The 10th Lyon Biennale, titled “The Spectacle of the Everyday” and curated by Hon Hanru, is considerably smaller than its Venice elder. Thus, this particular Biennale is more manageable, less of an overwhelming experience but, in all probability, likely to be working towards such an end. The most marked differences from Venice is the absence of international pavilions. Also, the Biennale has yet to transform the city in the way that Venice, one of Italy’s most tourist-heavy cities, is practically littered with art every other year. Albeit, there are similarities in each Biennales invested interest in international art, as it seems to be a necessary component of any large representation of contemporary art. There are even repeated works (Mark Lewis is completely talentless). The themes are also revolving around similar ideas of the everyday, possibly more of a reoccurring trend at this point rather than an actual platform for operations.
While the Musuem of Contemporary Art of Lyon hosts a sub par collection of whitewall work, the La Sucriere, an old sugar factory, provides room for some more interesting investigations and exists in a part of the city less travelled, further from the beaten path from its primary Biennale counterpart. In fact, it could be considered a difficult venue to locate by foot, surrounded by large construction projects and with minimal signage. Still, there is a value to places such as these, encouraging engagement with the city, as can also be seen at The Bichat Warehouse and less at The Bullukian Foundation.
As the theme of this entire Biennale revolves around an interest in the everyday, it would be appropriate to begin by briefly citing two examples from the collected works which start to describe one of the more literal examples of dealing with the subject in two drastically different approaches.
Sarah Sze’s Untitled (Portable Planetarium) is an operational sculpture, producing an image of stars on an adjacent wall. Elaborately conceived of numerous non-conventional construction items (toothpick box, sponge, light bulb), the artist creates something of a masterpiece of the makeshift. The sculptural presence of Sze’s work is strong, the structure occupying it’s own corner, taking up space and generating sound from the small motors and fans scattered throughout. Simple materials expounded upon each other create an overall intricacy, a form which is at once precarious and random as well as completely sound and organized. Addressing this work as a means to an end would be to disregard the in-between which seems so critical to the process carried out through it’s formation. Through the works complexity lies an intelligent appreciation for the simple, the everyday possibility of objects.
The bathtowel on the small wooden desk becomes a black, mountainous landscape through Takahiro Iwasaki’s delicate work. On a hillside sits a lone tower, made from the very threads of the towel. This is an artful transformation of the subtlest kind, the elevating of an everyday material to a point where its first recognized and, upon closer examination, reconsidered entirely. The strength in this work is the utter simplicity enacted through the final presentation, where a slight adjustment to appearances incites the imagination of the viewer so as to assist them in visualizing a world already in existence, hidden through its ordinariness but inviting in it’s realized possibilities.
more from Lyon Biennale to follow...
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