Another point of view...
10:16 p.m.
"By changing the conditions of the viewer you can change his state of mine, the way one acts or interacts, your perception of space and scale."
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
09/07/19 - Luc Tuymans (Bélgica, 1958), Otobong Nkanga (Nigeria, 1974) and Ann Veronica Janssens (UK, 1956) defied the way we look at artworks, by presenting theirs on the floor.
For example, at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Luc Tuymans' exhibition opens with a piece displayed on the floor of the entrance hall. It's called Schwarzheide, name taken from a prisoner camp in Germany. The design was inspired by the memory of the bodies torn by the war and mimicked with the trees of the woods around the concentration camp. Although it's a drawing, the curators decided to present it on the floor. We are allowed to walk around it, and as we do so, the images tend to dissolve, but when we look at it from the first floor, the images becomes one and we understand what Tuymans wanted us to see.
For example, at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Luc Tuymans' exhibition opens with a piece displayed on the floor of the entrance hall. It's called Schwarzheide, name taken from a prisoner camp in Germany. The design was inspired by the memory of the bodies torn by the war and mimicked with the trees of the woods around the concentration camp. Although it's a drawing, the curators decided to present it on the floor. We are allowed to walk around it, and as we do so, the images tend to dissolve, but when we look at it from the first floor, the images becomes one and we understand what Tuymans wanted us to see.
Schwarzheide, by Luc Tuyman (2019)
Material: marble mosaic / Measures: 960 x 960 cm
Palazzo Grassi
Artist Otobong Nkanga describes her work Venis Aligned as a body nourished by veins, which, at the same time, damage and poison it. Her “vein” is almost 26 mts long and it's made of marble and templed glass. It does not only look like a blood conduit that circulates through the gallery, but also like a river that leaves waste during its course. By using materials belonging to the earth (marble from the quarry and glass from the sand of the desert), the artist focuses on the exploitation of natural resources and of men to obtain those materials. In Nkanga's words: "It's the story of the earth which is excavated to obtain what we need to build, which later colapses and we must start all over again…”
The artwork, displayed on the floor of the Arsenale, is part of the 58th Venice Biennial, curated by Ralph Rogoff, May you Live in Interesting Times.
Venis Aligned, by Otobong Nkanga (2018)
Murano chrystal and paint
At the Punta Della Dogana, also in Venice, Ann Veronica Janssens poured glitter on the floor, creating an intangible and volatile site-specific. The transparency, the brightness and the fluidity of the material allowed her to play with the refraction of the light, to achieve a balance that interacts with the walls of the gallery. As visitors we are invited to perceive the evanescence of the artwork with every step we take. As we move around White Glitter, the material is sprinkled, flies, and changes the surface of the floor, which makes it impossible to perceive its original shape: it is as uncertain as the reality in which we live in today.
Untitled (White Glitter), by Ann Veronica Janssens (2016)
Exhibition Luogo e Segni
Punta Della Dogana
The 3 artworks are a challenge to the viewers because of their position. We are used to contemplate art displayed at eye level. But here we are asked to lower our sight. Maybe these artists wanted to possess our constant habit of looking down, to our cellphones.
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