Venice Biennale

“Cecilia, how many artists do we have?” inquires Harald Szeemann, director of this summer’s Venice Biennale. “Eighty-eight,” announces the chipper voice of an assistant. But the list of participants in this year’s international exhibition isn’t likely to be clinched until just before the opening on June 10. “There will be some last-minute additions,” says Szeemann, who cut off the number of artists at 104 for his 1999 version of the show. The question of the Venice Biennale’s status in today’s art world is more complicated. What is the role of the original, this Italian mother of all biennials, now that some fifty contemporary-art biennials vie for attention around the globe? “For a while I wouldn’t go to Venice because the international section just wasn’t exciting enough,” Szeemann says. “It became a carousel—one would see the same things again and again.”

The national pavilions were more challenging than the international part of the show.” When he was asked to be in charge of the ’99 Biennale, the curator says, “It was clear that I wanted it to become like a young woman again, and the way to make that happen was to create a really ambitious international section. Only then could Venice return to being considered a model for the other biennials.”

And ambitious it was: Szeemann says that this time around he has encouraged commissioners to take especially strong positions in the pavilions, in response to complaints that his international show overshadowed the national contributions. The national pavilions do promise to be exhilarating—with the US represented by Robert Gober, France by Pierre Huyghe, Germany by Gregor Schneider, Britain by Mark Wallinger, and Canada by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. Those of us who experienced Szeemann’s 1999 extravaganza, with its parade of mammoth installations by, among others, Jason Rhoades, Paul McCarthy, Thomas Hirschhorn, and the late Chen Zhen, encountered a perceptual shift: Normal-size art suddenly appeared almost frail. No doubt the vast and newly utilized rooms of the Arsenale demanded colossal contributions.

I wonder aloud whether this year’s show will be as physically impressive. “In Venice one knows nothing until the very last moment,” Szeemann replies. “But it seems that we are getting even more space this time. There will be a passage opened to the Garden of Virgins, and this means one more huge pavilion, which I visited recently with Richard Serra.” Serra hasn’t been included in the Biennale since 1980 due to the cost of shipping his enormously weighty sculptures, but he’s planning to return this time with a brand new work. Szeemann, while struggling with the financial aspects of the inclusion, says the budgeting “belongs to the battle.”

The most radical difference from the last Biennale, however, will be not the size of works but the range of genres. This year’s biennial is not only an exhibition of visual art. “The space where Shirin Neshat was shown last time will be devoted to theater, dance, and music,” says Szeemann. “I’ve also invited filmmakers such as Atom Egoyan, Chantal Akerman, and David Lynch, whose works will be integrated into the show.” The inclusion of film in the exhibition in a sense holds up a mirror to the cinematic aspects of the work of many artists today. Szeemann points to Le Detroit, 1999–2000, a “fantastic” piece by Canadian artist Stan Douglas, as a particularly exciting example of this hybrid genre.

Titled “Plateau of Mankind,” Szeemann’s show takes three Joseph Beuys installations as its point of departure. Indeed, Beuys’s geophilosophical vision may form a good foundation for anyone trying to chart the terrain of human creativity. Szeemann also mentions, jokingly, Deleuze and Guattari’s Thousand Plateaus as an inspiration, but here their thousand plateaus have become one.

Szeemann calls himself an “old school” curator; he selects artists independently rather than with a curatorial team or advisers. “I go everywhere, ask around to find what’s interesting and lively. I always give credit to whoever has helped me, but I make all the decisions myself. Not immediately, but when the pieces of the mosaic are starting to fall into place.” These pieces will include a new series of paintings by Cy Twombly, paintings by Gerhard Richter, new works by Richard Tuttle, Gary Hill, and Jeff Wall, and contributions by young artists who have had little international exposure. Whereas China had a certain pride of place last time around, it seems that Finland and Central America figure prominently this time. Will they emerge as new centers of creativity? While there is certainly geographical (and generational) scope to the show, in the end it will represent Szeemann’s singular and subjective vision of the world of art—and the world of art can be counted on to respond with views of its own.

Daniel Birnbaum is a contibuting editor of Artforum.

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“Plateau of Mankind” artists (to date):

A1 – 53167

Chantal Akerman

Francis Alÿs

Tiong Ang

Gustavo Artigas

Atelier van Lieshout

Vanessa Beecroft

Joseph Beuys

Richard Billingham

Pierre Bismuth

Emery Blagdon

Botto e Bruno

Tania Bruguera

Roderick Buchanan

Chris Burden

Maurizio Cattelan

Loris Cecchini

Com & Com

Cracking Art Group

Chris Cunningham

Josef Dabernig

Lucinda Devlin

Rineke Dijkstra

Stan Douglas

Atom Egoyan / Julião Sarmento

Helmut Federle

Regina Galindo

Cristina Garcia Rodero

Gérard Garouste

Yervant Gianikian / Angela Ricci Lucchi

Luis González Palma

Paul Graham

Veli Granö

Hai Bo

Federico Herrero

Gary Hill

Laura Horelli

Yishai Jusidman

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

Marin Karmitz

Abbas Kiarostami

Susan Kleinberg

Mattieu Laurette

Marko Lehanka

David Lynch

Mark Manders

Tuomo Manninen

Eva Marisaldi

Viktor Maruschtschenko

Barry McGee / Stephen Powers / James Todd

Marisa Merz

Chantal Michel

Priscilla Monge

Ron Mueck

Marco Neri

Ernesto Neto

Carsten Nicolai

Olaf Nicolai

Manuel Ocampo

Arnold Odermatt

João Onofre

Tatsumo Orimoto

Tanja Ostojic

Manfred Pernice

Paul Pfeiffer

John Pilson

Neo Rauch

Heli Rekula

Gerhard Richter

Gerd Rohling

Alexander Roitburd

Tracey Rose

Mimmo Rotella

Anri Sala

Charles Sandison

Sarenco

Ene-Liis Semper

Richard Serra

Santiago Sierra

Lars Siltberg

Nedko Solakov

Eliezer Sonnenschein

Georgina Starr

Do-Ho Suh

Fiona Tan

Javier Téllez

Alessandra Tesi

Jaime David Tischler

Niele Toroni

Gavin Turk

Richard Tuttle

Cy Twombly

Salla Tykkä

Keith Tyson

Eulalia Valldosera

Minnette Vári

Francesco Vezzoli

Bill Viola

Not Vital

Massimo Vitali

Jeff Wall

Magnus Wallin

Nick Waplington

Franz West

Maaria Wirkkala

Yu Xiao

Zhen Xu

Vladimir Zacharov

Heino Zobernig