Biennale di Venezia Art Exhibition Opens to Public
This year's Biennale di Venezia is entitled "Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer". Until November 2, visitors will be able to admire works by 550 contemporary artists from 63 countries, including for the first time Iran.
Biennale director Francesco Bonami has strived to create more than a visual feast at the exhibition, which includes videos and photographs as well as paintings and sculpture. The Biennale, he stressed recently, must not be about "aesthetics divorced from the world and society, (or) a simple illustration of the world we live in and its conflicts".
Thus the 10 huge passports -- each two meters by three -- erected by Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti in Venice's Arsenale gardens are a pointed condemnation of the fact that there is no Palestinian state and therefore no internationally recognized Palestinian nationality.
The Biennale's Golden Lion awards were given out on Saturday evening. The Golden Lion for the best work exhibited at the exhibition was awarded to Switzerland's Peter Fischli and David Weiss for "their modesty, clarity and artistic quality; for asking questions that help us to understand one another; and for having created a work that captures the true nature of dreams and conflicts", according to the Biennale's official Internet site.
The Golden Lion for the best artist under 35 at the exhibition went to Britain's Oliver Payne and Nick Relph for a work of art that "reflects urban culture and tells of the solitude and courage of the young generations in a universal language".
The Golden Lion for best national contribution went to Luxembourg, whose display of works by artist Su-Mei Tse offered "a strong but poetical combination of sound, film and space that immediately attracts the attention of the viewer". The prize for best young Italian artist was awarded to Avish Kheberhzadeh for animation work that was graceful, subtly narrated and merged a myriad of influences.