Venice, the ‘water city’ that awakens to art every two years

“Venice had already been a famous tourist destination in Western Europe since the 11th century, before the start of the Crusades. It was the starting and ending point of pilgrimage trips until the mid-16th century. In the 18th century, intellectual elites flocked like a cloud.”

In ‘Story of the City by the Sea’, Nanami Shiono couldn’t help but admire Venice, Italy, saying that the city that Europeans have been passionate about for over 1,000 years is none other than Venice. In the Middle Ages, it was popular as a pilgrimage course, and in the 18th century, it was such a fascinating city that famous writers such as Goethe, Byron, and Stendhal visited it.

Venice in the 21st century is not an ordinary tourist city. Small canals and bridges intertwined like a mesh in the Z-shaped Grand Canal that runs through the city. If you follow a narrow alley that can barely fit one or two people, you will often lose your direction no matter how sharp your eyes are. This is why it is the main setting for mystery and action movies.

■’129 years of history’ Venice Biennale, turning the entire island into an art museum

It’s not just this. The elegant yet secret ‘City of Water’ awakens every two years as a huge art museum that gathers artists from all over the world. The ultimate art travel destination is Venice. The Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest biennale, became the opportunity. This year marks the 60th event, 129 years after it began in 1895. Excluding World Wars I and II and pandemics, the Biennale is held every two years. This year’s Biennale opened on the 20th and will run for seven months until November. There are hundreds of parallel exhibitions and satellite exhibitions targeting the Biennale season, and it feels more abundant than in the past. If you turn around a small alley, an unknown gallery or exhibition hall will come into view. Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa, the general director who presented the main exhibition under the theme of ‘Foreigners are everywhere,’ said, “Venice, a city with a population of 50,000, surges to 165,000 a day during the peak Biennale season.” The total number of visitors to the Biennale held two years ago was estimated at 800,000.

The main stage of the Biennale is the Arsenale and Giardini Park, a 30-minute walk from Piazza San Marco, the center of Venice. If you turn your head to the right while walking, you will see yachts and galleys speeding by in the pale green Adriatic Sea. Most of the main exhibition, which features works by over 330 artists, is held at the Arsenale. This is the site of a state-run shipyard in the past. It was not only a place to build ships, but also served as a warehouse for storing explosives and cannons. Venice, surrounded by the sea, has no city walls, but this place alone is surrounded by a high wall. A large warehouse full of weapons has now become a space for artists’ ambitious large-scale installations.

If you go from the Arsenale to the eastern end of the island, you will find the lush Giardini Park. In addition to the Central Pavilion, where part of the main exhibition is held, it is home to 29 national pavilions, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Japan. Korea received the last piece of land and opened its 29th national pavilion in 1995. The establishment of a national pavilion in Giardini Park was largely due to the efforts of media artist Nam June Paik, who won the Golden Lion Award as the representative artist for the German pavilion in 1993. Since there are a total of 88 countries participating in the Biennale, the remaining 59 countries will hold national pavilion exhibitions in rented spaces throughout Venice rather than in the Giardini Park. The Vatican Pavilion is located in the chapel of the Venetian Women’s Prison. Italian installation artist Maurizio Cattelan, whose special exhibition was held at the Leeum Museum of Art last year, is participating and presenting a work called ‘Father’ depicting a bare foot covered in scars. Cattelan is an artist who sparked controversy by exhibiting a life-size wax figure of Pope John Paul II lying on his side after being crushed by a huge meteorite at the 2001 Biennale. You must make a reservation in advance to view the exhibition.

Artists paid attention to by the three major art museums in Venice

The best places to visit for art in Venice are the Accademia Museum, Peggy Guggenheim Museum, and Punta della Dogana, which are considered the three major art museums. They are all concentrated on the west side of St. Mark’s Square. As soon as you cross the Accademia Bridge, the poster for Willem de Kooning’s (1904-1997) exhibition ‘Italy’ hanging on the wall of the Accademia catches your eye. I was only able to get a ticket after standing in line for about 30 minutes. Accademia is a classic art museum that houses masterpieces related to the Bible, including Giovanni Bellini’s ‘Annunciation’.

As the title of the exhibition suggests, this is the first exhibition to highlight the influence of Italy on De Kooning, a master of abstract expressionism. De Kooning, who was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the United States at the age of 22, has participated in the Venice Biennale several times as an artist in the American pavilion. He also visited Italy twice, in 1959 and 1969, to study the classicist painting style. A total of 75 works, including black and white paintings, were carefully selected in the exhibition hall, and surprisingly, 13 of them were bronze sculptures created by him. It is known that he began making sculptures in Rome. The sculpture also symbolizes a figure twisted and crushed like a painting. It is analyzed that the bold and free-spirited brushwork inherited the fluidity of the Venetian painter Titian. Through his numerous sculptures and drawings, you can feel how much he devoted himself to light and movement and how he dissected and experimented with the human body in various ways. The exhibition runs until September 15th.

If you walk about 10 minutes from Accademia, you will come across a beautiful mansion. This is where Peggy Guggenheim, a legendary female collector and patron of the arts in the 20th century, spent the rest of her life. In addition to Picasso and Mondrian, whom he interacted with and collected, there are also many works by surrealist artists. René Magritte’s ‘Empire of Light’, where day and night coexist, is a representative collection. Permanent exhibitions are also popular, but high-quality special exhibitions are always presented. This year’s protagonist is Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), a ‘bad boy’ in the 20th century French art world. As the exhibition title ‘Juggler’s Revenge’ suggests, he moved around as if juggling various genres. He was active as a poet, novelist, playwright, critic, and film director who created ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ Of course, some people ridiculed him for not being able to reach the top in any genre, perhaps because they were jealous of his versatility. He also has a dark side, including opium addiction, homosexuality, and admiration for Nazis. About 150 works, including various drawings, graphics, accessories, movie posters, and photographs, explain why the title ‘Renaissance Man’ is added to his name. The exhibition runs until September 16th.

Venice is not just following in the footsteps of old masters. There is a place where you can see exhibitions by the hottest contemporary artists. The modern art museum, Punta della Dogana, is located in a triangular shape at the end of the Grand Canal. It was once the site of a customs office, the core of Venice’s commercial infrastructure, but as trade declined, it was transformed into an art space visited by art lovers. François Pinault, chairman of Christie’s Auctions, entrusted the renovation to world-renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando and raised the anchor in 2009. Because it was a place where ships came and went, it was very spacious and had high ceilings. Therefore, it is perfect for displaying large installation art or media art works. Pierre Huyghe’s solo exhibition ‘Liminal’ is currently being held, showing the boundary between reality and fiction through very unique video and installation art. Liminal means a boundary or transitional state and is also the title of the new work.

When you enter the exhibition hall, you are surprised by the huge size of the video, and you feel unfamiliar and confused as to whether the being in the video is a man or a woman, or a human or an alien life form. The author presents a hollow human form without a brain, face, or world. It is unclear whether it is reality or a virtual world. His work ‘Untitled (Human Mask)’, which he showed at the Seoul Museum of Art in 2016, was also exhibited. This work created a strange atmosphere by featuring a monkey wearing a mask shaped like a human face against the background of Fukushima, which was devastated after the Great East Japan Earthquake. This exhibition is a special exhibition prepared in collaboration with Samsung Leeum and will also be presented at Leeum in Seoul in February next year. I am curious about how large videos will be captured in the Leeum space. Venice/Senior Reporter Lee Hyang-hwi