A SUCKER FOR PUNISHMENT

We have visited the Punta Della Dogana (The François Pinault Foundation) on our trips to Venise for the Biennale. There are always one of two installations or paintings which catch our eye. It must have been there too that we saw a magnificent painting done by Zeng Fanzhi as there was a similar painting at the Modern Art Exhibition which I saw a couple of weeks ago. I decided to risk the exhibition of his collection - or a very small part of it - at the Conciergerie. The setting is magic and I have seen quite a few extraordinary exhibitions  there. 

I had expected a long queue to get in. Not a soul. Ominous. That impression got worse. Am I a sufferer for punishment? The exhibition on Maryan left me in a poor state. This is upsetting and depressing.

The exhibition is called « Crises and Imprisonment ». I had NOT taken note of that before I walked down to the Conciergerie. The exhibition is in two parts. The first concerns the major upheaval our society is undergoing - ecological dangers, our inability to communicate, prisons in their various forms, civil war, terrorism and the idea of resistance. 

Had enough? Here a just a few choice selections from the first part.  I did not take shots of every artist. Too much. 

Raphaëlle Ricolc - (urban overflow) 

Raphaëlle Ricolc - (urban overflow) 







Ahmed Alsoudani (Iraq) Civil War 

A.A. Civil war 

Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia) - the idea of resistance 

A.A. Civil war 

A.A. Civil war 



The second part concentrated on the individual confronted with himself, the fear of aging of course, the phobia of illness and decline, madness, the fear of solitude, guilt  and imprisonment. 

To begin this probing selection, we step into a retirement home with 13 sculptures so real to life that I wasn’t the only spectator who hesitated for a moment. Each chair was programmed to move around in the space. It reminded too much of an old people’s home in the south of France which Mother and I went to regularly to see a cousin of hers. People waiting around to die. This installation if it could be called such was by two Chinese, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu who have worked together in Beijing since the late 1990’s. I would think that they are considered to be pretty controversial artists. I don’t call this kind of obsession with death comical at all. Yet it was described as such. I had also seen a sculpture of their's in Lille when I was there....The Angel. Not my kind I can assure you......


Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 

Old Persons Home 


Then there was an Australian, Kristian Burford. This hyper-realistic sculpture has apparently lost all self control…..I’ll give you an example of that.

« Last night you brought a man up to your room after having a late drink at the hotel bar. Knowing that you are HIV positive you had sex which caused him to bleed. After a day of meetings you now return to your room ». 

Couldn’t you call that murder? 




Our world is certainly in a very sad state but I am really not ready to see such depressing exhibitions as these. If I detailed the other artist’s work for you, you may say it’s harassment of some kind. You could be right. 


Just a couple of others before you have a drink. I certainly will be......


Damien Hirst - The fragile truth. Nothing but medicine.

Chen Zhen  - Musical Bibliotheqèe

Chen  Zhen - Chaise de concentration - 1999

Justin Matherly - weakness and despair 

Tetsumi Kudo Your portrait 

Portrait  of the artist

The three together 

Fredrich Kunath - German - The past is a foreign country  - denial of the past 





I promise you. The next exhibition will be light hearted.....


Commentaires

Michael Keane a dit…
Like you, I find these real life images most confronting – which, of course – is what they’re meant to be. These figures seem to be saying: sooner or later you’re going to end up in a wheelchair, a burden to society, alone, just waiting to die. I totally refute the finality of it all. Dylan Thomas, the famous Welsh poet, put it so well:
“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
14/12/13 01:14
Lo a dit…
The only thing which really caught my eye was the videos by Javier Tellez about psychiatric female patients talking about their mental illnesses. Not jolly but quite moving. The rest, NO THANKS!
15/12/13 19:46
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