Biennale artist: Concepts like nation are dissolving

Created: 12/29/2021Updated: 12/29/2021, 9:33 AM

On the facade of the pavilion of the Venice Art Biennale in the Giardini, the inscription “Germania” is affixed.

© Felix Hörhager / dpa

Alongside the documenta in Kassel, the Venice Biennale is considered to be the most important presentation of contemporary art.

In the lagoon city, the artist Maria Eichhorn takes on the German pavilion.

Berlin / Venice - The doors of the controversial building are still tightly closed to prying eyes. In the German Pavilion on the grounds of the Venice Biennale, the Berlin artist Maria Eichhorn is preparing the German contribution for the most important international presentation of contemporary art alongside the documenta in Kassel. Due to the corona, the Biennale had to be postponed by a year. Now the famous Giardini in the Castello district at the eastern end of the lagoon city are to attract the global art community from April 23 to November 27, 2022.

Eichhorn, who was born in Bamberg, has already been to Venice twice with work, now curator Yilmaz Dziewior has entrusted her with the German Pavilion.

“This time, my work is more in the focus of the public and the media,” the 59-year-old describes the difference in an interview with the German Press Agency in Berlin.

"But if we look not only at the individual pavilion, but at the entire Biennale, all of the country contributions, my contribution recedes and is one of many."

The artist follows names like Gerhard Richter (1972), Joseph Beuys (1976), Hans Haacke (1993), Rosemarie Trockel (1999), Isa Genzken (2007) or Christoph Schlingensief (2011).

The Golden Lion was awarded several times for the work from Germany, most recently in 2017 for Anne Imhof.

The past of the controversial building was discussed again and again.

In 1938 the Nazis gave him fascist rulership architecture.

Imhof had the fenced-off pavilion guarded by Dobermans, Haacke smashed the travertine floor into a pile of stone slabs, reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich's "Sea of ​​Ice".

"It is interesting to see how different artists have dealt with the pavilion, which aspects emerged and connections became clear," says Eichhorn.

"All of these earlier artistic works naturally have an influence on future contributions, including mine."

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The presentation in national buildings that is typical of Venice is of no importance to the Berlin artist.

“In my opinion, terms like nation are disappearing more and more,” she says.

"Even if art is shown in national pavilions, art, as I understand it, remains international and cosmopolitan, anarchic, resistant, political and polemical, fragmentary, critical and independent of it."

Eichhorn's work often emerges as a process that may require some preparation.

With the postponement caused by the pandemic, it has gained more time for Venice, which can have an impact on the process of development.

For the documenta 11 in Kassel in 2002 she founded a stock corporation whose company capital of 50,000 euros could not be increased, but was exhibited as a work of art in cash.

Sometimes large parts of her work move in the imagination of the viewer. She questions the operating systems of art. For an exhibition in Cologne she was employed by the city and documented her complicated employment contract as an artist. In London, she gave the employees of a gallery time off; her exhibition there was simply closed for the entire duration.

Even with a view of Venice, Eichhorn assumes that there is always something to see, even if you can't see anything. “The accessibility of my work is very important to me, especially at these large exhibitions,” she says. “That's why I always try to incorporate several access levels to make it easier for visitors to see the work. I also always try to give them the freedom of choice to be active or passive about my work. "

Again and again she addresses the German past. In Munich she turned over selected works from a collection, the reverse side revealing the names of previous Jewish owners. At documenta 14 in 2017, she researched the expropriation of Jewish property. To do this, she stocked a floor-to-ceiling shelf with illegally acquired books. “My work is primarily concerned with the present,” says Eichhorn. "So: how do we deal with the aftermath of our history today?"

That should also influence her work in Venice.

The lagoon city also plays a role.

"Venice has a magnetic attraction that you can hardly avoid," says Eichhorn.

At the same time, however, she observed the effects of an economic policy with rents that rose endlessly and a social fabric that was falling apart.

“In Venice I always see both sides, this incredible charm and this mass tourism, which is extremely tough on people and destroys the sensitive ecological balance in the lagoon.” Dpa