Vernissage Week in Venice: Arsenale

The Venice Trip Part 4

The Arsenale portion of the international group exhibition of the Venice Biennale is located in a 13th century munitions factory and fortress, connected by a bridge to the main Giardini location where the pavilions for the main show and 29 countries live. This giant brick warehouse has a big personality: fat columns, crude architectural details, and feels like a barn, whereas the Giardini pavilion is more traditional white cube museum.

Arsenale is a lively environment for bold contemporary art, especially installation or sprawling sculptural projects that need space to breathe. Works were hung from the ceiling, built into alcoves, and segued organically into one another. This exhibit felt like the main pavilion’s younger, hipper sister who wants not only to look at the art, but to party with it. Some of the works felt more like ‘projects’ here, rather than well thought out art exhibits, but I enjoyed the risk-taking and range with a special emphasis on craft materials.

If you want to check out a critical perspective on the work, check out: “The road to the Venice Biennale is paved with good intentions” by Christina Ruiz for The Art Newspaper. (ouch!) I’m still gnawing on this one.

Ernesto Neto “A Sacred Place”

LOVE this Installation by Irina Korina

Riccardo Guarneri, ItalianJeremy Shaw, Canadian

Maha Malluh, Saudi Arabia (detail below)

Rina Benerjee, India

I love this piece and the title is fantastic: “Additions to leaf and nut aroused, curled currency and culture to itch and moan as arrivals of plants from plantation, not just servants or slaves exploded, swelled to levels fantastic but without majestic magic hurt to ripen,” 2017.