Meetings on Art

Throughout the six months of the Exhibition the public will be able to learn more about May You Live In Interesting Times from the voice of its protagonists. The Curator Ralph Rugoff will meet with some of the participating artists to further explore some of the main themes of the Exhibition.

The program will include lectures from some of the participating artists: a conference addressing art’s relationship with technological, social and environmental issues will take place at Teatro alle Tese Arsenale on September 14^th; led by Ralph Rugoff, the meeting will involve artists participating in the Exhibition such as Tomás Saraceno, Margaret and Christine Wertheim.

As part of the Pavilion of Applied Arts Special Project, the symposium Felicita and La Biennale’s Early Days. The use of archival materials, i.e. La Biennale’s Historical Archives at the heart of research on the figure of Felicita Bevilacqua La Masa (1822-1899) will feature as speakers Paolo Baratta, Cristina Baldacci, Marysia Lewandowska, Giandomenico Romanelli and Angela Vettese (on October 22^nd).

Lastly, Paolo Baratta and Ralph Rugoff will meet the public on Sunday, November 24^th at the Teatro alle Tese Arsenale to discuss the legacy of this year’s Exhibition.

The performances, which will run during the opening weekend and the closing days of the Exhibition, will activate the ‘in-between’ spaces of the Biennale’s Giardini areas, outdoor walkways, and interior spaces in short and durational episodes. In addition, the Teatro alle Tese and the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale will host an array of performances, scheduled daily, and create a focused space for the unfolding of more concentrated narratives.              

“This year’s Exhibition, titled May You Live In Interesting Times, will highlight art that exists in between accepted categories and genres – said Ralph Rugoff - and which questions the rationales behind our categorical thinking. The performance programme will exemplify this kind of approach, testing aesthetic, behavioural and social conventions in a wide range of events”.

The programme will include artists that are defining this generation of performance such as boychild, Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Vivian Caccuri, Cooking Sections, Invernomuto, Paul Maheke, Nkisi, Nástio Mosquito, Victoria Sin, Florence Peake and Eve Stainton, Vivien Sansour, Zadie Xa, Bo Zheng, and others. Within their diverse practices - spanning dance, music and visual art - they open up new possible readings of broader culture territories. Through their omnivorous curiosity in hybrid and transnational approaches, they propose more complex forms that challenge the perception of the times we currently live in.

Artistic organizer Aaron Cezar.
With the additional support of Arts Council England and Delfina Foundation.

In relation to the Thinking Head installation in the Central Pavilion and for the duration of the steam clouds, there will be a series of closed-door roundtable discussions, hosted in a bunker-like performance space. There will be no audience, though the talks will be streamed, recorded and available online on the website and at www.thinking-head.net.

Each roundtable will be led by a chair, with participants from different disciplines that will discuss the theme they have been invited for. The theme for each will be a single keyword, chosen for its currency and relevancy as a topic for open discussion.

The intention for these roundtables is to bring out new thoughts and points of view. Lara Favaretto would like them to produce uncertainty, failure, and criticism.

According to Ralph Rugoff, “For the artist, these intensive conversations produce the knowledge that generates the steam rising from the building. The endpoint for each roundtable, with the input of individuals from different fields that communicate through different languages, is to create an outcome that isn't immediately decipherable, and which may even be clumsy or out-of-place”.