Thursday, July 03, 2003

Venice Biennale: Too Much That Was Good on Paper, Was Bad in Practice by Louisa Buck 04 Jul 03 VENICE. It may have been subtitled 'The dictatorship of the viewer', but the sprawling behemoth that is now the Venice Biennale meant it was usually more the viewer who felt dictated-to by its vast excesses. Curator Francesco Bonami wanted his 'archipelago' of guest-curated shows (sporting such excruciating titles as 'The Structure of Survival'; 'Zones of Emergency' or 'Utopia Station') to communicate the fragmentedly multiple and contradictory nature of today's art, and the world it inhabits, but surely any contemporary art show worth its square meterage should do this anyway? Therefore what was supposed to signal democracy, open-endedness and all-inclusiveness appeared more like an event headed by a curator reluctant to shoulder such a herculean task on his own. [The Art Newspaper] 11:55:51 PM  Google It!