Picturephoto from www.designboom.com
The Korean Pavilion was again one of my favorites.  While the overall layout was minimalist, you are surrounded by mirrors and reflection of the sun coming through holographic windows, which surrounds you with color.  From the beginning of taking your shoes off at the door to walking into the mirror and colorful light filled room, this exhibit is a experience only being there can provide.  This sensory experience is further heightened by the anechoic chamber, a blackout room where you hear no sounds except your own breathing. The idea of going from colors, light and sound to complete darkness creates awareness of the senses in a way that I never thought possible.  When leaving you become aware of every move you make and appreciate all of the sights and sounds you experience every day.

"'to breathe: bottari' celebrates the dual existence of sound and soundlessness and the reality of darkness as an extension of light and light as a part of darkness. questioning the hierarchy of visual knowledge over the ‘unseen’, in the breathing bottari opposite poles are treated as part of the same whole. the artist wishes to invite the audiences to contemplate a special moment and sensation of their body experiencing an awareness of the conditions of human knowledge and ignorance and its psychology in space and time."
http://www.designboom.com/art/kimsooja-korean-pavilion-at-the-venice-art-biennale/
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http://www.designboom.com/art/kimsooja-korean-pavilion-at-the-venice-art-biennale/
 
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The entirety of the USA Pavilion is a lot to take in.  Every small detail has been thought of, from creating paper rocks, to a small pile of sand on the ground.  While this piece is interesting to look at, there is so much going on that for me it was sensory overload.  Visiting this piece helped me realize that I enjoy clean lines and uncluttered spaces.  While every detail has been meticulously thought out, I think that the exhibit as a whole speaks to America's need for consumption of goods, and the abundance of things that American's accumulate. To me this piece was full of "stuff;" stuff that was well placed, but had no real meaning other than to be placed where it was in the composition to create the whole.

 
Doing research previously to the Biennale had me very excited to see this exhibit.  In the Austrian Pavilion, Mathias Poledna's short film Imitation of Life on display, along with several of her sketches(of 5000!).  This one stuck out to me as a great short film, knowing all of the work that goes into each and every frame.  The figures and background are very well rendered, and it is like something out of a traditional Disney movie(and has Disney footprints all over it) which is why I like it so much.  The orchestra and music are just as much a part of the short film as the paintings and sketches, and its the total package that makes it a must see at the Biennale.
"Among the most pronounced features of the film is the extreme contrast between the conciseness of its scene, and the extraordinary amount of labor that went into its creation: more than 5,000 handmade sketches, layouts, animation drawings, watercolored backgrounds and ink-rendered animation cells, produced in close cooperation with acclaimed artists from the animation departments of film studios in Los Angeles, most notably Disney. The soundtrack, another key element of the production, was recorded with a full orchestra in the style of the period at the Warner Brothers scoring stage in Los Angeles."
-Contemporary Art Daily
 
Of all of the exhibits at the Biennale, this one puzzled me the most.  I can not grasp the concept of it, or even begin to understand what is happening. The photos I have of the videos are a pretty decent representation of the work, because there is no connection to anything in what they are saying. They speak very fast in strange high pitch sounds.  I sat watching these videos for 20 minutes, and the only thing I could understand(because they blatantly said it in one scene I just so happened to watch) was that they were aliens studying the party culture of America in the past, so they are clearly aliens from the future.  The whole of the video just made no sense.  The presentation at the Biennale for the video, where you watched the films, semi reflected the scenes in the films, for example, one had sleeping bags in the floor, another was just steps to sit on. Overall I was not impressed with this piece, because I think it is too abstract for me, and just made no sense whatsoever.  Even further researching the artist, all of his work is like this, and the format, sounds, and imagery don't appeal to me in the slightest.
 
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Pep talk before the Biennale
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The cafeteria at the Giardini
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Oscar, Emily and I took on the biennale together, and had. Many great conversations about the works.
 
"Each bomb has its own story. Which is essentially one of two kinds. Bombs may explode and thus fulfill their role as objects made specifically for the purpose of destruction, and then enter history books and the personal histories that families maintain.  Zsold Astalos in his turn looks into the other possible story in an installation he has prepared for the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice: The story of the malfunctioning device(unexploded bomb) as it leaves behind its original function, assumes a life of its own, starts writing a narrative, becomes a director of our lives through the  contingency it introduces."
This installation had the biggest impact on me during my time at the Biennale.  The title Fired but Unexploded says alot about the exhibit itself, but its the whole sensory experience of the installation that really makes you think.  Having photos of bombs on television screens, with earphones of sounds where the bombs landed without exploding, really makes you think about the destruction bombs create, and the lives that they destroy.  In the center of the pavillion is a video with no sound of all of the sounds you hear from the bombs, which adds another element to the whole The one that had the most impact on me was the very last television set.  The sound you hear when looking at the bomb is of a baby's room, playing rock-a-bye baby.  It really makes you think, and I think the overall message of this installation is understood.  The final thing you see when walking out the exit are photos of all of the bombs, with when and where they would have landed.  Overall this exhibit made me think, and I think that this work was one of my favorites at the Biennale.  I could write on and on about this work, but hearing and seeing this exhibit in person puts into perspective, and makes you think, which is why I think this work is effective. 
 
This huge mural was one of the first rooms we entered walking around the central pavillion at the Giardini.

This painting has many different interesting elements, including The size of the canvas, use of vibrant colors, and the variety of subject matter within one painting. The stylized, colorful world created in this painting could have you staring for days. Every subject in this piece has a reason for being there, and it's our job as the viewer to figure that out. the first scene to the left appears to be skeletons at a party, with the solar system in the back. The center piece of this work is a ballerina next to a horse with a black nude male pulling back the curtain for the last scene, a beach scene. One interesting fact is that this used to be 3 different canvases which are now sewn together.   One interesting element of the composition are the ants that are painted around the entire work as a frame, making it one cohesive piece, as if seeing it out of a window.
 

The Venice biennale was an amazing experience as an artist. There are so many talented artists today, and to be able to see such a huge collection of works from around the world was amazing. There were a few that stuck out to me, for different reasons, and every piece of artwork at the biennale was there because it has made some impact on the field of art. The next posts will be analysis of some of my favorite ones, and some that really just puzzled me.

 
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Wassily Kandinsky
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Man Ray
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Andy Warhol
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Joan Miro
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Piet Mondrian
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Jackson Pollock
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Salvador Dali
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Picasso
The Peggy Guggenheim had a prolific impact on me.  The museum has works from artists such as Andy Warhol, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock and Picasso to name a few.  Seeing so many big names from the Cubist, Surrealist, and Abstract Expressionist movement is very inspiring.
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One of the main things that I paid attention to while at the Guggenheim, because we could get so close to the art, were the pencil and brush marks in the artwork.  The main one that really got me excited, was Picasso's Lacerba.  While it is a mixed media piece, being able to be so close to the art I was able to see every pencil mark he made on the paper.  Seeing artwork up close like that, especially artwork of someone so well known, brings the artwork off of the pedestal, and makes the work more relate-able as an artist.  

 

Some photos from Venice.