Highlights From the 56th Venice Biennale

By Kevin McGarry

In the end, the victor was Armenia, with an outsize group exhibition by artists of the Armenian diaspora, installed on an island just off Lido called San Lazzaro Degli Armeni. Some of the work here is exceptional, such as that presented by the Milan-based husband and wife team Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi. Their 1986 video “Return to Khodorciur: Armenian Diary” captures the chilling testimony of Gianikian’s father as he describes his experiences as one of the few survivors of the 1915 massacres.

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The Berlin-based artist Silvina Der-Meguerditchian's "Treasures" installation at the Armenian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.Credit Piero Demo

As the sun set on the opening week of the Venice Biennale on Saturday (and both the sunset and the vernissage were quite

spectacular), the Golden Lions were awarded to the pavilions and artists chosen by the jury as the best of this year’s batch. The American artist Adrian Piper, long since based in Berlin, took the top honor among the individual artists participating in Okwui Enwezor’s international exhibition “All the World’s Futures.”

Venice’s first-ever mosque, designed by Christoph Büchel for the Iceland Pavilion.Credit Bjarni Grimsson

As for best national representation at Venice, early on in the week there was chatter about the young but well-established sculptor Danh Vo netting the prize for Denmark, or the award going to the United States’ pioneering film and performance artist Joan Jonas (who did receive a special mention, or runner-up, distinction). A dark horse of the political stripe was Iceland, who entrusted Christoph Büchel to convert a church in the Canalreggio neighborhood into Venice’s first-ever fully functioning mosque. The move trigged great emotion in the city’s under-represented Muslim community, and received rather less tolerant accolades from the local government, which called it a “public safety hazard.”

In the end, the victor was Armenia, with an outsize group exhibition by artists of the Armenian diaspora, installed on an island just off Lido called San Lazzaro Degli Armeni. Some of the work here is exceptional, such as that presented by the Milan-based husband and wife team Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi. Their 1986 video “Return to Khodorciur: Armenian Diary” captures the chilling testimony of Gianikian’s father as he describes his experiences as one of the few survivors of the 1915 massacres. Upstairs, they have installed vitrines with rolls of paper dozens of yards long, containing hundreds of watercolor illustrations of moments, symbols and characters lifted from his memoir. The award undoubtedly is a political gesture — honoring the small nation on the centennial of its darkest hour — which is not mutually exclusive of recognizing excellent work. It’s a reminder of what a true congress the antediluvian institution of the Venice Biennale is, a global stage for the esoteric world of contemporary art.

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