Francesco Bonami has been the director of the Venice Biennale and is in the middle of curating the Whitney’s in New York for next year. He wrote two blog entries for the New York Times about Venice. In this one, he picks some of his favorites:
Among the national pavilions, the installation by the American artist Bruce Nauman is quite mesmerizing. Voices repeat the days of the week like a Gregorian chant. A necessary reminder that a week is always a week in the life of a human being even if it feels like a month in the case of the Biennale’s week. Monotony, Nauman likes to point out in his exquisite and poetic way, is often better than boring excitement. In the second part of the Pinault Collection at the Palazzo Grassi, Piotr Uklanski’s Nazi dance floor is another highlight of this week’s visual extravaganza. There are hundreds of photos of actors dressed as Nazis overlooking an illuminated platform, which changes patterns. It keeps the tension between entertainment and serious reflection on humankind very much alive. The British pavilion honors Steve McQueen, the artist who won the Camera D’or at Cannes for his film “The Hunger” in 2008. McQueen’s installation reminds us of a saying by a New York art critic: “Life is short and some art is too long.” You need to stand in line to get a ticket for the screening, and then once you enter, you cannot leave until the 30-minute film is over.
For the Moment (New York Times)
