COVER (detail) CONTENTS INTERVIEW WITH …

1 COVER (detail)Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 1998 From the Twilight portfolioC-print, 50 x 60 in / 127 x cmCourtesy the artist and Luhring Augustine, New YorkRESART WORLD / WORLD ART NO:4 SEPTEMBER 2009NO:4 SEPTEMBER 2009 GREGORY CREWDSON / GHADA AMER / HERMANN NITSCH / JENNY HOLZERRESArt World / World ArtPublisher: DirimartAbdi pek i Caddesi 7/4 Niflanta 34367 Istanbul TR T: +90 212 291 3434 F: +90 212 219 for saleReview biannualNot to be cited without permission of the author/s and RES Art World / World ArtISBN 978-605-5815-07-3 Editors: M. Azr Genim, Micha O. GoebigLayout Design and Art Direction: Emre k no lu, BEKG raphic Design: P nar Akkurt, BEKD esign Consultant: B lent ErkmenPre-press: BEK Design and Consultancy LtdPrinting and Binding: Mas Matbaac l kHamidiye Mahallesi So uksu Caddesi No:3 Ka thane Istanbul TurkeyT: +90 212 294 1000F: +90 212 294 9080 CONTENTSINTERVIEW WITH GREGORY CREWDSON KATHY BATTISTA PARS PRO TOTO ISTANBUL VERSION: A BIENNALE A TO Z (FRAGMENTS) HANS ULRICH OBRISTABSTRACT ART IN THE 20TH CENTURY OR IS IT A CONTINUATION OF THE ORNAMENT BY OTHER MEANS?

2 MARKUS BR DERLINQ & A WITH GHADA AMER NOVEMBER PAYNTER HERMANN NITSCH EKREM YAL INDA A CONVERSATION ABOUT JENNY HOLZER WITH PHILIPPE B TTNER JANINE SCHMUTZ53. VENICE BIENNALE GAIA SERENA SIMIONATIINTERVIEW WITH FRANCESCA MININI FRANCESCA CAPUTOA FAR EAST WEST AXIS OF HYBRID VISIONS CELINA LUNSFORDA CROSS-SECTION OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN SOUTHEAST ASIA GINA FAIRLEYHYBRID MODELS IN ART INFRASTRUCTURE: A GLIMPSE AT THE ARTIST PENSION TRUST DUBAI ZGE ERSOY INVERTED MODERNITIES AND CONTESTED TRADITIONS: CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN VISUAL CULTURE AND (IN)AUTHENTICITY ANTHONY DOWNEYINTERVIEW WITH HAYV KAHRAMAN NOVEMBER PAYNTER(UN)VEILED: ANTAGONISMS OF THE RECENT PAST FATO STEKDIFFERENT SAMES: NEW PERSPECTIVES IN CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN ART MARYAM HOMAYOUN-EISLERGAIA SERENA SIMIONATI TEXT IN ITALIAN.

3 TRANSLATION BY DANIELA DI MAGGIO-OPDAHL, CHRISTINE LIESE-SCHIKANEDER AND JAMES THAINThe true quality of the hammer lies in its destructiveness. Martin HeideggerH E I D E G G E R hit the nail on the head with his observation: Not the appearance of matter reveals its authentic ontology, but its inherent structure, the invisible atoms and language. Things that remain hidden to the eye and only reveal themselves ever so slowly if one cares to search deeper. In short: Being and time are caught in an imperative correlation and therefore the meaning of being lies in its this in mind, a visit to the Biennale can be beneficial: It releases the viewer from the inevitable stress that builds up when looking at innumerable works from the outside , en passant, without having time to really get inside them and discovering their hidden values.

4 In the following article we shall look deeper into the works of a selection of artists whose works we consider novelties and whose meanings, seen eschatologically, are more authentic and innovative than those of from the usual institutions involved, 48 additional events made up this year s opening of the 53rd Venice Biennale entitled Making Worlds. A making of worlds without taking undue risk, one should add here. Under the directorship of the somewhat distant Daniel Birnbaum, 77 nations are represented in the Giardini and the Arsenale , in innumerable exhibitions in various Palazzi and external exhibition spaces until November 22. Beginning our tour in the famous exhibition gardens, the Giardini, the Czech pavilion is the most notable.

5 The compelling simplicity of Roman Ond k s scientific creation entitled Loop demonstrates that nature itself is the greatest aesthetic art form, inimitable in its beauty and perfection. Ond k is one of the very few of the artists represented here who has managed to overcome and detach himself from the problem of ego and to present his work in a transparent quality. Ond k bypasses the ego and with a sensitivity that encompasses all and everything, he fuses and melts into a mutual embrace with nature. The pavilion is a refreshingly surreal haven with a garden that the artist sowed and planted months in advance. Visitors wander through this garden in search of (non-existent) artwork, turn around, thinking they have lost their way much to the amusement of the artist who has managed to disappoint their expectations.

6 At places that offer an entry to expected artworks Ond k juggles with meaningful and AES+F (Tatyana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky, Vladimir Fridkes) Unconditional LoveThe Feast of Trimalchio, 2009 Video (digital animation), HD video installation, 9 channels, sound, 19 minCourtesy Triumph Gallery, MoscowRES SEPTEMBER 2009 74 53. VENICE BIENNALE MAKING WORLDS: CREATIVE RESISTANCE DEFEATS THE CHRONIC STATE OF VOLATILITYRES SEPTEMBER 2009 75conflicting hints, comparable to his work Measuring the Universe (2007) acquired by MoMA. Aiming at provocation and displacement and achieving this by thematic changes and theatrical mises-en-scene , Ond k has a museum employee record the date, names and measurements of exhibition visitors on a wall.

7 By distorting habitual norms of perception via an imbalance between emotion and imagination, in Loop Ond k creates a dangerous relationship between art and reality that confuses the visitor who does not understand what kind of space or environment he is actually entering. He will comprehend even less who occupies what space: Is it art, is it reality or is it a dream?The pavilions of the Scandinavian countries, represented by the artist/curator team Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, aim at a similar coup de theatre effect: The Collectors conveys the experience of the home of an (art)collector: ON SALE. The small villa that is crammed full of works by artists friends (Maurizio Cattelan, Massimo Bartolini, Jonathan Monk, Terence Koh, Klara Liden, Wolfgang Tillmans, Han & Him, Simon Fujiwara etc.)

8 Has rooms that are better described as little theaters of the soul, like a ladder that is split in two and leads to nowhere, or a table that has been split apart. These installations not only demonstrate the impotence of these objects but also the banality or drama of those who witness their condition. Central theme is the question of the bond between object and collector: Why does one collect things, stuff like swimming trunks or insects? Jani Leinonen s Anything Helps (2005-2009) is an impressive installation consisting of writings that have been elaborately framed like artworks and thus become artworks due to the intensity of the recorded concepts that are presented in different languages despite having been drawn up in the awkward scrawling of the homeless or immigrants.

9 The nearby Hollywood-Loft stages the suicide of a homosexual author of erotica (he too a collector), with his corpse floating in the swimming pool of an LA bungalow, surrounded by samples of his (mostly erotic) collection. These two pavilions convey the concept that both art and our living spaces are places of social interaction and universes of collaboration, defined by the Biennale s jury as an insane network of stories that scrutinizes the relationship between our desires and the material world that we build up around these desires. We much recommend a visit to the Dutch pavilion with its installation of videos by Fiona Tan. Furthermore, the Serb pavilion with performances and carpets woven out of the hair of Zoran Todorovic is worth a visit.

10 Krysztof Wodiczko represents Poland with a moving video installation of immigrant window cleaners who reflect on their living conditions on the fringes of society. Ireland, too, raised much interest by choosing two artists who are not affiliated to galleries Kennedy and Brown reject the idea of marketing and commercialization and in their work they focus on issues like globalization and migration in Dublin, a city where 167 languages are spoken. Kennedy has sent a couple of buskers from Dublin to Venice and reflects on their performance and its impact as what he perceives as a social- and microeconomic activity. In the German pavilion the visitor is surrounded by the filigree and questioning work by Liam Gillick.