"May You Live in Interesting Times" is the title of the international art show featuring works that address a world in turmoil — and that includes a haunting monument to the thousands of migrants who have died at sea.
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Whether digitalization, climate change, migration, renationalization or a shift in the global balance of power, our world is undergoing dramatic change. For many people, this translates into uncertainty, crisis and turmoil.
It has also prompted Ralph Rugoff, curator of the 2019 Venice Biennale festival, to roll out the red carpet for art in his two-part main exhibition. "At a moment when the digital dissemination of fake news and 'alternative facts' is corroding political discourse and the trust on which it depends, it is worth pausing whenever possible to reassess our terms of reference," the curator from New York, who has also been director of the Hayward Gallery in London since 2006, said in a statement.
Participating Biennale artists, according to Rugoff, are thus tasked with providing solutions to the challenges, offer food for thought or even pose new questions. The art historian has selected 79 artists for his show, far fewer than in 2017. Their works are divided between the exhibition pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale gardens and the old Arsenale industrial and shipyard grounds.
Among them, Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Büchel is sending to Venice the Barca Nostra, Italian for "Our Ship," recovered shipwreck in which 700 migrants died in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015. The boat will be at the center of his artistic installation, a monumental work symbolizing the human cost of borders.
German artists on the Lido
As usual, the list of participants includes both well-known and unknown artists. Multimedia artist Rosemarie Trockel and video artist Hito Steyerl, for example, hail from Germany. Works by the Berlin sculptor Alexandra Bircken will also be on show.
At a recent promotional event in Berlin, Rugoff and Biennale president Paolo Baratta said the "communication between artists, the works and the visitors" was essential, adding that the exhibition is aimed at a broad audience — and "not only for experts." Many of the international artists who will be on show in Venice live and work in the German capital, which is still considered an artistic hotspot.
90 countries to participate
In addition to the central Biennale exhibition, there will works on show by artists from some 90 countries in the national pavilions in the Giardini, as well as at selected locations in the lagoon city. This year, Algeria, Ghana, Madagascar and Pakistan will also be hoisting the art flag for the first time.
Natascha Sadr Haghighian will representing Germany this year. What the Iranian-born sculptor, conceptual and media artist will show, of course, will remain a mystery until doors open. Until now, the 52-year-old has slipped into the role of an artistic figure wearing a mask and calling herself "Natascha Süder Happelmann." Playing around with identities is part of the artistic concept of Natascha Sadr Haghighian, who is also a professor at the University of the Arts Bremen.
11 renowned female artists based in Germany
The art world is still male-dominated, but things are changing. Here are 11 important artists you need to know.
Image: Imago/I. Kjer
Natascha Sadr Haghighian
Natascha Sadr Haghighian represented Germany at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Shown here wearing a stone mask at a press conference ahead of the art show, she went by the name of Natascha Süder Happelmann for the event. The artist, a two-time Documenta participant, often plays with the notion of identity. She created for instance a website allowing people to swap parts of each other's CVs.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kumm
Anne Imhof
Anne Imhof became the star of the 2017 Venice Biennale with her performance piece "Faust" in the German pavilion, which won her the Golden Lion award. The mammoth work dealt with the themes of power and powerlessness, arbitrary violence, resistance and freedom. She has been commissioned to recreate the piece at London's Tate Modern museum in March 2019.
Image: Imago/I. Kjer
Hito Steyerl
German-Japanese video artist Hito Steyerl represented Germany in 2015 at the Venice Biennale. She was the first woman to be ranked number one in ArtReview's "Power 100," the magazine's list of the most powerful people in the art world. Her influential work deals with surveillance, military confrontation and the entanglement of corporations.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/S. Pilick
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel gained renown through numerous international exhibitions. Her work often integrates knitted fabrics or black electric hotplates dotting colored surfaces, a reference to stereotypical depictions of the housewife and an ironic homage to the dots used by different Pop Art artists.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Katharina Fritsch
Designed to carry statues of British historical figures, London's Trafalgar Square has a plinth at each of its four corners. Since 1999, the fourth plinth has been showcasing different works of art on a temporary basis. German sculptor Katharina Fritsch's giant blue cockerel, "Hahn / Cock," was on display there in 2013. The artist is renowned for her large-scale, monochromatic sculptures.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Isa Genzken
A 2013 retrospective of Isa Genzken's work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York cemented the sculptor's international reputation. She had previously participated in different art shows including the Documenta and the Sculpture Projects Münster. Her early works deal with the ideals of modern architecture; since the 2000s, she has created apocalyptic installations made of cheap materials.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Kalaene
Katharina Grosse
Katharina Grosse quickly gained renown with her innovative work that opens up new dimensions in painting. The Berlin-based artist's air brushed installations often submerge viewers in a chaotic space of colors. Her works are part of the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Kunsthaus in Zurich, among others.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Balk
Rebecca Horn
Rebecca Horn is a pioneering female artist in Germany: She was the first woman to become a professor at the Berlin University of Arts in 1989, as well as the first to be awarded the prestigious Goslar Kaiser Ring Award in 1992. A year later, she also became the first female artist to have a retrospective at New York's Guggenheim Museum.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Alicja Kwade
The Berlin-based artist Alicja Kwade was born in Poland. Her installations often include stones, glass, chains, mirrors and clocks. A recent piece at the Berliner Galerie consisted of a huge clock swinging from the ceiling on a chain — a memorably hypnotic work.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
Katharina Sieverding
She was one of the first artists to create large-format portraits that openly featured image manipulation. Sieverding was awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize in 2017. Her work questions the artistic, political and social conditions behind the production and the reception of art.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/F.Gambarini
Haegue Yang
The Seoul-born Berlin-based artist has held exhibitions throughout the world. For her installations transforming everyday objects into surreal associative works, she often uses materials from the hardware store or household items. At the Documenta 13, she revealed Venetian blinds that moved on their own, making strange sounds. Haegue Yang's pieces are filled with poetry and humor.
Image: Imago/tagesspiegel/M. Wolff
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Competing for the Golden Lion
Along with the Documenta in Kassel, the Venice Biennale, held this year from May 11 to November 24, is one of the leading art fairs around the world.
Stephanie Rosenthal, director of the international Biennale jury, is also director of Berlin's Martin-Gropius-Bau museum. The jury awards prizes, including the Golden Lion for the best contribution in one of the national pavilions, as well as for the best contribution by an artist in the exhibition curated by Ralph Rugoff entitled "May You Live In Interesting Times."
At the last Biennale, in 2017, the German Pavilion, curated by Susanne Pfeffer and designed by artist Anne Imhof, garnered the Golden Lion for best national participation.