Call me nostalgic, but I remain of the opinion that the Italian Pavilion should be, as it once was, at the Giardini, and not at the Arsenale, as the first view for entry to the event. Call me a nationalist if what I think is that, as is the case elsewhere, if the Venice Biennale, which is in Italy, has the role and the vocation for internationality (as it has always been), of contemporary art, one could claim the importance that Italian art should also have, that is, a centrality at home.
If the Biennale were in Berlin, the first people we would see would be the Germans, who often publish catalogs only in their native language in their museums. Let’s not talk about the French, who have always been staunch defenders of the flag. I would not want it to become a problem of ethnic discrimination (I say this ironically), and I refuse to assert that Italian artists, all of them, are no longer up to par: that would be provincialism. Dialogue between creativity that also comes from other cultures, a sacrosanct aspiration and now an established reality, cannot involve only a small group of Italian artists that seems almost like a content. But, at this point, the question must be asked, why? Some have written that we are committing suicide, that we must look inward, at home, to find the reasons for living, today, in a kind of limbo, others have said that this must be a stimulus for us to “improve.” But improve what?
Memorable biennials have given us the opportunity to get to know and appreciate the international flavor of an event that still has its own status, so much so that few artists in history have turned down the invitation. Except for one true anecdote, or urban legend, concerning Gino De Dominicis, who, when invited to I don’t know which edition, allegedly said that he would be of the idea but his works did not want to (if not true, it is still a worthy answer for him: formidable). Someone, I don’t remember who, told me that when Pop Art landed in the Lagoon, it was a punch in the gut for many European artists, because it was seen to have a very powerful paw, enough to knock out the old world. Yeah, but it gives the fact that the United States has always had the belief that “their” art constituted an effective calling card for “everyone else” (just think of even the Federal Art Project of distant memory).
So, back to us. Who in high places has ever had a medium- and long-term plan, to sustain a path, I won’t necessarily say economically (Holland tried but then we know how that turned out), but at least in the form of real and convinced promotion? Few institutions have tried, but the result, at least in my eyes, is that practically, of universally known Italian artists, there are very few, apart from the names we all know(chapeau!). But they are very few indeed, if we exclude the souls of Lucio Fontana and Morandi, and Arte Povera, the Macedonian phalanx of the Avant-gardes of the 1960s (I always say this ironically), that one with a project. Private galleries try, sometimes, with good results, but it is a titanic undertaking and few can break through the wall of sound. And then times have changed a lot, and those decades seem like geological eras. We don’t know how to make trusts, we don’t know how to make a cartel, and, if I may say so, we are very, too much, externalist, and that is true provincialism. We would like to be art “lobbyists” (I know it sounds like a dirty word in Italy), but there are too few of us and we do not bring consensus and important spin-offs.
Moreover, the famous scissor has decapitated collectors, even of great quality, who had invested in the past, but who now find themselves displaced by sky-high figures at auctions and fairs (for example, in Basel). So we have no choice but to exhibit Michelangelo’s David at the Dubai Expo, provided it is from head to navel and no further, and that’s all I’m saying.
We have gone from the excitement of seeing the Russians coming to the Chinese, who shrewdly then began to invest in “their” artists and “their” galleries. Of course, I may be told what an easy game I play, citing the Americans, the Russians, and the Chinese. True. The current geopolitics is a matter that few can decipher; it does not seem like a good time to me, indeed. Tragic. However, I still want to believe that one can intercept the air of time and, perhaps, transform, without having to hear “the way we were” anymore. Besides, David, didn’t he defeat Goliath with a slingshot?
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