Cosmos
From Goya to de Chirico, from Friedrich to Kiefer Art searching for infinity.

Palazzo Grassi, Venice
Through July 23

The show hanging at Palazzo Grassi constitutes the third stage of an investigation which tries to shed light onto themes of complex resolution. The show began last summer at the Musee des Beaux Arts in Montreal and continued at the Center of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona. The exhibition, curated by Jean Clair, intends to focus on the theoretical foundations underlying the reflections that rotate around a sense of inadequacy and mystery that moves man towards the universe, towards unknown spaces (either geographic or mental) in which the artistic production has tried to resolve.

The Venetian exposition, compared to the previous ones, includes new works of art which introduces a "Europeanization" or better yet an "Italianization" of the show. In this context, the choice of including Balla and the Second Futurism seems timely and of high quality - the exhibited works in fact happen to have a great historical resonance and a strong exhibiting coherence. The same cannot be said for the de Chiricos and the Savinios. Especially the work of Alberto Savinio, although of quality, has no connection to the exhibition’s theme.

Other sections have suffered from the encyclopedic and a bit confused statement of the show. It feels like it is held together by a theoretical thread which is too fragile and "politically correct" (it is difficult to otherwise explain the presence of paintings - belonging to the sections of " The Promised Land" and "The Trip to the Poles", that "bend" the entire concept according to a cosmic and landscapist vision, typical of North America).

Because of this, the nature of documentary completeness that the Venetian exposition tries to offer is less pronounced. The works have no dialogue (Kiefer is one example) and often, especially concerning the installations, they suffer from the lack of space. A reduced choice, as well as the selection of works created in a more limited chronological period, would have fit the show’s concept more appropriately by allowing a certain amount of poetry and a shot towards infinity to happen. Works such as The Human Condition by Duane Michaels or The Man Who Flew In The Space From His Apartment by Ilya Kabakov or Stars by Thomas Ruff have sporadically allowed this to happen.




Andrea Bruciati
Translation by Holly Miller