Laura Gonzalez
The results are in for the 54th Venice Biennale’s award recipients. Germany won the Golden Lion for best national pavilion for its Christoph Schlingensief exhibition, which featured an architectural installation of the church where he served as an altar boy (his first “stage experience”, as he called it), along with several of the experimental films that gained him international recognition as an artist and director. The selection of Schlingensief to represent Germany in the Biennale was rife with controversy, and Gerhard Richter publicly called it a “scandal” and a prime example of “the decline of painting.” Furthermore, the pavilion’s organization was nearly derailed by Schlingensief’s untimely death in August 2010. Even though he had not yet finished his plans for the pavilion, curator Susanne Gaensheimer decided to forge ahead, and she created a display that is part homage, retrospective, and exposition of the overarching themes of his oeuvre. According to her, at the heart of Schlingensief’s work lies “a contribution to discussions about the deterritorialization of the arts and to questions regarding the social relevance of art.”
Christoph Schlingensief, Egomania, 1986. Video still. Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia
For his part, American artist Christian Marclay won the Golden Lion for best artist for his 24-hour film, The Clock. The film, an example of masterful editing, sampling, and artistic appropriation, features image clips of clocks from hundreds of movies, which are synchronized with real time.
Christian Marclay, The Clock, 2010. Edition of 6. Single-channel video. Duration: 24 hours. Courtesy of White Cube, London and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
As an example of its commitment to emergent artists, the Biennale’s jury awarded the Silver Lion for a promising young artist to the British-born Haroon Mirza, who is featured in Bice Curiger’s ILLUMInations exhibition. His neon-lit installations garnered praise for their commentary on the underlying weaknesses of power.
Haroon Mirza, The national apavilion of then and now, 2011. Installation (3 sided triangle structure, each side length 809) – Anechoic chamber, LED’s amp, speakers, electronic circuit. Installation view: ILLUMInations, 54. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – la Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Francesco Galli. Courtesy: la Biennale di Venezia
The jury also awarded two special mentions, one to the Lithuanian Pavilion, and another to Klara Lidén, a young artist featured in the Arsenale. The Lithuanian Pavilion, represented by Darius Miksys Behind the White Curtain, and served as a critical reexamination of Lithuania’s national self-image as viewed through the arts during the past two decades. Klara Liden, a Swedish contemporary artist based in Berlin, was honored for her Untitled (Trashcan) installation, which prompts viewers to reinterpret the spaces they inhabit and the contexts we associate with everyday objects.
Darius Mikšys, Behind the White Curtain, 2011. Installation view, Pavilion of Lithuania at the 54th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia. Commissioner: Kestutis Kuizinas. Photo: Francesco Galli. Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia
Klara Liden, Untitled, (Trashcan), 2011. Ten pieces, variable dimension. Installation view: ILLUMInations, 54. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – la Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Francesco Galli. Courtesy: la Biennale di Venezia
