The 58th Venice Biennale was an international

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

held between May and November 2019. The

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

takes place biennially in

Venice, Italy Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

. Artistic director

Ralph Rugoff Ralph Rugoff (born 12 January 1957) is an American-born curator, the director of London's Hayward Gallery since 2006, and the curator of the Venice Biennale in 2019. Rugoff was born in New York City, the son of a film distributor father and a psy ...

curated its central exhibition, ''May You Live in Interesting Times'', and 90 countries contributed

national pavilions The national pavilions host each participant nation's official representation during the Venice Biennale, an international art biennial exhibition held in Venice, Italy. Some countries own pavilion buildings in the Giardini della Biennale while ...

Background

The Venice Biennale is an international art biennial exhibition held in

. Often described as "the Olympics of the

art world The art world comprises everyone involved in producing, commissioning, presenting, preserving, promoting, chronicling, criticizing, buying and selling fine art. It is recognized that there are many art worlds, defined either by location or alt ...

", participation in the Biennale is a prestigious event for contemporary artists. The festival has become a constellation of shows: a central exhibition curated by that year's artistic director, national pavilions hosted by individual nations, and independent exhibitions throughout Venice. The Biennale parent organization also hosts regular festivals in other arts: architecture, dance, film, music, and theater. Outside of the central, international exhibition, individual nations produce their own shows, known as pavilions, as their national representation. Nations that own their pavilion buildings, such as the 30 housed on the Giardini, are responsible for their own upkeep and construction costs as well. Nations without dedicated buildings create pavilions in the Venice

Arsenale The Venetian Arsenal ( it, Arsenale di Venezia) is a complex of former shipyards and armories clustered together in the city of Venice in northern Italy. Owned by the state, the Arsenal was responsible for the bulk of the Venetian republic's ...

and palazzos throughout the city. The 58th Biennale was open between May 11 and November 24, 2019, immediately preceded by three press preview days.

Central exhibition

, a former journalist and now director of the London

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

, served as the 58th Biennale's artistic director. His main exhibition's theme is "May You Live in Interesting Times", which refers to an apocryphal curse attributed to ancient China but likely of Western origin. The theme, which Rugoff considered interesting for its ambiguity, intends to reflect how misreadings and

fake news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...

have lasting impact on

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

. He suggested that art can guide where it cannot directly affect the rise of authoritarian governments or migrant crisis. While recent biennials have addressed social issues, Rugoff wanted his exhibition to focus on art's ability to provide alternate realities and question habits of thought. Rugoff had previously organized a talk series on the subject of "

alternative facts "Alternative facts" was a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, during a ''Meet the Press'' interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the at ...

" at the 2017 London Frieze art fair. The artistic director selected 79 artists and groups for the central exhibition. Rugoff continued to work at the Hayward Gallery while he prepared the show over 18 months with a budget. Figurative painting and kinetic sculpture are prominent in the exhibition. A large

George Condo George Condo (born 1957) is an American visual artist who works in painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking. He lives and works in New York City. Early life Condo was born in Concord, New Hampshire. He studied art history and musi ...

canvas opens the Arsenale amid other figurative paintings of real and imaginary people by

Njideka Akunyili Crosby Njideka Akunyili Crosby (born 1983) is a Nigerian-born visual artist working in Los Angeles, California. Through her art Akunyili Crosby "negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating collag ...

Nicole Eisenman Nicole Eisenman (born 1965) is French-born American artist known for her oil paintings and sculptures. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), the Carnegie Prize (2013), and has thrice been included in the Whitney Biennial (1995, 20 ...

, and Henry Taylor.

Avery Singer Avery Singer (born 1987) is an American artist known for creating digitally assisted paintings created through 3D modeling software and computer-controlled airbrushing. Early life and education Singer was born to artists Janet Kusmierski and Gr ...

's computer-airbrushed wood panels of computer-generated imagery were particularly compelling. One room of the central pavilion was cacophonous, with a slamming security gate by

Shilpa Gupta Shilpa Gupta (born 1976) is a contemporary Indian artist, she lives and works in Mumbai, India where she has studied sculpture at the Sir J. J. School of Fine Arts from 1992 to 1997.She had solo shows at Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati ...

and a cow on a circular railroad by Nabuqi. Multiple holograms are in the show. Artworks by

Martine Gutierrez Martine Gutierrez (born 1989) is an American visual and performance artist. Gutierrez is known for creating artworks that interrogate how identity is formed, expressed, and perceived. The artist has created music videos, billboard campaigns, epis ...

were also featured in the Central Pavilion.

National pavilions

The 90 national pavilions of the 58th Biennale exhibition was a new record for national participation, exceeding the 86 from 2017. Each country selects artists to show at their pavilion, ostensibly with an eye to the Biennale's theme. Highlight pavilions from the show included Lithuania's ''

Sun & Sea (Marina) ''Sun & Sea (Marina)'' is an opera composed by with a libretto by Vaiva Grainytė and directed by , and presented as part of the 2019 Venice Biennale in a project curated by Lucia Pietroiusti. It won the festival's top award, the Golden Lio ...

'', Ghana's ''

Ghana Freedom ''Ghana Freedom'' was a Ghanaian art exhibition at the 2019 Venice Biennale, an international contemporary art biennial in which countries represent themselves through self-organizing national pavilions. The country's debut pavilion, also know ...

'', France, the United States' ''

Liberty/Libertà ''Martin Puryear: Liberty/Libertà'' is an art exhibition at the 2019 Venice Biennale's American pavilion featuring new works by sculptor Martin Puryear and curated by Brooke Kamin Rapaport. The Biennale is an international contemporary art b ...

'', the Philippines, India, Brazil, Poland, and Italy. The American and British pavilions were unusually inconspicuous in presenting the minimalist works of

Martin Puryear Martin L. Puryear (born May 23, 1941) is an American artist known for his devotion to traditional craft. Working in wood and bronze, among other media, his reductive technique and meditative approach challenge the physical and poetic boundaries ...

and

Cathy Wilkes Cathy Wilkes (born 1966) is a Northern Irish artist who lives and works in Glasgow. She makes sculpture, paintings, and installations. She was the recipient of the Inaugural Maria Lassnig Prize in 2017 and was commissioned to create the British Pa ...

. Belgium and Russia both hosted elaborate kinetic sculptures. The Canadian pavilion exhibited

Zacharias Kunuk Zacharias Kunuk ( iu, ᓴᖅᑲᓕᐊᓯ ᑯᓄᒃ, born November 27, 1957) is a Canadian Inuk producer and director most notable for his film '' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner'', the first Canadian dramatic feature film produced entirely in Inukt ...

's film ''

One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk ''One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Zacharias Kunuk and released in 2019."Inuit artists featured in Canadian pavilion for 1st time at Venice Art Biennale"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. ...

, May 11, 2019. First-time presenters at the Biennale included Ghana, Madagascar, Malaysia, and Pakistan.

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had planned its first pavilion but canceled its funding after the country's president resigned. The selected artists fundraised and presented the pavilion unofficially.

Collateral events

The

Kenneth Goldsmith Kenneth Goldsmith (born 1961) is an American poetry, poet and critic. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb and since 2020 is the ongoing artist-in-residence at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW) at the University of Pennsylvani ...

exhibition ''HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails'', curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, was shown at Despar Teatro Italia, a cinema converted into a supermarket. On September 10, 2019,

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

visited the exhibition and said that the attention given to her

emails Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

was one of the "strangest" and most "absurd" events in U.S. political history, adding, "Anyone can go in and look at them. There is nothing there. There is nothing that should have been so controversial." Other shows in Venice that coincided with the Biennale included designer

Virgil Abloh Virgil Abloh (; September 30, 1980 – November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilitie ...

's metal furniture at Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

Awards

An international jury presented the three main prizes following the Biennale's opening ceremonies: * Golden Lion for best national participation: Lithuanian pavilion * Golden Lion for best artist of the central exhibition:

Arthur Jafa Arthur Jafa (; born Arthur Jafa Fielder, November 30, 1960) is an American video artist and cinematographer. Early life and education Jafa was born on November 30, 1960 in Tupelo, Mississippi and raised in Clarksdale, Mississippi which was hig ...

* Silver Lion for the most promising young artist of the exhibition: Haris Epaminonda The jury additionally had the option to present special mentions for a national pavilion and two artists in the central exhibition. The 58th Biennale's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement went to

Jimmie Durham Jimmie Bob Durham (July 10, 1940 – November 17, 2021) was an American sculptor, essayist and poet. He was active in the United States in the civil rights movements of African Americans and Native Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, serving on the ...

. This nominee was proposed by the artistic director (Rugoff) and confirmed by the Biennale's board prior to the opening.

Reception

Stylistic themes across the 58th Biennale included figurative painting, immersive video installation—including a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

work by

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (born 30 June 1965, in Strasbourg) is a French visual artist and educator. She is known for her work in video projection, photography, and art installations. She has worked in landscaping, design, and writing. "I alwa ...

—and kinetic sculpture. There were also several art duos in exhibition. Over 600,000 visitors attended. In light of the

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to u ...

and iconic, severe flooding in Venice in the Biennale's last days, ''Artnet'' asked whether future Biennales should better advocate for sustainability.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Italy, Visual arts Venice Biennale exhibitions 2019 in art 2019 in Italy May 2019 events in Italy