In a spirit of long-standing collaboration between the Embassy of Italy and the Venice International Biennale, its 55th edition was presented at the Italian mission in Berlin, with this year’s title “The Encyclopedic Palace”. The event was part of an international tour of press conferences to present the Biennale. Over 100 journalists from top daily and periodical publications were present, along with local art and cultural experts.
The main movers
President of the Biennale Paolo Bratta, in the company of curator Massimiliano Gioni, introduced the exhibition, which runs from June 1st through 24 November 2013, underscoring the importance of its two-fold focus: a large international exhibition put together by a chosen curator, and the nations participating (88) representing a means for observing a geography of artists. This year’s theme, Baratta pointed out, highlights the historic perspective of contemporary art and a growing interest in the relationship between art and its viewers.
The title
Massimiliano Gioni explained the choice of title for this 55th edition of the Biennale – The Encyclopedic Palace – through the example of self-taught Italo-American artist Marino Auriti, who in 1955 received a US patent on his “imaginary museum project of the same title, as a symbolic container of all knowledge and the greatest discoveries of the human race”. An investigation into these flights of fancy, therefore, in an exhibition that places contemporary art works with historic relics, found objects and artifacts in an innovative narrative that seeks to blur the distinction between professionals and the self-taught. The exhibition therefore offers a reflection on the dominion of the imagination and its functions in an era overloaded with information and images.
Berlin city-symbol
Italian Embassy chargé d’affaires Giovanni Pugliese expressed his appreciation for the recurrence of this important and welcome custom of hosting the press conference at the Embassy of Italy in Berlin, underscoring the Venice Biennale’s international resonance and the pride and prestige it brings to Italy. With specific reference to the 2013 Exhibition’s title and theme, he observed that there could be no city or place more appropriate to such an investigation into the anthropology of images and their location within an historic perspective: while Berlin is a city symbolic of the vicissitudes of the 20th century, it is also the ideal testing ground for many contemporary trends; the embassy as the institutional setting for encounters between various cultures and, at the same time, an historic building and setting for the marriage of precious ancient relics and contemporary artworks.
