Art's Biggest Stage
Collecting the Venice Biennale, 2007–2019
July 4–October 14, 2019
Objects produced for The Collectors, Elmgreen and Dragset's exhibition in the Danish and Nordic Pavilions at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Photo: Amanda Merullo for The New York Times
Checklist
Angolan Pavilion, 2013
Angolan photographer Edson Chagas created Luanda, Encyclopedic City for the Angolan Pavilion at the 2013 Biennale. The pavilion, which was the first for a sub-Saharan African country, won the Golden Lion for best national participation. Chagas’s photographic series Found Not Taken catalogues abandoned objects in Luanda, creating an ambiguous taxonomy of forms and symbols. The installation in Venice included twenty-three stacks of posters, each bearing a different image, that visitors could take away.
1. Posters from Luanda, Encyclopedic City
Edson Chagas (b. Luanda, 1977)
Each 19 × 27 in. (48.3 × 68.6 cm)
VB13 NE2698 C433 V45 2013po
Australian Pavilion, 2015
In 2015, Australian artist Fiona Hall inaugurated her country’s new pavilion with Wrong Way Time. Her presentation of more than eight hundred objects such as clocks, fantastical camouflaged figures, and international currency in glassy curiosity cabinets was a sober meditation on global politics, finance, and, above all, environmental degradation.
2. Exhibition cards from Wrong Way Time
Fiona Hall (b. Sydney, 1953)
Each 8 1/4 × 5 3/4 in. (21 × 14.6 cm)
VB15 NE2698 H175 V45 2015
3. Necklace and pendant from Wrong Way Time
Fiona Hall (b. Sydney, 1953)
Pendant: 2 3/4 × 2 1/4 in. (7 × 5.7 cm);
chain: 17 in. (43.2 cm)
VB15 NE2698 H175 V45 2015n
4. Sardine can USB drive from Wrong Way Time
Fiona Hall (b. Sydney, 1953)
2 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (5.7 × 3.2 cm)
VB15 NE2698 H175 V45 2015p
5. Tote bag from Wrong Way Time
Fiona Hall (b. Sydney, 1953)
18 × 14 3/4 in. (45.7 × 37.5 cm)
VB15 NE2698 H175 V45 2015b
Bahamian Pavilion, 2013
Tavares Strachan, a New York City–based Bahamian artist, has often explored orthostatic tolerance—the body’s ability to withstand pressure during the gravitational stress of quick changes in altitude, whether being launched into space or submerged in an ocean’s depths. For the first Bahamian Pavilion in Venice, Strachen linked the Arsenale, the North Pole, and Nassau, Bahamas, through an immersive installation documenting a reenactment of a 1909 polar expedition.
6. Tote bag from Polar Eclipse
Tavares Strachan (b. Nassau, 1979)
13 5/8 × 12 3/4 in. (34.6 × 32.4 cm)
VB13 NF302 S894 V45 2013b
7. Vinyl record: 40 Days & 40 Nights
Tavares Strachan (b. Nassau, 1979)
Each 7 × 7 in. (17.8 × 17.8 cm)
VB13 NF302 S894 V45 2013p
British Pavilion, 2007
Tracey Emin’s installation for the British Pavilion encompassed a range of media, from embroidery to drawing and broken-wood sculptures to neon light. As with much of her work, Borrowed Light used language and images of intimacy to convey life’s emotional complexities.
8. Booklet and envelope from Borrowed Light
Tracey Emin (b. London, 1963)
Booklet: 4 3/8 × 3 1/8 in. (11 × 8 cm); envelope: 4 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (12 × 9 cm)
VB07 ND497 E5 V46 2007e
9. Hat from Borrowed Light
Tracey Emin (b. London, 1963)
10 1/4 × 10 1/4 × 4 3/4 in. (26 × 26 × 12 cm)
VB07 ND497 E5 V46 2007h
10. Temporary tattoo from Borrowed Light
Tracey Emin (b. London, 1963)
4 3/8 × 3 1/8 in. (11 × 8 cm)
VB07 ND497 E5 V46 2007e
British Pavilion, 2009
For the British Pavilion at the 2009 Biennale, artist Steve McQueen created Giardini, a quiet, thirty-minute meditation on the gardens. The two-channel film was shot in February, when the parkland is largely abandoned, and the national pavilions are boarded up. Characterized by mists, sunsets, the sounds of church bells, and other moody material, it is a composition made up of resonant details.
11. Exhibition catalogue: Giardini Notebook
Steve McQueen (b. London, 1969)
6 1/2 × 9 1/2 in. (16.5 × 9.5 cm)
VB09 NF497 M163 V46 2009
12. Brochure: Giardini
Steve McQueen (b. London, 1969)
8 ½ × 4 ½ in. (21 × 12 cm)
VB09 NF497 M163 V46 2009
British Pavilion, 2013
Jeremy Deller created a multimedia installation titled English Magic for the British Pavilion at the 2013 Biennale. As with much of his work, it drew on the country’s myths, folklore, and communities, reaching both high and low to explore “magical” transformations in British society. In Deller’s time-hopping story, William Morris returns from the dead; a bird of prey seeks revenge on a Range Rover; and a town in the Channel Islands burns.
13. Artist’s book from English Magic
Jeremy Deller (b. London, 1966)
8 1/2 × 5 1/4 in. (21.6 × 13.3 cm)
AB VB13 NF497 D357 V45 2013e/b
14. Prints from English Magic
Jeremy Deller (b. London, 1966)
Each 8 1/4 × 11 5/8 in. (21 × 29.5 cm)
VB13 D357 V45 2013e
15. Tote bag from English Magic
Jeremy Deller (b. London, 1966)
17 × 14 1/2 in. (43.2 × 36.8 cm)
VB13 D357 V45 2013b
Canadian Pavilion, 2011
For his exhibition in Venice, Canadian artist Steven Shearer used figurative painting, drawing, and a large text-based mural on the pavilion’s facade to explore the subculture of heavy metal music. The intimacy of his canvases and works on paper contrasts the “antagonistic and bombastic tone” of the poem exhibited outside the pavilion, which was “meant to act as a social leveler” calling “for the destruction of all things equally.”
16. Artist-designed magazine: Conservative Shithead issue 3
Steven Shearer (b. New Westminster, 1968)
11 3/4 × 8 1/4 in. (29.8 × 21 cm)
VB11 ND249 S443 V46 2011
Collateral Events, 2011
Before the Venice Biennale opens to the public, thousands of artists, art dealers, curators, critics, and other art workers descend upon the city for a week of previews and parties. One object in the exhibition is an invitation for a party thrown by Larry Gagosian, owner of a worldwide network of galleries, to celebrate the Austrian artist Franz West (1947–2012). In a humorous gesture befitting West’s wry artwork, the invitation unfolds to reveal a touristic view of Venice’s Grand Canal. Its speaker emits music typically heard on gondolas.
17. Dinner invitation from Gagosian Gallery
9 5/8 × 7 5/8 in. (24.4 × 19.4 cm)
VB11 N5146 A7 2011pa
(fig. 10, p. 41 gatefold)
18. Dinner invitation from Hauser & Wirth
4 × 6 in. (10.2 × 15.2 cm)
VB11 N5146 A7 2011pa
Collateral Project, 2009
In 2009, Palestine’s first official contribution to the Biennale was an authorized off-site exhibition entitled Palestine c/o Venice. For that exhibition, artist Emily Jacir proposed printing the names of vaporetto (water bus) stops along one route through Venice in both Arabic and Italian. The artwork was Jacir’s attempt to put the city’s public transportation system in dialogue with the shared European/Arab heritage of its surroundings. It was approved by all relevant authorities, but three months before the Biennale opened, the project was shut down abruptly and without explanation. Nevertheless, Jacir still created a map and brochure of her planned project, a guide to an artwork that never existed.
19. Cat 19 Exhibition catalogue from Palestine c/o Venice
11 1/8 × 9 in. (28.3 × 22.9 cm)
VB09 N7277 V46 2009
20. Map: Stazione
Emily Jacir (b. Bethlehem, 1970)
20 1/8 × 22 7/8 in. (51 × 58 cm)
VB09 NF979 J12 V46 2009
Collateral Project, 2017
With his project for the Catalonian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, artist Antoni Abad proposed to represent alternative ways of navigating urban environments, whether physical or digital. His Unveiling the Unseen took the form of an exhibition, boat tours, and an app that shared the experiences of visually impaired or blind people. It offered a sensorial version of the Italian city, with location-based sound maps and other tools to improve the services to visually impaired citizens and visitors.
21. Artist’s book: Unveiling the Unseen
Antoni Abad (Spanish; b. Lleida, 1956)
11 3/4 × 9 1/4 in. (29.8 × 23.5 cm)
VB17 NF813 A23 V46 2017
Dutch Pavilion, 2011
The Dutch Pavilion was converted into a kind of theater for the 2011 Venice Biennale. Curator Guus Beumer brought together nearly a dozen artists to examine whether national identity can be reinterpreted through the notion of community, and whether community can be fostered through cultural infrastructure.
22. Pop-up maquette from Loose Work
Maureen Mooren (b. Dordrecht, 1969)
9 1/2 × 13 in. (24.1 × 33 cm)
VB11 N6948 V46 2011
23. Printed sheets and booklet from Loose Work
Various artists
Each 13 × 9 1/2 in. (33 × 24.1 cm)
VB11 N6948 V46 2011
Dutch Pavilion, 2013
Room with Broken Sentence surveyed more than twenty years of Dutch artist Mark Manders’s output and included a new monumental sculpture. Its installations, prints, and architectural interventions were enigmatic—materials were not what they seemed—yet visually seductive. The elegant catalogue functions similarly, with personal reflections by nearly forty international writers.
24. Exhibition catalogue: Mark Manders: Room
with Broken Sentence
Mark Manders (b. Volkel, 1968)
10 5/8 × 8 1/4 in. (27 × 21 cm)
VB13 NF653 M272 V45 2013
Estonian Pavilion, 2015
Since 2007, Estonian artist Jaanus Samma has collected and exhibited the hidden histories of gay lives in Soviet Estonia. Not Suitable for Work, his installation for the Estonian Pavilion at the 2015 Biennale, used the form of a fictional opera to follow the travails of a collective-farm chairman on trial in the 1960s for “acts of homosexuality.”
25. Artist’s book: Criminal Case No. 6, from Not Suitable for Work:
A Chairman’s Tale
Jaanus Samma (b. Tallinn, 1982)
12 3/8 × 9 1/4 in. (31.4 × 23.5 cm)
VB15 NF955 E8 S35 V45 2015c
26. Tote bag from Not Suitable for Work: A Chairman’s Tale
Jaanus Samma (b. Tallinn, 1982)
16 1/4 × 14 3/4 in. (41.3 37.5 cm)
VB15 NF955 E8 S35 V45 2015b
27. Brochure: Not Suitable for Work: A Chairman’s Tale
Jaanus Samma (b. Tallinn, 1982)
5 7/8 × 4 3/8 in. (15 × 11 cm)
VB15 NF955 E8 S35 V45 2017e
Finnish Pavilion, 2017
An elegant and laboriously designed artist book accompanied Nathaniel Mellors and Erkka Nissinen’s installation in the Finnish Pavilion at the 2017 Biennale. Their exhibition involved video, animatronics, and the participation of Finnish celebrities to offer an absurd but pointed examination of Finnish identity. The book’s cover mimics a scene in the video in which a guitar-playing figure has a box with eyeholes for a head.
28. Exhibition catalogue: The Aalto Natives: A Transcendental Manual
Nathaniel Mellors (British; b. Doncaster, 1974) and Erkka Nissinen
(b. Jyväskylä, 1975)
11 3/4 × 8 5/8 in. (29.9 × 21.9 cm)
VB17 NF955 F53 N57 V46 2017
French Pavilion, 2011
For decades, artist Christian Boltanski has explored fate through installations that use light and accumulations of objects to meditate on disappearance and death. For the French Pavilion at the 2011 Biennale, Boltanski turned to another form of chance: birth. A large, mechanical installation filled the Neoclassical pavilion with a whirring “filmstrip” printed with newborns’ faces. This contraption would pause occasionally, and a baby’s face would be spot lit on monitors.
29. Posters from Chance
Christian Boltanski (b. Paris, 1944)
Each 16 1/2 × 24 in. (41.9 × 61 cm)
VB11 NE2698 B694 V46 2011p
Greek Pavilion, 2015
Artist Maria Papadimitriou built a to-scale replica of a shop selling animal hides and leather for her presentation at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Why Look at Animals? AGRIMIKÁ underscored humans’ anthropocentric worldview by meditating upon the kinds of animals, such as wolves, that coexist with people but cannot be domesticated by them. This relationship was presented as an allegory of the dispossessed and the resistant at a moment when Greek society was roiled by economic challenges and issues pertaining to immigration and migration.
30. Cowbell from Why Look at Animals? AGRIMIKÁ
Maria Papadimitriou (b. Athens, 1957)
3 × 2 5/8 in. (7.6 × 6.7 cm)
VB15 NF603 P213 V46 2015c
Icelandic Pavilion, 2015
In 2015, Iceland’s pavilion was located in the Santa Maria della Misericordia, a former Catholic church that had been unused for decades. Swiss artist Christoph Büchel proposed turning the building into the first functioning mosque in central Venice for the duration of the Biennale. The project was intended to highlight the influence of Islamic trade and culture on the city. The installation lasted only two weeks before it was shut down by the police, whose letters declaring it closed are included in the exhibition.
31. Police notices, flyer, and donation form from THE MOSQUE: The First
Mosque in the Historic City of Venice
Christoph Büchel (Swiss; b. Basel, 1966)
Police notices: each 11 5/8 × 8 1/4 in. (29.5 × 21 cm); flyer: 8 1/4 × 5 3/4 in. (21 ×
14.6 cm); donation form: 5 7/8 × 8 1/4 in (14.9 × 21 cm)
VB15 NF853 B919 V46 2015p
Icelandic Pavilion, 2017
For the Icelandic Pavilion at the 2017 Biennale, artist Egill Sæbjörnsson invented Ūgh and Bõögâr, two trolls whose interests determined the pavilion’s varied contents. Sæbjörnsson and his trolls collaborated on music; worked with perfumer Gez Schön on a custom scent; created clothes with an award-winning Icelandic fashion designer; and created large-scale video installations and functional clay sculptures.
32. Café materials from Out of Controll in Venice
Egill Sæbjörnsson (b. Reykjavik, 1973)
Napkin: 4 3/4 × 4 1/2 in. (12.1 × 11.4 cm); sugar packets: each 1 3/4 × 2 3/4 in. (4.4 ×
7 cm)
VB17 ND753 E35.3 V46 2017c
33. Perfume bottle from Out of Controll in Venice
Egill Sæbjörnsson (b. Reykjavik, 1973)
4 1/2 × 2 5/8 × 1 1/2 in. (4.4 × 6.7 × 3.8 cm)
VB17 ND753 E35.3 V46 2017e
34. Pins from Out of Controll in Venice
Egill Sæbjörnsson (b. Reykjavik, 1973)
Each diameter: 1 in. (2.5 cm)
VB17 ND753 E35.3 V46 2017p
35. Vinyl record from Out of Controll in Venice
Egill Sæbjörnsson (b. Reykjavik, 1973)
12 3/8 × 12 3/8 in. (31.4 × 31.4 cm)
VB17 ND753 E35.3 V46 2017r
Korean Pavilion, 2017
For the 2017 Biennale, curator Lee Daehyung brought together works by artists Cody Choi and Lee Wan under the title Counterbalance: The Stone and the Mountain. The exhibition was an exercise in understanding how individual stories relate to national histories. Choi often responds to the influence of Western culture through appropriation and parody. Wan investigates economic and social systems through performance and archival research. “By revealing the transnationalconditions of production and consumption,” Daehyung wrote, “these two artists create . . . distillations of human experience. . . . Single stories retain the power to critique and dislodge dominant systems.”
36. Artist’s book: Mr. K
Lee Wan (b. Seoul, 1979)
11 3/4 × 8 1/2 in. (30 × 21.6 cm)
VB17 N7365 V46 2017w
37. Artist’s book: Venetian Rhapsody: The Power of Bluff
Cody Choi (b. Seoul, 1961)
10 5/8 × 8 1/8 in. (27 × 20.6 cm)
VB17 N7365 V46 2017c
38. Artist’s newspaper: The Counterbalance
Cody Choi (b. Seoul, 1961)
17 3/8 × 11 3/8 in. (44.1 × 28.9 cm)
VB17 N7365 V46 2017ne
39. Artist’s newspaper: The Counterbalance
Lee Wan (b. Seoul, 1979)
17 3/8 × 11 3/8 in. (44.1 × 28.9 cm)
VB17 N7365 V46 2017ne
40. Exhibition catalogue: Counterbalance:
The Stone and the Mountain
Cody Choi (b. Seoul, 1961) and Lee Wan (b. Seoul,
1979)
9 1/2 × 6 5/8 in. (24.1 × 16.8 cm)
VB17 N7365 V46 2017
41. Poker chip USB drive from Counterbalance: The Stone and the
Mountain
Diameter: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm)
VB17 N7365 V46 2017p
Lebanese Pavilion, 2013
Akram Zaatari’s installation at the 2013 Venice Biennale included a forty-five minute video, a 16-mm film, and an immersive environment conceived as a stage awaiting an actor. The works centered on the story of an Israeli pilot who, in 1982, refused to drop a bomb on a school building in Sayda, the artist’s hometown. The story circulated through Lebanon as a rumor for decades; only in 2010 was the story confirmed. Zaatari’s art often involves exploring photographic archives and practices as a way of understanding social codes; this newsprint publication is one manifestation of Zaatari’s project, which reflects on the complexities of refusal as a generative act.
42. Artist publication from Letter to a Refusing Pilot
Akram Zaatari (b. Sayda, 1966)
16 7/8 × 11 in. (42.9 × 27.9 cm)
VB13 NE2698 Z38 V45 2013
Lithuanian Pavilion, 2017
Žilvinas Landzbergas’s exhibition, titled R, revealed how fantastical and mesmeric aspects of the landscape are an important component of Baltic and Nordic society. His multimedia presentation, which included large-scale sculptures, installations, artist-designed clothing, and other media included “devoured suns and fake moons . . . [sprouting] furniture and giant heads,” music, food, and acupuncture sessions.
43. Beer bottle from R
Žilvinas Landzbergas (b. Kaunas, 1979)
Height: 10 3/8 in. (26.4 cm); base diameter:
2 1/2 in. (6.3 cm)
VB17 NB955 L573 Z55 V46 2017b
Main Exhibition, 2007
Christine Hill, an American artist who has divided her time between New York and Berlin since 1992, is known for creating the Volksboutique workshop, a second-hand shop and social sculpture that has inhabited both urban storefronts and prestigious international exhibitions. For artistic director Robert Storr’s main exhibition at the 2007 Venice Biennale, Hill created an installation documented by this book, which intersperses writing by well-known authors with re-creations of her Moleskine documenting the year she had to create her work for Venice.
44. Artist’s book: Minutes
Christine Hill (American; b. Binghamton, 1968)
8 3/8 × 5 3/8 in. (21.3 × 13.7 cm)
VB07 NF237 H645 V46 2007
Main Exhibition, 2017
Taiwanese-American artist Lee Mingwei’s performance as part of the main exhibition of the 2017 Biennale was sited in a small garden inside the central pavilion. It included an empty chair with a stone on its seat. When a visitor entered, a woman in a white robe appeared, removed the stone, and invited the guest to sit. After brief remarks, she left and returned with a letter on a tray like the one seen here. The recipient was instructed to open the envelope “whenever beauty visits.”
45. Envelope and letter from When Beauty Visits
Lee Mingwei (b. 1964)
Envelope: 8 × 6 in. (20.3 × 15.2 cm); letter: 5 3/4 × 7 3/4 in. (14.6 × 19.7 cm)
VB17 NF237 L479 V46 2017
Maldives Pavilion, 2013
Portable Nation, an exhibition curated by Chamber of Public Secrets (Alfredo Cramerotti, Aida Eltorie, and Khaled Ramadan), was the first official presentation by The Maldives at the Venice Biennale. The Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, which commissioned the pavilion, viewed the Biennale as an opportunity to bring attention to the nation’s imperiled status. Rising sea levels caused by climate change threaten to submerge the island; as such, the pavilion was conceived as an “eco-aesthetic space” and a platform for not only artists, but also environmental activists and theorists.
46. Poster from Portable Nation: Disappearance as Work in Progress,
Approaches to Ecological Romanticism
33 × 12 in. (83.8 × 30.5 cm)
VB13 N7310.8 M415 V46 2013e
47. Printed paper: The Ice Monolith
Stefano Cagol (Italian; b. Trento, 1969)
8 1/4 × 11 3/4 in. (21 × 30 cm)
VB13 N7310.8 M415 V46 2013e
48. Printed paper: For a Completely Different Climate
Oliver Ressler (Austrian; b. Knittelfeld, 1970)
8 1/4 × 11 3/4 in. (21 × 30 cm)
VB13 N7310.8 M415 V46 2013e
49. Printed paper: Maldives: To Be or Not
Khaled Ramadan (Lebanese; b. Beirut, 1965)
8 1/4 × 11 3/4 in. (21 × 30 cm)
VB13 N7310.8 M415 V46 2013e
50. Printed paper: Pantheistic Polifacetic
Patrizio Travagli (Italian; b. Florence, 1972)
8 1/4 × 11 3/4 in. (21 × 30 cm)
VB13 N7310.8 M415 V46 2013e
51. Printed paper: Polar Tide: Floods of Data, Floods of Tones
Greg Niemeyer (Swiss; b. 1967), Chris Chafe (Swiss; b. Bern, 1952), Perrin Meyer
(American; b. Berkeley)
8 1/4 × 11 3/4 in. (21 × 30 cm)
VB13 N7310.8 M415 V46 2013e
Nordic Pavilion, 2009
For the 2009 Biennale, the Nordic Committee and the Danish Arts Council commissioned artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset to organize the Danish and Nordic Pavilions. Rather than present an exhibition of only their own work, Elmgreen and Dragset created The Collectors, two fictional worlds centered on the adjacent buildings, and invited other artists to help them populate it. Elmgreen and Dragset conceived of each pavilion as a home—the Danish Pavilion as the setting for a family, the Nordic Pavilion as a bachelor pad. The Danish Pavilion was “for sale,” and a performer acting as a real-estate agent led groups through the building while relating stories about the inhabitants. In the Nordic Pavilion, young men sipped drinks and lounged in the fashionable environment. The pavilion involved more than twenty artists and designers, many of whom contributed small-scale editioned artworks included in the exhibition.
52. Artist’s book: Things and Things: From Trains to Paintings
Dorothea von Hantelmann (German; b. Hamburg, 1969)
5 7/8 × 4 1/2 in. (14.9 × 11.4 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009
53. Artist’s book with paper dolls: Between Object and Organ:
Powerless Collections
Clémentine Deliss (British; b. London, 1960)
Book: 6 1/4 × 4 3/4 in. (15.9 × 12.1 cm); dolls: 15 × 10 5/8 in. (38.1 × 27 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009
54. Brochure: Vigilante Exclusive Real Estate
Michael Elmgreen (Danish; b. Copenhagen, 1961) and Ingar Dragset
(Norwegian; b. Trondheim, 1969)
9 3/4 × 7 in. (24.8 × 17.8 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009br
55. Business card: Vigilante Exclusive Real Estate
Michael Elmgreen (Danish; b. Copenhagen, 1961) and Ingar Dragset
(Norwegian; b. Trondheim, 1969)
2 1/8 × 3 1/2 in. (5.4 × 8.9 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009bu
56. Dinner plates: Table for Bergman
Michael Elmgreen (Danish; b. Copenhagen, 1961) and Ingar Dragset
(Norwegian; b. Trondheim, 1969)
Each diameter: 12 in. (30.5 cm)
Collection of the artists
57. Invitation: Party Crashing
Michael Elmgreen (Danish; b. Copenhagen, 1961) and Ingar Dragset
(Norwegian; b. Trondheim, 1969)
11 3/4 × 2 3/4 in. (29.8 × 7 cm)
Collection of the artists
58. Magazine: Art in America, September 2009
8 1/2 × 11 in. (21.5 × 27.5 cm)
Collection of the artists
59. Moleskine notebooks from The Collectors
Michael Elmgreen (Danish; b. Copenhagen, 1961) and Ingar Dragset
(Norwegian; b. Trondheim, 1969)
5 1/8 × 8 1/4 in. (13 × 21 cm)
Collection of the artists
60. Pamphlet from The Collectors
Michael Elmgreen (Danish; b. Copenhagen, 1961) and Ingar Dragset
(Norwegian; b. Trondheim, 1969)
5 1/8 × 7 7/8 in. (13 × 20 cm)
Collection of the artists
61. Poster from The Collectors
Michael Elmgreen (Danish; b. Copenhagen, 1961) and Ingar Dragset
(Norwegian; b. Trondheim, 1969)
33 1/8 × 31 1/2 in. (84 × 80 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009bu
62. Poster: Sheer Things: Aesthetic and Less Aesthetic Extremes of
Collecting
Anna Echterhölter (German)
23 1/4 × 16 3/8 in. (59 × 42.2 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009
63. Tote bag: The Collectors
Michael Elmgreen (b. Copenhagen, 1961) and Ingar Dragset
(b. Trondheim, 1969)
16 1/2 × 14 1/8 in. (42 × 36 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009
64. Button: Someone Else with My Fingerprints, from The Collectors
Jonathan Monk (British; b. Leicester, 1969)
Diameter: 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009pi
65. Dice from The Collectors
Guillaume Bijl (Belgian; b. Antwerp, 1946)
Each 5/8 × 5/8 × 5/8 in. (1.6 × 1.6 × 1.6 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009d
66. Napkin: Forty Winks
Vibeke Slyngstad (Norwegian; b. Ålesund, 1968)
8 ¾ × 8 ¾ in. (30 × 30 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009fo
67. Placemat: Scribbles, Dribbles, Nibbles, from The Collectors
Simon Fujiwara (British; b. London, 1982)
11 1/2 × 16 1/4 in. (29.2 × 41.3 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009sc
68. Postcards from The Collectors
Martin Jacobson (Swedish; b. Stockholm, 1978)
Each 3 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. (8.9 × 14 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009
69. Letters from the United States Department of Agriculture
Each 8 1/2 × 11 in. (22 × 28 cm)
70. Sign: Anything Helps, from The Collectors
Jani Leinonen (Finnish; b. Hyvinkää, 1978)
5 × 11 in. (12.7 × 27.9 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009a
71. Temporary tattoo: Seller’s Aid (I BUY), from
The Collectors
Hernan Bas (American; b. Miami, 1978)
2 1/2 × 3 1/2 in. (6.4 × 8.9 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009s
72. Toilet Paper: The Whole Universe
Terence Koh (Chinese; b. Beijing, 1977)
4 5/8 × 4 3/4 in. (11.7 × 12.1 cm)
VB09 N7018 V46 2009w
Polish Pavilion, 2011
Israeli artist Yael Bartana’s installation for the Polish Pavilion at the 2011 Biennale included several films, shot in Warsaw, that imagined a Jewish Renaissance Movement. Its manifesto includes the statement: “We will accept anyone into our ranks for whom there was no room in their homelands—the expelled, persecuted. . . . We will be strong in our weakness.”
73. Exhibition catalogue: A Cook Book for Political Imagination, from . . . And Europe will be Stunned
Yael Bartana (Israeli; b. Kfar Yehezkel, 1970)
8 1/2 × 5 3/4 × 1 7/8 in. (21.6 × 14.6 × 4.8 cm)
VB11 N7255 P6 V46 2011
74. Membership card for The Jewish Renaissance Movement, from . . . And Europe will be Stunned
Yael Bartana (Israeli; b. Kfar Yehezkel, 1970)
2 3/16 × 3 5/16 in. (5.6 × 8.4 cm)
VB11 N7255 P6 V46 2011c
75. Invitation for The Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland, from . . . And Europe will be Stunned
Yael Bartana (Israeli; b. Kfar Yehezkel, 1970)
8 × 5 3/4 in. (20.3 × 14.6 cm)
VB11 N7255 P6 V46 2011p
76. Poster for The Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland, from . . . And Europe will be Stunned
Yael Bartana (Isareli; b. Kfar Yehezkel, 1970)
8 ¼ × 5 7/8 in. (21 × 15 cm)
VB11 N7255 P6 V46 2011p
Polish Pavilion, 2013
The focal point of Konrad Smoleński’s installation in the Polish Pavilion was a sculptural instrument composed of two large bells, a stack of loudspeakers, and other resonating objects. The artist composed a delay-heavy composition for these instruments that contrasts the tolling of the bells with abstract noise.
77. Flexidisc: Music for Bell and Tape
Konrad Smoleński (b. Kalisz, 1977)
7 × 7 in. (17.8 × 17.8 cm)
VB13 NF955 P63 S666 V46 2013p
78. Brochure: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More
Konrad Smolenski (b. Kalisz, 1977)
6 ¾ × 5 ½ in. (17 × 14 cm)
VB13 NF955 P63 S666 V46 2013p
Slovenian Pavilion, 2013
For Our Economy and Culture, Jasmina Cibic’s installation in the Slovenian Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale, included videos, a performance, photographs, and this wallpaper. The Slovenian beetle depicted in the exhibition was discovered by explorer Vladimir Kodrič in 1933; four years later, entomologist Oskar Scheibel confirmed the discovery of the new species and, as a Nazi supporter, named it Anophthalmus hitleri. The varied depictions were created by forty international scientific illustrators who, at Cibic’s request, drew the beetle with no reference beyond its name and their own experiences in the field. Because of its name, which prompts collectors of Hitler memorabilia to seek it out, the beetle is now on the endangered species list.
79. Printed wallpaper: The Fruits of Our Land
Jasmina Cibic (b. Ljubljana, 1979)
20 1/2 in. × 33 ft. (52.1 cm × 10 m)
VB13 NE2698 C567 V45 2013w
Swiss Pavilion, 2011
The group exhibition Chewing the Scenery used time-based art and writing to explore “delays, leaps and ruptures, anachronisms and dissonance” in contemporary society. The presentation included a film installation, a dramatization featuring four actors in the same role, and live events. The exhibition publication engages the theme in its structure: not only are its pages loose, but it was also expanded, reworked, and reissued twice during the exhibition.
80. Exhibition publication: Chewing the Scenery
Maria Iorio (b. Lausanne, 1975), Raphaël Cuomo (b. Delemont, 1977), Uriel Orlow
(b. Zurich, 1973), and Eran Schaerf (Israeli; b. Tel Aviv, 1962)
15 × 10 1/4 in. (38.1 × 26 cm)
VB11 N7148 V46 2011
Swiss Pavilion, 2013
Visitors to Valentin Carron’s Swiss Pavilion in 2013 were greeted by the forked tongue of a snake; its body, rendered in steel, extended more than two hundred and fifty feet and wound through the installation. A series of fiberglass works inspired by stained glass in mid-century public and religious architecture recall abstract paintings. Several sculptures of flattened instruments and other works rounded out the artist’s meditation on sculpture as a medium.
81. Artist’s book: Valentin Carron
Valentin Carron (b. Martigny, 1977)
12 3/4 × 9 1/4 in. (32.4 × 23.5 cm)
VB13 NB853 C28 V45 2013
Tunisian Pavilion, 2017
The Absence of Paths, which was installed in kiosks throughout Venice, involved a physical travel document called a Freesa, which was made in collaboration with a company that produces identification papers for countries around the world. This performance piece juxtaposes “the cold mechanics of immigration bureaucracy” with “an imagined world free of borders.”
82. Booklet and Freesa from The Absence of Paths
Booklet: 6 3/4 × 4 in. (17.1 × 10.2 cm); freesa: 3 ¼ × 4 ½ in.
(8.3 × 11.4 cm)
VB17 N7391 V46 2017f
83. Application form from The Absence of Paths
5 3/4 × 3 in. (14.6 × 7.6 cm)
VB17 N7391 V46 2017f
United Arab Emirates Pavilion, 2015
The exhibition this catalogue accompanies was built on extensive research into the recent history of art in the United Arab Emirates. It presented artworks from several decades that emerged from or were related to the Emirates Fine Arts Society, a nonprofit association established in Sharjah in 1980.
84. Exhibition catalogue: 1980–Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates
10 1/8 × 7 1/8 in. (25.7 × 18.1 cm)
VB15 N3810 U6 V46 2015nc
Unsanctioned Event, 2017
In 2017, University of the Arts Helsinki, an interdisciplinary arts school in Finland, sponsored the second Research Pavilion as a collateral event of the Venice Biennale. Utopia of Access included three exhibitions and more than forty interdisciplinary events that involved more than one hundred artists and researchers from across Europe.
85. Lenticular postcard for You Gotta Say Yes
to Another Access, from Utopia of Access
Mareia C. Saladrigues (Spanish, b. Terrassa, 1978)
4 × 6 in. (10.2 × 15.2 cm)
VB17 N6493.5 V46 2017re
Unsanctioned Project, 2015
During the opening of the 2015 Venice Biennale, a group of anonymous Ukrainian artists occupied the Russian Pavilion to protest Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Wearing camouflage fatigues, these artists urged visiting tourists to put on the uniforms and take selfies in “the occupying power of your choice.” Posting those images to social media offered participants a chance to win a vacation to seaside Crimean town of Balaklava.
86. Jacket from #ONVACATION
Anonymous artists
33 1/4 × 27 1/2 in.; sleeve length: 26 1/4 in. (84.5 ×
69.9 cm; sleeve length: 66.7 cm)
VB15 N7255 U47 O5 V46 2015j
87. Tote bag from #ONVACATION
Anonymous artists
15 1/4 × 13 5/8 in. (38.7 × 34.6 cm)
VB15 N7255 U47 O5 V46 2015b
88. Pamphlet from #ONVACATION
Anonymous artists
8 1/4 × 11 5/8 in. (20.8 × 29.5 cm)
VB15 N7255 U47 O5 V46 2015p
Unsanctioned Projects, 2017
The NSK State Pavilion is one of several recent Biennale projects that render literal questions of identity, migration, borders, and access. It involved offering visitors a Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) passport that identified the bearer as a citizen of the NSK state. The Boat Is Leaking. The Captain Lied, an exhibition featuring esteemed artists working in different disciplines, was the Fondazione Prada’s presentation in Venice during the 2017 Biennale.
89. Passport issued by NSK State
Roman Uranjek (Slovenian; b. Trbovlje, 1961)
5 × 3 1/2 in. (12.7 × 8.9 cm)
VB17 N7255 S56 V46 2017p
90. Application form for NSK State passport
Roman Uranjek (Slovenian; b. Trbovlje, 1961)
11 5/8 × 6 3/4 in. (29.59 × 17.15 cm)
VB17 N7255 S56 V46 2017e
91. Exhibition catalogue from The Boat Is Leaking. The Captain Lied.
Thomas Demand (German; b. Munich, 1964), Alexander Kluge (German;
b. Halberstadt, 1932), Anna Viebrock (German; b. Cologne, 1951)
8 × 11 in. (20.3 × 28 cm)
VB17 N6493.5 V46 2017