Kiwis unveil art to world

GILBERT WONG goes behind the scenes as the Venice Biennale gets ready to lift the curtain on its grand event.

Sights you might have seen at past Venice Biennales: Rolling Stone Keith Richards staggering hotelwards as dawn breaks. Nineties superstar artist Jeff Koons attending black-tie parties with porn star-turned-politician Ilona Staller (Il Cicciolina) on his arm, one generous breast exposed.

That was last century's decadence. For the 49th Venice Biennale, opening on Saturday, the drama will still be there, but the art will be to the fore.

For the first time, New Zealand artists will be taking part officially, with space in the Museo di Sant Apollonia, near the Piazza San Marco at the centre of the floating city.

For five months the exhibition Bi-Polar, featuring the work of Peter Robinson and Jacqueline Fraser, will be on show at what is still regarded as the world's grandest visual art event.

Critics, who prefer to remain unnamed, say the Venice Biennale's time is past. Fresher and more contemporary events such as the Yokohama Triennial or the Sydney Biennale are where the edge of art really cuts.

The New Zealand commissioner to the biennale is arts patron Jenny Gibbs.

"People do say that. But press them and they will not disagree that this is the most important place to be represented if you are an artist. You can't get away from the size and the prestige.

"This is not a regional event like a lot of the biennials. This is vastly broad and covered by more art media than any other event in the world."

The three days before the official opening are called the vernissage, a preview or parade for the media, critics and curators. During this time more than 25,000 media will visit and mingling with them will be a chaotic polyglot of the fabulously wealthy, major collectors, important curators and hordes of young artists and culturati.

The biennale is effectively two events. The biennale proper is held in the Giardini di Castello, on the eastern edge of the city. Planned by Napoleon, the Giardini is an open area housing 30 national pavilions.



This year more than 70 countries are taking part. Those without pavilions, New Zealand among them, are forced to rent nearby space.

The other, smaller, event, is the Aperto. Here the biennale's artistic director, Italian-Swiss curator Harald Szeeman, will show his works. The self-proclaimed Ausstellungmacher, or maker of exhibitions, will focus on the fresh and funky, the unknown and the surprises he has uncovered. Szeeman founded the Agency for Spiritual Guesswork in 1969, but made his name as curator of the influential Kunsthalle Berne in Switzerland. Artforum describes him as "more conjuror than curator, simultaneously archivist, conservator, art handler, press officer, accountant and, above all, accomplice of the artists."

Derrick Cherrie, head of sculpture at Elam, Auckland University's art school, and a previous visitor, says the tension between the "official art" and the curated exhibition is one of the biennale's strengths.

While it is tempting to call the biennale an Olympics of the art world, there is a disdain for the competitiveness such awards recognise. The main prize is the Gold Lion, but insiders say this is an award more for political correctness than any qualitative judgment of contribution to world culture.

The question for New Zealand is whether its presence at the biennale is too little, too late. Jenny Gibbs imagines some alternative universe in which we had sent Colin McCahon and Gordon Walters in the 1970s to hang their works in a pavilion designed by architect Ian Athfield.

"They would have blown them away. I think we have met the standard to be at Venice for decades. I see a huge amount of international art and I firmly believe the best of our visual art can stand comparison with the best of international art."

Creative New Zealand has earmarked $1.5 million to ensure participation at this and the next two Venice Biennales. Money well spent?

Says Jenny Gibbs: "It is not nearly as much money as it would cost to bring a large exhibition here. We could never bring 20,000 influential critics, collectors and curators here. This gives us much greater exposure."

But surely the very international hubbub she wants us to be part of will only reinforce the fact that we are a small nation trying to make waves in the biggest pond of all.

She responds that the kapa haka group of 16 performers from Ngai Tahu Pounamu Kai Tahu will bring a tremor of excitement to even the most jaded.

Both Robinson and Fraser claim Ngai Tahu descent and their tribe is supporting them. The group will perform in the Teatro Verde on opening night. Says Jenny Gibbs: "Surely that will make sure we're noticed."