Inside "Illuminazioni"

By The Art Newspaper. Published online: 28 June 2011

The fine art of walking: Giorgio Andreotta Calò (b.1979) follows in the tradition, or the footsteps, as it were, of Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, whose epic hikes provide the material and images for their works. Andreotta Calò is one of ten Italian artists invited by Bice Curiger to participate in “Illuminations”. The words of the young artist, who travelled on foot across Europe from Amsterdam to his native city of Venice, resonate in the most metaphysical space of the Central Pavilion, the Giardino delle Sculture (Sculpture Garden) designed by Carlo Scarpa. Walking is interpreted as an experience that is both existential and historical: and while Andreotta Calò is no Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, the fifth-century Roman patrician whose harrowing poem “De Reditu Suo” describes the poet’s return to his native Gaul to find the empire devastated by the barbarians and convulsed by Christianity, the young artist’s work is one of the most powerful in this section of the Biennale, and most importantly, directly addresses the theme proposed by the curator.

The Art Newspaper brings you its Picture Postcards from the 2011 Venice Biennale, photographed by Stefano Manca (unless otherwise credited). In this gallery we include our favourite works in Bice Curiger's "Illuminazioni" exhibition, with comments by Franco Fanelli.

It is difficult for truly gifted painters to hide their talent: but Chicago artist Christopher Wool (b.1955) does just that by using the mechanical “arm” of the silk screen printer to cool his brushstrokes, making serial compositions and alluding to the Rorschach test to investigate areas that lie beyond traditional art, following the demands of contemporary art. Yet his gigantic blot, replicated in a series of variants ranging from blood red to black, looks like a barely concealed homage to Tintoretto.

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