Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-17)

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I

n thisyear’sBrazilianpavilionattheVeniceBiennale,

theartistsBárbaraWagnerandBenjamindeBurca

havecreateda 20-minutevideocelebratingswingue-

ira, a wildlypopulardancemovementfromthecoun-

try’snortheast.Triumphantelectronicmusicthumps

insistentlywhileprojectorsshowteamsofmostlyblack,

gender-nonbinarydancersinelaboratechoreographed

routinestheyorganizedthemselves.Peopleinrevealingout-

fitsstarecalmlyintothecameraastheyjumpandlungeina

vividdemonstrationoftheirautonomyandpower.

Inoneperformance,a womanleadsa troupeasthey

bounceacrosswhatappearsto

bea beach.Inanother,a group

salutes in frontof a massive

Brazilianflag.

“This is a very deep and

veryempathicvisionofBrazil,”

says the show’s curator,

GabrielPérez-Barreiro.“Brazil

alwayssuffers fromitsimage

abroad.Whatdopeoplethink

theyknow,andwhatdothey

notknow?”

Brazil is one of dozensof

countries at thisyear’s bien-

nalethathave becometangi-

bly nationalistic,displayinga

culturalprideorpatriotismnot

seenindecades.

TheVeniceBiennalewasfoundedin 1895 asa sortof

World’sFairforart,butit wasn’tuntil 1907 thatBelgiumbuilt

thefirstoftheshow’spermanentnationalpavilions.Setin

theGiardini,a woodedparkonthesoutheasternedgeofthe

city,thepavilionwasa largeartnouveauexhibitionspacein

theroughdimensionsofa bigsuburbanhome.

Soonafter,morecountriesbuiltstructures,including

Britain(whichconvertedanexistingcafeintheGiardiniin

1909),Germany(also1909),France(1912),Russia(1914),and

theU.S.(1930).Hungary’s,erectedin 1909 aswell,is coveredin

brilliantmosaics.Austria’s,builtin1934,wasdesignedbyJosef

Hoffmannandresemblesa light-filledBauhaus-stylefactory.

Each pavilion’s managementis slightly different—

technically,theU.S.pavilionisownedbytheSolomonR.

GuggenheimFoundation,forinstance,butitsprogramming

isdeterminedbytheUnitedStatesInformationAgency,

theU.S.DepartmentofState,andtheFundforArtistsat

InternationalFestivalsandExhibitions. Therearenow

30 permanentpavilionsintheGiardiniandroughlyanaddi-

tional 60 nationalparticipations,whichareeitherinthe

nearbyArsenale,aformer shipbuildingfactory,orintem-

porary locations around the city.

The format, content, and presentationoftheseexhi-

bitions evolved over time, but formostofthebiennale’s

history, each country’s program was intended to project cul-

tural and political relevance to an international audience.

“Contemporarynotionsofnationhoodhavebeenbound

upwiththebiennalesinceitsinception,”saysarthistorian

ClaireBrandon.

ThisideabecameparticularlypronouncedafterWorld

WarII, as the U.S. touted Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning,

and other painters as proof of the artistic independence possi-

bleundera “free”society.“Inthe1950s,theUnitedStateswas

veryinterestedinexportingabstractexpressionismoutside

theU.S.asadistinctly American enterprise,” Brandon says.

“The biennale was one of the platforms where that brand of

abstract expressionism was marketed.”

But in the 1990s, as the

Cold War faded and global-

ismbecame an international

fixation, the six-month-long

eventslowlytransitionedinto

somethingmorecerebraland

artist-focused, turning intoa

showcaseforcutting-edge,often

deeplyexperimentalcontempo-

raryart.Thisartcansometimes

seem silly—in2011,forexam-

ple,theU.S.pavilionfeatured

an installation bythe artists

JenniferAlloraandGuillermo

Calzadilla,inwhichcompeti-

tiveathletestookturnsrunning

ona treadmillthatwasmounted

onanoverturned60-tonBritish

tank.Butit’salsoconsideredoneoftheworld’smostimport-

antforumsfornewandestablishedartists.“Thetrajectory

I’veknownfromthe1970suptothepresentis thattheart-

istcomesbeforethecountry,”saysPaulSchimmel,aninde-

pendentcuratorandformerchiefcuratorofMuseumof

ContemporaryArt(MOCA)LosAngeles.

By 2013 artatthebiennalemighthaveaspiredtobepolit-

ical,buta nation’spoliticshad

nothingtodowiththeartin

thenational pavilions.That

year, France and Germany

hosted each other’sexhibi-

tions,withthelatterputting

ona showoffournon-German

artists who “establish[ed] a

kindof universalvisuallan-

guage,”asthepavilion’scura-

tor,SusanneGaensheimer,said

atthetime.Nationalityofany

kindwasrelegatedtothedust-

bin,a relicofa preglobalized,

unenlightenedworld.

Butwiththerecentascen-

dancyofViktorOrban,Marine

Le Pen, Donald Trump, Jair

Bolsonaro, and their attendant

OPENING SPREAD: COURTESY BÁRBARA WAGNER & BENJAMIN DE BURCA/FUNDAÇÃO BIENAL DE SÃO PAULO

ART Bloomberg Pursuits June 17, 2019

Angelica Mesiti’s Assembly,

inside the Australian pavilion

Aninstallation

byRussians

AlexanderSokurov

andAlexander

Shishkin-Hokusai