Aaron Williamson, Flings himself at the Gallery Wall, 2008. Performance. Photo: Gavin Renwick

Radio Reports from the 2013 Venice Biennale

The Clocktower Gallery partnered with Venice Agendas and LaRete Art Projects to bring you roving reports from the 55th Venice Biennale. We posted new programs throughout the weekend to our Venice Biennale Archive, where the programs will remain available, free, and on-demand.

Guide: LaRete Art Projects Reports, Venice 2013

The curators of LaRete Art Projects who, in partnership with the Clocktower Gallery and ARTonAIR.org, submitted regular radio reports from across Venice during the opening week of the 2013 Biennale. LaRete Art Projects is dedicated to research and support of new artistic strategies. In this field, LaRete Art Projects conceives and realizes exhibitions as well as educational and research programs in Italy and abroad.

Fedra Boscaro (of Ælia Media, the radio project launched by Pablo Helguera for the International Award for Participatory Art in 2011), Julia Draganović, Elena Forin, Claudia Löffelholz and Federica Patti recorded conversations with artists, curators and other art experts in Venice. Scroll to the bottom of this page to find their programs.

Guide: Venice Agendas 2013

Venice Agendas is a series of breakfast events and performances that took place during the 2013 Biennale preview week. LaRete Art Projects is dedicated to research and support of new artistic strategies. Their curators submitted regular radio reports and artists interviews all weekend.

Venice Agendas was developed by Bill Furlong and Mel Gooding. The new team under the guidance of Bill and Mel continues the innovation and determination to construct a series of topical and intelligent discussions, talks, debates and recordings. workinprogress have taken up the baton and have organised the 2011 and 2013 Agendas.

Venice Agendas is curated and presented by Terry Smith, Clare Fitzpatrick and Helen Rawlins from workinprogress, in partnership with FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais; Nuova Icona; SHAPE London; Turner Contemporary; Arts University Bournemouth; Arts Bournemouth; Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and University for the Creative Arts. With the support of Audio Arts; Associazione E; CZ95; Municipalità di Venezia; Live Art Development Agency and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

See full event details at www.veniceagendas.eu

Venice 2013: Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Sislej Xhafa, Joanna Warsza

Three interviews by LaRete Art Projects curators onsite at the 2013 Venice Binnale. For a complete report on LaRete Art Projects activities for this Biennale and its partnership with the Clocktower Gallery and Radio click HERE. Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, curator of the Italian Pavilion of the 55th Art Biennial in Venice, talks about his idea to present Italian contemporary art in its wide range of geographical and generational diversity. A conversation with Claudia Löffelholz and Julia Draganović of LaRete Art Project. Artist Sislej Xhafa (Italian Pavilion) meets Julia Draganović of LaRete Art Projects at Venice Biennial’s Giardini delle Vergini. They talk about going back to the roots by climbing on a tree. Visitors stop by for an appointment with a hairdresser sitting on a branch who –on Xhafa’s behalf–involves his guest into intimate conversations. “Kamikaze Loggia” is the title of (former USSR state) Georgia’s first participation in the Venice Biennial. Julia Draganović meets Joanna Warsza in the artist-built “loggia”, where the ephemeral material of walls and ceilings is turned into amplifiers for a pirate radio station broadcasting poetry about construction workers.

Venice Agendas 2013: Live Art

Live Art—Are you here? Were you there? Chaired by Jean Wainwright, speakers include Kathy Battista, Tony Heaton, rAndom International, Lois Keidan, Lauren A Wright and artists Marcia Farquhar, Joan Jonas, Marta Jovanovic, Andrea Pagnes and Verena Stenke. Recorded Wednesday, 29 May, 2013. As performance art becomes increasingly visible in the programmes and collections of major museums and galleries, this event aims to evaluate the current status of performance and live art. A series of brief presentations will ask whether this inclusion kills the element of risk often related to performance or if live practices enable institutions to challenge their audiences. The session will also consider the unintended performer and raise issues that encompass disability and gender. Venice Agendas at the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 29–31 May 2013 Venice Agendas is a series of breakfast events and performances during the preview week of the 55th Venice Biennale. This is the eighth in the Agendas series, which since 1999 has examined different aspects of contemporary art practice. This year’s event focuses on performance art and the alternative scene: its history, legacy and future.

Venice 2013: Antoni Muntadas, David Rickard, Catherine Lorent

Three short interviews with artists showing in Venice during the 2013 Biennale, interviewed by Fedra Boscaro, AEliamedia.org, and Federica Patti, LaRete Art Projects produced in partnership with the Clocktower Gallery and Radio: Antoni Muntadas, Venetian Protocols I, Michela Rizzo Gallery David Rickard, All Vertical Lines Intersect, Michela Rizzo Gallery Catherine Lorent, Relegation, Luxembourg Pavilion Ca’ del Duca Antoni Muntadas (Venetian Protocols I) dedicates his work to projects that involve the use of mediums in order to serve social or political purposes. His work develops on two levels: perception and information, where the former acts on an emotive level and the latter stimulates reasoning. In Michela Rizzo Art Gallery, Muntadas, observing Venice, draws attention to the forms which he identifies as "protocols" in Venice. Operating from a personal perspective, the author sheds light upon the dynamics of living in the Lagoon today: protocols that become essential, reinventing themselves and adapting to the passing of time.

Venice Agendas 2013: Speed Dating

Speed Dating—Working the Room Speed date with Kathy Battista, Sacha Craddock, Tony Heaton, rAndom International, Marta Jovanovic, Brett Littman, Beral Madra, Richard Mosse, Andrea Pagnes, Verena Stenke, Hilde Teerlinck, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Jinny Yu, among others. Recorded 30 May, 2013. Discussions and debates are important catalysts for action and often one-to-one conversations can be the most instrumental. This event plays with the idea of speed dating and the notion of working the room by removing the concept of an audience; every participant becomes an active part of the session. Venice Agendas at the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 29–31 May 2013 Venice Agendas is a series of breakfast events and performances held during the preview week of the 55th Venice Biennale. This is the eighth in the Agendas series, which since 1999 has examined different aspects of contemporary art practice. This year’s event focuses on performance art and the alternative scene: its history, legacy and future.

Venice 2013: Arthur Duff, Luca Massimo Barbero

Elena Forin of LaRete Art Project interviews artist Arthur Duff and curator Luca Massimo Barbero during the opening week of the 2013 Venice Biennale. This program is presented in partnership with the Clocktower Gallery. Arthur Duff speaks of the relationship between the artist and the object he or she creates, in relation to his own exhibition "Precious Objects, Extraordinary Individuals", a site-specific installation now on view at the Venice Biennial. Duff's installation uses projected text to illuminate the Canal Grande in Venice as a way to highlight how public and private space can be perceived by the spectator.

Venice Agendas 2013: The Alternative Scene

This recording from May 31, 2013 during the opening days of the Venice Biennale features an international collection artists, art historians, and curators who consider the status of biennials and art events as sites for the production of live artworks. Divided into three tables, the panelists discuss whether such art events create enriched cultural landscapes through fringe events and cooperation among organizations or whether their concentration of resources and audiences can be counter-productive. Are projects involving educational institutions and residencies alongside these ‘main events’ able to change the habits of a globalised art world, where values and formats are intended to be exportable and repeatable? Chaired by Vittorio Urbani with Elisa Genna, Francesco Ragazzi, and Francesco Urbano, the panelists address the Venice Biennale and international art events, educational art institutions and residencies, and the socio-political aspects of contemporary art. NOTE: Table 1 includes an introduction, the discussion, and a summary including comments from other table moderators. Table 2 & 3 audio has some technical difficulties. Table 1 (focusing on the Venice Biennale and the international art events)

Venice 2013: Joana Vasconcelos

For Portugal’s participation in the 55th la Biennale di Venezia, artist Joana Vasconcelos is presenting Trafaria Praia, a project in which a cacilheiro, or Lisbon ferryboat, is transformed into a floating pavilion and artwork. Federica Patti of Larete Art Projects interviews the artist onsite. The Trafaria Praia project addresses the commonalities between Lisbon and Venice, both cities that played historical roles in broadening the European worldview during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It looks at the contact zone between them today by considering three aspects they share: water, navigation, and the vessel. Vasconcelos is, thus, deterritorialising territory, which is intended as an idealistic gesture—a metaphorical circumvention of the power struggles that often mark international relations. The outside of the ship is covered with a panel of blue-and-white azulejos (hand-painted, tin-glazed ceramic tiles) that reproduces a contemporary view of Lisbon’s skyline. On its deck, she created an environment made of textiles and light—a complex medley of blue-and-white fabrics all over the ceiling and walls, from which crocheted pieces, intertwined with LEDs, emerge to create a womblike, surreal atmosphere.

Venice 2013: Alfredo Jaar

Representing Chile at the 55th la Biennale di Venezia, Alfredo Jaar’s evocative installation Venezia, Venezia guides visitors along an arching passage—like one of Venice’s iconic bridges—of striking visual and somatic encounters. Federica Patti of LaRete Art Projects interviews the artist. Jaar’s situated installation critically examines the history of international representation to invoke questions about the tension of continuously transforming contemporary global contexts. Venezia, Venezia is a magical and poetic spatio-temporal passage that presents to us a difficult summons for critical reflection, ethical vigilance, and genuine response. Alfredo Jaar was born in Santiago, Chile in 1956. He has lived in New York since 1982. He has shown extensively around the world. He has participated in the Venice Biennale (1986, 2007, 2009), São Paulo Bienal (1985, 1987, 2010), and Documenta in Kassel (1987, 2002). The Clocktower Gallery has partnered with LaRete Art Projects to bring you roving reports from the 55th Venice Biennale. LaRete Art Projects is dedicated to research and support of new artistic strategies.