Turns out that there is bad art everywhere in the world, even at the Biennale. There was some good, some bad, some boring, and much of it was expected (cue lots of video art and fabric hanging from the ceiling). Here are our top picks of the best (and worst) of the (Venice) Biennale.
The BEST overall exhibition: Simone Post’s entire ballroom-sized room filled with working chandeliers made of candy and marshmallows. Produced with the support of PinchukArtCentre as part of the group exhibition “Still Joy—from Ukraine into the World,” an official collateral event presented by the PinchukArtCentre and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Housed in neither the Giardini nor the Arsenale, but in a space near the Peggy Guggenheim Museum.
Top country pavilions, ranked in order:
India Pavilion
1. India – The BEST country exhibition (and by far the biggest expenditure), was a truly spectacular showing of several installations including an architecturally-sized cityscape by Sumakshi Singh made of fabric panes of silk thread next to a sweeping arching mass of bound and bent giant bamboo by Asim Waqif.
Finland Pavilion
2. Finland – Starkly simple hanging sculptures made of long silvery-gray hair with a wind machine causing the hair to blow by Jenna Sutela.
Nordic Pavilion
3. Nordic (Finland, Norway, Sweden) – Experimental in whimsical ways including a giant multi-limbed creature made of natural colored cloth set on all fours by Tori Wrånes and a horizontal tree trunk covered in fabric/thread that had weird little woodland creatures sitting on it and hiding among its crevices by Klara Kristalova.
Canada Pavilion
4. Canada – We loved the fountain/water feature made of a sopping wet pelt placed on a large rock. The water dripping from wet matted fur was the fountain by Abbas Akhavan.
Spain Pavilion
5. Spain – Multi-room floor to ceiling grids of postcards by Oriol Vilanova.
Serbia Pavilion
6. Serbia – Every inch, pretty much covered with what seemed to be a personalized (if not fully personal) installation of old family photos, maps, documents, and newspaper clippings from Serbia (and former Yugoslavia) and stacks of luggage by Predrag Djaković.
Disappointments
Japan Pavilion
Japan – A bunch of life-sized baby dolls which you can hold and change by Ei Arakawa-Nash. It’s a four-year-old cishet girl’s ice cream nightmare—and I have a kid. Who wants to hold a bunch of cabbage patch dolls and then change their diapers? Not us.
U.S. Pavilion
The US – Large forms cast in metal by Alma Allen. This is simply a show of what boring sculpture looks like when it is made by fabricators with a big budget.
