Guest post by Vanessa Nicholas
Vanessa graduated last year with an MA from the Courtauld Institue of Art in London. She is currently working at the Venice Biennale.
Affectionately referred to as the art world’s Olympics, the Venice Biennale has historically been defined as an event that gives countries the opportunity to showcase their finest cultural product. This year, however, the idea of cultural nationalism is being challenged by many participants.Canada, for example, is represented by Mark Lewis, a filmmaker celebrated for his innovative and imaginative approach to the medium.
The first of the four films on display is Nathan Phillips Square, A Winter’s Night, Skating (2009) (click on the title to see the film). We see a couple skating – they embrace and spin, staring into each other’s eyes. The viewer is hypnotized by the romantic scene, as well as by the uneasy vibration that occurs between the foreground and the background as a result of Lewis’s use of rear projection technology, a old Hollywood technique that allows actors to be filmed in front of a previously shot background.
Mark Lewis, Nathan Phillips Square, A Winter’s Night, Skating, 2009, video still, (photo credit: Mark Lewis Studio)
If they don’t immediately recognize Nathan Phillips Square, Canadians visiting the pavilion will at least identify with the familiar scene of ice-skating. This kind of cultural identification also defined the space two years ago when David Altmejd’s sculptural installation transformed the pavilion into what felt like a miniature surrealist wilderness refuge. Interestingly, Canada is one of the few countries at the Biennale that seems attached to cultural clichés. Even the Canadian pavilion party on the night of 4 June circulated around an (admittedly ironic) Algonquin Tiki Tiki Hut, which was erected by the Canadian artist group Reverse Pedegogy.
That being said, the exhibition ultimately contests the idea of cultural nationalism. Lewis’s use of rear projection technology, which results in a completely manufactured world, can be interpreted as a comment on national identity as a construct. Especially when one considers that the skaters were filmed against a projection of the Nathan Phillips Square scene in Los Angeles on a rotating stage. The issue is further complicated by the fact that Mark Lewis himself, who was born in Hamilton, Ontario, has relocated to London, England.
Lewis’ work is tapped into the general pulse of the Biennale, whose other participants seem equally preoccupied with the question of cultural nationalism. Take the Canadian pavilion’s neighbours as examples. The British pavilion features a film by Steve McQueen that was shot in the Giardini this past winter. It shows the pavilions, which function as pseudo embassies during the Biennale, as neglected empty shells. Meanwhile, Germany has chosen Liam Gillick, a non-resident, non-German artist as it’s representative. Gillick is an English artist that works in London and New York.
Steve McQueen, Giardini, Venice Biennale 2009, (photos credit: British Council)
Close-by are the Danish and Nordic pavilions, which have teamed up to present The Collectors, the first collaboration between two pavilions in the Biennale’s history. The project was curated and staged by the artist duo, Elmgreen & Dragset. Both pavilions have been transformed into impressive homes. The Danish pavilion is ‘For Sale’ and the Nordic pavilion acts as the home of the prospective buyer’s mysterious would be neighbour, Mr. B. The accompanying pamphlet claims that The Collectors was “initiated with the intention of dismantling the national representation model, designating instead a transnational neighbourhood within the Giardini area. With the traditional boundaries of the Venice Biennale format being pushed more than ever before, one can only speculate what the future will bring for this exhibition.
Vanessa (in the center) drinking prosecco near the canal with her friends!
Thank you very much Vanessa and enjoy your stay in Venice 
One Response to “Guest post by Vanessa Nicholas”
I really enjoyed reading this post! I particularly liked this sentence “That being said, the exhibition ultimately contests the idea of cultural nationalism. Lewis’s use of rear projection technology, which results in a completely manufactured world, can be interpreted as a comment on national identity as a construct.” It’s really something to make you think… I guess that’s why we all love art so much
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