The Venice Biennale and the Art Lover's Dilemma

"The forced excitement accompanying each new iteration of the Venice Biennale, I've heard it said, is akin to a faked orgasm-at some point, it's probably better to stop. Yet among this magical city's spells, as the novelist Mary McCarthy once wrote, is "one of peculiar potency: the power to awaken the philistine dozing in the sceptic's breast." McCarthy had in mind "dry, prose people" who object to "feeling what they are supposed to feel, in the presence of marvels." This, then, is the art lover's dilemma whenever the Biennale comes around: Do you marshal skepticism or let the feelings flow?"

"Whatever your preference, you'll get a lot of practice. The Biennale, which opened last week and will remain up through November, has frequently and misleadingly been called "the Olympics of the art world"-and it's certainly a competition of sorts (primarily for attention), but no one seems to care much about who's winning. More accurate, it's an everywhere-all-at-once phenomenon. You try to account for it all, but it's virtually impossible to tell a clean story about it."

"This year, the buildup to the Biennale was dominated by responses to the decision by its president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, to allow the Russian and Israeli Pavilions to mount exhibitions. Accusations of complicity with pariah states and counteraccusations of censorship flared during the festival's early days. In other corners, opinions ran hot about rampant nudity in the Austrian Pavilion. Yet the fervor, whether consequential or minor, in some ways has little to do with the actual physical experience of being in Venice, scouring the city for art."

"There is so much of it. I saw thousands of artworks in dozens of locations for five straight days and still missed a good deal of what was on offer. The whole thing is frankly preposterous. But what reliably happens at the Biennale is that you, at some point, see something unexpected that slows you down-that makes you conscious"

The Venice Biennale creates intense, often performative excitement around each new iteration, resembling forced enthusiasm that may be better avoided. Venice’s atmosphere can awaken the philistine in the skeptic, especially among people who resist feeling what they are supposed to feel in the presence of marvels. The Biennale is sometimes likened to an Olympics, but it functions more like an everywhere-all-at-once phenomenon that resists a clean narrative. Recent controversies included allowing Russian and Israeli pavilions, debates over complicity and censorship, and disputes about nudity in the Austrian pavilion. Despite the noise, the physical experience is dominated by overwhelming abundance, where viewers miss much yet encounter unexpected works that slow them down and make them conscious.

Read at The Atlantic