Venice and the Biennale
I recently visited Venice, not only for the renowned Film Festival but also to attend the 60th Biennale Arte. This prestigious event, the oldest of its kind, was founded in 1895 and continues to be the foremost platform for contemporary art. This year’s exhibition, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, was curated by Adriano Pedrosa. He is the director of the São Paulo Museum of Art. While I may write more on the Biennale itself soon, my focus here is on one of its collateral events. The exhibition in question, City of Refuge III by the artist Berlinde De Bruyckere, is held in the sacred space of the San Giorgio Maggiore Abbey. This location has hosted contemporary art since 2011, when Sir Anish Kapoor, RA, presented his celebrated work Ascension in the central nave of the church.
Berlinde De Bruyckere
Berlinde De Bruyckere is a familiar figure at the Biennale di Venezia. She had first participated in 1999 as part of the group exhibition Trattenendosi, a collateral event of the 48th edition. Later, she returned in 2003 for the 50th Biennale in Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer, curated by Francesco Bonami, where she presented her sculptural work K36 (The Black Horse).
In 2013, De Bruyckere was chosen to represent Belgium at the 55th Biennale Arte. For this, she created the monumental installation Kreupelhout-Cripplewood. The piece features a 17-meter-long sculptural representation of an uprooted tree trunk, cast in wax, lying horizontally. The surface bears hints of decay, with reddish hues bleeding through, evoking both life and suffering. Fabric scraps bandage the tree as it rests on soft pillows, symbolizing a tender, almost futile attempt to nurture and preserve something that seems irreparably broken. A metonym perhaps for the tormented, martyred body of Saint Sebastian, pierced by arrows as he is bound to a tree.
You can view images of the installation Kreupelhout-Cripplewood through this link to the Belgian Pavilion.
City of Refuge III
In City of Refuge III, De Bruyckere presents yet another powerful site-specific installation. As visitors enter the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, they immediately confront the haunting presence of Arcangeli. These anthropomorphic sculptures blend the human with the divine and the animalistic. They evoke a sense of both the sacred and the corporeal. These figures stand as guardians, embodying a fusion of the spiritual and the earthly, inviting viewers to reflect on the intersection of the mortal and the transcendent.
The figures themselves are cloaked, with their form ambiguous, heightening a sense of otherworldliness. The stark contrast between the dark, corroded metal and the pristine stone arches of the church creates a tension between the past and present, sacred and secular. The ethereal beams of light that filter through the church’s windows further dramatize the scene. They casting both shadows and illumination across the work, almost imbuing it with a divine presence.
The installation City of Refuge exudes a post-apocalyptic aura. Fragmented wax-cast tree trunks rest on rusted welding tables, symbolizing nature’s quiet rebirth amidst man-made decay. Unlike past works, the wood no longer bleeds but instead prevails over industrial ruin, evoking resilience after catastrophe. The installation is set against Giuseppe Porta’s painting of Mary and Joseph presenting the infant Christ at the temple in Jerusalem. Above, angels crown the scene as they hold a cross, foreshadowing his future sacrifice. The juxtaposition of nature’s endurance and Christ’s sacrificial journey invites reflection on the cycles of suffering and renewal. Both nature and faith emerge stronger from destruction.
Displayed in the gallery corridor, these pieces from the Need series are suspended like relics, evoking an unsettling sense of absence: skins without bodies, remnants of what once was. They suggest the shedding of physicality, perhaps referencing themes of transformation, mortality, or the remains left behind after a sacrifice. These sculptural arrangements challenge the viewer to contemplate the fragility of the human condition, and how even in decay, traces of life persist, preserved like sacred artifacts of a forgotten past.
Epilogue
The exhibition, a collateral event of the Biennale Arte, will run concurrently from April 20 to November 24, 2024. If you find yourself in Venice during this period, I highly recommend visiting. The opportunity to experience contemporary art alongside three of Jacopo Tintoretto’s masterpieces—The Last Supper, The Gathering of the Manna, and The Deposition of Christ into the Tomb—as well as other works by Renaissance masters, makes this an unmissable visit. Admission is free.
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