attempts to reflect the diversity and complexity of the creator’s nature.

In a departure from customary tradition, she did not assign a specific topic for the biennial, but decided to choose an inviting and general slogan Viva Arte Viva to emphasise the role of artists in interpreting the diverse world, their voice and social responsibility. She has both been praised and criticised for the exhibition under this grand title, one that says everything and nothing at all, bringing together 200 artists from 51 countries.

It has been found that the current solution leaves some space to breathe, observe, and move about, while in essence being safe and politically correct, reducing risks that would be involved with the handling of topical, but sensitive war or refugee matters. Macel comments that although an artist’s social responsibility is to resist, it does not mean that art must have a political function. An act of resistance could also be targeted against the loss of utopias or hope, she thinks.

Choosing the artists for the exhibition has, for Macel, been a result of a continuous process that has been going on for decades: learning, meeting people, and global research. In addition to famous stars, she has also considered it important to include such artists in the biennial who have had less publicity. Debuts of young artists symbolise both looking into the future and provide a chance for new discoveries.

Speaking of being distinguished and discoveries, we also touch upon rediscovering world renowned names. One such name could be Damien Hirst, whose account balance reaching into the hundreds of millions makes cynics doubtful about the sincerity of his work and brings about the question of the relationship between an artwork’s value and its worthiness. Thus, the issue of Hirst has become one of the most passionate topics behind the scenes. Has the artist who once became famous for presenting preserved animal corpses, but disappeared in recent years, been resurrected? What is the role of social resistance in a situation where half of his several hundreds new works presented at the biennial have been already sold in advance? It does not seem like resistance to the triumvirate of the capitalist world...

However, Hirst stands for utopias. He introduces his two-part exposition with the story of an antique sculpture collection, which sank and was covered by corals in the Indian Ocean a long time ago, being discovered and subsequently recovered only ten years ago. The statues include both gods and demons. More gullible visitors are happy to be part of such a grand historical discovery. More attentive visitors notice that the collection also includes Mickey Mouse and Kate Moss and are happy that they saw through the trick: Hirst made all the statues himself and took them underwater to grow some corals on their surface. Even more attentive visitors see even further: the corals are as fake as the statues and the entire collection has been created just to be sold. You need something more than attention to understand what the entire project actually refers to: the paradox between the utopianism of myths and their venality.

If Hirst and his creations are overrated kitsch and a capitalist trap, do not buy a ticket to his exhibition. The choice is yours!

For Christine Macel, art itself is an alternative act of reacting, offering space for free and individual self-expression. The viewer also has the freedom to decide how to react to art, where the reaction of a more gullible person is no worse than that of a cynic or vice versa. The important thing is to have a reaction at all. The curator wants the visitors to leave with a degree of suspicion and then again with great certainty, to create and invent the world of tomorrow, think about time and eternity. The complex and versatile nature of Damien Hirst and his utopian mythology is only one possible hint and means among dozens of other personal and national pavilions.

Triinu Soikmets, gallerist and curator at Haus Gallery

Haus Gallery has cooperated with the new Web magazine Edasi (in English Forward) (Edasi.org). In the weekly column we talk about something interesting and noteworthy in the field of art to Estonian readers. The Forward way of thinking, positive world view, intelligent journey with the reader through meaningful moments, slow journalism, which offers counterpoise to the racy information barrage, which invites to stop, feel and think along just as art inspires Haus Gallery to write stories for Forward. 

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