"Venice Biennale is a choking-on-money mercantilist fossil," states one of the many reasons not to be at the event, listed by artists Anetta Mona Chişa and Lucia Tkáĉová in an ironic mural outside the Romanian Pavilion.
In a way the two Romanian artists weren’t wrong, but they should have added also another reason not to be at the Biennale and in particular at the press days of the event, the high number of pretentious people.
When you apply to get accredited to a specific event as a journalist, you’re usually asked to show a letter from your editor; in the case of the Venice Biennale, you also have to send in a passport picture and show them one of your recently published articles related to art and architecture. Press offices apply these rules to allow journalists to do their job without further stress added.
Yet this year’s Art Biennale press days were turned by a strange and adverse destiny into the preview days for pretentious people.
I should have realised that something was wrong when a fellow journalist asked a lady who was looking the Saudi Arabia installation at the Arsenale, ‘So are you a journalist?’ and got the bizarre reply ‘Oh no, I’m an arty person!’. Nothing wrong with being an “arty” person, but if you’re an arty person, can’t you wait until the official opening and go to see the Biennale with all the other "arty people"?
Things climaxed on Thursday morning at the Giardini della Biennale where some pavilions had Disneyland-like queues outside with people telling you how long you had to wait to get in.
This is obviously understandable when the space of the pavilion may feature an installation visible only to a certain number of people at a time. But in this case the queues featured a reduced number of journalists and a suspiciously high number of “arty people”.
As the hours passed the arty people morphed into fashionistas and that’s where things got really bad: attempting to discuss with the people in your queue which were the best works exhibited was out of the question since the main concern of many superficial fashionistas was how many of them had managed to get a tote bag from the Australian Pavilion (the golden bag from the Australian Pavillion was definitely a hit…).
Discussions in the queues also revolved around which trendy parties you had been invited to, confirming the fact the main aim was being seen rather than seeing.
Another common crime among the stylish and the superficial ones was taking a picture of themselves with the guys from the Korean Pavilion clad in colourful military uniforms decorated with floral prints that looked extremely fun, though they were part of the “Angel Soldier” installation by Lee Yongbaek, one of the most respected contemporary artists in Korea.
By the late morning of Thursday the number of assorted infiltrated visitors had dramatically risen, including ubiquitous high profile fashion bloggers feigning interest in Boltanski’s work in the French Pavilion and prominent characters from the fashion industry, such as Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani and Diesel’s Renzo Rosso.
I know what you’re going to say, my site is about art, fashion and style, so I shouldn’t really be against people from the fashion industry going to an art biennale, but my point is not their presence at such an event (though why not going another day as any other unassuming person?), but their purposes and roles.
Rather than scouting or looking for inspirations, they were indeed hanging around a trendy event (or a trendy yacht – Abramovich's annoying "Luna"), something they could have done on another day from today until November rather than on the press days. If the press days turn into a major circus we may as well open them to the general public. Indeed I would prefer queueing up with ordinary people like myself with a genuine interest in art rather than with a bunch of pretentious and clueless people wearing a number of assorted designs from Prada’s Spring/Summer 2011 to prove their status.
Actually now that I think about it, the Prada connection should be investigated: Prada opened a new exhibition space in a historic building in Ca' Corner della Regina with a cocktail party on Thursday night (with famous guests including artists Jeff Koons, Francesco Vezzoli and Cindy Sherman and Vogue USA editor Anna Wintour).
This morning at the awarding ceremony even the Biennale director Bice Curiger was wearing a Prada dress from the S/S 2011 collection. Now wait a minute, Rem Koolhaas was given the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at last year’s Architecture Biennale, and Koolhaas is Prada’s architect. So my question is, has Prada got any power in influencing the Biennale and should we maybe change the Venice Biennale into the Prada Biennale? And what about suppressing the press days and do the pretentious elitist people days/the celebrity days/the VIP days/the my yacht is bigger than yours days/the Biennale street style days?
Artists often end up starving (note: I said "artists", not "artists with rich patrons") and I spoke to some of the artists involved in the event who had problems with money and funds. Yet an event that should be dedicated to art and culture can be easily turned into a big endless party for an elite pretending of being part at one of Charles de Beistegui’s flamboyant balls.
The fashion industry jumping on the art bandwagon is not big news, but, come August 2012 (the next Architecture Biennale), will the fashion industry be jumping also on the architecture bandwagon? The answer is most definitely yes since that's the next field the fashion industry is trying to infiltrate and turn into something hip and superficial. Yet, if I'm lucky enough, by then I will have jumped off the train and found myself a new job and new purposes in life. I’m slightly too tired of them, of their lack of humanity and of their minds full of couture and lacking any culture.
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