I finally got around to visiting this year’s Biennale. The theme is Pensa con i sensi, senti con la mente (“Think with the senses, sense with the mind”) – a lofty thought. I’m sorry to report that it was even more disappointing than the 2005 show. With only a few exceptions, I thought the work was trite, untrained, derivative, high school-ish, self-conscious, and – worst of all! – boring.
Wow, I am so mean sometimes! All the things I would NOT want said about my own work! But let’s remember: this is still the most important exhibition of contemporary art in the world. The bar should be set very high.
I had dropped into many collateral events around town over the past weeks, which might have told me what to expect at the pay-to-enter venues. Namely, a snooze.
And I might well have been snoozing part of the time because, to be perfectly honest, I can’t really remember much from the national pavilions at i Giardini. I just kept thinking of that emperor and his new clothes.
The Arsenale show is clearer in my mind…
