Venice Biennale : Gaggiandre at the Arsenale


Wonderful variety of national pavilions at the 58th Venice Biennale on the Arsenale site.

My second review is looking at the national pavilions on the Arsenal site. These tend to be smaller than the main pavilions at the Giardini but contained some fascinating and beautiful work. I liked the India pavilion which focused on artists who had worked with or been inspired by Gandhi to mark 150 years since his birth. I loved a wall of painted sandals and modern murgal style paintings.

I loved the Ghana pavilion whose interior was designed by the architect Sir David Adjaye in the colours of the land and featured lovely paintings by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and El Anatsui’s hangings made of bottle tops. Also the Luxemberg offering, shown here, of note books soaked in sea water and sculpture into different shapes.

I also have to mention the Malta Pavilion for Trevor Borg’s re-imagination of an archaeological site on suspended black platforms, stark white objects on  a dark background.

My favourite was the Philippine contribution “Island Weather” by Mark O. Justiniani which consisted of a large installation of pools of water which infinitely reflected the objects within them producing mesmerising columns which you looked down into.

Closes 24 November 2019

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