Russia makes its presence felt in Venice
By John Varoli | Published online 29 May 09
A second important Russian project at Venice is “Unconditional Love”, It opens at the Arsenale Novissimo on 4 June, and runs until 5 November.
The exhibition’s pre-show publicity claims that “love” is full of “romantic gestures that sag with the weight of convention. Social conditions reduce love to a marriage of convenience”.
It continues: “But take away the tacky conventions and bland comforts of romance, and love is not a distraction from existential crisis—it is a crisis, a sensation of the present so powerful it brings about a confrontation with the void. Unconditional love suffocates and seizes, subdues and annexes. It has the immediacy of both an orgasm and a pistol to the head.”
One of the most interesting items is by the Moscow-based art group AES+F, which will premiere its new video installation, The Feast of Trimalchio. The piece “updates and abstracts the story of the Roman plutocrat Trimalchio from Petronius’ Satyricon, transposing the orgies of masters and servants to the setting of a modern-day luxury hotel”.
Over 1,500 images were taken for AES+F’s complex work. “They depict a high[ly] polished orgy, and a netting of relations—sexual, power, suppression, dependence—between races and social spheres in contrast to the high definition presentation,” curator Christine Steinbrecher told The Art Newspaper.
Belgrade-born Marina Abramovic will be represented by her photographic series Virgin Warrior with Hearts, 2006; other artists represented include Wim Delvoye, Sam Adams and Jaume Plensa.
