Title: Theatre of labour: The 56th Venice Biennale
Abstract: Okwui Enwezor's 'All the World's Futures' is gloomy. It is a place of labyrinthine character in which one is detoured and disoriented around routes that turn from bleak to bleaker, heavy to heavier. Working with architect David Adjaye, the curator has devised his space as a metaphor for our times. Perplexing, claustrophobic and strangely deja vu - we feel we have seen and been here before: works about war, displacement, injustice; works from the edge, the periphery and frontier places. The difference with 'All the World's Futures', and what makes Enwezor's 56th Venice Biennale new, is that these works are frequently not made by white people feeling guilt and horror about others, but by artists representing their own histories and dilemmas. From an art point of view, the quality can be uneven. From a sociopolitical position, this is a correction of an important kind.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
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