If you are new or have landed on Tarantula: Authors and Art for the very first time, welcome to this text that will take you through the process of self discovery from the Lithuanian photographer and journalist Kristina Aleksynaitè. If a friend forwarded you this article, double welcome; if you like it, share it or why not subscribe?
Visiting the Venice Art Biennale 2022 was one of the most important things that I did as an artist. After all, it's the biggest event in the art world, and Venice is where the artists who have been selected come to represent their country. Big responsibility, big ambition, big money, big honour.
One sunny day on the terrace of my house, the Lithuanian artist Rūta Matulevičiūtė and I were dreaming about how we would like to see this year's exhibition, which has such an inspiring theme "The Milk Of Dreams." And a few months later, together with two other friends our dream came true. We got off the public transportation boat, dragged our suitcases to our apartment overlooking the canal and waited for the morning with indescribable curiosity.
To Cover The Immeasurable
La Biennale di Venezia started in 1985. Today, the Exhibition takes place in the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and in the Arsenale. Thirty countries have their own buildings in the famous Giardini di Castello, while others have rented various urban spaces or museums all over the Venetian islands.
Can you imagine 213 artists from 58 countries participating in this event, not mentioning unofficial exhibitions?
We downloaded the Biennale programme and tried to put together a master plan of our five-day visit. It wasn’t easy. In addition to the red dots on the Biennale’s map, we were looking for something that wasn’t on it. We wanted to see everything.
Now, as I write this article, I realize how much I have missed. Some exhibitions were closed during our stay, others were too difficult to find: Venice leads you astray in its labyrinth. One pavilion was neither desirable nor were we courageous to enter, the Russian pavilion. A security guard, walking menacingly next to an empty building, seemed to have been shouting aggressively and he immediately caused tension.
Pain And Salvation
Before going to this Biennale, I expected that anything can happen. I just couldn't guess that we would experience “pain.” By the second day, my body started to show signs of sensitivity. Some of the works started to have such a strong effect that they just triggered certain emotions crawling out of my subconsciousness. Like pain (Denmark) and fear (Greece).
Others, on the other hand, brought fantasies (Hungary), creativity (Korea), peace (Kenya, Serbia), admiration (Sultanate of Oman, Portugal).
I particularly like it when the works deal with difficult topics in an aesthetic, non-shocking but at the same time very deep way. Like the Mongolia pavilion. Pain, fear, healing, unborn children, the transformation of a woman's body, mind and soul. It touched me to the depths, but it didn't hurt me.
On the last day, before we left for the airport, we stopped by the Armenian pavilion. It took my breath away. I stood in a cement room with a golden sculpture in the sky and I went back to my childhood, my parents' home, which they worked so hard to build, and yet in all that deprivation you could see the divine.
Desires And Identity
As usual, in art we return to sexuality and desires in any theme. This year, the Latvian pavilion presented various forms and fantasies in a very playful way. A penis lamp or a kitchen table loaded with beautifully glossy porcelain bodies, poses and wishes invites you to choose the thing you prefer. Spin in a circle and enjoy the erotic thrill.
We headed to the Netherlands Pavilion, or should I say church. Lined with colourful cushions, covered with erotic veils, the space simply invited you to lie back and enjoy. Enjoy the video installation. Many naked gender queer bodies spoke of intimacy. Our intimacy can be different. There was so much room for reflection.
Throughout the week, we saw lots of naked flesh, intercourse, and various poses. Erotic or not. Some things resonate, others repel, creeped us out a bit. We all have our fantasies, don't we?
We Become An Artwork
As the four of us embarked together on the journey of the Biennale together, we kept losing one or the other traveler, depending on the day. Some of the works affected one of my fellow travellers, others another, so we took a day off from art and went our separate ways. I needed to breathe in some fresh air and to find out what's going on with me in Venice. The subconsciousness was doing the most unexpected things and I had to stop to listen to it.
Later, I realized that the four of us were also part of the Biennale. The ones who were experiencing it. The ones who received and reflected.
We went out for a couple of hours into the city together. To take some pictures. I dragged my heavy Mamiya 67 across all those bridges and we took pictures. Another work was born.
Isn't this a piece of Venice Art Biennale also?
Apocalyptic Feeling
Climate change and survival (of tribes, localities), the production of artificial things (the mass production of flowers for commerce) - these are some of the other topical themes of the day, which fit into the framework of this Biennale.
It is strange to talk about pollution and be part of it at the same time. Many thousands of tourists come to Venice to see the works of art that are brought to this unique place by mass transport. People take gondolas, buy Chinese souvenirs, trample on them and basically destroy them.
It also left us with a feeling of uncertainty - do people actually live here? Is it possible to live a normal life here? How long will this last?
Then I asked my friend Rūta what she will remember most about this art event and her answer didn’t surprise me - the poisonous chlorinated water running out of the fountains for passengers to drink. She developed a skin allergy, so we had to start buying water from the grocery shop.
"My very sensitive body reacted to it immediately, and it connected with the experience of the whole Biennale about the human struggle to survive and what arises in the minds of creators during unstable periods: some complain and choose to express their pain directly through discouragement, shock, while others look for a way out. All in all, what stands out amongst the many works of art are those that have a sense of the divine, those that are full of light, sincerity and are created out of love for the world and for people,” she wrote to me and I thought, yes, I guess art can show everything. It all depends on the choice.
Embracing The Immeasurable
Finally, I realized that it was impossible to see everything. There were so many topics and they were so different. Image after image, experience after experience, and the brain started to block the information, asking for a break. So, we sailed along in our earthly gondolas instead, leaving the irrelevant works behind and stopped at the most impactful ones.
The feeling that remains when you leave an art work, that is the most powerful tool to influence, to arouse. If the works are unaffecting, boring, obvious, overwrought or staged, they simply don't linger on. Those that touch the heart are very deeply inscribed. And you don't even need to see or experience them again. They have already served their purpose.
Coming Back To Stockholm
Upon my arrival home, back to Stockholm, Tarantula Authors And Art’s founder Maja invited me to see the exhibition of the incomparable Eva Hild, who is our featured Artist of the Month, but I couldn’t see anymore art at that moment.
And that was a pity because now I'm traveling through the pictures of her incredibly bright artworks on our social media pages and in our digital magazine. Sculptures that resemble the ribs of the body, the cavities, the holes in the soul that we all have. We try to fill them in every way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Thank you, Eva Hild, for your work, which despite seeing it only through my computer, has brought me an answer about art. With art we touch our wounds. Some pieces heal them, others expand them further, but definitely bring them to the surface.