Edition: 52. International Art Exhibition - Think with the senses - Feel with the mind. Art in the present directed by Robert Storr (10 June - 21 November 2007)
Title of the Italian Pavilion: Sculture di linfa / Democrazy
Curator: Ida Gianelli
Commissioner: Pio Baldi
Catalogue: Giuseppe Penone: Sculture di linfa, 52. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte La Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia, mostra e catalogo a cura di Ida Gianelli, Electa, Milano 2007
Catalogue: Francesco Vezzoli: Democrazy, 52. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte la Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia, mostra e catalogo a cura di Ida Gianelli, Electa, Milano 2007
La DARC – Direzione Generale per l’Arte e l’Architettura Contemporanee (l’attuale Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura) e la Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia presentano, nell’ambito della 52.Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, il nuovo Padiglione Italiano alle Tese delle Vergini dell’Arsenale nel quale sono allestite, a cura di Ida Gianelli, due opere ideate per questo spazio: Sculture di linfa di Giuseppe Penone and Democrazy di Francesco Vezzoli.
The new Italian Pavilion, announced in the spring of 2005, made its debut in the fall of 2006 during the 10th International Architecture Exhibition, and this year, for the first time in the largest and most important international contemporary art exhibition, it is one of the main novelties of this edition.
The Pavilion is entrusted to the curatorship of Ida Gianelli, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Castello di Rivoli, who chooses Giuseppe Penone (Garessio, Cuneo, 1947) and Francesco Vezzoli (Brescia 1971) to represent the current Italian art scene, with works created for this occasion. "Although belonging to different generations," explains Ida Gianelli, "and using different languages, both artists are key figures in contemporary art and express the depth and richness of contemporary life."
The space in the new Italian Pavilion (1,200 sqm housed in a 19th-century warehouse originally used for coal storage) hosts the two installations, which are quite different in terms of each artist's poetic approach and the use of media, placed side by side in a freely accessible path for the public.
Sculture di linfa by Giuseppe Penone is an installation created for this space, composed of large-scale sculptures made of wood and marble, as well as drawings. The artist describes it as follows: "Spaces covered by hands, spaces emptied by hands. The space of the sculpture filled with sap. The flow of the hand running over the bark of trees, revealing the shape of the wood and the veins of the marble."
Francesco Vezzoli creates the new video installation Democrazy: “Inspired by the upcoming 2008 U.S. presidential elections, the project takes the form of an actual election campaign, presenting the Venice Biennale audience with a clash between two hypothetical candidates for one of the most important political offices in the world. Two campaign ads, produced in collaboration with two teams of 'media advisors,' professionals from American politics, led on one side by Mark McKinnon (chief advisor for George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign) and on the other by Bill Knapp (spokesperson for Bill Clinton during the 1996 presidential race), oppose two identities, two different political and human visions, highlighting the fatal strategies of electoral communication and raising questions about how fame, media power, and the manipulation of truth can distort the meaning of democracy.”
Ultimo aggiornamento in data 31 March 2025