The workplace as seen through the eyes of artists at 55a Biennale Arte di Venezia.
The workplace theme isn’t unrelated to the art world, some of the site-specific works seen in Venice during the 55th Biennale broach this subject and open up new universes.
The artists’ workplace involves the onlooker, it relates to space in a creative way, it distorts perception and experience and kindles unusual inspirations and suggestions and ennobles the triviality of a plain piece of furniture by changing it into a sign, that affects other spheres of our sensitivity. Sometimes man is present, in other cases desks chairs and stools occupy the room through their matter quality, “found objects” telling the process of transformation over time; or they change space and become instruments and assemblages to measure the universe.
1, 2 The workspaces in the artworks of Wang Qingsong at “Transfiguration” the theme of Pavilion of the P.R. of China at the 55th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. Curator Wang Chunchen.
3, 4 Mark Manders Studio with Working Table, and Mind Study both by Mark Manders and exhibited at “Room with Broken Sentence”, title of Dutch Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. Curator Lorenzo Benedetti. The artworks dialogue with the architecture of the Rietveld pavilion.
See video-interview with Lorenzo Benedetti
5, 6 Eclipse and Planetarium by Sarah Sze , exhibited at “Triple Point”, title of USA Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. 2013 © Sarah Sze, Courtesy of the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, and Victoria Miro Gallery, London. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging. Triple Point brings together many of the ideas that Sze has developed during her practice. Central to the exhibition is the notion of the “compass” and the desire to locate ourselves in a disorienting world.
7 Butaca by Wifredo Díaz Valdéz exhibited at “Tempo (Tempo) Tempo”, title of Uruguay Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. Curators Carlos Capelán and Veronica Cordeiro. The installation presents a reflection that we deem fundamental in current times: through works that fall apart and collapse, but which always come together again in their totality, this exhibition questions the relationship with breakdown and destruction in the history of humankind.
8 Uri Aran’s installation at Central Pavilion Giardini 55° Biennale Venezia “Il Palazzo Enciclopedico” his chaotically cluttered desks (the primary elements of his sculptural works) initally belie such a stodgy appellation.
