The war is over…

Last week I was in Sarajevo and visited an exhibition opening in gallery Duplex 100m2. The exhibition was great, but I caught this corner in a side room, a painting and poster showing Radenko Milak‘s work, and another wall object. It says: “The war is over! Let’s go to Venice.” Somewhat blurry images, which made my thoughts sharp.

Well, is it? And if yes, what war? As Venice Biennale is indeed celebrating world’s differences and joint life ahead (its slogan being “All the world’s future”), I can’t help thinking about all wars that are currently taking place, world’s past and the future that seems more complicated and blurry as never.

High-quality stars

Thomas Ruff is one of the most representative contemporary German photographers. When studying at Düsseldorf Art Academy, he was strongly influenced by  Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose works I wrote about earlier. What fascinates me particularly about Ruff is the variety in his opus, flexibility in choice of topics and media as well as versatility in portraying those topic. In that way, you find in his works everything from Portraits, very plastic depiction of houses (Häuser), astronomic and scientific images of stars (Sterne, Zycles, cassini, ma.r.s), where Ruff collaborated even with Nasa and was inspired by electromagnetism, to Nudes. When it comes to media, Ruff experimented with pixelisation (jpeg) but also with collages and posters, juxtaposing two images to create one portrait, stereo photography as well as night photography using the spy equipment.

Thomas Ruff could be seen earlier in Venice Biennale, Documenta in Kassel and MoMa, just to name few. Currently his exhibition is shown in Haus der Kunst in Munich and here I am showing only a little preview of it.

Thomas Ruff, Sterne (1989)

 

 Exhibition can be seen until May 20, 2012.

Contemporary art at home & things to keep in mind

No, I am not lazy but somehow I cannot not to share these posts with you. I find this one very inspiring and also informative.

I like the tips on how to buy art and which steps you need to undergo (I really don’t like people buying art just to have some ‘piece of art’ at home… in my view, it doesn’t really matter how expensive/cheap it is, as long as it makes you feel happy/balanced/at peace … every time you see it.) Then it gives you some practical tips on e.g. framing, arranging and organizing your furniture around it but also, links to stores as well as cool pics to get ideas from.

(I might also add here Lumas, which you find both online and around the world. Some may find it too commercial, I find it rather good if you don’t want to spend fortune on good photographs. Btw with this one I fell in love few years ago and it makes me indeed feel good and calm every time I look at it.)

Julia Christe, 'White Sands #1', source: lumas.com

Enjoy!

P.S. I have just realized that I have swerved with my topic in the end in another direction. My apologies for that – but let it be this way tonight; me being spontaneous.

La Biennale di Venezia (Part II)

 After we finally managed to leave Central Pavilion, we moved to pavilions of certain countries. Here are some favourites:

Andreas Eriksson, "Windows, Trees and Inbetween", Nordic Countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland

The place is showing the casts of birds, which were killed when crushed into the mirror outside of artists place. The paintings on the wall resemble the views from the windows and white panels on the surface are model of the artist’s apartment. Therefore, this place represents both the exhibition of the art as well as the place where it has been made.

Francisco Bassim, "Gran enterior", Venezuela

 

Yoshi, “Solaris”, Venezuela

 

Angel Vergara, "Feuilleton", Belgium

 

As you know, every great artist has its flaws and our flaw was 🙂 – that we did not take care about our camera battery and it got empty (and the pic below is our last one; it is miracle that this one could be made as well). On the positive side, we were relieved, because there was so much others to be seen and immersed. Our other favourite ones were Israel, Korea… For more pictures, I strongly recommend to see this blog, which shows even more works and more details on them.

Tabaimo, "teleco-soup", Japan

Last but not least, another event was taking place in Venice on this day – 68th Venice Film Festival. Although we were aware about it, it could be hardly noticed in the city that Hollywood celebrities are just on the next Lido. However, an accidental bump into Owen Wilson reminded us on that…

La Biennale di Venezia (part I)

Yes, Biennale in Venice was a wish of mine for some time already and this time everything spontaneously worked out. (With a huge help of my sister, who not only offered me a pit stop at her place in Milan, but also her company to pilger Venice.) The idea was: I come to Milan, we fool around for a day and relax, and next day get somehow to Venice… excellent plan, what else to say 😉

I would say that this beautiful trip to Biennale started for us long before Venice – in Frecciabianca line of Italian railways, which was very comfortable and relaxing. This was very important, since Venice, being always hectic as it is as well as hot, steamy, full of tourists and tourist traps, is not really my favourite city. That is why this time immediately from the train station looked – just amazing! This time it happened that we were there on the day of Regata Storica di Venezia, so on our way to Biennale, we could here and there catch a sight of gondolas, balotinas and mascaretas and cheer or admire the participants.

But now – back to the main story. Venice Biennale is happening now for its 54th time now and more about its history may be found elsewhere. Based on what I have heard earlier about it, you would need 4-5 days to see all exhibition places in details and to truly enjoy the whole atmosphere and now I could agree on that. Biennale takes place, as usual, in Giardini (with its ‘Padiglione Centrale’, Central Pavillion) and Arsenale, but you can also find numerous events and other Biennale locations outside these main ones, as we also did on our way to Giardini and Arsenale. In fact, it took as quite some time to reach the main locations, as the other ones were equally interesting. This time we had to prioritize and we went for Giardini + some sights in the city + a glimpse of Italian pavilion in Artiglierie. (Arsenal was unfortunately left out, although we were very much interested to see pavilions of UAE, India, James Turell aaaaa etc.)

 

Biennale in Giardini, Josh Smith drawings at the entry

 

For you to get a glimpse of Biennale through our eyes, here are some impressions:

Ho Tzu Nyen, "The Cloud of Unknowing", SG

 After a movie about 8 persons and cloud topic present in those scenes and reflecting on some classical pieces, the cloud is also present in the rooms as well and coming out from the wall. ?!

 

Corban Walker, "Please Adjust", IR

 

‘Padiglione Centrale’ in Giardini:

Maurizio Cattelan, "Others"

This work was a surprise for organisers, as it was previously created in 1997 with 200 stuffed pigeons and fake pigeon shit on the floor. This year, there are even more pigeons, symbolizing (?) more visitors maybe, which are spread through the halls.

 

Karl Holmqvist

Poetry on the wall

 

Amelia Pica, "Venn Diagram"

For all of you, mathematics fans, this may come familiar. The artist indeed uses this model and reflects it on dictatorship in Argentina, when this was forbidden to be tought in school, but also on cultural intimacy and blurring of facts and fiction.

 

Cindy Sherman, "Untitled"

 

Gabriel Kuri

 

(to be continued)