Sense and Mind for Present Tense

The 52nd Venice Biennale will set out on its 5 month marathon beginning with a spectacular opening on June 10 and end on November 12. The executive director is Robert Storr who is currently the dean of Yale School of Art, the curator of the modern art department at the Philadelphia Art Museum, art historian, and critic. As the first American ever to be nominated as an Artistic Director for the Venice Biennale, Robert Storr has organized large exhibitions such as Robert Ryman, Gerhard Richter, Max Beckmann, Tony Smith and Elizabeth Murray during his time as the Painting and Sculpture department curator of MoMA from 1990 to 2002. With his vast experience in the field of art museums and the wide range of activities between the museum world and academia, the art world is all eyes and ears to what issues the ace in the hole, Robert Storr, will display during the Venice Biennale.

Susan Rothenberg, 2 Yellow Heads, oil on canvas, 177,8×134,6cm, 2006, ⓒSusan Rothenberg

Sigmar Polke, Jugendstil,  mixed media on fabric, 300×480cm, 2005. ⓒSigmar Polke

Yang Fudong, Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part 2, 35mm film, black and white, Duration 46min, 2004, courtesy of the artist

Manon de Boer, Resonating Surfaces, 16 mm film on DVD, colour, sound, duration: 39min. courtesy: Jan Mot, Brussels, 2005, ⓒManon de Boer

Mori Hiroharu, A Camouflaged Question in the Air, single channel video and stereo sound, duration: 09min(total), 2003, ⓒMori Hiroharu

The theme for this 52nd exhibition is ‘Think with the Senses-Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense’. According to the exhibit proposal, Robert Storr has prepared a time to think about the dichotomous consideration from philosophers that came after Plato.  He focused on the interchange between thought and feeling by reconsidering obvious opposites such as the mind versus body, reason versus unreason, thought versus feeling, the intellect versus the senses, etc. Great works of art make the audience think and stimulate their senses. With the inter-relation of thought and feeling in mind, Robert Storr has chosen the harmonic collision between intellect and intuition as the topic of this Biennale.  

96 artists are participating in the special exhibition of new Italian Pavillion at the Tese delle Vergini in the Arsenale.  Artists such as Fred Sanback, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Sophie Calle, Ellsworth Kelly, Bruce Nauman, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Susan Rothenberg, Pierre Huyghe come to one’s attention. Uncertain however, due to the influence of the executive director, 23 of the 96 artists are American and the number of paintings greatly increased compared to the previous Venice Biennales. As a whole, with the exception of the artists from the Middle East, the selection of artists from Western European and U.S. is leaned upon. Artists participating from Asia are Yang Fudong, Chen Zhen, Yang Zhenzhong(China), Yukio Fujimoto, Izumi Kato, Hiroharu Mori, Tabaimo, Tomoko Yoneda(Japan), Nalini Malani(Pakistan) and Manon De Boer, Riyas Komu(India).

As a Korean Artist, Lee Ufan held a solo exhibition ‘Resonance’ as one of the 34 collateral events. Another main event, the Young Italian Art Prize has been awarded to Nico Vascellari. Special solo exhibitions dedicated to Claudio Bravo, Emilio Vedova, Jan Fabre, Joseph Beuys, Joseph Kosuth and so on are prepared. Storr also has chosen to host the National Pavillion of Turkey and an exhibition of contemporary art in Africa, Check List Louanda Pop.  Meanwhile, the total number of national pavilions this year reaches up to 77. With Giardini in the center, many of the national pavilions located throughout Venice are represented by single artists. Herbert Brandl(Austria), Troels Wörsel(Denmark), David Altmejd(Canada), Sophie Calle(France), Isa Genzken(Germany), Ivana Franke(Croatia), Nikos Alexiou(Greece), Andreas Fogarasi(Hungary), Masao Okabe(Japan), Aernout Mik(Netherlands), Monika Sosnowska(Poland), Felix Gonzalez-Torres(U.S.), Hyung koo Lee(Korea) and Tracey Emin(U.K.) are some of them.