It is always a thankless task to review a show against the backdrop of current political events.
Boris Groys
Your Weekly Art Rx: Performa Edition!
This week’s prescription is a heavy dose of Performa 11 with just a taste of the must-see highlights of this year’s festival. The three-week event can be overwhelming, but thankfully the Hyperallergic doctor is in to help you through it.
Seeing Through the Crowds at the 2011 Venice Biennale Part I: The Giardini and Pavilions
Editor’s Note: Peter Dobey published a series of photo essays (1, 2, 3) about this year’s Venice Biennale at the beginning of June. This is a long-form essay (to be published in three parts) that explores the work at the Biennale.
* * *
PARIS — It is difficult to write about Venice, just like it is difficult to really SEE Venice. Individual experiences of art fade away into the oversaturation that is the Venice Biennale in the same way the city of Venice is sinking into the Adriatic. There is the ontological experience of Venice and the problem of one’s ability to encounter it. Then there is the physical impossibility to see everything the Biennale offers you and all the things it doesn’t, especially when in Italy.