VENICE, Italy (AP) 鈥� Geopolitical tensions spilled over into the Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition, which opens its and contested edition in memory Saturday with no Golden Lions after the in protest of Israel鈥檚 and participation and outside their pavilions.
The jury limited its action to countries under investigation by the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses, but some say the should have been included. British artist cited 鈥渢he politics of hate and war and all that that鈥檚 been going on now for too long.鈥�
Visitors to the Giardini and Arsenale venues will vote for the best national pavilion, from 100 participants, and best participant in the main curated show, 鈥淚n Minor Keys,鈥� in Eurovision style. The vote will be anonymous, and by email, the Biennale said Saturday. Winners will be announced closing day, Nov. 22.
Ahead of the opening, protesters objecting to Israel’s participation clashed with police on Friday. Earlier in the week, feminist groups from Ukraine and Russia converged on the Russian Pavilion and Palestinians remembered artists killed in Gaza.
Some places to start:
Koyo Kouoh鈥檚 鈥業n Minor Keys鈥�
A towering red feathered sculpture with beaded embroidery greets visitors to the main curated show. Rooted in New Orleans Black Masking culture born from practices brought by enslaved Africans, the costume-like sculpture signals the show鈥檚 focus on minority perspectives.
The first African woman chosen to curate the main Biennale exhibition, the late assembled 110 artists and artistic groups under a title meant to spotlight the overlooked, and five co-curators carried on her legacy after her death a year ago.
鈥淪he was someone who thought about making spaces for everyone to shine and we see it in her exhibition, we see it with ourselves,鈥� said co-curator Marie Helene Pereira.
Britain’s Lubaina Himid explores life as a newcomer
, a Turner Prize winner, explores what it is like to make a home in a new place in her exhibition titled 鈥淧redicting History: Testing Translation鈥� for the British Pavilion, featuring brightly hued paintings of couples facing the dilemmas of newcomers.
In one, two architects are trying to decide where to build. 鈥淥ne of them is trying to decide, would we build a building here, that proves that we have contributed to the culture, and the other architect is saying 鈥橬o, no, no, no, no. Let鈥檚 build something that we can escape in tomorrow,鈥� said Himid, who was born in Zanzibar and has spent more than 70 years in Great Britain.
The Vatican鈥檚 Mystic Garden
The Vatican is offering spiritual respite from the world鈥檚 turmoil in the Mystic Gardens of Discalced Carmelite order next to Venice鈥檚 main train station.
Participants walk among the vineyards and pass a pomegranate tree and beds of herbs, wearing headphones that pick up music by the 12th-Century abbess, mystic and composer, St. Hildegard of Bingen, reinterpreted by artists such as Brian Eno and Patti Smith.
鈥淢usic also helps us delve into ourselves and understand, to use a phrase by Hildegard, the symphony that God has placed in our lives,鈥� said Rev. Ermanno Barucco, prior of the Carmelite order.
Austrian Pavilion uses effluent as an artistic medium
A naked woman hangs from a bell outside the Austrian Pavilion, a human clapper making the performance art by Florentina Holzinger one of the hottest appointments in the Giardini. Inside, a nude rider swirls around on a Jet Ski inside a tank 鈥� emblematic of Venice鈥檚 relegation as an over-touristed amusement park.
A naked woman breathes through a scuba mouthpiece in another huge tank filled with water that has been flushed from nearby toilets and filtered multiple times. The presentation is called 鈥淪eaworld Venice.鈥�
Israel: a meditation on love and war
Inside Romanian-born artist Belu-Simion Fainaru’s installation, water drips from suspended tubes into a pool, stopping in cycles for just 42 seconds, representing divine creative power in Jewish mysticism. Locks hung around the pavilion, like those placed by lovers on bridges around Europe, are engraved with the commandment 鈥淟ove thy neighbor as thyself,鈥� in Hebrew, and the hopeful exhortation: 鈥淭his too shall pass.鈥�
鈥淚 am against boycott, I鈥檓 for dialogue, and that鈥檚 a political statement,鈥� said Fainaru, who called the jury’s exclusion of Israel a form of discrimination.
Art as a daily practice in the Estonian Pavilion
Estonian artist Merike Estna will work throughout the Biennale on a huge wall painting inside a community center gymnasium that was once a church 鈥� the space’s layered history mirroring her practice of spilling paint to build deeply textured surfaces over time. The act of daily painting represents the undervalued quotidian work of women.
Curator Natalia Sielewicz likened it to 鈥渢he everyday feminism of sustaining life, of sustaining our planet.”
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