That’s all folks! From the SS Hangover to the Museum of Everything: last report from Venice

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And before we switch back to normal: a few last snapshots from Venice. Comprising some of everybody’s favorites: the SS Hangover, an Austrian cartoon, and Fischli & Weiss. Plus my chance encounter with grand old lady Marisa Merz, right after she had received her lifetime achievement Golden Lion. After the jump, some last thoughts and tips.

Beauty and horror make a devilish deal: Richard Mosse’s ‘The enclave’ (Irish Pavilion, Venice Biennale)

‘I’ve tried to carve horror into beauty’. Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere about her work at the Belgian pavilion. I couldn’t help thinking about that quote as I was watching Richard Mosse‘s impressive The enclave, at the Pavilion of Ireland. I will not be reviewing all the Venice Biennale pavilions, but this one I just have to write about. Because of the fact that I’m always intrigued when contemporary artists dare to bring that almost old-fashioned concept of beauty to the fore, because of those strange similarities between the Belgian and the Irish pavilion (although the work is completely different). And this being a Belgian blog I’ve got an extra reason: The enclave is about Congo, that former Belgian colony.

A green cross, a clay figure and a pavilion without a roof: more of Belgium in Venice

I’ve told you about Berlinde De Bruyckere, I’ve told you about the Belgian artists selected for Il Palazzo Enciclopedico, and about that gallery from Brussels that went to Venice to win a ‘special mention’. But while roaming the narrow streets of Venice, I discovered that there were even more traces of Belgium to be found around the city. In my boyish enthusiasm I turned it into a quest: where are the Belgians? For those who want to save some time in Venice (and time is utterly valuable with easily more than 200 exhibitions around town), here they are. With pictures.

Leaving Brussels… to win a ‘special mention’ at the Venice Biennale (with Lithuanian pavilion)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So, Berlinde De Bruyckere hasn’t brought that Golden Lion home, for Belgium. But in a remote way we are linked to one of the winners at the Venice Biennale. Because there’s a link between Belgium and Lithuania, winner of a special mention for ‘an original curatorial format’, a pavilion set up jointly with Cyprus. Two of the commissioners of the Lithuanian pavilion are Aurimé Aleksandraviciute and Jonas Zakaitis, who used to run Tulips & Roses, a hip gallery in Brussels. Raimundas Malasauskas, the pavilion’s curator, was one of the artists they represented.
Theirs is a pavilion of a different kind, certainly worth a visit (close to the Arsenale), as it is housed in a sports hall. As I visited it, I wasn’t sure what was part of the exhibition and what not. That poster on the floor certainly was, but that cleaning robot? (As a matter of fact: it’s called Roomba, and it is). At the center of the exhibition you’ll find walls shipped from several European museums (Cousins, by Dutch artist Gabriel Lester). Some of them are from Wiels (Brussels). During the opening days choreographer/performance artist Maria Hassabi was performing Intermission (she recently premiered Counter-relief at Kaaitheater’s Performatik festival, Brussels).
Do get lost in the building and you might be in for another slightly surreal surprise, as you might be running into cleaning ladies first, and then groups of teenagers, training in one of the other halls.

Has Belgium won a Golden Lion in Venice after all? Or why Michel François might want to visit the Republic of Angola’s pavilion

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

‘Everything has already been done but not by me.’ Isn’t that how the saying goes? I’m not implying anything at all, I’m just saying that Belgian artist Michel François might be surprised, the day he visits the pavilion of Angola, the winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for best pavilion. Stacks of posters on wooden pallets? For the visitors to take away? Isn’t that what he did for his exhibition at MAC‘s (Mons, Belgium) in 2011? Or how people in different places on this planet can have the same idea. One of the differences? At MAC’s, visitors were only allowed to take one of the posters home. It meant everybody was really paying attention to the pictures, in order to make the right choice. At the Angola pavilion, people can take as many as they want. On the day I visited the pavilion, a couple of hours after Angola had received the Golden Lion, visitors were throwing themselves on the stacks as vultures, grabbing as many as they could, without really looking at the pictures (which are, it must be said, beautiful). They are by Edson Chagas. You’ll find a short interview with him about his project, Luanda Encyclopedic City, here. More pictures of François’ show at MAC’s here.

Are these the best kept secrets of the Venice Biennale? Mark Manders hides some objects at the Dutch pavilion (and puts a fox in a shop)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Why would he want to keep some of his works hidden behind a plastic curtain at the Dutch pavilion, was the interviewer’s question, in a documentary I saw on Dutch tv. ‘Because they are not finished yet’, was Mark Manders‘ simple answer. You have to love the guy. Yes, he’s Dutch, but he’s living in Belgium and he is represented by a Belgian gallery (Zeno X, Antwerp). Two good reasons to consider him a Belgian artist and to show you a photo gallery of Room with broken sentence, his nice but slightly uneven exhibition at the Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennale. What I discovered later on: Manders has put a second version of his fox (Fox/Mouse/Belt) in a backroom at a shop at the Via Garibaldi, near the Giardini. Didn’t I say so? You just have to love the guy. Want to know where Manders has hidden his fox? Send me a mail (utopiaparkway1@hotmail.com) and I’ll be happy to share this little secret with you.

And what about the other Belgian artists at the Venice Biennale?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Berlinde De Bruyckere, selected by the Flemish minister of Culture, is representing Belgium at the Venice Biennale. But apart from that a couple of Belgian artists have been fortunate enough to have been chosen by curator Massimiliano Gioni for the official exhibition at the Biennale: The Encyclopedic Palace. At the Arsenale you’ll find a selection of really fine works  by Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, a video by Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys and a series of photographs by Norbert Ghisoland (who died in 1939). Rather special is that his pictures have been selected by Cindy Sherman, for a room she curated. She presents them together with a selection from her collection of picture books. Quite an honor. At the Giardini you’ll find a remarkable room too, in which large works by Thierry De Cordier are shown next to two sculptures by Richard Serra. Not bad at all, Belgium.