MADE IN MIND #15

ISSUE #15 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Francesca Pirillo

DIRETTORE RESPONSABILE Dario Carotenuto

MANAGING EDITOR Marika Marchese

PROJECT COORDINATOR Heidi Mancino

CONTAINERS SECTION Forme Uniche

PROOFREADER Sharon McMahon

CONTRIBUTORS Lisa Andreani Guy Marshall-Brown Gianluca Gramolazzi Federica Torgano Flavia Rovetta Maria Sveva Scaglione Ginevra Ludovici Irene Angenica Marco Roberto Marelli

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ISSN | 2532-1773

Registrazione della testata al Tribunale di Cosenza N°2/17 del 10.02.2017

COVER #14 Laurence Philomene

SOCIALS madeInmindmagazine made_in_mind_magazine Madeinmind_mag All rights reserved. This production and its entire contents are protected by copyright. No use or reprint (including disclosure) may be made of all or any part of this publication in any manner or form whatsoever without the prior written consent of Made in Mind magazine. Views expressed in Made in Mind magazine do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors or parent company.

CONTENTS

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ESTABLISHED

TANIA BRUGUERA

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| Ginevra Ludovici

EMERGENTS

LAURENCE PHILOMENE

| Gianluca Gramolazzi

48 CONTAINERS

64 EMERGENTS ANTHONY J. MEADOWS

| Flavia Rovetta

80 FOCUS HOW TO LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES An alternative guide of 58th Venice Biennale Irene Angenica

A COLORED SKY, MILAN, THE STARS. Marco Roberto Marelli

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Laurence Philomene’s work deals with gender and identity issues as seen through a queer/trans lens. Candids and pastel colors fill the images disclosing a strong attention to otherness: the pictures are made by a close conversation with the models. In doing so the purpose of the artist is to create awareness in public and to discover a rising community of non-binary people, who try to make you think about stereotypes and categorizing the way of thinking.

Containers is a new section, curated by Forme Uniche, that deals with cultural “containers”: physical and virtual spaces, containers that welcome innovative projects, and that are told through the personalities that made them possible. We inaugurate the section with an interview of Giulia Restifo, President of THAT’S CONTEMPORARY non-profit organization.

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Tania Bruguera lives and works between New York and Havana.

Bruguera’s work deals with global concerns such as power, immigration, censorship, repression, analyzing the effects that they have on individuals and the most vulnerable communities.

Anthony J. Meadows is an American born artist. His artistic practice focuses on the interaction between two divergent forces that aim to represent the endless cycle of Life and Death. Opposed entities tend to destroy each other, to transform themselves into something unexpected, while creating Art.

80 The ambivalence and contradictions of the 58th Venice Biennale emerges from its title: May you Live in Interesting Times. Widespread in the Anglo-Saxon world, it derives from a distortion of a traditional Chinese curse first used by August Chamberlain towards the end of the nineteenth century. “Interesting times” are times of war, political unrest, challenge and threat. President Baratta suggests that we have to read it in a broader way than the motto implies. He challenges us to interpret this saying as a key to understanding our times; times when conformism and fear produce an over simplified model. The fight against generalization, however, sounds paradoxical and contradictory: how can a curator in an international exhibition not create a cross-section of our ambigous reality?

Hobbes in my room with Vashti Non-Binary portrait series Photography Courtesy the artist 2018

LAURENCE PHILOMENE _________ Gianluca Gramolazzi

In Montreal, Canada, lives Laurence Philomene (1993), a non-binary photographer, director and curator. Laurence’s work deals with gender and identity issues as seen through a queer/trans lens. The artist studied Commercial Photography at Dawson College in Montreal and then worked for international clients including: Vice, Broadly, Refinery29, VSCO, Converse, Netflix and Teen Vogue. Candids and pastel colors fill the images disclosing a strong attention to otherness: the pictures are made by a close conversation with the models. In doing so the purpose of the artist is to create awareness in public and to discover a rising community of non-binary people, who try to make you think about stereotypes and categorizing the way of thinking. Laurence showed work in the solo show Laurence Philomene at La maison du Québec à St-Malo, St-Malo, France in 2019; Me vs Others at The Letter Bet, Montreal, Canada in 2018; and no girls / no boys / no nothin’ at Nosna Gallery, Cracow, Poland in 2018. The artist also participated at different festivals and group exhibitions including the Queeruption Festival, Budapest, in 2019; Currents curated by Forge Art Mag at Mount Analogue, Seattle, USA in 2019; Chromatic Festival at Usine C, Montreal, Canada, in 2019

What was your first shot? What is the main difference between that and your last picture?

I got my first camera when I was five years old - it was a plastic Rugrats 35mm point and shoot. The first pictures I took with it were documenting my family, and the environment around me. I think in a way, that is still exactly what I am doing today: purposely documenting my life and the people I love. The main difference is that as a child, I didn’t understand photography as art, I just saw it as a means to document and to save memories.

Right now I’m really focusing on the historical + artistic importance of documenting my life as a queer and trans working class artist in the 21st Century.

Looking at your works, I found a large connection with fashion and pop culture, but also music and visual art.

What are your cultural references?

My biggest influence has been the internet - starting with Flickr when I was first posting my work online in 2007-2009, then Tumblr from 2010 to 2014, and now Instagram. The constant flow of images on our screens.

I like to look at how social media is shaping our lives. I get a lot of inspiration from my contemporaries, young photographers who found their start on the internet.

Some of my favourites are Hobbes Ginsberg, Maisie Cousins, Erica Segovia, Olivia Bee, Vivian Fu. I also like to look at queer photography in history; Mapplethorpe, Bettina Rheim’s book Modern Lovers which inspired me greatly in college, Wolfgang Tillmans, to name a few. My favorite body of work as of recently is Lauren Greenfield’s massive book Generation Wealth - I hope to do what she’s done looking at consumerism culture one day with gender in its various forms.

In your pictures, there are often natural elements combined with curated settings. Is this relationship utilized in a conceptual way? How do you conceive images?

I like to curate the setting in which my images happen but the final photograph itself is usually a candid moment. The way I conceive images is by curating these moments in my life which I then photograph - for example I’ll bring someone to a specific location and decide on an outfit and accessories for them to wear etc., but from there, I just kind of let the moment inspire me. I’ll have conversations with my models and it’s like we’re just hanging out and I’m photographing what happens. Because I shoot with a digital camera, I can

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take hundreds of images in one setting, and then sit with them at my computer and select just the right moment after the fact.

The body is still the main political tool and, in this context, it becomes a battlefield too. Is your political aim to show yourself in the work? How do you select the subject of your pictures?

I felt too scared to show myself in my work for a long time, which was how my project Me vs Others where I take pictures of other people dressed as me came about. These days though, I am heavily focused on self-portraiture, documenting my own transition with testosterone through daily self portraits in a project titled puberty. There is something really vulnerable about the act of letting yourself be photographed, it’s been an interesting exercise to do that to myself on a daily basis and be honest with it.

Regardless of if I’m directly in the images or not though, my work is always autobiographical. I photograph people in my community, my close friends, people I love. My aim as a transgender photographer is to document my own community, and to show the beauty that I see in them. I think in this day and age just the act of existing and sharing our stories as transgender people is a political act in itself.

Self portrait with orange lichen Huldufólk series Photography Courtesy the artist Iceland, 2019

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Self portrait on sulfur rock Huldufรณlk series Photography Courtesy the artist Iceland, 2019 MADE IN MIND | 9

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Self portrait at abandoned geothermal pool Huldufรณlk series Photography Courtesy the artist Iceland, 2019

Self portrait with seaweed Huldufรณlk series Photography Courtesy the artist Iceland, 2019

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Slowly, medical science came into our lives and tried to submit the body to control. How do you relate to medication? Do you think it is a sort of normalization and standardization of us?

I think this is a really interesting question, especially in the context of trans bodies. Trans lives are often dictated and constructed by medical professionals, yet at the same time we have a really hard time accessing healthcare. Doctors get to decide if we are “trans enough” or worthy of receiving healthcare. I want to shift that paradigm and showcase trans individuals in control of their own lives.

I also have suffered from a chronic autoimmune illness since I was four years old, so in a lot of ways my life has depended on medication and medical professionals for a long time. There were periods of my life where the hospital was my second home. In that sense I’m very grateful to medication, and I feel very comfortable around it.

We have to be careful about how we think of “health” and relate it to “normal” though - and accept the different ways that humans exist and survive without trying to control or regulate it.

The transgender community lived on the edge: straight society tried to remove what’s different. Thanks to the fight of thousands of activists against heteronormativity, from the edge trans nonbinary subjectivity came to light. Do you think your work could destroy stereotypes and be helpful to who is still in the darkness?

Yes, absolutely. Every day I get messages from people telling me that my work has helped them understand/accept their own gender identity, feel closer to a loved one who is transgender/ non-binary, or just made them think about gender as something that’s fluid.

At the end of the day, this is really why I do the work I do it’s education through art. I will keep doing this work as long as it’s helpful to others. I really believe in art as a means of communicating new ideas like this.

Self portrait in corset Non-Binary Portraits series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2018

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Self portrait in my studio Puberty series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, January 2019

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Self portrait in leather pants Puberty series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2019

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Self portrait prepping my testosterone with Vashti on my shoulders Puberty series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2019

Self portrait in a prince(ss) dress on Billy’s bed Puberty series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, March 2019

Self portrait with my roommate after Lunar New Year / sitting with solitude Puberty series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, February 2019

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Self portrait on couch / paint me like one of your pre-raphaelite boy-girls Puberty series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, February 2019

Self portrait on couch Puberty series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, January 2019

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Wolfie as me Me vs Others series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2015

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Esmee as me Me vs Others series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2018

Steph as me with tomato Me vs Others series Photography Courtesy the artist London, 2017

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Grae as me at the rose garden Me vs Others series Photography Courtesy the artist Vancouver, 2017

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Grae as me at the rose garden (detail) Me vs Others series Photography Courtesy the artist Vancouver, 2017

Self portrait with gatorade bottle Me vs Others series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2016

Grae as me looking in mirror Me vs Others series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2016

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Portrait of Nat (no girls / no boys / no nothin’) Non-binary portraits series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2016

Portrait of Lux Non-binary portraits series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2017

Portrait of Joanna Non-binary portraits series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2017

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Self portrait with budgie Early work series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2012

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Bronwyn and Esmee Friendship series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal, 2016

Anna and Fatine Friendship series Photography Courtesy the artist Montreal

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Borders kill

Should we abolish borders?

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via Ercolani, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

CONVERSATION WITH TANIA BRUGUERA

ATLAS OF TRANSITIONS BIENNAL

_________ Ginevra Ludovici

The last edition of Atlas of Transitions Biennal - HOME, the international arts festival organized by Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione in Bologna, returned from 1st to 10th March 2019 with a full schedule of events. Questioning the theme of migration through the wide spectrum of the notion of “home”, the festival, curated by Piersandra Di Matteo, included the participation of Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera that presented two important projects: Referendum, a ten days urban performance that activated a referendum campaign addressed to the citizens of Bologna, and School of Integration, a temporary educational institution in which, each day, lectures were dedicated to the culture of a different country.

Tania Bruguera (Havana, 1968) lives and works between New York and Havana. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions at various prestigious institutions, including Documenta 11, the 53rd Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art and the Bronx Museum of the Arts and, most recently, the Tate Modern in London. Bruguera’s works deals with global concerns such as power, immigration, censorship and repression, analyzing the effects that they have on individuals and the most vulnerable communities.

In this edition of Atlas of Transitions Biennal you participated with two special projects: Referendum and School of Integration.

In Referendum, the citizens of Bologna were invited to reply to the question: “Borders kill. Should we abolish borders?. ”It is clearly a warm theme in the actual Italian political context. What was the decision-making process in the formulation of this specific question?

In Referendum the idea is to use the same platform that politicians use but without the political pressure, because sometimes when people are voting, they do not really choose their ideal candidates. In this case, people are asked to vote for themselves, without legal consequences, since they are not discussing a new law, they are just invited to be honest with themselves. We have been surprised in the other places in which the performance took place to observe that the differences in terms of number of votes were not so distant. Like for example in New York, where we expected the city to be open and welcoming towards immigrants, but the referendum campaign showed very close results, mirroring the feelings of the collectivity.

For the creation of this event, I decided to appropriate some strategies and resources employed in politics, focusing on the specific context of the city of Bologna.

The question I always try to answer, in such cases, is: “How is it going fit in the place?”. I believe it is hard to bring something generic and impose it to people who are maybe in another political discussion.

To choose the right question to propose to the city of Bologna, Piersandra Di Matteo, the festival curator, organized discussion groups through a public call, to which numerous participating actors in the urban context responded, such as groups of activists, associations, realities that work in the field of hospitality for refugees, migrants and interested citizens.

There were three extremely participated, rich and lively city assemblies, in which an attempt was made to formulate an inclusive question, open to all, but at the same time positioned. The statement “borders kill” is a clear stance, which however leaves the various subjects free to place themselves individually with respect to a question that speaks not only of geopolitical, but also of existential and emotional boundaries. The initial question

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Outlaw.

Aliens.

Workers with a residence permit.

Illegals.

Defectors.

Uninvited guests.

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Criminals.

Non-community.

Terrorists.

Thieves.

Foreigners.

Invaders.

Unknown.

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via dell’Abbadia, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

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was “should we abolish our borders?”; then it was decided in the assemblies to eliminate that “our”, which already implied a “them” and, therefore, a separative attitude. On the other hand, we wanted to save the “we” precisely to indicate that we are subjectively and collectively summoned to answer this question.

As you were mentioning above, this project, before being presented in Bologna, was also carried out in other cities, including San Francisco, New York and Toronto. What does it mean to reenact the same performance in different times and scenarios? Which kind of themes emerge in this operation?

In terms of performance, I am a great defender of the importance of updating works, because political, emotional and social contexts change over time. It is very difficult to update something that happened, for example, in the seventies. Some issues, which could then shake public opinion, have now become normal. Therefore it is important, in my work, to try to update the pieces with new sensibilities; however I realized that when we talk about immigration the debate is always at the same point. Unfortunately, after 13-18 years, we can still ask ourselves the same questions because the situation has not changed. This aspect is what is shown in this

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project, you can propose it again over time and get the same kind of reaction.

I find your position on the reenactment of a performance very interesting, especially because it is a recurring theme in your work. I am thinking about #YoTambienExijo, for example, which consisted in the reenactment of Tatlin’s Whisper #6, a work originally shown in 2009 within the context of Havana Biennale.

In this case also the performance changed a lot in each of the cities where it was presented (1). For me it was no longer interesting to present Tatlin’s Whisper #6 – a work in which each participant was given the opportunity to take the microphone in his hand and talk freely for one minute - inside an institution because reality had become more intense than the work itself. I think it is important to make art that is more intense than reality, as reality inevitably changes and the work gradually loses strength, risking to become only a bad copy of it. In this sense, #YoTambienExijo is for me an update of Tatlin’s Whisper #6.

These works can be seen as articulations of the notion of Arte Útil (Useful Art), which envisages the use of art as a tool or device for the activation of

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via dell’Abbadia, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph Michele Lapini

It is our duty to ensure that the rights of migrants are the next triumph in the search for human dignity.

1. Tatlin’s Whisper #6 is a participatory performance - presented for the first time at the 2009 Havana Biennial - in which Cuban citizens were invited to take the stage to express their opinion about the local political context. The artist attempted to reenact the same performance in December 2014 under the name of #YoTambienExijo, trying to update it with respect to the political climate of the country in that particular period.

The place of the performance should have been Plaza de la Revolución, the iconic site of the Cuban capital, but the artist was detained by state authorities before the event took place. As a form of protest, several cities hosted #YoTambienExijo, including New York, London, Miami and Los Angeles.

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We identify with the victory of the abolition of slavery

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Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via dell’Abbadia, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

with feminism and the promotion of women’s rights.

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale, Via dell’Abbadia, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

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We have been called in many ways

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Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via Irnerio, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

Fear creates borders.

Borders create hate.

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via Irnerio, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

Hatred only serves appressors.

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Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via Irnerio, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

sustainable models aimed at social change. Where did your approach come from?

As an artist, I am very interested in the function of art.

I believe that many of the questions concerning art have already been answered in various movements of the past, while, at the present time, for me the fundamental questions are: what is art for? what is its function? why do we need it? By this I do not mean that we do not need it, on the contrary, I think it is important to understand the reasons why we make art.

Art Ăštil, deviating profoundly from a purely neoliberal approach, does not intend to find solutions to certain problems. Its purpose is to find possible ways to function within society.

The idea was born, first of all, from my personal experience: I grew up in a historical moment in which people still firmly believed in the Cuban Revolution, even if it was a utopia. There was a climate of extreme trust and hope in the future, when perhaps there were not even the conditions for such enthusiasm. This idea also derives from the discomfort I felt when I started working and exhibiting in the West: I experienced a moment of crisis because my work was not commercial, I felt a strong contradiction inside myself because I perceived that the function of art was assigned in Dignity has no nationality

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via Irnerio, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

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a completely conventional and predetermined way, while my research dealt with social and political issues. The current situation is very different from that of twenty years ago, when we lived in the welfare bubble. Now, the context has become so dramatic that it has triggered a series of attitudes towards a political art.

I thought I had invented the concept of Arte Ăštil, but it is not true. I have discovered over the years that an Argentine intellectual, Eduardo Costa, has written a manifesto on useful art in 1969 and that even the Italian artist Pino Poggi has created one in 1965.

Recently we found mention of it in a text by the Mexican architect Juan O’Gorman, which dates back to 1933. The fact that several individuals discussed it over time means that it is a recurring problem that is still unresolved: this gives even more strength and relevance to this concept. Regarding Pino Poggi, I find myself very much in line with his very lucid theoretical formulations but I noticed that, in terms of practice, his work was very different from his writings. However, I do not find this aspect strange at all because the language of art develops slower than ideas. It also happened to me in the case of the School of Integration; I started to think about this project in 2005, but I decided not to start it at that time because I was feeling that it was not the right time for it.

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Regarding the School of Integration: in this case you proposed the institution of a temporary school based on the models of schools of integration for newly arrived migrants, but changing its perspectives, since the lectures were conducted by members of communities of foreigners living in Bologna. Your artistic practice has dealt previously with the creation of new institutions aimed not at representing, but presenting concrete alternatives to the preexisting institutions (e.g. CĂĄtedra Arte de Conducta). Here, the new institutions lasted for the very specific temporality of ten days. How do you think or wish that this artistic project will impact on the urban reality of the city?

Integration schools, commonly and formally understood, have more to do with cultural assimilation than with actual integration. Art has a limitation based on how much it is really possible to do at an institutional level. Instead of getting angry with the institutions, my reaction is to build new options through a kind of constructive criticism, in the hope that those in charge will reflect and try to incorporate the work into their own practice, or simply trigger a discussion. The work lasts only ten days because art can work as an example. A possible positive consequence of this project would be to further strengthen the links between the different realities active in the city context.

Borders kill. Should we abolish borders?

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale Via Ercolani, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini

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Final results

Referendum Urban Performance Atlas of Transitions Biennale, Bologna, 2019 Courtesy CHEAP street poster art Site-specific installation Photograph by Michele Lapini MADE IN MIND | 43

It has been a full year: the Turbine Hall project at Tate Modern has ended at the end of February, and you have just participated in the Atlas of Transitions Biennal. What will be on your agenda in the imminent future?

We will present the School of Integration again this summer at the Manchester International Festival, after this premiere in Bologna. In the meantime, I am working against Decree 349; it’s a big battle.

I want to clarify that we do not want to boycott the Havana Biennal, we want people to be in solidarity, although I believe it will be difficult, since we have

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already tried to contact some artists who have responded that this is not their problem. Instead, it is their problem, it is everyone’s problem, because the world is now interconnected. We have just learned that Uganda has created a similar decree to control artists. I believe, unfortunately, that this phenomenon will expand if people do not position themselves against injustice.

Furthermore, I am working on another project which I hope will go into effect and which consists in proposing an undocumented immigrant as a candidate for the United States presidency.

School of Integration Temporary school Atlas of Transitions Biennale, Bologna, 2019 Credits Enrico De Stavola

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School of Integration Temporary school Atlas of Transitions Biennale, Bologna, 2019 Credits Enrico De Stavola

School of Integration Temporary school Atlas of Transitions Biennale, Bologna, 2019 Credits Enrico De Stavola

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A COLORED SKY, MILAN, THE STARS.

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INTERVIEW WITH GIULIA RESTIFO, PRESIDENT OF THAT’S CONTEMPORARY NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

Marco Roberto Marelli

CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE

A colorful sky covers a gray Milan; it’s the first image that appears going to discovery THAT’S CONTEMPORARY. An interactive map, Giulia reminds me that the map is the winner of the European Design Award information sector, and tells about the artistic universe that explodes with a thousand lights and colors every evening.

Giving a precise definition of the project founded by Francesca Baglietto and Giulia Restifo in October 2011 is a complex matter. A first indication, which contains and summarizes their thinking, can be found in the “About” section of the site: “THAT’S CONTEMPORARY develops projects halfway between artistic practice and a creative use of technologies and communication mechanisms”.

A single sentence is not sufficient; the only way to understand such a complex reality is to see up close, step by step, the most important events that have characterized seven years of art conceived as work for the society.

Giulia leads us to the discovery, starting from the motivations that led to the birth of her project. was born from a study of the reality of the Milanese art spaces and immediately embraced a wide audience, which goes beyond just the insiders. We have found that the variety and the vastness of the cultural offerings in the city was not matched by adequate and extensive communication aimed at all fans.

THAT’S CONTEMPORARY

Hence the idea of an interactive map?

Like every project, even the most democratic, THAT’S offers its own point of view. Our map highlights a selection of cultural proposals that are not initially divided by type of space (institutions, galleries, non-profit, etc.) or by type of event (exhibition, talk, screening) but only choices based on the value of the contents. Then there is the section “Place” on the site where you can identify, this time by categories, the various realities present in the urban area of the

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city of Milan.

From the homepage of the site you can also select the map by event types and opening dates (today, soon, current).

Our will is to make the contemporary art scene easily identifiable in the most possible democratic way, without using criteria of distinction based on mediatic power or on the economic strength of the spaces.

Let’s go in order; THAT’S was founded in 2011 and during the following year it activated people and territory through two profound and original events.

After the foundation of an association with cultural aims, the identification of the spaces and the creation of the platform, the first phase was guided by the need to make our work known and communicate in a different and creative way. We have combined the artistic proposals that came from the outside with our desire to create bonds. We are a network and the first project That’s meet was born from

CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE THAT’S CONTEMPORARY

Milan, 2012

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Partiture Visive Performing Dinner Dinner, guided tour and live performances by Andrea Bianconi, David Reimondo and Aldo Spinelli Courtesy Galleria Bianconi and THAT’S CONTEMPORARY Galleria Bianconi Milan, 2017

the desire to connect; a project that involved prominent realities and personalities of the sector such as E IL TOPO, Ambra Pittoni and Traslochi Emotivi, realized in the historical Milanese space of Ca ‘Laghetto with the collaboration of Careof DOCVA Viafarini and the support of START Milano.

gestures, asked individual people gathered in a group to imitate the sound of some animals in order to create an encyclopedia of sounds.

The seat of the event is a deeply symbolic place, with a fascinating history. It was the home of the marble workers of the Duomo, where the canal that connected the city with the marble quarries passed through. To us, that place seemed the best to start building the That’s project, a cultural building in connection with the city and the world.

That’s meet was a highly symbolic event, that well represented our willingness to meet and dialogue with people. It was the beginning of a process that saw us devote more and more time to confronting one another, about art and dialogue on the most important cultural issues of our time.

Ambra Pittoni, a Piemontese artist interested in

CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE

Traslochi Emotivi brought to that place culinary experiences from different geographical locations.

The currency in order to taste the dish was the willingness to listen to the stories of those who offered it to you; everything stemmed from a desire for approach and integration.

E IL TOPO, prestigious independent publication, was reborn for the occasion after years in which it had stopped its publishing activities.

Tango Illegal is an interdisciplinary work, linked to a group of Tangheri who organize private meetings in unusual places in which to dance.

We wanted to link ourselves to this experience because, in spite of its mysterious and elitist aspect, it actually comes very close to our idea of making art. All true fans can participate in the dances, it is not important who you are or what work you do, your passion for dance is important.

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Tango Illegal revitalizes and gives new life to places through an artistic form. THAT’S wants to lead people to discover these new areas to live, to develop a network that spreads to as many people as possible, showing how art can bring energy and save territories from degradation, making them human realities that are both alive and shared.

From single places to the whole city; in 2013 the achievements of THAT’S CONTEMPORARY spread through the radio, literally running through the streets of Milan.

CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE

In 2013 we launched the That’s app to ensure that the exhibitions and events we highlighted were even more “within reach”.

As we like to do, we sought a creative way to promote this new technological support and the collaboration with The Art Pacemaker was born.

The Art Pacemaker is a performance by the artists Franco Ariaudo and Driant Zeneli; a non-competitive walking tour of 10 km that took place in the streets of the Lombard capital involving trained art lovers and Radio Città del Capo. Via ether, the radio commentary of the correspondent / art curator and critic Marco Tagliafierro needed.

In the running field, the pacemaker is a fundamental figure, he is the person who holds the time, that gives the minutage and that reports the step that is being held; it’s a bit like the advisor in an artistic process.

The race was designed in stages, for each stop, made in an art gallery, the artists spoke about a single work on display. The idea was to create a widespread exhibition in the city, to be used only quickly, an exhibition that existed only in its itinerant development.

The Art Pacemaker was a performance presented at miart (the annual Milan fair of modern and contemporary art), a work that is based on scientific A passo d’uomo, Traslochi Emotivi Courtesy THAT’S CONTEMPORARY Photo credits Kinadimorae Calaghetto Milan, 2012

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CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE Lettere dalla spiaggia Ambra Pittoni. Courtesy THAT’S CONTEMPORARY Photo credits Kinadimorae Calaghetto Milan, 2012 MADE IN MIND | 53

research that is linked to the world of medicine and communication.

Franco Ariaudo is an artist and sports expert. On the occasion he applied, the principle according to which, when a person stops after a physical effort, the information he acquires is more than what he would have acquired while remaining in a continuous state of stillness.

Technology and art come together for common purposes.

CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE

Started by the city of Milan, in 2015 THAT’S CONTEMPORARY opened up to the world with two projects that highlight the technological achievements of your work, two ideas that may appear opposed but which are linked to the same willingness of sharing.

That’s Valley was born with the desire to propose the THAT’S model outside the city of Milan. Our system consists of a series of features: mapping, description of events, in-depth analysis. Our work is guided by values and promotes the diffusion of art in certain ways, not just conventional.

Valle Camonica is very active from the point of view of contemporary art; studying it we realized that it was an ideal place to develop our working model. We entered a process that already led international artists to operate with people on the territory. Internationally, the valley proposed strategies that are increasingly coomon today. We have applied our mapping, we have led groups of journalists on the site, we have created paper-based information media.

It was a shared work that led to shared growth.

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Before talking about The Witness, we must take a step back.

In 2015 we felt the need to open our own in-depth page, Hideout. Simultaneously to the page, an editorial office was born where Simona Squadrito was a member and today Elisabetta Rastelli, Gianluca Gramolazzi, Roberta Ranalli and other young and talented authors take part.

In that year Simona developed The Witness, a curatorial project that uses THAT’S Instagram account as an exhibition space.

The idea, also taken from other companies in the sector, is to totally entrust our Instagram to an artist or a curator for a week, giving him the opportunity to show us his ideas, on any field. The page becomes a free place of expression for seven days; on Sunday a report is made.

The Witness is repeated every two years and fits perfectly into our work dynamics, creates new ways to combine artistic practices and technology allowing artists and curators to communicate directly with our readers, responding in the first person.

We arrive at the year just passed; THAT’S does not stop, on the contrary, it rises and develops an important collaboration with Google.

Google Arts & Culture is a non-profit project that wants to be the largest diffusion tool for works of art. We, together with other prestigious companies, have been contacted in occasion of the Milanese launch; they proposed for us to

CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE THAT’S App

Android

for iOS and Android Milano, 2013

App IOS

THAT’S

THAT’S App

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That’s Valley App developed by THAT’S CONTEMPORARY for Valle Camonica Cultural District Photo credits Tipi Blu Valle Camonica, 2015

make a selection of contemporary urban art.

By opening our page on Google you can find focus on some artists; realized through biographical images and storytelling, they tell the story of the aesthetic operator from his first works up to the exhibitions in progress. Our intent is to provide a new tool to know the artist and his poetics in order to intrigue and urge the audience to go and see the works on display in the city.

THAT’S has two targets: the first is represented by a public made of art lovers and special collectors, CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE

people who approach this world with curiosity and passion; the second is composed of art spaces that we communicate: sector operators, galleries and companies that, over the years, have become our partners.

All our initiatives are always born thinking of both.

We provide differentiated services that are personalized and personalizable, our will is to offer the best tools to promote and communicate the company reality to each of our partners. Our will is also to create tailored-made services, which arise from a real relationship with people.

Created thanks to the support of the Fondazione Cariplo and the FUNDER35 notification, in 2018 there was That’s Experience, a project you take such

That’s Valley App developed by THAT’S CONTEMPORARY for Valle Camonica Cultural District Valle Camonica, 2015

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The Witness, an Instagram Narrative Account Tomas C. Toth, Costruzione di nuove forme umane THAT’S CONTEMPORARY Instagram account, 2015

CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE The Witness, an Instagram Narrative Account Dario Giovanni Alì, Lo statuto dell’immagine nell’era digitalizzazione THAT’S CONTEMPORARY Instagram account, 2015

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CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE and Google Arts and Culture Courtesy THAT’S CONTEMPORARY Google Arts and Culture platform, 2018

THAT’S CONTEMPORARY

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care of and that you are developing, cleverly and passionately, as a spin-off. Can you tell us what it is about?

That’s Experience comes from the meeting between

I know it’s a renovated energy period for THAT’S. You can anticipate an important news for the future.

THAT’S wants to generate an increasing interest in contemporary

Martina Grendene, Jessica Tanghetti and myself. We have complementary skills: Martina as an advisor, Jessica in the business sector and I’m concerned with system and communication.

What truly unites us is the passion for contemporary art. Starting from personal networks, realized also because of the work of THAT’S CONTEMPORARY, That’s Experience creates unconventional, exclusive and tailor-made experiences in contemporary art, which allows us to get in touch with the true intimacy of art.

With us it is possible to undertake immersive itineraries that allow you to discover, in a unique way, many places of art together with its protagonists. We address individuals, collectors and companies.

culture and art. We are very happy to be part of an important project for Milan, together with other associations of different natures and interests. It will be born in a beautiful physical place, with a series of initiatives that will unite the artists to the city and then open them to the world.

The project has two keywords, the same as THAT’S: people and artists (in the broadest sense of the term). We will create connections between the various artistic expressions and with the territory.

The public of the different art forms are still very divided today but the culture is unique, our soul too, and it is very nice to enrich both with this plural vision. Our dream with this project is to bring art back to the citizens.

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CONTAINERS / CURATED BY FORME UNICHE That’s Experience Supported by Fondazione Cariplo and FUNDER35 Photo credits Tipi Blu Milano, 2018

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ANTHONY J. MEADOWS __________ Flavia Rovetta

Anthony J. Meadows is an American born artist. His artistic practice focuses on the interaction between two divergent forces that aim to represent the endless cycle of Life and Death. Opposed entities tend to destroy each other, to transform themselves into something unexpected, while creating Art. This is a complex process that sometimes involves destruction, even violence, but still aspires to beauty. Nature is the most coherent scenario to explore this never-ending chain of contrasts, in order to try and answer the question, “What is infinity?” This is why the artist relies on natural elements, poor materials and everyday objects when he creates a work of art: Nature expresses itself with its own means, conveying an enigmatic, yet clear and immediate message. Anthony has explained his strong connection with Arte Povera and Land Art through some of his stunning site-specific projects, that wisely combine mixed media installations, performative elements and casual happenings. Also his everyday life can be a source of inspiration or, on the contrary, the possible artistic quality of ordinary details is the only reason that makes life worth living. His research is a constant challenge both to his own creativity and to the viewer’s perception and reaction.

Through his playful attitude, Anthony seems to remind us that Art is a serious business. After all, Art is a universal language that manages to connect distant people, to spread vital and vibrant ideas against apathy, and even to save us from the conflicts we are in.

In your artistic path it is possible to clearly read your will to face natural forces, with their ineluctability and their contradictions. What pushed you to stand in front of Nature as an artist?

In recent years I have had a resurgence of a desire to seek answers on the questions surrounding death, and what it means to live. I have asked, “what is infinity?”, and I have found that perhaps it is nothing.

It is not me. It is not you. It is not a member of your family, or the car you drive. It is not the water that reflects the beauty of an endless sky or a common blood we share in our veins. It is not the songs we sing in praise, nor is it the fear we teach our children or even an idea that goes unshared or misunderstood.

Nothing is simply that which it is not. In my search it became only obvious that I look to Nature for answers, as it seems that we will all one day return to the earth and the only thing certain in life is death.

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What relevance do your expressive means acquire, with reference to natural elements, poor materials and everyday objects?

Supplemented by narrative and ethnographic qualities, much of my art is focused on the selection and arrangement of objects, with a focus on everyday objects. To bring them to light, I consider structures and frames for their presentation, often using no more than 2 materials in a sculpture, i.e. soil and flower seeds. This pairing often sees one object or material displaying dominance, the weaker becoming a frame for the other. Beyond the theme of life and death, many of my works are developed from my everyday experiences or are directly derived from dreams that I document upon waking. Through close and uncensored examination, I consider how these common and subconscious experiences continue to contribute to a flourishing national crisis, where

The Young The Young series Site-specific sculpture Polished stone Korpo, Finland, 2017 Courtesy Sandra Nyberg

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racism and misogyny are commonplace, and some in opposition remain silent. The works are often accompanied by a text that helps to solidify their identity and inherent meanings.

The text is usually in the form of a short story that blends aspects of embellished truth and personal memoir. In regards to my choice of material, particularly poor material, I tend to use what is readily available to me, in my immediate surroundings. This very well could reflect my own personal social standing or be a comment on my generation and growing up poor in the Southern States of America.

In your work there are many references to Land Art and Arte Povera. What was the impact of these artistic traditions in the development of your personal research?

Until 2010 I used a lot of wood in the making of my art, it was more of a craft. I was interested in boatbuilding, guitar and furniture making. I found beauty in the works of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, yet had trouble myself creating nonfunctional work. Later that year I participated

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in an artist residency that culminated in a final exhibition. The exhibition had a performative aspect, one in which I individually wrapped all of my personal belongings no matter what they were. Clothes, books, family photographs, cd’s, watches, forks, knives, spoons, pots and pans. Everything went. And during the opening the public was allowed to choose a wrapped gift and sit and open it. The process was documented and they took everything home with them. This marked a significant shift in my artistic practice. All I had left was my car and a small bag of clothes. After the end of the show I left Mississippi. Through the act of traveling and creating works simultaneously, using material available to me, whether that be earth, stone, discarded food items, etc. I’ve unintentionally separated myself from an income driven art practice. A natural progression into Arte Povera.

Though Arte Povera literally translates into Poor Art and doesn’t necessarily mean making art without money, my transition from craft was circumstantial and even out of necessity. Near the end of 2013 I visited New York, and saw

A Moment of Clarity A Moment of Clarity series Site-specific sculpture Soil, flower seeds Wales, UK. 2015 Courtesy the artist

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A Moment of Clarity A Moment of Clarity series Site-specific sculpture Soil, flower seeds Korpo, Finland. 2017 Courtesy Sandra Nyberg

Giovanni Anselmo’s work Sculpture That Eats. I was intrigued by the combination of materials. Stone and lettuce. I took this idea back to my studio and began to work. I was now finding a common ground, where craft informs the sculpture yet was not reliant on specific materials. The idea was able to take over.

For example, observing A Moment of Clarity I inevitably think to 1 mc di terra circa (approximately 1 cubic meter of soil) by the Italian artist Pino Pascali. However, your intention seems to be completely different: there is no irony or mockery, but it peremptorily demonstrates “clarity”. What does this 1.2 m of soil represent?

I have been an admirer of Pino Pascali for several years now. Particularly his dreamlike installations that utilize whale imagery. I was first introduced to his work in 2015 when I showed A Moment of Clarity, a 1.2 m x 1.2 m cube of soil, in Mediterranea 17 at Fabbrica del Vapore, in Milan. Though soil is one of the most natural and essential elements to life, through its relocation and compaction into a solid geometric shape it begins to lean towards what I will refer to as the unnatural. As time passes the cube begins to change. Planted within are hundreds of flower seeds that begin to rip the cube apart as they grow in search of the sun. The process is slow but violent, beautiful but destructive. A Moment of Clarity serves as a point of departure to delve into a larger issue at hand, challenging us as viewers to reflect on our notion of infinity and the idea that we are all part of an ongoing continuous cycle. Life. Death. Life. Death.

Infinity.

Some of your works have a strong connection right with Italian territory. A site-specific work like Happening, whose title is ironically linked to chance, had to “happen” right in Tirano.

Why did it happen here and not anywhere else?

I suppose as an artist it is a natural or common practice

to develop a relationship with a location, imbibing what is and will be. Happening is a title that not only describes the work, but the experience. It refers to the never-ending nature of Nature, something that never stops, and is only in the present, void of future and past.

Through chance, a series of very specific events led me to travel to Sondrio. Any number of these events could have been different, yet in 2016 I find myself outside the Santuario della Madonna with the people of Tirano.

Romantically speaking, there is no other place that this artwork could have happened.

LaSaliera is an artwork that you created during an artistic residence in Sardinia. The symbolism hiding behind poor materials, like salt, old doors and windows charcoaled, everyday objects of unknown people, is imbued with histories. Why have you felt the need to narrate them?

18 December 1938. Mussolini gives the official order to build Carbonia. A city for the miners. In LaSaliera, a large box was constructed from the doors and windows of the old town of Tratalias, a small town in the province of Carbonia. Every day these doors and windows were opened and closed by the families of Tratalias, until the construction of the dam of Rio Palmas in 1954 eventually led to water infiltration and severe structural damage to the homes and buildings, forcing the residents to abandon the small town and rebuild several hundred meters away. These windows and doors were repurposed as a support for salt collected from the island of Sardinia. The charcoaled surface is suggestive of the process of cremation and alludes to the thousands of coal miners that spent a vast majority of their lives underground. In certain cultures, salt is added to the cremated remains of the dead before burial. This ritual is believed to help the ashes dissolve with ease, allowing loved ones to peacefully return to the earth. During my stay in Tratalias I spent a great deal of time with the community. I was invited into their

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homes. We shared stories and wine, and I was treated with an undeserving amount of respect. For me, as an outsider, how Carbonia came to be, under the reign of Mussolini and the loss of life that characterized the birth of a new city is a gripping narrative. LaSaleria was a small gift to the friends I made on the island, a simple recognition of the labor, loss, and capacity for life in Tratalias.

The Young is a breath-taking work, generated by an idea that you define as powerful. What is an idea? How does it grow inside the artist’s mind, until it becomes so uncontrollable to create an artwork?

Thank you, Flavia. An idea is an eloquent and often altruistic instrument used in the conveyance of language, and I believe art to be the universal language… If I may speak openly, and passionately, I often ask why we do the things we do. What things nurture apathy? We have been to the water’s edge, allowed our lips a taste, and eagerly began to fill our bellies with greed and passion.

We pause to loosen our belts and it is only in this brief moment of rest that the water is still enough for us to come face to face with an all-devouring slender beaked monster. But I believe a change is going to come. I also believe that art is not second nature. It is cardinal. Our actions allow for an almost voyeuristic insight into an ever-developing kinship between art and artist. It is a relationship of deep dependency appropriated through metaphor and a harrowing desire for change. We draw inspiration from subjective experience which is made more interesting by nothing more than its own potential.

In the project Without thinking you challenge yourself and your friends: “tell me something to make, first thing

A Moment of Clarity A Moment of Clarity series Site-specific sculpture Soil, flower seeds Basillica del Madonna, Tirano, Italy, 2016 Courtesy Alex Bombardieri

that comes to mind, without thinking”. The paradox is that the first thing that crosses their mind becomes cause for your reflection. Is it a subtle suggestion to consider the consequences of our instinctive words? Or is it just a game to challenge your creativity?

This is an interesting concept, and perhaps the answer is yes. It IS a challenge to ourselves, yet much more than a game whilst remaining very playful. I began this project many years ago, like you said, as a way to challenge my own creativity, or perhaps lack thereof. It has since gone beyond the scope of a mere exercise in making, the end result being an amalgamated work of two unique thought processes. It becomes a lasting, direct, and documented connection between myself and the participants, many of whom I have lost contact with over the years.

In 2010 I received more than 200 answers to this question. In time I intend to address each response.

I find the unpredictability involved in this project very interesting. What was the word you didn’t expect to represent? What was the most difficult to recreate, due to this uncontrollable randomness?

I did not expect to be asked to make food! I sent my requests via text message, and I realize now that many people thought that I had no idea what to make for dinner.

I had responses ranging from spaghetti and poppy seed chicken casserole, to hamburgers, lollipops, corn, and several mixed alcoholic drinks. I’ve found these to be the most fun to create. The most difficult has been a one-word response sent by an old friend, “You”. I’ve been asked to recreate myself. Nearly 9 years have passed since I received this request, and I am no closer now than I was then to resolving the work. But I am not

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LaSaliera Installation Salt crystals, old doors and windows of Tratalias charcoaled, projected video Sardinia, Italy, 2016 Courtesy the artist

Slate, rope, egg Installation Wales, UK. 2017 Courtesy the artist

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Slate, rope, egg Installation Wales, UK. 2017 Courtesy the artist

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Line Site-specific installation Wood, varnish, mirrored glass Franconia Sculpture Park, MN, USA. 2015 Courtesy Kendra Douglas

Line Site-specific installation Wood, varnish, mirrored glass Franconia Sculpture Park, MN, USA. 2015 Courtesy the artist

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the same person I was 9 years ago. And perhaps therein lies the answer.

And if you could create an artwork offhand, right now, and I told you the word “artist� without thinking, what process would I activate in your creativity?

My mind begins to wander and I immediately find myself in a full classroom, surrounded by other young aspiring artists with a twinkle in their eye! We will go through boot camp and rigorous training.

We will learn to shoot a rifle and to skin a rabbit and take turns riding a bicycle with no hands. We will be forced into public speaking classes, and learn to appreciate the smell of a good cheese.

But again, where I go from here, what shape the artwork begins to take is entirely dependent on my environment. Where am I when the work moves from idea to fruition? Am I here in the kitchen at a sculpture park in a small town in Minnesota? Or am I watching the Italian sunset over the vibrant city of Milan?

Doric Installation McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, UK, 2015 Courtesy the artist

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Doric Installation McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, UK, 2015 Courtesy the artist

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HOW TO LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES

_______

AN ALTERNATIVE GUIDE OF THE 58TH VENICE BIENNALE.

Irene Angenica

FOCUS / 58TH VENICE BIENNALE

The ambivalence and contradictions of the 58th Venice Biennale emerges from its title: May you Live in Interesting Times. Widespread in the Anglo-Saxon world, it derives from a distortion of a traditional Chinese curse first used by Austen Chamberlain towards the end of the nineteenth century.

“Interesting times” are times of war, political unrest, challenge and threat. President Baratta suggests that we have to read it in a broader way than the motto implies. He challenges us to interpret this saying as a key to understanding our times, times when conformism and fear produce an over simplified model. The fight against generalization, however, sounds paradoxical and contradictory: how can a curator in an international exhibition not create a cross-section of our ambiguous reality?

Ralph Rugoff has been the director of the Hayward Gallery in London for over ten years. He has come across this oxymoronic challenge that reflects all the limitations and difficulties of the hosting institution.

His exhibition at the 2019 Biennale can be read in a speculative way to his project dated 2013: The Alternative Guide to the Universe, when he placed the question to the self-taught artists participating:

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“Imagine being able to live in a different world.

What would you want it to be like?”. In Venice he brings the question to the present and it seems to make adjustments by inviting the same number of male and female artists, increasing the countries of origin of the invited artists, and paying attention to ethnic and gender minorities. Unfortunately, it is still necessary to take into consideration these factors to get a successful exhibition.

However, his attempt to counterbalance seems to be forced. It is as though he wanted to respond to a pre-filled form to avoid criticism that society would turn to a white, heterosexual, American-male model of power. Speaking of numbers, Rugoff gives us a clarification in the press release: all the invited artists are still alive. This fact goes against last Biennials’ trend (and contemporary art fairs) where artists from the past are exhumed. This demonstrates great support for the new generations of artists, however his justification seems to be lacking as he states that only a living artist is able to talk about our present.

The title entails the absence of a thematic hat, preferring a common direction of the works.

FOCUS / 58TH VENICE BIENNALE Ed Atkins Old Food, 2017-19 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

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Hito Steyerl This is the Future, 2019 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

FOCUS / 58TH VENICE BIENNALE Arthur Jafa Various works, 2018 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

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Quoting Opera Aperta, 1962 by Umberto Eco, Rugoff suggests a free interpretation of what the viewer finds in front of him. The displayed works reflect our contemporary world and the problems of our society, the artist thus becomes a prophet of our time. Into the works, the recurring themes are climate change, the birth of new nationalism, racism, economic disparity and the impact of social media and new technologies in the society.

Rugoff introduces something new to the exhibition path, it is articulated with a binary approach through the development of two distinct presentations: Proposition A and Proposition B. He asked each artist to present two different types of works: one of them is set up at the headquarters of the Arsenal (Proposition A) while the second is set up in the Central Pavilion inside the Giardini (Proposition B).

This mechanism leads to experiencing the exhibition in a fragmentary way, the viewer’s mind is inclined to bounce between the two venues in search of the proposed companion. Let us analyze the two propositions by Arthur Jafa as an example. When

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in the Arsenale, we find ourselves in front of huge wheels covered with chains (Big Wheel I, 2019), we struggle to think back to the amazing film The White Album, 2018, shown in Giardini (for which he won the Golden Lion). According to the curator’s press statement, this was the intended effect. But what does this split bring to the viewer? How can two propositions so different from one another be representative and symbolic of an artist’s career?

What is the connection that unites them? These questions should be answered by his affirmation: “the goal is to convey a broader impression of the artists’ production and offer the public the possibility of interpreting one type of work in the light of the other”. However Rugoff is aware that the distracted visitor “perhaps will not even suspect that the two exhibitions were made by the same artist”. With 158 works exhibited, maintaining concentration is an arduous task indeed.

He also affirms that this split reflects the dialogue of the artists with the diversity of the hosting spaces: the Central Pavilion, a neoclassical structure built

FOCUS / 58TH VENICE BIENNALE Ludovica Carbotta Monowe (The Terminal Outpost), 2017 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

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Christoph Büchel Barca Nostra, 2018-2019 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

Gvojic welcome us to a comfortable environment to show us one anthropological cross-section of the reality from which they come. The few installations isolated from the dialogue with other works, such

horror vacui, it is difficult to read this dialogue. Upon entry, the exhibition in the Arsenale shows a sense of heaviness and oppression, the spectator is in front of a wooden monolith to which is displayed Double Elvis, 2019 by George Condo, by the way an artwork not representative at all of what we are about to see. The space for the dialogue between the works, between the works and the viewer and between the architecture and the works is reduced to a minimum; a sense of apnea accompanies the viewers along the entire main path, except for the space cut out for video installations, happy islands of exhibition immersion, the only place where the public can find shelter. Hito Steyerl invites us to reflect on the imminent environmental catastrophes, John Raffman embraces us in his dreamlike visions in 3D graphics, Alex Da Corte takes us in a playful and disturbing environment, Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex

as Old Food, 2017 - 2019 by Ed Atkins, allow the public to fall into the work, while the largest rooms look like a seventh century quadreria.

We can experience a similar feeling in the exhibition of the Central Pavilion of the Giardini where, most of the time, disparate works coexist in the same room without any aesthetic uniformity or conceptual reference. The proximity of some of them causes an effect of erasure, as in the case of the bright corridor of Ryoji Ikeda followed by the dark room where the video (Silver Lion) by Haris Epaminonda is projected. The eye struggles to adapt to both the entrance and the exit, where the light beam completely destroys the work of Darren Bader and the other works distributed in the surrounding rooms.

Shilpa Gupta’s Proposition B consists of a metal gate that clashes noisily against the wall creating a collison, while a spinning cow (Nabuqi’s Do

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in 1895 specifically as an exhibition space within the Giardini, and the Arsenale, an industrial structure used for the construction of ships. With the stacking exhibition that seems to fight against a sense of

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real things happen in moments of rationality, 2018) dominates the center of the room. The non-distracted viewer will certainly be disappointed in reconnecting the work of Gupta, which in this context takes on a playful and spectacular tone, to the delicate and intense installation in Arsenale (For, in your tongue, I cannot fit, 2017-2018).

Involuntarily mimetic the external interventions of the only two Italian artists present in the exhibition. The smoke of Lara Favaretto at the entrance of the Central Pavilion is confused with the bad weather that characterized the opening days of the event. Monowe (The Terminal Outpost), 2017 by Ludovica Carbotta is hidden by the ship Diciotti transported from Catania’s harbour to the Venetian Lagoon by Christoph Büchel showing a fetish that borders on a pornographic spectacularity which only affects the viewers’ coffee break on the terrace.

On the other hand, the majority of the national pavilions reflect political and climate issues in a very deep and accurate way. The most impactful pavilions of this year

Ryoji Ikeda spectra III, 2008 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Francesco Galli Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

Nabuqi Do real things happen in moments of rationality?, 2018 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Francesco Galli Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

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FOCUS / 58TH VENICE BIENNALE Arthur Jafa The White Album, 2019 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Francesco Galli Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

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Haris Epaminonda Chimera, 2019 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by © Nick Ash Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia, the artist, Rodeo, London / Piraeus, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Casey Kaplan, New York

surely are Germany, France, and Lituania. The three of them reflect connected topics from a different point of view and narrative positions. The Dutch Pavilion is a hard reading and cold critique from an enigmatic and amazing artist Natascha Süder Happelmann (aka Natascha Sadr Haghighian): the emptiness of the space, the signs on the wall of the Anne Imhof’s structure, the dryness of the artworks shown, goes against all the spectacularity that dominates the international exhibition.

The French pavilion involves the viewer in a really deep and immersive environment, Laure Prouvost brings you on a trip where a sense of freedom takes you by hand with a touching video and the suffused atmosphere in neighbouring rooms.

The Golden Lion-winning Lithuanian Pavilion, Sun &

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Sea (Marina) addresses the climate change catastrophe in a funny and delicate way. Be careful not to miss the performance, you can only attend it on Saturdays!

An exception to the political commitment that has characterized this Biennale comes from the so argued Italian Pavilion curated by Milovan Farronato to which, by the way, one cannot deny a strong scenic effect. The labyrinth he had projected for the Né altra Né questa: La Sfida al Labirinto exhibition dominates the pavilion, some works interact majestically with the display, like the case of Avvinghiatissimi, 1992 by Liliana Moro, which in its hidden niche conveys a strongly romantic, almost erotic, sense. However, other artwork get lost along the labyrinths path.

At the end of the day, we might say that something very interesting is certainly there.

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Shilpa Gupta For, In Your Tongue I Cannot Fit, 2017-2018 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

FOCUS / 58TH VENICE BIENNALE Shilpa Gupta Untitled, 2009 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times Photograph by Italo Rondinella Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

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Neither Nor: The challenge to the Labyrinth (Enrico David, Chiara Fumai, Liliana Moro) Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2019 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia Photograph by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti Courtesy DGAAP-MiBAC

Liliana Moro Avvinghiatissimi, 1992 Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2019 Neither Nor: The challenge to the Labyrinth 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia Photograph by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti Courtesy DGAAP-MiBAC

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FOCUS / 58TH VENICE BIENNALE Neither Nor: The challenge to the Labyrinth (Enrico David, Chiara Fumai, Liliana Moro) Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2019 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia Photograph by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti Courtesy DGAAP-MiBAC

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Sun & Sea (Marina) (Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė) Pavilion of Lithuania 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia Photograph by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

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Laure Prouvost Deep see blue surrounding you / Vois ce bleu profond te fondre Pavilion of France Photograph by Francesco Galli Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

FOCUS / 58TH VENICE BIENNALE Natascha Süder Happelmann Pavilion of Germany Photograph by Francesco Galli Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia MADE IN MIND | 99

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Natascha Süder Happelmann Pavilion of Germany Photograph by Francesco Galli Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia