There is still a week to go and visit the 56th International Art Exhibition in Venice and, if you like satire (and taking the piss out of fashion as well…), you shouldn't miss visiting the Luxembourg Pavilion.
Located at Ca' del Duca, the pavilion, curated by Paul Ardenne, features a series of art installations collectively gathered under the name "PL – Paradiso Lussemburgo" by Filip Markiewicz.
Born in 1980 in Luxembourg to Polish parents, Markiewicz studied Visual Arts at the University of Strasbourg and now works in Hamburg, Germany.
Markiewicz ponders via the art installations inside the pavilion about Luxembourg, interpreting it as a tax haven and an alleged paradise for integration, but linking the main theme also to Dante's Paradise and to cinematic references such as Giuseppe Tornatore's 1988 film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso.
The artist also satirises brands and fashion by graphically reinterpreting the initials for the pavilion title – "PL" – as the famous "LV" (Louis Vuitton) logo.
"What interests me is, on the one hand, the mythological aspect, close to the fable, and on the other hand, popular appearance", the artist states in an official press release.
"The various waves of immigration recorded since the beginning of the twentieth century in Luxembourg have led to the country being seen as a sort of paradise for integration. Again, there is a strong allusion to the image of Luxembourg given by some foreign media, the tax haven, a theme addressed here head-on but also with a certain irony."
The pavilion is divided in six different spaces (five rooms and a vestibule), that could be interpreted as museums or creative laboratories of ideas where cultural entertainment can take place.
Collectively speaking the spaces form a sort of stage upon which the artist plays different roles and tackles various themes.
The pavilion begins indeed outside the building with a neon light quoting Oscar Wilde's famous statement "The world is a stage but the play is badly cast". The six acts of the "Paradiso Lussemburgo" tale therefore start unfolding from the vestibule.
The latter leads to the first room via a series of drawings representing a storyboard and revolving around themes such as immigration, politics, money and finance, power, fame and creativity.
Three identical portraits of Karl Lagerfeld represented carrying a "PL" tote bag are accompanied by the description: "Imagine a culture in which artistic creation by human bodies is not subject to passing fads dictated by big money and mass media. Imagine a culture in which artistic creation supplies all human bodies with philosophical interrogations that can make life in society better."
A perfume advert starring Brad Pitt next to the "PL" fragrance (reminiscent of a Chanel N. 5 bottle…) follows together with drawings addressing the school system, politics and Amazon and Fiat's tax arrangements in Luxembourg.
A comment on a drawing with Steve Jobs and Vladimir Putin reads "Imagine a human body that does not belong to any particular religion but respects all religions as mankind's philosophical heritage rather than dogmas."
The first room, known as the Limbic Theatre, symbolises the entrance of Luxembourg on the European stage. The world's only remaining grand duchy, Luxembourg has an advanced economy and the world's highest GDP per capita.
The country's central location that turned it into a strategic place for financial powers is satirised here via fake adverts and 3D printed sculptures ("Apple Religion", "Google Warsaw" and "Nevermind Acropolis") that look at religion, economy and capitalism and that are mounted on "Amazon.God" plinths.
In the next room a film featuring two people from Luxembourg (that, the artist claims, may be Adam and Eve lost in a modern Paradise or Bonnie and Clyde…) analyses identity and gender issues.
Things become more complicated in "The Forest" room: here Luxembourg is seen as a postcard of rural landscapes hinting at romantic calm and peaceful nature (symbolised by a stuffed fox), clashing with poverty and socio-economic adversity.
Lyrics from Blur's "The Universal" are scribbled on the wall, while red roses hanging from the ceiling bleed ruby red dew in a bathtub, a scene inspired by Jacques-Louis David's painting "The Death of Marat", Sam Mendes' American Beauty and Hitchcock's Psycho. Rather than offering prospects of salvation, the dirty water in the bathtub, reminds visitors of eternal condemnation.
Architectural models greet the visitors in the fourth room – the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, the European Parliament in Luxembourg, the Luxembourg cathedral and the country's pavilion in Venice – each space representing history, Europe, and religion (or rather a world with no religion) and the tradition of a small country at the heart of international modern and ideological battles.
The paradise can be exited via a disco club: psychedelic images mixed with pictures taken from the news flicker on the dancefloor while a private party video is projected on the back wall, and a pop rock soundtrack suspended between nostalgia and kitsch and featuring the Doors, Abba, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Blur among the others, plays in the background.
It takes time to digest all the messages included in Markiewicz's hybrid pavilion, and while at times the artist seems to be weaving a complex visual tapestry made of too many symbols, thoughts and topics that would need more explanations, most times his irony employs pop culture to poke fun at capitalism, finance and politics in accessible ways.
On the day I was going to visit the pavilion I uncannily met a middle-aged woman on the water bus who started talking to me after seeing my tote bag from a previous biennale event.
She enthused about the Luxembourg Pavilion to the point I thought she must have been an organiser or curator. But, surprisingly, when I asked her if she was working there, the woman simply replied, "Oh yes, I'm the cleaning lady!". Her enthusiasm was contagious and encouraged me to go and check out the pavilion as soon as it opened that morning. I guess she probably convinced many other people who crossed her path to visit the pavilion throughout the biennale months.
At the moment, though, and after so many weeks and months have gone since the biennale opened, you should maybe go and see "Paradiso Lussemburgo" not because somebody merely suggests you to do so, but mainly because the pavilion has assumed further meanings. Indeed, some of the political issues touched upon by the installations included here became more prominent during the summer after migration flows intensified challenging the unity of Europe, while the recent terrorist attacks in Paris brought back in the news issues of religion, identity and power.
So, if you're visiting the pavilion this week, pay more attention to the drawings in the vestibule and to the messages hidden in the descriptions accompanying them. One of them for example portrays Madonna and Marine Le Pen with a comment stating: "Imagine the language of a group of human bodies that are not subjected to any politicised notion of jus soli or territory. Imagine that languages and nations are shifting to accommodate the migration of human bodies." We should maybe try and "imagine" that more often…
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