ADAM Goes to Venice!
03/10/2009
ADAM Goes to Venice!
Jackie Wullschlager, an art critic for the Financial Times, claims that “the Venice Biennale remains the world’s greatest international art show…”
…And we were there!
This past weekend (September 25th-27th), Richmond’s Art Media and Design (ADAM) Department travelled to Venice to experience the Fifty-Third Annual Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The Biennale is an art exhibition that showcases the works of artists from all over the world. A record-breaking seventy-seven countries participated in this year’s event. Areas of interest included the British Pavilion, which was devoted to Steve McQueen’s film ‘Giardini’, which brought attention to the abandonment and disarray the exhibition grounds experience during the off-season of the Biennale. There was the Mexican Pavilion, with a piece entitled ‘¿De qué otra cosa podríamos hablar?’ (What Else Could We Talk About?), a commentary on the United States-Mexico drug trafficking conflicts and the Mexican bloodshed that has resulted. Another high-interest exhibit was located within the Icelandic Pavilion. There, the artist and his model drank, painted and lived in the pavilion, filled with paintings of an artist and his model drinking and painting, for the entire length of the exhibition (that’s six months of ‘working’ off the coast of Venice’s Grand Canal- a tough life indeed).
In addition to absorbing an overwhelming amount of art, students and professors alike, were sure to take advantage of all Venice had to offer. A glass (or bottle) of red wine, a healthy serving of pasta, and a scoop of gelato were a must. A taste of Venetian cuisine, a quick tutorial on the Italian language and hours lost in the maze of alleyways and canals that make up Venice were trip requirements. One student decided to take it a step further and truly ‘soak up’ Venice by taking a dive into the canal (unintentionally, of course).
All participants agree that trip was a success. The art expert and the art appreciative, the ADAM professor to the International Relations major, all confidently returned home with an enriched understanding of their craft or perhaps, more confused than ever. Either way, they were forced to think about art, the world around them and the relationship between the two; and that is, after all, what a Richmond education is all about.
Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/808.aspx
