Art Madrid'23 – Viva Arte Viva!, Venice biennale

 

 

Anri Sala, “All of a Tremble”, 2016

 

 


Viva Arte Viva is organised in 86 National Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the historic city centre of Venice.The Exhibition also includes nine trans-pavilions distributed in the Arsenal and the Central Pavilion, project curated by Christine Macel. Each of them focuses on one theme: the pavilion of artists and books, of joys and fears, of the common, of the earth, of traditions, of shamans, the dionysian pavilion, of colours, of time and infinity. The 86 pavilions of participating countries, each with its own curator, which will once more bring to life the pluralism of voices, have followed the guidelines suggested by Christine Macel and have accepted the invitations to participate in joint programs.

 

 

 

Vajiko Chachkhiani, `Living Dog Among Dead Lions´, 2017

 

 


Lots of proposals capture the attention of the public in the Biennale, from a crashed van into the floor (by Erwum Wurm) to a cabin where rain cannot stop (Vajiko Chachkhiani). Visitors will find artworks that show the importance of earth, traditions or the collective, like the Chilean video artist Juan Downey (Chile, 1940- New York, 1993), that reveals against eurocentric gaze by making the members of the Yanomani tribe create his video, using one of his cameras. Or spaces where huge installations can be observed, such as the textile artist Sheila Hicks (Nebraska, 1934) one, that fill with wool the back of the pavilion. Other proposals connect with sensorial field, like the one by Anri Sala (Albania, 1974), that reflects on sculptural properties of sound through the synaesthetic relationship between it and the vision. His piece consists on a music box that decorates a whole wall with random patterns while it sounds. In addition, there are poetic performances like `One thousand and One Night´, where Edith Dekyndt (Belgium, 1960) rebuilt a dust square in the floor without stopping. He has to be aware of a projected light over it in order to bring them into line one with each other.

 

 

 

Juan Downey, `The Laughing Alligator´, 1979

 

 

 

Among the national pavilions in Giardini is the Spanish one, with the proposal `¡Únete! Join Us!´, by Jordi Colomer, where he reflects on the public space and how to make it ours. It is a vindication of collective and spontaneous nomadism, symptom that refugees and displaced people suffer nowadays. His proposal consists on a miniature city in the previous room and a series of video pieces that show migrations and cities on movement.

 

 

 

Edith Dekyndt, `One thousand and One Night´, 2017

 

 

 

It has to be emphasized that most of the artists are participating for the first time (103 of 120), the same as countries like Antigua and Barbuda, Kiribati and Nigeria. The German artist Franz Erhard Walther (Fulda, 1939), known for his huge and participative sculptures made of fabrics, has been awarded as the best artist in the official exhibition. This artist is currently exhibiting his artwork in Velázquez Palace, in Madrid, until the 10th of Septembre.

 

 

 

Jordi Colomer, `Join Us! Únete!', 2017

 

 

 

The Venice Biennale offers during the months is taking place selected collateral events promoted by non-profit national and international institutions. They present their exhibitions and initiatives in palaces, museums, churches and public spaces. The city will host plenty of artistic proposals during the 57th Exhibition.

 

 

 

James Lee Bryars, `Gold Tower´, 2017

 

 

 

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.