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Have you ever seen a crane on a boat lifting wood through an old convent door? This curious question was asked on the Instagram account of Cymru yn Fenis (Wales in Venice), the body behind the country's national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. a key off-site collateral event.
At the 58th edition of the Biennial, artist Sean Edwards, originally from Cardiff, will fly the flag for Wales and exhibit his works at Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, a former convent located halfway between the venues of Giardini and Arsenale exhibition. Part of Edwards' work ("Undo Things Done") was delivered by water and transported through the entrance; the installation process was recorded on Instagram, thus creating an image of the meeting of such an event in La Serenissima.
The different parts of the Biennial are documented and captured for posterity every two years, for the benefit of researchers and art historians. But how to collect and archive the sea of artistic material generated by the exhibitions in the national pavilions and the main international exhibition?
Each country documents its national participation in different ways, some more avant-garde than others. The Swiss Institute for Art Research, SIK-ISEA, has been managing since 1920 a detailed archive of the contributions of the Swiss Biennial. Old images of the 1934 event show the neglected Swiss painter and sculptor, Cuno Amiet, on the steps of the Swiss Pavilion visiting dignitaries (the legend of Pithy tells us that Amiet is in the center with "The White Goatee" ").
At the Danish pavilion – this year with Larissa Sansour – each program is photographed but not filmed; You will find images and documentation of the 2009 Biennale on the website of the Danish Arts Foundation, the organization that controls and manages the pavilion. "Every decade we are asked to transmit almost everything we have to the Danish National Archives. This means that if you are a researcher, you can go there and look for documentation on the pavilions, which dates back to 1895, "says Tine Vindfeld, project manager for the Danish Pavilion.
Some of us are still hungry for printed materials and many national contingents continue to publish catalogs of their presentations. The Dutch application, represented this year by Iris Kensmil and Remy Jungerman, will be accompanied by a catalog published in cooperation with the Mondriaan Fund. Catalogs are also produced for each exhibition of the British Pavilion.
The "Supremo Convegno" by Giacomo Grosso (right) was shown at the first Venice Biennale of 1895 © La Biennale di Venezia
The artists themselves also want to make sure to keep a memory of what is often the most important project of their career. In 2007, Daniel von Sturmer was one of three artists representing Australia at the 52nd Venice Biennale. "Me and Anna Schwartz Gallery [in Melbourne], have pictures of documentation as well as other components, such as visitor books, "he explains. Mike Nelson shot an explanatory film about the movie Super 8 and took many pictures of his 2011 installation in the British pavilion.
Basically, there is a global historical archive overseen by the Administration of the Biennial, created in 1928. "The goal is to recover and preserve materials of different types and origins, concerning the works and the participation of participating artists. The archives collect documents and collections related to the activities of the Venice Biennale, gathered from 1895. [the year of the first Biennale] in the present, "said a spokesman.
In a historic backflip, the London-based artist Marysia Lewandowska, from Poland, turned to the historical archives for her work "It's About Time", which will be presented in the pavilion of applied arts at Arsenale. She finds reports of meetings of the mayor of Venice, Riccardo Selvatico – dating from 1893 – that led to the creation of the Biennale two years later.
"The meeting documents served as a starting point for a new script and voice recordings developed with a group of Italian feminists living in London, speculating on a scenario in which the foundations of the first Biennale were built by women" said Lewandowska.
The historical archives of the Biennale are spread over two sites in Venice. Since 2008, the Historical Archives of Contemporary Art (ASAC) are installed in the VEGA Science Park, in the neighboring industrial district of Porto Marghera. It houses hundreds of thousands of posters, films and documents for all Biennials held in the city, including architecture, dance and film events, generating a mountain of materials.
The artistic directors of the main international exhibition are the key. "At the end of his term, each commissioner presents a series of documents reflecting their experience of the Biennale, the" construction "of the exhibitions and badociated activities," explains Debora Rossi, head of the Biennale's archives. .
Daniel Birnbaum, artistic director of the 2009 Venice Biennale, does not remember giving out bundles of emails, but points out that everything in his exhibition has been photographed. "We asked all participating artists to donate relevant publications. These are now in the library of the Biennale, a very impressive space, "he said.
Visitors to the International Art Exhibition sometimes pbad to the Biennial Library, the second archive site opened in the central pavilion of the Giardini in 2009. "With 157,000 volumes and 3,000 periodicals , it's one of the leading libraries of contemporary art in Italy, "the Biennale spokesman said.
Accessing archives online is difficult, however; the images are rare, they have been downloaded and indexed only since the mid-2000s, but by trial and error, the visual arts section can finally be located ("the system is in the process of being subject to a thorough review process ", added the spokesperson).
Dig deep into the Annali Section (annals) is like falling into a rabbit terrier, revealing the stars of the art of yesteryear. In 1901, for example, the list of artists offered a myriad of fascinating names such as Clara and Hilda Montalba, sisters who represented England. There are more than 100 entries on appearances at the Picbado Biennale, including his participation in the 1948 Biennial, when he showed a still life of 1912.
The records show that Giacomo Grosso's "Supremo Convegno" painting was exhibited at the inaugural Biennial of 1895. The depicted scene – five naked women writhing ecstatically on the coffin of their deceased lover – inflamed the Catholic patriarch from Venice, who asked that the painting be painted. took of. The archives tell us "that the painting no longer exists, it was lost in a fire on the ship that made it cross the Atlantic for an international tour". After all, we can find scandalous nuggets in any deposit.
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