ANW I DELHI I MAY 12, 2015 I 1st Published 1100 Courtesy: The Art Newspaper by FRANCO FANELLI
Okwui Enwezor’s show All the World's Futures starts with a bang at the Giardini’s Central Pavilion with the word “Fine” (the end), courtesy of Fabio Mauri. Perhaps we need to start from the end, from a new square one, if we are to successfully reinvent or reimagine the future?
The start is therefore a solid one because the themes of Mauri’s work—a reflection on history and the weight of the social and political responsibilities that the artist must carry—chime perfectly with those of the director’s exhibition.
Critic Franco Fanelli finds All the World's Futures an
enticing mix of drama and utopia
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| Katharina Grosse, Untitled Trumpet (2015) © Mikhail Mendelevich |
Okwui Enwezor’s show All the World's Futures starts with a bang at the Giardini’s Central Pavilion with the word “Fine” (the end), courtesy of Fabio Mauri. Perhaps we need to start from the end, from a new square one, if we are to successfully reinvent or reimagine the future?
The start is therefore a solid one because the themes of Mauri’s work—a reflection on history and the weight of the social and political responsibilities that the artist must carry—chime perfectly with those of the director’s exhibition.
 |
| Robert Smithson, Dead Tree (1969) in foreground. © Mikhail Mendelevich |
For those of us who have unpleasant memories of Enwezor’s
2002 Documenta, in which aesthetics were drowned by theory, this exhibition
will come as a welcome surprise. Yes it’s true; the heart of the space at the
Giardini has been taken over by David Adjaye’s “Arena”, which serves as a
platform for extended readings of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, or
less-than-light-hearted excerpts from Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s
Diary of a Photographer. But as a whole, the exhibition provides a good balance
of installations, video, photography, painting and sculpture. There is many a
room full of visually arresting pieces, such as Huma Bhabha’s totemic
sculptures, which are surrounded by new and hypnotic paintings by Ellen
Gallagher, or the space occupied by Dead Tree, a work by the late land-artist
Robert Smithson.
An enticing mix of history and vision, drama and utopia,
this exhibition has a pleasant rhythm. The walls in Hans Haacke’s room, for
example, are plastered with statistics and diagrams from a survey (political,
of course) of museum visitors, but at the centre of the room is a pivoting fan,
installed on the floor and facing the ceiling, that unpredictably swells a
light blue veil that is held in place by fishing lines—an almost poetic ode to
levity. The “memento mori” of Marlene Dumas’ ominous skull paintings is
counteracted by the vitality and freedom that exudes from the paintings of the
Australian Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who has no formal training
and whose work is entirely divorced from any traditional type of Aboriginal
iconography. There is equal space for the apocalyptic visions of Thomas
Hischhorn’s installation, which tears open the roof of the room in which it’s
installed, and of Wangechi Mutu’s animated video The End of Carrying All, and
the irony of Jeremy Deller’s jukebox, installed against a backdrop of fire and
brimstone.
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| Thomas Hirschhorn, Roof Off (2015) in foreground. © Mikhail Mendelevich |
However, and as always, it is the Arsenale that offers
the best space for works with a strong visual impact. The Corderie opens with
Bruce Nauman’s neon works, which hang on the walls, while menacing works by
Adel Abdessemed—large knives and swords—stick out of the floor. Further on we
encounter Katharina Grosse’s room, which appears ripped apart by the fall of a
meteorite. Even a protest against Putin takes on a spectacular shape here, as
the Russian artist Gluklya’s giant mannequins are lined up against the faded
red brick wall.
Visitors at the Arsenale are accompanied by audio works,
which follow them throughout the space: the exhibition is punctuated by Lili
Reynaud Dewar’s work, in which excerpts of text that address themes such as
sexuality, activism and freedom are sung out and accompanied by a jazz piano
courtesy of Jason Moran; Sonia Boyce’s piece Exquisite Cacophony; the ringing
of an old bell that has been welded together with metal left-overs from the war
in Iraq (a work by Hiwa K); Allora & Calzadilla's piece, in which the Vox
Nova Italia chorus sings songs from Hayden’s Creation, inspired by the Book of
Genesis and Milton’s Paradise Lost; and the Japanese bells in the work Animitas
by Christian Boltanski, which fully atone for the violent spasms of his video
L’Homme qui tousse, on show at the Giardini.
The Arsenale is also ideal for works that require visitor
interaction, such as Maria Eichhorn’s, which invites us to paint monochrome
paintings, or Dora Garcia’s performance piece, while Rirkrit Tiravanija is
selling bricks seared with the Chinese characters for “Don’t ever work” and
donating the proceeds to charity (the bricks are numbered 1 to 14,086—enough to
build a house for a small family in China).
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| Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (14,086 unfired) (2015) © Mikhail Mendelevich |
Another notable aspect of the Arsenale show is the
presence of de facto solo shows, from Carlos Basualdo, Thea Djordjadze, Qiu
Zhijie, the urban architects Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty, to Terry Adkins,
an artist who died too soon and who worked at the interstices of music and
sculpture, all of whom prove that form, if supported by valid ideas, needn’t
succumb to theory or to a complex curatorial vision.
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