Venice Art Biennale 2015 | France – Austria – The Netherlands

Place: Venice, Country: Italy
La Biennale di Venezia

Text by Federica Lusiardi, Inexhibit
All photos © Inexhibit, 2015, all rights reserved.

By FEDERICA LUSIARDI - 2017-12-13

Venice 56th Art Biennale | part 2: France – Austria – the Netherlands

French Pavilion
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot | rêvolutions
commissioner/curator: Emma Lavigne

At first sight, you do not realize that the tree, that lies in the middle of the airy pavilion of France, moves. Only looking carefully, from the pavilion’s side rooms, at this imposing Scots pine, you perceive its “dance”. By combining nature and technology, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, artists and musician, conceived an installation (that is also a choreography) inspired by the “wonderful things” of the Mannerist gardens. The tree moves around the pavilion depending on its metabolism, on its sap flow and on the variation in light and shade in the environment.

Pavilion of Austria
Heimo Zobering
commissioner /curator: Yimaz Dziewior

Heimo Zobering worked on the architecture of the Austrian pavilion, designed by Josef Hoffmann in the 1930s as a balance between Historicism and Modernity. Through the insertion of a black monolith suspended under the ceiling, and of a new floor matching it, Zobering concealed the “classical” elements in the pavilion, unifying outside and inside and creating a place where bethinking on the human presence into space.

Dutch Pavilion
Herman de Vries | to be all ways to be
curators: Cees de Boer e Colin Huizing

Rose buds, marsh plants, earth pigments: the pavilion of The Netherlands designed by Gerrit Rietveld in the 1950s has been invaded by the representation of nature conceived by Herman de Vries. Alongside with recent pieces of art by the Dutch artist, the pavilion houses works specifically created for the city of Venice, which has been analyzed as a habitat, an ecosystem to explore.