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The top artists at this year’s Venice Biennale

2015-05-17

CARSTEN HOLLER

Holler’s two screen video piece “Fara Fara” was the best work in the entire bieannale. It documented a Congolese soundclash tradition where two groups play in adjacent locations and the longest who plays wins. Stunningly shot, deeply emotive and seriously interesting.

JEREMY DELLER

Deller’s insertation to this very political of Biennale was incredible. A jukebox of “Factory Records” which played the sound of 19th century factory machines, sheet music of Victorian British factory blues Broadsides and a scary Motorola gadget that charts worker productivity. Genius as ever.

ELLIE HARRISON

Past Converse x Dazed Emerging Award nominee was one of the artists who created a mini golf hole for this collateral project, which is the most fun thing you can see during the Biennale. Her final hole involved grabbing a stick and trying to knock it into a floating UK in the canal.

ADRIAN GHENIE

Ghenie’s solo presenation at the Romanian Pavilion was a surprise hit. In a room themed around The Dissonances of History were strange portraits of dead dictators and political figures that included a wildly good portrait of a dead Lenin that felt like the last nail in the coffin for contemporary socialism.

KATHARINA GROSSE

German artist Grosse’s explosion of colour, spray paint, material and pigment was a brilliant insertion to the main Giardini pavilion. Walking into her chaotic space is like stepping inside of an abstract painting and being hit over the head with a rainbow.

CAMILLE NORMENT

Norway’s pavilion pulled apart the architecture of the Pavilion as a metaphor for the sound piece inside pushing the walls down with an exploration of dissonance. Her “socio-political encoding of sound” is one of the though installations you want to loiter in.

KERRY JAMES MARSHALL

There are so many reasons to love Kerry James Marshall. He is one of the best painter of modern times and this room devoted to his work includes some fluro abstract paintings and some of his signature portraiture pieces reworking the history of painting.

TETSUMI KUDO

Danh Vo (who’s Danish pavilion is gorgeous) co-curated Kudo in Slip of the Tongue at the Punta della Dogana and its always worth searching this weird, late Japanese artist’s organic techno sculptures out.

JOHN AKOMFRAH

Akomfrah’s three screen video piece was so good that people wouldn’t leave the room. It was a montage of nature footage combined with still of colonial photographs and horrible images of whale hunting. Imagine a beautiful baby of David Attenborough and Christian Marclay.

ARSENY ZHILYAEV

Zhilyaev’s presentation on Guidecca alongside Mark Dion was a great off site exhibition. Zhilyaev created an imaginary future where abandoned Earth was a museum of mankind – work included cosmic tapestry and images from his genius narrative blog.