Page 33 - Studio International - September 1970

Notes on the tradition at last seems to have been overcome, rather literal-minded interpretation of the
new difficulties at once appear. Thus, the idea of process.
Venice eagerly awaited 'Proposal for an Experimen- Curiously virtually all the artists involved
tal Exhibition' was thwarted by the Italian
came from Washington. Curiously too, nearly
transport workers; how this object lesson in all the Italian artists were from Rome. Per-
Biennale environmental art was supposed to look had haps the American and Italian commissioners
mostly to be inferred from the words of those thought the New Yorkers and the Milanese
responsible for it. Meanwhile the American too much potential trouble-makers after the
project, that of demonstrating the various events of 1968.
printmaking techniques used by the members All in all it was a Biennale shaven, shorn and
of the international avant garde, was doomed castrated. No prizes, no protests. Except for a
in advance when a large number of artists German group called Keks who lined up a
withdrew on political grounds. lot of children to make a happening: 'Right
Naturally there is no lack of alternative children, we make happening now. Ein,
suggestions for improvements : the appoint- Zwei, Drei...' They failed to disrupt the
ment of an international jury, multilateral smooth, pseudo-kinetic chrome and glass
co-operation inside the pavilions, a new lay- hardware of the German pavilion. Only the
out for the exhibition site itself, and so on. East European pavilions managed to get
But all these well-meant proposals miss the away from the trifling or the prestigious, with
political point, which is that the Biennale is the exception of two Dutch architects ex-
indissolubly linked to the future of Venice perimenting with standardized geometric
itself. How can a city that is incapable of forms which avoided being barrenly minimal
meeting an immediate threat to its own and suggested that the designers were con-
`Saving Venice requires not so existence be expected to pursue the reform of cerned with the human context of an urban
much knowledge as genius.' the Biennale? On one side stand the con- environment rather than science fictions or
—Unesco report servatives, who, supported by a law enacted self-indulgent 'environments'.
by Mussolini in 1939, block any attempt to In the Polish pavilion Josef Slajna assembled
It was clear from the outset that there was no interfere with the historic status quo. On the a strange tableau, a memorial to the artists
point in going to Venice just to see the other side, the progressives, among them deported by the Nazis from his home town of
Biennale. The 35th Biennale was no better and Wladimiro Dorigo, the press secretary of the Cracow to the concentration camps. Slajna
no worse than its predecessors; it has, in Biennale, demand that the city be forced to had been himself amongst these and had sur-
other words, absolutely no contemporary adapt to the exigences of modern life rather vived. Nothing was over-stated. Slajna cre-
relevance. And as long as the existing format than be left to die behind its lovely facade. In ated a poetic and imaginative statement of
is retained, this will continue to be so. The the endless war of words between the two the bare facts with empty, paint-stained
abolition of prizes only removed a symptom; parties, the Biennale is only one issue among easels, blown-up prison photographs, dum-
the root of the trouble lies in the concept of the many that never get settled. Not for mies, and entries torn from a biographical dic-
internationalism that prevailed seventy-five nothing was Goldoni a Venetian; he would tionary of artists and pinned to the easels. The
years ago when the Biennale was started. have enjoyed the spectacle of Dr Mahlow, the plain white candles on the easels introduced a
We now know that it was all a mistake. The organizer of the abortive 'Proposal for an religious or devotional note which did not
pursuit of national self-expression soon gave Experimental Exhibition', standing with his seem out of place. It was the most mature and
way to a set of ideological confrontations project in ruins about him and exclaiming, moving work of an 'environmental' kind I
which had nothing to do with the environ- `I am not responsible!' have seen. Some might argue that this
ment or history of any given people. Socialist In these circumstances criticism is superfluous. tableau by Slajna, who is also a director in the
Realism, for instance, as the Soviet Union is Perhaps the only thing is to regard the Venice theatre, came close to set-design, but the most
in the habit of showing it in Venice, might Biennale simply as a festive occasion: plenty important thing about his work was that it
equally well have been produced anywhere of sun, wine, Renaissance—and a little good left no need for actors—its theme was absence.
else. Furthermore, an artist's place of origin art thrown in. One could then be content to Both Slajna's and the two Dutch architects'
tells us very little about the character of his see that two outstanding artists, Richard ideas are quite clearly related to aspects of
art; Venezuela's representatives since 1966— Smith and Shusaka Arakawa, were repre- their respective national cultures, to the recent
J. R. Soto, Marisol, Carlos Cruz-Diez —have sented this year; one could be thankful that Polish theatre and the De Stijl group for in-
all lived in Paris or New York for years. even the Spanish and German pavilions were stance, but their containment within national
Finally, the idea that every country can really quite passable. But however festive the pavilion as such is not important. That the
contribute on equal terms has shown itself to occasion, it would nevertheless gradually take Dutch work is in a pavilion designed by Riet-
be wholly false. This year, the Yugoslays, who on the aspect of a wake; for no one knows veld is fitting and that Slajna's work should be
are certainly the leading representatives of which is the closer to death, the Biennale or in a pavilion designed by a Fascist architect
Eastern Europe, were represented by Jagoda Venice itself. is not without significance— but this has little
q
Buic and Dusan Dzamonja. These two artists ROBERT KUDIELKA to do with the fact that these pavilions
are presumably the best they have; but they `belong' to the artists' respective countries.
are so basically frivolous, and so enmeshed in It had been rumoured that in this year's
a tangle of material structures, that hardly a Biennale there was going to be emphasis on Given that Venice is lumbered with all these
single clear form is visible in their work. the artist at work, the presentation of pro- curious little structures in the Giardini,
It is clear that visual art of any quality is cesses rather than objects. Apart from the wouldn't it be better to offer them and the
restricted to a certain number of localities— workmen banging nails into the almost empty outdoor space between them to artists of all
even if these are not always the same ones. central pavilion the only process, or work in nationalities, allotting them perhaps on the
The old statutes of the Biennale have resisted progress, was in the United States pavilion same random basis as 'Pavilions in the Park' in
the march of time as stoutly as has the concrete which had been turned into printmaking England? Names in a hat. Padiglioni nei parco.
of the pavilions. Even when the inertia of night at the Evening Institute. It seemed a PAUL OVERY q