Digital Art at the Venice Biennale: The HyperPavilion
The 57th edition of the Venice Art Biennale ran from May 13, 2017, and concluded less than a month ago, on November 26, 2017. Founded in 1895, La Biennale di Venezia is now one of the most famous and prestigious cultural organizations in the world. It is at the forefront of new contemporary art trends in its research and promotion in the arts, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and theatre. The Art Biennale, happening every two years, is recognized as the world leader in contemporary art exhibitions and includes three pillars: the National Pavilions, the International Exhibition by the Biennale curator, and the Collateral Events. This year, there were 86 National Participations, 120 artists invited to the Curator’s Exhibition, and 23 Collateral Events.x
A significant addition to this year’s Art Biennale is the HyperPavilion at the Arsenale, produced by Fabulous Inc. and curator Philippe Riss-Schmidt. It was a large-scale exhibition that focused on art in the digital age; artists contributed with newly-commissioned and site-specific works of art about how technology has change humanity. A few notable highlights are Guan Xiao’s David (2013), Claire Malrieux’s Climat Général (2017), and Federik de Wilde’s The Council (2017).
Guan Xiao
Guan Xiao produced a three-channel video installation in 2013, called David. The core theme behind Guan Xiao’s art is thet view that contemporary visual culture is a disorganized collage of images and perspectives. These are all created, copied, adapted, altered, mixed, and reproduced in many ways and very quickly, a result of the digital age. In this piece, exhibited at the HyperPavilion, she explores the key icon of Western (and now global) art, the David, in the context of this image being made mainstream and kitschified. Subtitles in the videos help the viewer understand her message, emphasizing the role of the sculpture as both a revered masterpiece, but at the same time an image that has been commercialized, thus destroying the integrity of art. Guan Xiao is a Beijing artist, and this piece has been previously exhibited, but not with as much press as at the Venice Biennale.
Claire Malrieux
Claire Malrieux’s contribution to the HyperPavilion was her dynamic generative software drawing, Climat Général (2017). Using imagery from meteorological phenomena, major human activities and the world of Gaїa, the Greek goddess impersonating the Earth, this seemingly random set of lines and shapes is developed. Each day, the General Climate Program sets a drawing, thus marking the time of its evolution. It is a self-generative graphic film for which the storyline is based on a non-linear reading of events. The visual output that is generated is an entanglement of elements, an aggregate of signs and representations which all have the potential to tell the story of the general climate of the Anthropocene.
Frederik De Wilde
Frederik De Wilde, a Belgian artist, explores the ways in which the digital and physical worlds have merged to create an entangled hybrid reality that encompasses us globally, offering a new aesthetic that has new consequences and new organizations. The Council is a work of art in which art, science, and technology merge in an interesting and new way. Inspired by Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, De Wilde thought: “What is The Thinker thinking NOW? How would a 21st Century Thinker look, feel and think like?” It is these simple questions that gave rise to the monumental The Council installation: a 3D-printed sculpture of The Thinker equipped with ‘artificial brains’ (these are 38 screens that branch into space, each connected to a Raspberry Pi’s running custom code). What this artwork offers is a look into the private yet connected, metaphysical musings, memories, digital ruins, and uncertain spaces of thought through images and sound. The key element to ‘unlocking’ De Wilde’s thinker is the spectator, who lies at the heart of The Council.
For more information on the HyperPavilion, see the following link.
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