All projects, artists and curators are on the Sami Pavilion, which replaces the Nordic countries, Finland, Denmark and Iceland as well as Austria and Belgium
Always a large group, located (almost) entirely in the Giardini della Biennale, Scandinavia has, in one form or another, shown to have a lot to say in this edition of the exhibition. We are talking about Denmark, Finland and Iceland, but above all the new Sami pavilion, which paradoxically replaces the old Nordic pavilion and decolonises it. Let’s now see the exhibitions hosted by the individual national pavilions.
– Julia Guillaume
1. The Sumy Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022
Vengeance of the Survivors: The former Nordic pavilion is reborn in a new eco-political guise, leaving all the space for three of the only Indigenous European artists still in existence, the Sublime. The Sami people, who live in the Arctic Circle between Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, have suffered the worst forms of marginalization and cultural oppression for centuries, complete with forced sterilization and ostracism. Three trees now grow outside the pavilion’s roof, whose commissioner is Director of the Bureau of Contemporary Art Norway Katja García Anton, transforming the building into a nature-like space flooded with light. Videos with dance performance matriarchal system from Polina Fedorov (Inari, 1977), the extremely fine suspended structures formed from reindeer guts Butretirednne Sarah (Municipality of Kautukino, 1983) and the huge collage series of Anders Sunna (Municipality of Kiruna, 1985), they share the historical and current difficulties of the Sami population, the legal battles to be able to maintain their nomadic and pastoral lifestyle, and their resistance. There are also many Sami works in the international exhibition dream milksuch as the snowy landscapes embroidered by the artist Brita Markat Laba.
https://oca.no/thesamipavilion
2. The Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022
Finnish Pavilion ph Giulia Giaume
Multi-channel installation Close Watch from Belvi Takala (Helsinki, 1981) It occupies the entire Finnish pavilion. The work is the result of an experience in which the artist worked in secret for six months in one of the largest shopping centers in Finland as a security guard: which allowed her to record a series of workshops aimed at the professional update of guards in case of stress and emergency. Attitudes, testing their tolerance, prejudices, skepticism about corporate governance and the increasing specialness of violence. Curated by Christina Lee, the exhibition includes three videos—one vertically as a phone (showing conversations prior to Takala) and two horizontal with photography—that show the bargaining dynamics of Mandatory of the law and its fall in arbitrariness.
3. Denmark Pavilion in Venice Biennale 2022
Denmark Pavilion ph Giulia Giaume
he is fulfills Island (Copenhagen, 1976) to represent the Denmark Pavilion in the Giardini at the exhibition We walked on the ground. The immersive installation curated by Jacon Lillemose – dark and evocative – recreates a hyper-realistic and implausible scenario in a kind of gigantic stability, between elements of rustic naive, like the Danish-patterned fences defining the space, and sci-fi ideas with a dystopian and apocalyptic flavor. Visitors discover Beybald centaurs, or their bodies, as they move around their living space, surrounded by food, straw, and ribbons. The impression is to be at the end of a German fairy tale without a happy ending.
4. Iceland Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2022
Iceland Suite in Julia Guillaume
Iceland winger, at Arsenal, is in the hands Sigurður GuðjOnson (Reykjavik, 1975) video – or rather, multisensory sculpture – perpetual Suggestion: In the middle of a single dark room, the work combines moving images and sounds to create a suspended and mysterious experience. Sponsored by Monica Bello, installation is on split Screenwith a six-meter vertical screen connected to a ground projection: both surfaces show the continuous movement of mineral dust, amplified and magnified by a distortion lens and become a perfect frozen landscape, unconsciously (according to the artist) modeled on Iceland.