Venice Biennale 2022

The Venice Biennale 2022 presents ‘The Milk of Dreams’ curated by Cecilia Alemani and involves 213 artists from 58 countries, 180 of whom have never had works in an international arts exhibition. It’s an awesome exhibition full of visual surprises and thought provoking works. 

In the 127 years of the Venice Biennale never has there been a majority of women and gender non-conforming artists, ‘a deliberate re-thinking of men’s centrality in the history of art and contemporary culture’. 

The exhibition ‘is not about the pandemic but it inevitably registers the upheaval of an era…arts and artists can help us imagine new modes of coexistence and infinite new possibilities and transformation’. 

The title of the exhibition is from the book  by surrealist artist, Leonora Carrington in which she describes ‘a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination.’ 

‘The Milk of Dreams’ lives up to Carrington’s magical and imaginative world and Alemani’s re-thinking of art and artists. A visual pictorial of the Dreams……a selection.

The Biennale takes places across two distinct venues in terms of place and space: Arsenale and Giardini.

‘The Milk of Dreams’ exhibition and the Participating Country Pavilions sit uneasily together given one is theme based and curated and the other at the whim and leanings of an artist selected by each country’s arts /cultural administrative and arts interests. 

The Biennale straddles these two venues;  Arsenale provides a post industrial environment with its huge spaces and horizontal layout for both the exhibition and the Country ‘pavilions’ and the Cenral Pavilion Giardini a garden setting with a site providing a white walled exhibition space, with rambling rooms and the self styled built and restored separate Country Pavilions. 

The buildings themselves are an introduction to each of the 80 participating countries persona across the two sites. The Country Pavilions do not represent their art but reflect the chosen art……but do provide some insight into the the range of interests, issues and socio-economic politics that inhabit the mind of the artist and the material used to inform the viewer and participant. In the following order: Italy, Belgium, Ukraine, Canada, Latvia, France, Lebanon, Spain, Hungary, Poland. Uruguay.

https://www.labiennale.org/en/venues/arsenale

https://www.labiennale.org/en/venues/giardini-della-biennale

https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2022

'Relocating a structure' Maria Eichhorn

The German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale has history and it is being exposed. Artist, Maria Eichhorn, in her work titled ‘Relocating a structure’ has taken on the role of ‘artecheologist’ to reveal a Nazi past that is revealed in her dig into the fabric of the building. Her original idea was to relocate the German Pavilion for the duration of the Biennale and then return it to its site. The space would lead to a reflection on its past and perhaps the role of national pavilions.  

The building was originally a Bavarian Pavilion built in in 1909 and was renamed the German Pavilion in 1912. In 1938 Hitler instructed and over sighted changes that altered its face to the world, adding columns and a design that reflected a fascist aesthetic. He attended the Venice Biennale and opened the building. Its fascist past is reinforced by the removal of Italian Jews from Venice in via staging places to the Santa Lucia Railway station.

Collateral Events

Field - Pedro Cabrita Reis

Outside of the official Venice Biennale program is 'Field' by Portuguese artist Pedro Cabrita Reis. This stunning work installed in Chiesa di San Fantin church addresses the ‘field’ between ideas of right and wrong. A space of light. He quotes Rumi to say ‘I will see you there’. He has also made multiple public space works. Check them out at cabrita-field-venice.com 

It’s a work that challenges notions of construction and reconstruction. The artist laid the lighting foundations and covered the entire space with building rubble. The cracks in the rubble enabled the light through and represented faith or hope for the future. Stunning concept and execution. His work sits outside the Biennale as a Collateral Event. 

An Archeology of Silence - Kehinde Wiley

American artist, Kehinde Wiley in ‘An Archeology of Silence’ exposes the ‘unseen members of Black and brown communities all over the globe, by inserting them in the dominant poses drawn from famous compositions of western paining’. It’s an overwhelming depiction of lives that matter and is stunning in its detail. A site and sight that asserts its impact as a Collateral Event to the Biennal.

Berlin Biennale 2022

30 June, 2022

Berlin Biennale 12

https://www.berlinbiennale.de/de/

The Berlin Biennale 12 takes place across six venues and is titled ‘Still Present!’ Curated by Kader Attia, the artists reflect on a troubling world and the continuing impact of colonialization, right wing extremism, war and injustice. ’The present world is the way it is because it carries all of the wounds accumulated throughout the history of Western modernity’ 

Selected artist images: Lawrence Abu Hamadan; Amal Kenawy; Mai Nguyen-Long; Dan Chau Hai; Nil Yalter; Susan Schuppli; Asim Abdulaziz; Sven Johne; Zuzanna Hertzberg.

The Berlin Biennale 12 takes place across six venues and is titled ‘Still Present!’ Curated by Kader Attia, the artists reflect on a troubling world and the continuing impact of colonialization, right wing extremism, war and injustice. ’The present world is the way it is because it carries all of the wounds accumulated throughout the history of Western modernity’ 

 

Today we visited the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum and viewed works by some 20 artists. A number of the works were a reminder of the extent and depth of challenges the world faces. 

The presentation by Forensic Architecture investigated Russia’s bombing of a site in Kiev that was the scene of Nazi Holocaust atrocities ‘covered up’ by the then invading Russian soldiers and implies a continuing effort to cover up. 

 

Lawrence Abu Hamdan in a piece titled ‘Air Conditioning’ assembled details of Israeli military plane surveillance over Lebanon over a 15 year period ‘evoking the concept of atmospheric violence’. Following the 2006 July war Lebanese airspace was subject to F-35 fighter jets, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and low flying drones.  

 

‘Shifting Collectives’ is the title of the work by David Chavalarias. He tracks over 5 million political interactions in the French twittersphere over more than 5 years. From Brexit, January 4 at Capitol Hill, the accession of Bolsonaro and Viktor d’Orban the tracking reveals the disruption of the democratic process and the rise of populist and fascist think groups. 

Amal Kenawy’s work, ‘Silence of the Lambs’ was a reminder that public art can provide a stage for political expression.  Her performance piece in Cairo, Egypt aroused strong reactions from passers-by and a questioning of the work and the motives of the artist.

Day 2 - https://www.berlinbiennale.de/de/

KW Institute for Contempoary Art has 14 artists exhibiting their response to the theme ‘Still Present!  Amongst those artists four stood out for me. 

Zuzanna Hertzberg lives and works in Warsaw, Poland. Her art practice is to recover herstories of Jewish activism and the ‘blind spots of collective memory’. She has assembled ID cards, personal photos and articles from their collective meetings.

Alex Prague lives and works in LA, USA. Prager’s photographs are a reminder that ‘all fears, hopes, day jobs and aspirations are worthy of monumental and allegorical all presentation’. 

Asim Abdulaziz lives and works in Aden, Yemen and is a visual artist, photographer and film maker. His work explores the act of knitting that in the USA was a significant way women participated in WW2 whilst in Yemen knitting is an act of solidarity in time of war, ‘entirely absurd’. The knitting he portrays is in an abandoned Hindu Temeple in Yemen and involves 10 men and is a ‘provocative gesture in a prudish culture which underscores the acts absurdity’. 

Maithu Bui lives and works in Berlin, Germany and her work responds to the need for the world not to suffer form post colonialism amnesia. It aims to ‘establish an archive of personal memories and transgenerational  traumas’.

Day 3 - https://www.berlinbiennale.de/de/

Akademie der Kunste, Pariser Plastz exhibits the work of 19 artists. Once again I have chosen those that provided for me an insight into their art and political activism agenda reflecting the Berlin Biennale’s theme. 

Moses Marz lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Moses uses a mapping approach translates texts into lines, images and quotations that are more about story telling. This approach is used to trace individual and collective movements of the Black radical tradition. 

Prabhakar Kamble lives and works in Mumbai, India addresses the marginalisation of India’s silent majority and the hierarchies of caste. He relocated to the village where he was born and has constructed ‘Stacked Vessels’ to reflect the structure of Indian society and atop each a symbol of dehumanisation - a cow bell (more worthy than a human being), a street sweepers broom, a sanitation workers’s glove and a ceiling fan (from  which a student hung himself protesting discrimination). 

‘The School of Mutants’ is a collaborative work by artists from Dakar, Senegal, Brussels, Belgium, Paris, France, Taipei, Taiwan, London, UK and Saint-Etienne, France - Boris Raux, Hamedine Kane, Lou Mo, Stephane Verlet, Bottero and Valerie Osouf. The work was initiated in Dakar, Senegal and provided a starting point for inquiries into the role of universities, public school projects and post independence processes of nation building in Senegal.

The work by Nil Yalter who lives and works in Paris, France was a short distance from the Akademie and was on display in a shopfront. She was born in Cairo, Egypt and raised in Turkey and continues to live in political exile. Her work ‘Exile is a hard job’ is on display in both public and the exhibition.

Day 4 & 5 https://www.berlinbiennale.de/de/

At the Akademie der Kunste Hanseatenweg 19 artists respond to the theme ‘Still Present!’.

Mai Nguyen-Long was born in Tasmania to an Australian mother and a Vietnamese father and has lived in Australia, China and Vietnam. Her work titled ‘Specimen’ is a reminder of the horrific crime that was nearly forgotten in Vietnam where ‘the pace of capitalism has overridden memory’. 

Dao Chau Hai lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam. In 2010 for his work ‘Ballad of the East Sea’ responds to the border wars and migration with an industrial mechanical form with its sharp edges that suggest danger and violence beyond our notion of sea waves. 

Sven Johne  lives and works in Berlin, Germany and grew up in the GDR. His work reflects the so-called death strip that divided east from west. “I wanted this moment of confusion: watchtowers, fences and the path previously patrolled by soldiers….to what is now’. 

At the Stasi-Zentrale. Campus fur Demokratie, our final venue, the works of 7 artists are located in the former headquarters of the Stasi in Berlin, one of 15 Stasi headquartered in cities across Germany. 

We were able to view therefore not only works of artists in the Biennale but also to be informed on the role of the Stasi in their surveillance and spying on GDR citizens. The site occupies many hectares and housed Stasi staff as well as provided offices and spaces for surveillance equipment and the collection of information on citizens suspected of undermining the State. 

We were shown into a room where documents that had been torn up by Stasi staff prior to the Wall coming down, piecing together the documents (16,000 bags were retrieved and 500 bags have been restored) providing information on those who were targeted and the work of the Stasi. 

The works in the Biennale follow a similar revelation of surveillance  by governments around the world including USA, China and Britain using face recognition CCTV and the collection of data on their citizens. 

Zach Blas lives and works in Toronto, Canada and London, UK. As an artist, filmmaker and writer he ran a series of workshops in  2012 -2014 (Facial Weaponisation Suite) where masks were created from the participants and used for public interventions against the use of biometric facial recognition systems. 

Susan Schuppli lives and works in London, UK. Her work responds to the discovery in 1990 of a frozen body of 17 year old Neil Stonechild of the Salteaux First Nation in a remote industrial area of Saskatoon Canada. It later emerged that he had been subjected to a ‘starlight tour’, a police practice of taking indigenous people into custody and dropping them off in remote areas rather than taking them into custody. It’s  a sobering and sorrowful story. Schuppli examines several fatal cases that have used climate as a murder weapon and perpetrated by structural racism.

My All American Journey

Watch this space!

City of Melbourne should lead the way in metropiltan governace.

A Collaborative City

Martin Brennan

Senior Research Fellow

Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL)

The University of Melbourne

City and local governments anchor our democracy by providing local communities with opportunities for engagement and collaboration in addressing the needs and interests of living in the 21^st century.  

However the Melbourne City Council has an expanded responsibility beyond planning for the future of the those who live and do business in the City, given that its capital city role and status impacts directly on metropolitan Melbourne.

The Melbourne City Council has over recent decades developed and implemented polices for the delivery of a more sustainable and liveable City. The Council has been exemplary in setting the bar high in urban sustainability and has received national and international recognition for undertaking work to become a post-carbon and resilient City.

As Melbourne’s metropolitan population grows from its current 4.3 million to an anticipated 7.7 million by 2051, Future Melbourne 2026 should seek a new governance structure that will enhance the City’s role across metropolitan Melbourne and build a post-carbon and resilient Melbourne region.

Whilst the move to a metropolitan authority is I believe where our collective futures lie beyond 2026, the City Council should adopt an interim approach to achieving an increased level of collaboration across metropolitan city governments.

Such an approach would build the capacity of Melbourne metropolitan cities to meet the needs of an increasing population in a carbon restrained world and to become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges of the 21st century.

I therefore believe that the high level of liveability and sustainability afforded the citizens of the City can and should be spread more widely. An interim targeted approach to collaboration across metropolitan city governments would lead us to consider metropolitan governance such as that provided by the Greater London Authority (GLA).

The GLA is governed by the London Assembly and comprises 25 councillors plus the Mayor of London. With a population of 8 million and encompassing 32 boroughs plus the City of London, the GLA may well provide a blueprint for our future. To realise this future, we should over the next decade lay the groundwork for a Greater Melbourne Authority.

I would therefore propose that the Melbourne City Council embark on a Future Melbourne 2016 Collaborative City Agenda and in partnership with city governments metropolitan wide, develop projects and activities that progress toward a post-carbon and resilient region in energy, food, water, waste and transport.

An example of how the Melbourne City Council can initiate and activate a metropolitan wide response to building resilience is ‘Resilient Melbourne’, a Rockefeller Foundation funded initiative that the City of Melbourne delivers in collaboration with the 31 metropolitan Melbourne councils. 

The project commenced in 2014 with the appointment of a Chief Resilience Officer who will provide a resilience strategy for metropolitan Melbourne, a strategy that will “foster the long-term viability, safety and wellness of our interconnected communities and municipalities”. 

Future Melbourne 2026 provides an opportunity for the Melbourne City Council to recognise its role as a Collaborative City working with metropolitan city governments to achieve a post carbon and resilient future for all Melburnians.

Collbaorative City

Towards a Collaborative City

Martin Brennan

Senior Research Fellow, Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL)

The University of Melbourne

Former Chair, Finance, Corporate Services and Governance Committee 1999-2002, Melbourne City Council 

2016

To prepare for the next decade, the City of Melbourne has embarked on a consultative process to refresh the strategic Future Melbourne goals. Future Melbourne 2026 provides an opportunity for the Melbourne City Council to recognise its role as a Collaborative City working with metropolitan city governments to achieve a post carbon and resilient future for all Melburnians.

City and local governments anchor our democracy by providing local communities with opportunities to address their needs and interests of living in the 21^st century. However the Melbourne City Council has a responsibility beyond those who live and do business in the City, given that its capital city role and status impacts directly on metropolitan Melbourne.

The City Council has over recent decades developed and implemented polices for the delivery of a liveable and sustainable City. The Council has been exemplary in setting the bar high in undertaking work to become a post-carbon and resilient City and has received national and international recognition. Future Melbourne 2026 should be proactive and acknowledge the role of the City across metropolitan Melbourne and seek an increased level of collaboration toward a metropolitan authority where our collective futures lie. 

As Melbourne’s metropolitan population grows from its current 4.3 million to an anticipated 7.7 million by 2051, we have the challenge of working toward a sustainable region with a rapidly increasing population. The energy, water, waste, transport and food needs of the region will require whole of government collaboration, federal, state and local.

An interim collaborative approach would encourage us to consider governance models such as the Greater London Authority (GLA) and the Greater Sydney Commission (GSC). The GLA is governed by the London Assembly and comprises 25 councillors plus the Mayor of London. With a population of 8 million and encompassing 32 boroughs plus the City of London, the GLA may well provide a blueprint for our future.

The Minister for Planning in the NSW Liberal Government has established the Greater Sydney Commission to promote the integration of State and local government decision-making for a sustainable Sydney metropolitan region. Led by Chief Commissioner Lucy Turnbull, former Lord Mayor of Sydney, the Commission’s membership includes economic, social and environment Commissioners plus 6 District Commissioners reflecting the interests of the 41 local government authorities.

The City of Melbourne should commence the groundwork for a Greater Melbourne Authority by identifying the City as a Collaborative City in Future Melbourne 2026 and in partnership with metropolitan cities, develop projects and activities that progress a post-carbon and resilient region in energy, food, water, waste and transport.

An example of how the Melbourne City Council has already initiated metropolitan action is ‘Resilient Melbourne’, a Rockefeller Foundation funded initiative that the City of Melbourne delivers in collaboration with the 31 metropolitan city councils. The project commenced in 2014 and will develop a strategy to “foster the long-term viability, safety and wellness of our interconnected communities and municipalities”. 

The State Government can drive a metropolitan Melbourne agenda through Plan Melbourne, the Victorian Government’s planning strategy to 2050 released in 2014. In October last year the Victorian Labor Government announced an update to Plan Melbourne known as Plan Melbourne Refresh. The refresh of Plan Melbourne has focused on climate change, housing affordability and updating Plan Melbourne to reflect current government transport commitments and priorities.

Parliament of Mayors

At a press launch in London today, former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and US Conference of Mayors CEO, Tom Cochran, revealed why they are throwing their weight behind a new body of mayors, which aims to transform global governance.


Ken Livingstone, who set up the C40 (then C20) network of cities when he was Mayor of London, said that national governments had become almost too unwieldy to manage and now were headed by business people, lawyers or PR specialists, who had not run a local council or enjoyed experience of local government and consequently were not best prepared to run something of incredible complexity as national government. He urged mayors to get behind the the concept of a parliament of mayors to achieve better global governance for all.

“This is not a mad power grab by mayors but it is recognising that the delivery of services of the state are much easier to deal with at the local level,” said Livingstone. “Mayors have to see day-to-day that their cities are running and it is time to recognise that we need to restructure governments across the world.”


Read on...

Rio, Sanitago, Valparaiso Revisited - 2015

Contemplating Catalonia

 Catalonia has a history, a culture, a language, an activism and a body politic that will drive secession from Spain. As one of Spain's richest and most highly industrialised regions, it is also one of the most independent-minded. Most of the region's population lives in Barcelona, its vibrant political and economic hub.

Its distinct history stretches back to the early middle ages and many Catalans think of themselves as a separate nation from the rest of Spain. When Spain became a republic in 1931, Catalonia was given broad autonomy and was a key Republican stronghold during the Spanish Civil War. 

The fall of Barcelona to General Franco's right-wing forces in 1939 marked the beginning of the end of Spanish resistance to him. Franco revoked Catalonia’s autonomy and restricted the use of the Catalan language. After Franco’s death there was a re- emergence of a democratic Spain and Catalonia established its own parliament with extensive autonomy.

The call for secession by Catalans has been fed by Spain's economic crisis, many Catalans believing that they pay more to Madrid than they get back, and blame Spain's debt crisis on the Spanish Government. The Catalonia  regional government is backed by the two main separatist parties, held an informal vote on independence in 2014. Whilst the informal vote for independence in 2014, was not overwhelmingly supported 80% of those who did participate voted "yes". 

Catalonia will in one day be an independent country and Barcelona will be the capital city and one of the world’s most liveable and more importantly sustainable cities.

Watch this space!

It’s the economy…stupid so watch this space!

Spain experienced 5 years of double-digit recession before recovery was confirmed in the first quarter of 2014. However the jobless rate overall in 2014 was 25%, and unemployment is likely to remain at 20% for several years. Spanish workers have experienced falling salaries though the low rate of inflation has helped to maintain household purchasing power.

An election in 2015 will no doubt be fought on the state of the Spanish economy and the austerity measures that the EU has required of Spain. Despite its sizeable majority, the Spanish Government remains brittle due to alleged corruption and the re-emergence of demands for independence within the regions. The continuing talk of secession by Catalonia will no doubt shadow the Spanish Government for some time to come.

The Greek election being held this day, Sunday 25 January, will also no doubt influence the outcome of the Spanish election and impact on the future of the EU as it will on other elections across Europe over the coming year(s).