Tag: Art
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My take on Leigh
My take on Leigh Simone Leigh is prominently present with her sculptures at the Venice Biennale. Her large bronze statue Brick House represents a black woman, her body shaped as a domed African clay house. Leigh applies this more often in her sculptures of women cast in bronze or made of glazed stoneware. It gives…
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Visiting Venice
Visiting Venice The Art Biennale in Venice is still on. I like going there, for the art and for Venice. The visitors, if not in too large numbers, sometimes also contribute to the pleasure of my visit. And when I need a break of the Biennale art I can always walk into the San Zaccaria…
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Two worlds
Two worlds One of the always very rewarding features of the Biennale is the placement of art works in old palazzos and other historical venues spread over the city of Venice. Here we have Martin Puryear’s sculpture ‘Shackled’ (2014) exposed in the school of music that is housed in ‘Palazzo Pisani a Santo Stefano’ (1614/15).…
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Art in context
Art in context Last week we looked at hanji paper works made by Chun Kwang Young. Here we look at some more of them, but this time within the spatial context of the venue in which they are exposed. At the Venice Biennale that venue is the Palazzo Contarini Polignac. Chun’s works are still the…
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A life’s work
A life’s work Since 1980 Korean artist Chun Kwang Young spends most of his time in making small triangular packets of printed mulberry paper. The mulberry paper (hanji), he recovers from old books. The little paper packets, he aggregates into larger objects like sculptures and reliefs. For Chun Kwang Young these art works contain the…
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When the mind says No
When the mind says No Just behind the Ukrainian Pavilion is one of those nice little squares of which Venice has so many. It has a small 13th century church, the Chiesetta della Misericordia, which houses this year the Dutch Pavilion of the Biennale with the video installation When the body says Yes by Melanie…
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Defending Freedom
Defending Freedom While Russia is invading and bombarding its neighbour Ukraine, spreading death and destruction, Ukraine is defending its freedom. At the Venice Biennale the Russian Pavilion is hermetically sealed. Russia is not welcome and is excluded from presenting itself at the exhibition. Ukraine on the other hand is proudly present with its international exhibition…
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Of loss and love
Of loss and love Before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, more than 14.000 people had already died in the war that started back in 2014. In the Mothers Series Ukrainian photographers portray hundreds of mothers that have lost a soldier son in the early years of the war. Under each picture…
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Valeriia
Valeriia Gigantic picture banner of Valeriia, one of the millions of Ukrainian children that have fled their country to escape the horror of war. The banner, made by French artist JR, has been unrolled in different cities of the world. Last April still on the Piazza San Marco in Venice before it found a place…
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Nympha
Nympha Paolo Fantin, in his installation Lympha at the Venice Biennale, shows us a ‘nympha’ enveloped in pure white and light, but with dirty mud at her feet. It’s the nymph Daphne who has tried hard to escape from the passionate, aggressive advances by Apollo. In the end she finds a way out by turning…
καιρός remembered 