ARTPRESS: VENICE BIENNALE: COLLATERAL EVENTS

by Julie Chaizemartin for ARTPRESS July-August 2024 issue

Jim Dine. Dog on the Forge. View of the exhibition, Palazzo Rocca (Ph. Ugo Carmeni)

The official program for the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale includes more than two dozen so called “collateral events.” They are being held in sumptuous museums and palaces, rented short term for small fortunes by powerful organizers, including art foundations and international galleries. No matter how many miles we walked through the labyrinth of the Serenissima, it was impossible to see everything, but below is a selection of events that particularly appealed to us for their discreet, implicit or evocative affinities with the “island city.”

Far from the hustle and bustle of the Arsenale and the Giardini, some of the best getaways include the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, the fondamente of the Dorsoduro, and the Grand Canal. Next to the Accademia Bridge, at the end of a hidden alleyway, an unassuming door opens onto a luminous garden. Here, the statues appear to have crystallized in the Adriatic spray. Bunches of pale violet wisteria expire on their shoulders, echoing the red and purple tones of a reclining nude by Jim Dine. The artist has placed his imposing sculptures under the hospices of the Gothic architecture of the Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù (until July 21st). They include a monumental head plastered with all kinds of tools, which is none other than a self-portrait of this powerful and fevered creator, and a couple composed of Venus and Poseidon, located in the entrance gallery. Further on, his famous wooden Pinocchios stand alongside faces smeared with splashes of color. Mythology and tenderness run through these recent works, which are set into the ornate walls of the grand salons. Upstairs, two giant hammers embrace on the floor, surrounded by Baroque paintings whose golden reflections make eyes at the Grand Canal. The artist’s creative force has found a choice setting here—unearthed by the Templon gallery—that exalts the union between thundering modernity and the fragility of the past…