The Syrian Guernica; a review of the Syrian pavilion | By Nidal Touma

This short note is not an art critique to the works of the mentioned artists, rather it tries to shed light on the Syrian pavilion from a holistic point of view, it also examines the Syrian Arab Republec’ participation in in the 55th Biennial of Venice 2013 in light of the events on the Syrian ground, and away of any political views of the author.

The Syrian pavilion at the Venice Biennial 2013 (located on the island of Saint Servolo); Cara amica arte (Art is a dear friend) revolving around the role Art can and should play to bring people together

The curator Duccio Trombadori designed the exhibition to showcase Syria from a non-political perspective, and an unbiased point of view, through exhibiting the works and testimonies of the 17 chosen artists “who look toward the Mediterranean world beyond their individual political, cultural, and religious ideas (the curator statement)” molded through their recent stay in Syria http://www.myartguides.com/venice-art-biennale-2013/art-biennale/national-participations/item/539-syrian-arab-republic

The exhibited works feature various topics; some of them tackle the demographic diversity of Syria (Felipe Cadena), others illustrate motifs taken from the rich mythology of ancient Syrian civilizations and represent it in a modern nostalgic context (Nabil Al Samman), while other works depict mildly-tortured women portraits which could be the artist’s view on women conditions in Syria (Lidia Bachis). Alternatively another artist (Shafik Echtai) represents his ideas in a modernism-style with a greyish palette, which might be hinting to a certain brave political message, -affected by the nowadays Syrian collective consciousness; using grey, or “being grey”, might indicate unbiasness- however the Kandinsky-like style makes it difficult for the viewer to grasp the exact idea the artist wanted to express, which flaws the message of the artwork to some extent, on the other side (George Miro) depicted his memories with views from certain Syrian landscapes, but again in an abstract manner.

Overall, the exhibited artworks depict each artist’s views, and his or her personal experience molded through their recent stay in Syria, and it all add up to the general message of the exhibition -which the curator has chosen, and which was previously highlighted in the statement-

Consequently the curator’s virtuous attempt to keep art impeccable and away from political biasness is evident… However it might have gone to the extreme here, and ended up as a clear detachment from reality. The Arabic quote “too much is similar to too little” will come in play here, and the overall impression the visitor gets, as well as the overall message of the exhibition might be accused of avoiding the firm tragic Syrian reality !

Hence the question of impeccability will re-impose itself; “Verifying the attempt to keep art impeccable… WITHIN limits of biasness, and detachment !”

Obviously this note has evolved toward questioning the soundness of the curatorial statement’s implementation, and to what extent it adheres to the actual reality in the featured country… and it became the responsibility of the author to provide a justification of this critique…

As a matter of fact the needed justification is found in the very same artwork exhibited at the entrance of the Syrian pavilion, the work by the Italian artist Camilla Ancilotto titled Deposizione (Deposition), which could be the only artwork addressing the situation in Syria in a direct way, while successfully keeping its unbiased state.

Ancilotto is revisiting the work of the great Spanish artist Pablo Picasso; Guernica, copying its main elements -richly charged with symbols- to depict the horrors of the war, and featuring the work in an emphasized Cubism frame, making it an interactive piece of art to better engage visitors in the artwork and in its imbedded message of peace.

Camilla Ancilotto’s  Deposizione is an powerful message to stop the civil war and condemn all atrocities, it also answers the eternal question; “can Art be involved in Politics ? and if so, can political Art still be unbiased?”, by providing a proof that Art can play a major role in national causes -especially at such international events like the Biennial- while preserving its unbiased position by merely keeping the awareness role, and raise the patriotic call over biasness and any national pride.

Walking on water; an interaction between an Emirati and a Venetian perception | by Nidal Touma

Venice -the city of Art- with its well renowned biennial, is one of the most coveted global exposures for countries and artists alike

Several centuries ago, Veneti people exploited the marshy lagoon to –literally- find their land and create their city on water, and ever since water became a comfortable reality for Venetians. Houses, markets, daily life events are all well acclimatized to the water and the canals that spread all over the archipelagic city.

When it comes to Art and artistic production, water also inspired many artists with the magnificent Vedute of Venice and the beautiful Ca’s that became a recurring motif in works of prominent artists such as Canaletto among others, the canals also add a lot to the romantic scenes of the city with the famous Gondola excursions making it one of the preferred destinations for tourists.

For Venetians water is a Romantic reality and a daily ritual, or even their second nature !

Few thousand miles away, and despite the geographical similarity between Venice, Abu Dhabi and Dubai – since they are all formed of clusters of natural and/or man-made islands more or less- for the Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem it’s evident that the notion of water has a different sensitivity formed through one of his childhood experiences; when he had fell –unnoticed- of the boat and was lost at the open sea for around half an hour before he was relocated and saved by his friends.

Kazem’s “walking on water” brings a different perception to the daily Venetian habit of “walking” on water, a mildly disturbing one though !

We need to keep in mind here what the French artist George Braque once said: “The function of Art is to disturb… Science reassures.” Consequently we can deduct that the importance of Mohammed Kazem’s work derives exactly from its capacity to challenge the visitors’ comfortable perceptions of the water and introduce them to a new unsettling consciousness provoked by the artist, simultaneously the work is suggesting a new understanding and a new meaning to the modern notion of Global Positioning System coordinates.

“Walking on water” is part of Kazem’s series of conceptual art called: “Directions” which he started in 1999. By using GPS coordinates to document his location he endeavors to symbolically reference his very existence, he also tries to give a new meaning to the figures of the coordinates; (e.g. 25” 14.08 N  /  055” 14,30 E  /  0 Ft) might have no functional value except in the exact geographic spot where they were captured merely indicating a location on earth, But at the same time they bare an inner-story of that location and this is what gives them a meaning and a big Importance anywhere they traveled in the world.

With the simulator installation of “Walking on water” Mohammed Kazem attained a big success; he transmitted his personal experience through a 360 degree video projection, developed it into an artistic message, and put it on a global outreach… Kazem succeeded in actually realizing what the French artist Edgar Degas once said “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see”, and “others” here is not limited to Venetians, but it include the whole international publics visiting the biennial.

As illustrated before, the concept -which the solo artwork in the National pavilion of UAE stands for- is an interesting and smart juxtapose to one of the distinguished marks of Venice.

However examining this work along with the overall theme of the Biennale suggested by the curator Massimilano Gioni -revolving around the 1955 Marino Auriti’s design of a “Pallazo Enciclopedico”; an archive museum to document all knowledge and evolution of humanity and societies-… we can notice a diversion in the curatorial approach, which In my humble opinion is due to 2 main points:

– First: the concept of archiving of the past achievements of a nation, or its prominent landmarks, or the current traits of its modern society is not clearly evident through this type of conceptual artworks.

– Second: the context of water –even with its interesting critical approach- is not exactly specific to the United Arab Emirates, as it can be a tale from any country with and stretch of a coastline or even without coastlines.

Eventually I would like to say that this diversion in approach does not derogate at all of the value of Mohammed Kazem work and artistic message, nor of the curatorial efforts of Reem Fadda… it is just a different way to plot the United Arab Emirates participation in the 55th Biennial of Venice 2013 – 2014

Reviewing Museums | by Sara Al Haddad

The works exhibited at the Venice Biennale in its early editions were purchasable, despite that, both classical museums and the biennale tend to be non-commercial spaces; the differences between museums and the biennale are not that vast. A museum of classical works carries out a historical weight to the name it is associated with, and with a city such as Venice and its renaissance movement, it rather exemplifies its dissimilarity with the biennale. On the other hand, the Biennale’s reputation is rather associated with the countries that take part of the exhibition; the artists that are selected to exhibit; and on a larger scale, the number of visitors it greets. The biennale accommodates to its day and time, its history does not necessarily play a big role in its success.

Having visited several museums in Venice (classical and modern), the concept of associating a museum to fit within the context of one era and its style is not always successful, neither it is always applicable. Museo Correr, a classical museum located in one of the most infamous piazza’s in Venice, San Marco. Greeted with the Napoleonic wing of imperial rooms where the empress Elizabeth of Austria has resided during her visit to Venice, one finds themselves wandering from one room to another of re-touched and maintained historic elements of what once used to be a dinning room; empresses’ bathroom and bed chamber, amongst few others. The rooms were recreated to fit into the idea of what was once there, acting as an aiding element for the visitors to easily visualize what is considered to be historic, or what could have been. The richness of the coloured walls, the bright velvet clothe and the good conditioned furniture give an impression of newness; the rooms did not fit my concept of what a classical museum would hosts. Regardless, the ‘museum’ acts as a tool to showcase what would have been classically historic through restorations and the assembly of collections. Why does the idea of classical works extend itself to allow and accept restored and re-assembled works, is what I find fascinating. Do these rooms really fit within the context of classically historic, or are they simply decorative and their decorative style is what pushes their aesthetics beyond decorative?

I started writing this piece thinking museums and the biennale are very different, but the pragmatic approaches taken by either institution are not far apart. The biennale hosts contemporary artworks; many artworks that fall under the category of contemporary may not always be accepted by the vast majority as Art, per say. Visiting Museo Correr, apart from its other classical showcased artworks, I was not drawn into the idea of considering rooms and their arrangement to be classical, historical or museum material, without disregarding their historic relevance to the city.

Is there an acting force that seeks to extend our understanding of what is to be acceptable to fall under Art and its subcategory genres, or is there an excessive need to associate things with Art, that may not necessary be art, but were rather driven with an artistic approach – is that still art? Could there be a lack of understanding from my part of what is a museum, what and how can it hosts different artworks under the same roof – is there a correlation between that and the lack of institutionalized museums in the UAE, and how can it rectify those perceptions and misunderstandings?

On Museums | by Lorenzo Tel

1.Peggy Guggenheim museum

The Building

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is the most important museum in Italy for European and American art of the first half of the twentieth century. It is based in Venice at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, in what was once the home of Peggy Guggenheim. Opened in 1951 by the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, wealthy American industrialist and art collector, the museum houses the personal collection of art of the twentieth century of Peggy Guggenheim, but also works from other collections and temporary exhibitions.

Permanent Collection

The museum houses the personal collection of Peggy Guggenheim , which includes masterpieces of Cubism, Futurism , Metaphysical painting , European abstraction , avantgarde sculpture , Surrealism and American Abstract Expressionism , of some of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. These include Picasso (The Poet , On the Beach ) , Braque ( The Clarinet ) , Duchamp ( Sad Young Man on Train), Léger ( Men in the City ) , Brancusi ( Maiastra , Bird in Space ) , Severini ( Sea = Dancer ) , Picabia ( Very Rare Picture on the earth ) , de Chirico ( the Red Tower , the Nostalgia of the Poet ) , Mondrian ( Composition no. 1 with gray and red 1938 / Composition with Red 1939) , Kandinsky (Landscape with red Spots 2 ) , Miró ( Woman session II) , Giacometti ( Woman slaughtered , Woman walking ) , Klee ( magic Garden ) , Ernst ( the Kiss, the dressing of the bride) , Magritte ( empire of Light ) , Dalí (Birth of liquid Desires ) , Pollock ( the moon Woman , Alchemy ) , Gorky ( Untitled ) , Calder ( Arc of Petals ) and Marini (Angel of the city) .

2. Punta della Dogana: Prima Materia

The Building
With its perfectly triangular shape, Punta della Dogana split the Grand Canal from the Giudecca Canal. The former monumental port of the city is the seat of the permanent collection of works from the François Pinault after a major redevelopment project commissioned by François Pinault Foundation. The building is so unique and distinctive, so changing function for the first time in its history, leaving the trades and becoming the
harbor mouth to the peaks representative of contemporary artistic production and the place of choice to share it with the wider public.

Exposition: “Prima Materia” i.e. Primal Substance

The artistic innovations of the late sixties , often expressed in the abstraction , and sometimes through the void , they had as a background images of wars , protests and social unrest . In the same years a new vision of social equality was born and became aware of problems such as the present and future condition of the environment in which we live. Today, science and technology offer the opportunity to connect globally through social networks , an endless amount of images accessible and , ultimately, longer life expectancy and the use of renewable energy. Yet there is a climate of anxiety generated by opponents often invisible and abstract, such as global warming or terrorism technology. There is a cacophony of images and sounds media . If the purpose of most of the works of nineteenth-century art was to represent the truth through beauty and balance, by the end of the twentieth century art tends to reconcile the extremes – abstraction and surrealism, vacuum and chaos, denial and show , high and low. From the artistic point of view , this is an age of global pluralism . Four basic forms of expression – painting, sculpture, installation, performance – are blended from the “Prima Materia” of the media; this term is not only the substance of the films or videos or the
Internet, but means of communication and the overall discussion. There are hundreds of different definitions and descriptions of the “Prima Materia” : primal substance which distinguishes and together constitute earth, air , fire and water ; formless substratum of all material, including soul and body, sun and moon, love and light , imagination and consciousness , but also urine, blood, dirt. It was sought in the dark soil of the woods and within the human body . It is the primordial chaos that exists before time and any chance of a future. The definitions of this medium that embodies all the elements vary in cultural perspective or personal identity. Sometimes represented in a circle like a snake biting its tail; the first matter is pure essence , everything and nothing , everywhere and nowhere , and can take many forms.

3. Manet, Back in Venice at Palazzo Ducale
The exhibition arose from the need of a critical study on the cultural models that inspired the young Manet during the years of his early start to painting. These models, up to now almost exclusively referring to the influence of Spanish painting on his art, were otherwise very close to the Italian Renaissance painting. In addition to his masterpieces, there are some exceptional works by Titian, Tintoretto and Lotto in particular. As is well known, studies of Manet, the great forerunner of Impressionism, have for a long time focused on the idea of one of his direct descent from the opera painting by Velázquez and Goya, seeing it right in painting spagnoal not only ‘only source of its modernity, but also the reason and the stimulus for its shunning “returns” to the academic tradition. A progressive approach, so to speak, that does not take account of the passion of Manet for Italian art of the Renaissance, which was a really intense fascination and a tie with Italy and the lagoon city.

Italy, moreover, is not absent even in the paintings of Manet’s more related to Spain: its religious painting draws as much by Titian and Andrea del Sarto as El Greek and Velázquez. His still lifes silent behind the faithfulness to the formulas Dutch, many surprises that not only refer to the Nordic tradition, but also seem to be inspired by an Italian chromatic force. When the painter approaches definitively to the “modern” Paris, his
painting does not leave the memory of Italian, but it is full of memories.

4. Gallerie dell’Accademia

The monumental complex of the Gallerie dell’Accademia now occupies the prestigious headquarters of the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carita, one of the oldest lay confraternities of the city. Are an integral part also the homonymous church of Santa Maria and Monastery of the Lateran Canons, designed by Andrea Palladio.The museum houses the largest collection of Venetian paintings from the fourteenth century Byzantine and Gothic to Renaissance artists, Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto and Tiziano until Giambattista Tiepolo and the eighteenth-century landscape painters, Canaletto, Guardi, Bellotto, Longhi. Artists who influenced the history of European painting. It preserves also other forms of art such as sculptures and drawings, among which the famous Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci (exposed only on special occasions).

5. Natural History Museum of Venice

The Building
The palace said Fontego dei Turchi, which houses the Museum was built by Giacomo Palmieri, founder of the noble family of Pesaro, in the first half of the thirteenth century. In 1381 it was purchased by the Republic of Venice, which he sold to the Marquis of Ferrara Nicholas V D’Este for the loyalty demonstrated in the war of Chioggia. An important chapter in its history began in 1621, when the Republic destined him to Turkish merchants as sales office, which held it until 1838. Detailed rules and strict he governed the operations, the schedules of daily life to the mode of trade. It was, inter alia, for a clear separation between inside Turks Europeans (Bosnians and Albanians) on one side, and Turks of Constantinople and Asia (Persian and Armenian) on the other. The Turkish merchants in Venice especially imported wax, oil, raw wool and leather, which was added in 1700 also tobacco goods were sold or exchanged with other products. The Fontego dei Turchi was totally rebuilt from 1860.

Collections
One of the institutional tasks of a Natural History Museum is to preserve the collections inherited by naturalists of the past and build on this heritage through the acquisition of new material. For this it is essential that the museum is equipped, as well as exhibition spaces, some of the areas intended for storage. These places are not directly accessible to the visitor where the collections are stored, available on request, by scholars and researchers. In warehouses environmental parameters must be kept within limits that allow optimal preservation of the finds, although these are periodically monitored to check the conditions and detect early signs of deterioration.The items that are damaged are restored by skilled personnel in the laboratory of biological preparations located in the Museum, where they are also prepared new materials for both the increase in collections of the deposits and used for the purposes of study for both exposure and enjoyment of teaching. The set of collections representing the history of the museum and research carried out by naturalists, both locally, and in distant lands. The collections originating from naturalistic researches in the local area make up the physical evidence and the historical memory of the territory and its transformation over time. That’s why specimens of the same species may be present in most collections, related to geographical areas and time periods, the study of the specimens and their ecology can indeed provide valuable information on the
state of the environment and its transformations. Other collections, which for the most part come from donations, are the result of trips and expeditions to discover unknown lands and is therefore palaeontological, ethnological, anthropological, geographical. Today, the scientific heritage of the Museum consists of over two million pieces.

1. Comparation to Biennale
From a cultural point of view, living in Venice is a challenge and a fortune, as the great cultural heritage is an open road calls for the courage of the way to produce new culture and not to be trapped in the gilded cage of the ephemeral glory of the past. The meeting / clash between the Venetian museums and exhibitions around the pavilions of the Biennale are a reality interesting and fruitful, because the museums collect the assets of an identity, the Biennale offers a look ahead, a look experimental, one look
fragile on the future of art that will be. At the Biennale there are artists who give birth to their works. These artists follow the current cultural or decide to go against the tide, however, feel that the lure of inspiration is urgent and must produce without worrying if their works be understood. At the Biennale no one knows if those artistic productions will
one day be preserved in a museum. No one knows if those artistic productions will one day a masterpiece, a work of art that future generations will admire. The museum houses a heritage, the Biennale designs, casts a glance at the future. The Biennale is not asked to provide a statement of artistic production because it is an exposition, i.e. exhibition. Ex-position means that I go out (ex-) from my location to another location, to another path.

It is true that a museum can offer temporary collections, but collections are always an asset. The museum helps to reflect on the way that the artistic culture has made over the centuries and is expected to help the human being to understand its own mobile identity, oscillating between past, present and future. What represents a museum and what offers a Biennale are a reality not in antagonism and not mutually exclusive. Are in mutual exchange and relationship. It would be disastrous if one of them happen a communication of the deaf, as both would lose vitality and fertility, would be condemned to sterility and would be imprisoned in the sophistic dialectic between old and new, because what is old can be new inside and outside what new outside can being old inside. I mean, if I make a new work of art, it must be able to communicate something, do not just appear, it must touch and vibrate the strings of my soul and my mind. The work of art is not a matter of privacy, but it is a public issue. What
we produce, no longer belongs to you, but it belongs to the public, so that you create a triangular relationship between artist, audience and artwork. The work of art does not seek and do not want to mere spectators as when we sit at home to watch television. A work of art seeks and asks the people who know how to contemplate. But to contemplate should
be able to stop. This I think is the challenge for the next human civilization: to learn to stop and contemplate. At the Biennale there are numerous artistic productions that are expressed mostly through  short movies or videos. A movie, I watch it but I’m not educated to contemplate, because the images are constantly moving and reflect the fact that I, a human being of this time, I
find it hard to stop or are not able to stop except to eat (perhaps ) and sleep (maybe). Maybe exception is the work of Kazem, in which there is a two minute video that shows the movement of the sea, an image so moving but highly stimulating to the contemplation.Be that as it may, the museum says what I have been. Biennial says what I am today. Maybe, inshallah, if it keeps alive the relationship between the museum and two years, the future of mankind will have the high hopes of civilization… because the images have a soul and maybe someone forgot about it… I mean the artist’s soul, mirror of the Mankind.

The UAE
Sharjah
I never visited it. So I surfed on the web. Searching on the web I found out that Sharjah City was crowned by UNESCO in 1998 as the Cultural Capital of the Arab world, thanks to the efforts by the responsible bodies inartistic and cultural field.
The emirate boasts 15 museums, almost all concentrated in the capital city is located in the center of the Archaeological Museum, which displays artifacts recovered during the excavations carried out in the area, a witness to the rich past of the territory, and that also presents an interesting wing used as a library which houses ancient manuscripts and texts, in the area the “souq Al Bahar” is the “Sharjah Art Museum,” an exhibition held in 32 halls where they meet paintings and lithographs, some of which came from the private collection of the Emir, not very far here is the Islamic Museum, with its collection of ancient and rare manuscripts, as well as crafts from Morocco and Afghanistan. To make a leap into the past, we must go to the “Sharjah Heritage Museum,” a faithful reconstruction of the typical old house of the Emir, feature the exhibition of clothes, jewelry and vintage toys.
Focused on weapons and combat vehicles is the Museum Sharjah Police, which also houses a small scale reconstructions of old forts, including that of the strong “Al Husn” built in 1820 by Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi, now restored and can be visited with a display of weapons, jewelry and vintage photographs.

Abu Dhabi
It will  adopt a Louvre in large format, The Cultural District is aiming to open the Louvre Abu Dhabi in 2015, while in 2016 the Zayed National Museum will open in 2017 and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi: art for an injection of capital of the United Arab Emirates, founded in 1791 by the tribe Bedouin of the Banu Yas and today one of the richest cities in the world thanks to a wealth of the most significant oil. Partners of this cultural operation are Agence France Museums, The British Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. In this regard, the Abu Dhabi Executive Council said: “The museums of the Saadiyat Island Cultural District will help make Abu Dhabi one of the leading destinations in the world culture and tourism and encourage communication
and the integration of different cultures”. Today Abu Dhabi offers the effervescent technology of the contemporary and the flavor of ancient traditions, places like Qasr AlHosn, where the history triumphs and cultural sites such as Al Ain, the Garden City of the
Museum Al Ain, within the strong Al Jahili, hosts precious archaeological artefacts.

If this is so, this confirms that the art does not know the colors of the flags and that it can speak to everyone through a variety of expressions. When the mind and the heart of the human being is not darkened by the smoke of any fundamentalism, he comes close to the beauty of art, and where there is beauty, there is life, and where there is life, there is God .. saw that he was very creative during the act of creation, if I am allowed to write so.

One Vs. | by Alyazia Al Qubaisi

When we walk into a museum or an art gallery we enjoy seeing the many works  that surround us. Walking around, examining each piece and wondering what is the story behind it. As for La Biennale di Venezia pavilions you would think that the more the merrier but on the contrary, one piece is sometimes enough, or even one artist is all that the viewers needs to experience.

When I walked into Walking on Water, it made me want to stay there for hours, because of the way it made me feel. Everything in the world did not matter, all I wanted to do is sit there and let my mind travel in its own thoughts. Another example of the solo artist pavilion is the Argentinian pavilion ; you walk into it and have this full experience that makes you involved in the work itself.

There were other pavilions, where they featured three or more artists, and I did not feel the connection at all. For me it was confusing, for instance, once I am done with one artist and move on to the other I keep in mind that the next work will be related or have the same theme.  But with the limited time you have as a visitor, you feel a sense of disconnection between the works, and the immersive experience you thought you would have is interrupted by the several different artworks that don’t relate to each other. The South African pavilion features many strong works, however, having 15 artists represented all in one exhibition doesn’t leave you with a single thought or feeling, but rather in a rush to see them all, and then try to connect the dots.

At the end of the day, we never know which art work will move us. Many pavilions chose to feature more than one artist and the works were good but personally I felt puzzled and confused. As for the pavilions featuring one artist, I felt a stronger connection.