Venice Biennale

This paper focuses on the role of contemporary art in international relations and world politics. In IR, art is often examined within the framework of cultural diplomacy, country branding, and soft power, or approached as a site of resistance. We argue that the concept of heteronomy offers an alternative conceptual framework for analysing contemporary art in world politics. It highlights the interaction of various fields such as art, commerce, the state and media. We concretise this approach with an analysis of the Venice Biennale. We show that the Biennale is heteronomous in the sense of being an arena where actors from various fields struggle for power by accumulating different types of capital. We focus our analysis on the Russian national pavilion in 2011–2015 and show how the efforts of the country’s elite to legitimise its position are intertwined with the projects of the state, sponsors, artists, curators and art market actors.

This chapter offers an ethnographic analysis of two choreographic projects-The Sysmograph (2019) by Pélagie Gbaguidi, which addressed the Venetian Museo del Manicomio. La follia reclusa in the context of the Ultrasanity symposium in Venice and the planned contribution of Dorothée Munyaneza on the Marseille ethnographic collections in the framework of a symposium during Manifesta 13 (2021). Both choreographies are analysed as performances that sense and mediate traumatic pasts, object agency, and the continuation of modern legacies in museums. The objective of this contribution is to open a discussion on the possibilities of choreographies and dance not as illustrative practices, but as mediating, embodied, translated investigations of active matter, difficult heritage, and the traumatic pasts inscribed in museological narratives, objects, and spaces.

The purpose of this article is to theorize the relationship between art and justice in times of transition so that a broader spectrum of political possibilities and their impli- cations can be imagined. The aim is to offer a way to think about, and to render visible, the web of relationships that constitute this bond. By undertaking a close analysis and narrative investigation of the art installation REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony, I use the artwork to elucidate four key ideas relating to paradigms, agency, encounters and space which make art relevant and meaningful to transitional justice. These four ideas frame two central arguments. First, I argue that an account of transi- tional justice without aesthetic dimensions is insufficient, precisely because transitional justice ‘acknowledges itself as a process inseparable from feelings of justice.’ Artworks can fill out affective topologies in ways that facilitate or stimulate recognition and a ‘feeling of being there’. Secondly, I contend that art plays an important role in animat- ing and activating individual narratives so that they take on collective importance. In doing so, the past can be shared so that a new political future can be imagined.
KEYWORDS: art, South Africa, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, apartheid, Venice Biennale.
doi: 10.1093/ijtj/ijw010

Housed in the Canadian Pavillion in the Giardini in Venice during the 2010 Architecture Biennale, the Hylozoic Ground project provided visitors with the unique experience of interacting with a responsive and 'live' textile matrix. Philip Beesley and Rachel Armstrong describe the extraordinary 'soil-less' environment that they collaborated on and how it provides a new model for a synthetic but evolutionary ecology.

This paper argues that Cardinal Points of Art, directed by Achille Bonito Oliva has been decisive in the formation of the contemporary Venice Biennale. The 45 th Venice Biennale, (1993) was memorable for many reasons: the first exhibition of Chinese painters in Venice, its transnational approach, and because it was the last time the Aperto exhibition was shown. Nevertheless, this was a complex and much criticised Biennale whose specific characteristics are also connected to the process of reform that the institution had been undergoing since the 1970s. The analysis of the exhibition starts with the examination of this legacy and continues by questioning Bonito Oliva's curatorial contribution in order to define the specific features which helped to shape the contemporary Venice Biennale.

The number of contemporary art biennials has increased significantly over the last 25 years giving rise to the phenomenon of biennalization of contemporary art. In this article, we detail the world politics of biennalization through a review of mainly academic literature on biennials. We analyze internal definitions within the reviewed material through three dimensions: scale, politics, and production of value (political economies). Our analysis shows the world politics of biennials revolves around a set of productive tensions between the order of nation states and its alternatives, cultural dominance and resistance, and various modes of value production.

A barrage of criticism has been levelled against the Venice Biennale’s national pavilion structure in recent decades, chiefly accusing it of anachronism on account of its western biases. Yet the tide has begun to turn, making much of this criticism sound a little worn-out. As this event increasingly attracts debuting ‘non-western’ national exhibitors each year, its pavilion structure event is beginning to be reassessed. Haiti was one such debutant at the 54th edition of La Biennale di Venezia held in 2011. This article will explore in detail the debates raised by Haiti’s national pavilion, particularly as they related to the central exhibition theme of ILLUMInations selected by the International Art Exhibition Director for 2011, Bice Curiger. In doing so this piece will consider both: how the national pavilion structure at the Venice Biennale was challenged, and our wider understanding of it deepened, by Haiti’s participation; and what Venice’s national pavilion structure might be able to offer a post-colonial, ‘third-world’ nation like Haiti.

The exhibition "Kinshasa, The Imaginary City", was curated by Filip De Boeck and Koen Van Synghel for the Belgian Pavilion at the 2004 Venice Architecture Bienale. The exhibition intended to show the multifaceted nature of the contemporary African urbanscape. It aimed at stimulating the ongoing debate on the postcolonial African city as a salient site for the development of alternative modernities, for new alignments of local and global identities, and for rethinking urban sustainability in Africa and elsewhere. Architecture has become a central issue in Western discourses and reflections on how to plan, engineer, sanitize and transform the urban site and its public spaces. In how far can architecture be instrumental in imagining new urban paradigms for the African city of the future? The exhibition won a Golden Lion for best Pavilion.

ISLAND, Great Britain’s entry to the 16th International Architecture Biennale is underpinned by Alejandro de la Sota’s quote ‘architects should make as much nothing as possible’. Ostensibly, upon visiting the British pavilion it does indeed appear that this year’s representation of the best of British architecture is … nothing.

At the 2001 Venice Biennale, the famous Belgian artist Luc Tuymans decided to exhibit a series of paintings titled "Mwana Kitoko (Beautiful White Man)" that dealt with the colonial past of his country. In a particular political context open to postcolonial reflection, Tuymans dared to show this delicate matter and thus politicized the Belgian Pavillon. Indeed, at that time, the colonial past began to lead to controversy in Belgium. Considering the position of "the artist as historian", this article seeks to determine the circumstances that led Tuymans to confront this subject as well as the impact of his exhibition in Venice.

In 1897 Russia had its debut at the Venice International Art Exhibition, with a group show commissioned by the State Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg and curated by
Ilya Repin. Based on Russian and Italian unpublished archival documentation and press reviews, the article sheds light on the organization of the art show, while also addressing
its critical and popular reception, mostly characterized by common places and stereotypes derived from Russian literature. In turn, such a critical response fitted the rhetoric of a “national character” promoted by early Biennale exhibitions and its collateral events, from public acquisitions to art criticism awards.

Con una mostra collettiva realizzata su commissione dell’Accademia Imperiale di Belle Arti di San Pietroburgo e a cura di Il’ja Repin, la Russia debuttò all’Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte di Venezia alla sua seconda edizione (1897). Alla luce di documenti inediti e di recensioni critiche di provenienza sia russa che italiana, l’articolo prende in esame le alterne fasi di realizzazione della rassegna e la sua accoglienza da parte di critica e pubblico. Ne emerge un quadro ricettivo in cui l’orizzonte d’attesa nei confronti dell’arte russa è in larga parte condizionato da precognizioni e stereotipi di natura letteraria, orientati verso l’individuazione di quel “carattere nazionale”, a cui si ispirava il “concorso delle nazioni” delle prime Biennali e le sue attività collaterali, dalle acquisizioni pubbliche ai premi alla critica

With the Soviet Pavilion of the 1962 Venice Art Biennale, the Thaw era made its entrance onto the international art scene. Artists from diiferent generations and Soviet republics were entrusted to illustrate "the deeply human dimension of Soviet art". Among younger painters, one prominent gure was 30-year old artist Viktor Popkov. Along with the drawings and sketches produced during his travels in the virgin lands and building sites of Siberia, he presented the monumental painting The Builders of Bratsk (1960-61), an iconic artwork of the so-called "severe style". The exhibition took place just a few months before the Moscow Manege Exhibition of December 1962, which prompted Khrushchev's notoriously negative reaction and the rst stop to Soviet cultural détente. The present article explores the genesis of the canvas as the expression of a new "severe romanticism", against the backdrop of the ongoing debate about romanticism in Soviet culture. It also analyzes the reception of Popkov's work both in Italy—the country with the largest communist party in the West—and in the international press. On the basis of archival materials and press reviews, the article sheds light onto an artistic encounter between East and West in a divided Europe and discusses missed connections and unmet expectations of Western, mostly Italian, art critics.

Cosmopolita, «amante del raro» e convinto sostenitore degli artisti e dei letterati «d’eccezione », Vittorio Pica è stato una figura centrale del sistema dell’arte in Italia fra Otto e Novecento. Prolifico scrittore per riviste e quotidiani nazionali e internazionali, collaboratore di lungo corso della Biennale di Venezia e poi suo segretario generale negli anni Venti, commissario per la sezione straniera dell’Esposizione internazionale di belle arti di Roma del 1911, fu fra i primissimi a scrivere in Italia di impressionismo e di simbolismo o di autori a lungo incompresi e derisi come Rodin o, più tardi, Modigliani. Questo volume indaga i più diversi interessi del critico italiano, dalla pittura al teatro, dalle arti decorative alla letteratura, dalla grafica alle prime ricerche d’avanguardia, con particolare attenzione alle ricadute della sua azione nel più ampio contesto della storia del gusto e della cultura europea a cavallo fra i due secoli.

Antonio Maraini (1886-1963), scultore e critico d’arte, comincia presto a intrecciare la sua storia con quella della Biennale di Venezia. La sua formazione è articolata fin da subito: spinto dalla famiglia, si laurea in giurisprudenza, frequenta i corsi serali dell’Accademia di Belle arti fiorentina e segue le lezioni di storia dell’arte di Adolfo Venturi e Pietro toesca1. L’esordio artistico avviene con la presentazione al pubblico e alla critica del Perseo, una scultura di bronzo che viene premiata con la medaglia d’argento all’Esposizione universale di Bruxelles del 1910, due anni dopo la quale partecipa per la prima volta alla Biennale di Venezia2. in questi anni comincia l’attività di giornalista e critico d’arte scrivendo per la Tribuna e vincendo nel 1912 il concorso per il monumento all’attrice Adelaide ristori a Cividale del Friuli

This was an essay published in Circa, no.120, Summer 2007. I wanted to avoid a simple preview of the artwork that would be on offer for the 2007 Venice Biennale. Having experienced previous Biennales, I was more interested in the tension between the Biennale as a showcase for contemporary critical art practices and the spectacular economy underpinning it. The aim was to explore how selected artworks were to perform therein, and by extension, in a globalized art economy.

Les biennales internationales sont le phénomène d’art mondain et mondial des années quatre-vingt-dix par excellence. Elles répondent bien au rêve global de tous les gouvernements qui veulent représenter le savoir de la planète entière et l’amener chez eux. Les gouvernements? Certes, encore bien avant d‘être des événements d’art, les biennales sont des événements politiques. Elles naissent d’une volonté nationale, elles sont essentiellement financées par les États (aussi bien locaux qu‘étrangers) et elles sont inaugurées par une foule de hauts fonctionnaires.

En 2003, inició su carrera como docente e investigadora y, desde 2012, actúa en la UFRGS como profesora, tanto en el ámbito de la graduación como en el postgrado. Su tesis doctoral "Quando o projeto é patrimônio: a modernidade póstuma em questão", fue premiada como la mejor tesis en arquitectura del año en Brasil, recibiendo los premios CAPES y ANPARQ, en 2012. Lidera el grupo de investigación Projetar no Construído, que se dedica al estudio de arquitecturas caracterizadas por la coexistencia de proyectos de épocas distintas, tales como ambientaciones, reformas, restauraciones, compleciones, anexos y reconstrucciones.

A problem of perfection at art is analyzed in the article according to paradigm of the art market as a system of cultural, economic and social interactions of the art world. The author finds out the vitality of the artwork not only as its essential value but also defines the idea of its imaginary vitality. The latter is created by the art market participants, and it causes the commercial value of the artwork.
The article makes an assumption about the division of art, at least of the Modern and Contemporary history, into two spheres — the art of “aesthetic experience” and the art of “commercial success”. While the art of “aesthetic experience” is aimed at finding and creating a new artistic language (the embodiment of new creative ideas, complex ethical and aesthetic problems), the art of “commercial success” follows artistic stereotypes, uses creative innovations in an adapted form, which is included in the cultural and aesthetic system familiar to the audience of art. This antithesis is analyzed in the article by the example of comparing a number of works by two artists of the same time. One is Mikhail Larionov, a prominent artist of the Russian Avant-Garde, and the other is Vladislav Izmailovitch, a typical representative of Salon and Late Academic art. Considering the specific historical aspects of vitality in art, the author analyzes several examples. Firstly, the late oeuvre of the Russian artist Ilya Repin as a metaphor for the “joy of the risen”. Secondly, the Easter rarities of the House of Faberge, which have changed their status over the past century from a home memorabilia to a cultural myth and became an object of the art market nowadays. Thirdly, the exposition of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2019, where authors and curators exploited the vitality of Dutch and Flemish art of the 17th century as the personification of contemporary creative pursuits. / В статье проблема совершенства искусства анализируется в контексте художественного рынка как феномена культуры. Автор раскрывает витальность не только как неотъемлемую ценность (внутреннее качество) произведения искусства, но и формулирует представление о витальности мнимой, создаваемой участниками художественного рынка, где витальность предстает как фактор коммерческой ценности художественного произведения.
Высказывается предположение о разделении искусства, по крайней мере Нового и Новейшего времени, на два русла: искусство «эстетического переживания» и искусство «коммерческого успеха». Первое направлено на поиск и создание нового художественного языка (воплощение новых творческих идей, сложной этической и эстетической проблематики). Второе следует художественным стереотипам, где творческие новации используются в адаптированном виде, включаясь в привычную для аудитории искусства культурно-эстетическую систему. Эта антитеза анализируется в статье на приме
ре сопоставления ряда работ двух художников одного времени: одного из столпов русского авангарда Михаила Ларионова и «обычного» представителя русского позднеакадемического и салонного искусства Владислава Измайловича.
Рассматривая конкретно-исторические проявления явленности жизни (витальности) в искусстве, автор анализирует несколько примеров. Во-первых, позднее творчество русского художника Ильи Репина как метафору «радости воскресшего». Во-вторых, пасхальные раритеты фирмы Фаберже, изменившие свой статус за истекшее столетие от домашнего мемориала до культурного мифа, который и является ныне предметом арт-рынка. Во-третьих, экспозицию российского павильона на Венецианской биеннале современного искусства 2019 года, в которой авторами и кураторами эксплуатировалась подлинная витальность нидерландского и фламандского искусства XVII века как олицетворение современных творческих поисков.

Autorka przygląda się strategiom wykorzystywanym w sztuce współczesnej do mówienia o doświadczeniu uchodźczyń i uchodźców. Analizuje dwie instalacje dotyczące migracji z Afryki do Europy przez Lampedusę. Barka Sisleja Xhafy i Barca Nostra Christopha Büchela stanowią przykłady tendencji polegającej na wykorzystywaniu w sztuce rzeczy jako świadków historii. Zniszczone przedmioty zaświadczają o przeszłości swoich właścicieli i umożliwiają widzom afektywny kontakt z podmiotami wydarzeń.
Jednak rzeczy nie opowiadają całej historii. Autorka pokazuje, że ich milcząca obecność może prowadzić do reprodukowania przez widzów i widzki założeń wynikających z ich uprzywilejowanej pozycji.

The fin de siècle marked an age of internationalization of the artistic practices, of which Symbolism provides some of the most enduring examples. Given this cosmopolitan, interartistic and sometimes collaborative milieu, the study of the individual experiences of symbolist artists is proving to be an intriguing task and a challenge at the same time. By acknowledging the Belgian symbolists’ fruitful relation with Italian publications, one can map out the often neglected sociological importance of these distribution networks, while at the same time attending to the artistic negotiations of each individual practitioner within this historical context. The same applies to the rise in international exhibitions, where etchings had an undoubted rule. This study aims to discuss the spread of the Belgian symbolists’ prints in cultural magazines and international exhibitions, to understand artists’ negotiations with exhibiting and publishing intermediaries such as the main literary magazines of the period (Emporium, Marzocco and Leonardo), as well as exhibition catalogues (the Venice Biennale and the Amatori e cultori belle arti association).

Thoroughly oriented towards visual science and semiotics, Monika Leisch- Kiesl’s chapter takes us into the current debates of Global Art History and Postcolonial Studies. For a second time, this time virtually, she visits selected major international exhibitions of 2017, specifically the 57th Venice Biennale and documenta 14 in Kassel, to ask about the “Polish” artists available there. She analyses selected works along the lines of the notions “Signs - Images - Codes” developed in her 2016 monograph ZeichenSetzung | BildWahrnehmung and shows how these concepts allow us to encounter different societies and cultures, which gives justice to both the feeling of proximity and the experience of otherness.

El trabajo deconstruye, desde la perspectiva del análisis del discurso y la teoría crítica, las estrategias curatoriales de la Bienal de Venecia 2017. El argumento central del ensayo profundiza sobre las apropiaciones de la pulsión de lo mítico como síntoma del arte contemporáneo.

This work deconstructs, from the perspectives of Analysis of Discourse and Critical Theory, the curatorial strategies of the Venice’s Biennal, 2107. The central argument of this essay elaborates on the appropations of the mythical drive as a symptom of contemporary art.

La scultura alla Biennale di Venezia del 1950. Note di mercato e di critica dai registri di vendita e dalla coeva rassegna stampa Abstract: The contribution aims to consider the dimension of sculpture at the Venice Biennial in 1950. It is an emblematic case study aiming to analyze sculptural research dynamics immediately after World War II in relation to its critical reception and, specifically, to this segment of the art market. The essay describes the literature about sculpture in the post war Biennials and previous studies which investigate the problem of the sales, analyzing original sources and documents. Along with the catalogue, many other materials kept by Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee (ASAC) were considered, including copies of the sales registers compiled by head of Ufficio vendite Ettore Gian Ferrari, minutes of the commission for the visual arts chaired by Rodolfo Pallucchini and coeval press review. The study is a first analysis about the logic behind the market of contemporary sculpture, in a decade that saw the rising of a new concept of sculpture that overcome the traditional meaning of sculpture which still had its roots in the 19th Century.

En el año 1950 México desembarca en Italia. Durante la XXV Bienal de Venecia se exponen por primera vez en Europa obras del arte mexicano posrevolucionario que, desde entonces, circularán en el continente europeo a través de exposiciones y publicaciones. Concretamente en Italia, las experiencias del muralismo mexicano están consideradas un modelo indispensable para muchos artistas e intelectuales. Además,
constituyen una inspiración para el nacimiento de un movimiento de arte público que se expresa a través de la producción de murales de claro contenido político durante el período comprendido entre 1950 y 1980. Este ensayo muestra cómo el muralismo constituye un espacio de intercambio fructífero entre los dos contextos abordados,
rompiendo el estereotipo que siempre ha visto con una mirada eurocéntrica la relación artística entre México e Italia de forma unidireccional.

Fin dalla sua prima apparizione all'Esposizione internazionale di Venezia, il padiglione sovietico ha costituito una delle mostre più attese e dibattute da critica e pubblico della Biennale. Il presente studio ne prende in esame la travagliata storia nel periodo compreso tra il brillante debutto nel 1924, a ridosso della morte di Lenin, e il 1962, anno terminale di una pioneristica stagione espositiva, avviata negli anni del disgelo promosso da Chruščëv. Tra queste due date, una serie di animate partecipazioni e pianificate assenze, dettate dall'imperscrutabile politica sovietica, sullo sfondo del fascismo prima, e dell'emergere della Guerra fredda dopo. Il saggio ripercorre le alterne vicende e la ricezione critica della partecipazione dell'URSS all'Esposizione d'arte della Biennale, nel contesto delle relazioni culturali con l'Italia da una parte, e delle politiche espositive promosse da Mosca dall'altra, mettendone in luce il ruolo di strumento di diplomazia internazionale, di persuasione ideologica e di testimonianza artistica.

The first biennial that published a magazine was the Venice Biennale. The magazine la biennale di Venezia was published from 1950 to 1971. It was conceived as an institutional instrument, to keep the audience of the show informed about the activities of the Biennial during the year. The magazine had the mission to engage in the activities organized by the institution, and discuss and examine all the disciplines at the core of the Biennials program, which meant not only art, but also cinema, fashion, music and theatre. The magazine la biennale pursued the same international intents as the exhibition, becoming a site of network and exchange between different nations, as well as a medium to foster local and international critical dialogue. During the almost twenty years of its existence the publication evolved from informative instrument, which included lists of artworks sold during the editions of the biennial, alongside lists of new acquisitions of the biennial's archive, into a container for critical thought and theory.

The essay examines the Impressionist Exhibition at the 1948 Venice Biennale as a crossroads of cultural policies. From the intellectual militancy of the Secretary General, Rodolfo Pallucchini, to the loan strategy, from the Nazi looting of works of art, to political and diplomatic tensions at the first chills of the Cold War.

After the crisis of the utopian ideals that was linked to the postmodern discourse, it seemed that utopia had ceased to be a useful concept for the art world. This paper addresses the return of the word after the “Utopia Station” exhibition within 2003´s Venice Biennale. Through the study of artists, works and displays, we here analyze the nature of the relationship between art and utopia which was proposed in this exhibition, and which would mark much of the later discourses on this issue.

Venedik Bienali Uluslararası Sanat Sergisi dünya ülkelerinin sanat alanında ulusal kimliklerini güçlendirmesine imkan sağlayacak bir organizasyon olarak tasarlanmış ve ilk sergisini 1895 yılında gerçekleştirmiştir. Ulusal davetin zorunlu olduğu bu etkinliğe uzun yıllar Avrupa'nın ve dünyanın sayılı ülkeleri davet edilmiş, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ise resmi olarak son bulduğu tarihe dek Venedik Bienali sergilerine hiçbir zaman davet edilmemiş ve ulusal bir katılım göstermemiştir. Fakat yapılan araştırmayla Venedik Bienali temsilcilerinin 1914 yılında, bienal kapsamında gerçekleşecek "Giuseppe De Nittis Retrospektif Sergisi" için Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun ilgili makamlarıyla temas kurdukları tespit edilmiştir. Dönemin politik gelişmelerinin belirleyici olduğu günlerde iki ülke arasında kurulan bu temas, ilk kez ortaya çıkarılan belgeler eşliğinde ele alınmış ve makale içinde değerlendirilmiştir. -------------- The Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition was designed as an organization that would enable the countries of the world to strengthen their national identity in the field of art, and held its first exhibition in 1895. To this event, where the national invitation was compulsory, many countries of Europe and the world were invited for many years, but the Ottoman Empire was never invited to the Venice Biennale exhibitions until the date it officially ended. Although the Ottoman Empire did not nationally participate in the Venice Biennale, it was determined that the representatives of the Venice Biennial made contact with the relevant authorities of the Ottoman Empire in 1914 regarding the "Giuseppe De Nittis Retrospective Exhibition" to be held within the scope of the Venice Biennale. In the days when the political developments of the period were determinative, this contact, which was established between the two countries, was discussed in the accompaniment of the documents revealed for the first time and evaluated in the article.

We will remember this Biennale, just like a few previous ones, for, as a critic has put it, "a gap between the philosophical and theoretical dimensions on the one hand and the banality of the result on the other" which is "so big that the whole work seems absurd. " Indeed, there is a gap of incongruity between the rhetoric of the artists, this year's curator, and the exhibited works. One learns very little or nothing from the interpretation of curator Ralph Rugoff, only the motives behind his choice of the interesting times and the related art. One does not even need to know the subject, or to follow the curator's theoretical sophistries, to approach the artworks, but this is not even the biggest problem of the exhibition. It is the small amount of truly striking artworks among the multitude of exhibits that is upsetting. On the other hand, having lost the centre as well as the periphery (or to put it the other way round: today everything is centre and everything is periphery), contemporary art, as attested by the Biennale, has also lost the focus that once emanated from the centre of events, from the core of the phenomenon. The blurring of boundaries between centre and periphery has created a situation where today, indeed, no artistic phenomenon, group, or individual is a gravitational force that attracts or emanates, while the "spirit of the time" is merely a reminder of a past perfect time that does not return, even periodically.

In connection with the recent exhibition of Damien Hirst in Venice, the general tendencies of turning to traditional forms of art in the most recent artistic culture are analyzed. In this context, Hirst’s later work is understood as an attempt to bring contemporary art to the conservative, museum perception of artistic value. The activity of Hirst as a cultural phenomenon is analyzed, offering comparative characteristics of his creative work. Along with fragments of critical articles from the international press, quotes of some leading Russian art critics are cited which confirm the significance of this artist even for a context with which he is not directly connected. Hirst’s exhibition in Venice is therefore perceived as a landmark event reflecting the inner aspiration of contemporary art and its public towards a traditional view of the art object. For all its apparent paradox and shock value, Hirst’s work interacts with the reaction of the "Cult of Beauty", a trend increasingly asserting itself in contemporary culture.

В связи с недавней выставкой Дэмиена Хёрста в Венеции рассматриваются общие тенденции обращения к традиционным формам искусства в новейшей художественной культуре. В этом контексте позднее творчество Хёрста понимается как попытка приобщения современного искусства к консервативному, музейному восприятию художественной ценности. Анализируется деятельность Хёрста как феномена культуры, предлагаются сравнительные характеристики его творчества. Вместе с фрагментами критических статей из международной прессы цитируются некоторые российские источники, которые подтверждают значимость этого художника даже для того контекста, с которым он напрямую не связан. Выставка Хёрста в Венеции трактуется как знаковое событие, отражающее внутреннее устремление современного искусства и его публики в сторону традиционного взгляда на художественный объект. При всей парадоксальности и мнимой эпатажности творчество Хёрста взаимодействует с реакционной тенденцией «культа красоты», которая все сильнее заявляет о себе в современной культуре.

Cet article est un compte rendu de l'exposition May you Live in Interesting Times présentée dans le cadre de la 58e édition de la Biennale de Venise (2019). L'auteure y retrace les thèmes clés de l'événement ainsi que quelques œuvres phares de l'exposition qui traitent d'enjeux en matière d'environnement, de frontières et de flux migratoire, d'identité ainsi que des problématiques engendrées par le racisme systémique.

Artistes: Lara Favaretto, Harris Epaminonda, Rula Halawani, Arthur Jafa, Teresa Margolles, Zanele Muholi, Otobong Nkanga, Tomás Saraceno.

Commisaire: Ralph Rugoff

« Puissiez-vous espérer vivre dans des temps intéressants: 58e édition de la Biennale de Venise », Espace art actuel, no 123, Compte-rendu d’exposition, Montréal.

This contribution reconsiders Vittorio Pica's criticism on Japanese art and its consequences in fin-de-siècle artistic taste and cultural debate in Italy. Pica was among the first critics to show a relevant interest in Japanese culture, under the influence of French criticism and especially of the Goncourt brothers. Thanks to primary unpublished sources and a new approach to his writings of literary tradition, this paper intends to recast the trans-medial and inter-medial fortune of Japonisme in Italy, too, and its legacy between the ongoing artistic production and contemporary collecting taste, with a special concern for modern painting, decoration and industrial arts.

Artikkeli käsittelee Venetsian nykytaidebiennaalia, taidemaailman megatapahtumaa. Sen lähtökohtana on huomio megatapahtumien paradoksaalisuudesta. Tarkastelemme Venäjän kansallisen Venetsian-paviljongin paradokseja analysoimalla, miten yksityisen taidesäätiön johtaja ja ”oligarkin vaimo” Stella Kesajeva nousi Venäjän kansallisen Venetsian-paviljongin komissaariksi kaudelle 2011–2015. Esitämme, että biennaali tarjosi olosuhteet yhteiskunnalliselle ja poliittiselle alkemialle, jossa taloudellista pääomaa on mahdollista muuntaa symboliseksi pääomaksi tai symbolista taloudelliseksi. Venetsian biennaalin paradoksaalisuutta voidaan selittää sillä, että kyseessä on Pierre Bourdieun käsittein heteronominen tila. Yhteiskunnan eri kenttien arvostusperiaatteet risteävät biennaalissa, mikä synnyttää paradokseja. Pohdimme artikkelissa myös nykytaiteen ja Venetsian-paviljongin muutosvoimaa suhteessa Venäjän kleptokratiseen järjestelmään, jossa vauraan bisneseliitin ja valtion suhteet ovat kietoutuneet yhteen sekä varallisuus huomattavan epätasaisesti jakautunutta.

The discovery of unpublished documents in the ASAC (contemporary art archives) in Venice has at last made it possible to reconstruct the first Italian Courbet retrospective at the Venice Biennale of 1910, its public and critical reception, and how the painter’s work was seen between 1910 and 1919. In addition, Courbet’s fortunes in Italy are interwoven with those of Roberto Longhi, who in the wake of his pioneering studies of Caravaggio and the Seicento was immediately drawn to the master of realism, and whose earliest writings established a parallel between the two artists. Courbet’s name appears throughout Longhi’s career, shaping the evolution of how he wrote the history of art, from his initial re ections to his maturity.