Venice Biennale:Part 2 US Pavilion

Holding Ai Wei Wei poster "Say what you need to say plainly and then take responsibility for it. "

Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla’s multiple installations in the U.S. Pavilion featured an amusing and political conjunction of creative expression and capitalism. Outside the pavilion, a massive upside down tank from the Korean War has a treadmill installed on its right track.  A USA track and field athlete runs on it priodically to make the treads turn ( and a loud noise).  What is the metaphor here? Track and Field (2011) combines two of the most manic preoccupations of the U.S., war and competitive sports, both of them supersized and overcharged,  run at vast expense and with nationalistic fervor. But requiring the athlete to operate the tank is also funny and subversive, suggesting the fundamental uselessness of war in its repetitive, endless, mindless, operations.  The super fit USA athlete running on a treadmill on a track of an out of date tank emphasizes the futility of the operation.

Inside the pavilion are several other installations that also bring together odd pairings: Armed Freedom Lying on a Sunbed includes a scaled down replica of the statue on the top of the national Capitol in Washington D.C. lying on a tanning bed with its blinding light. The pavilion’s title Gloria, the Spanish word for “glory” evokes the feelings of the mid nineteenth century sponsors of this elaborate, Athena- like warrior goddess with its large headdress of eagle’s head, feathers, and talons.  It  still echoes today since the  statue appears on the medals given to soldiers and civilians who serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Placing her in a sunbed is amusing, as though she is taking a break from her warrior goals, or it could even refer to our military might in the blinding heat of Iraq. All of Allora and Calzadilla’s works can be read in many ways, which is what makes their work so fascinating.

An ATM machine in a pipe organ, replaces the sounds made by pipes with electronic music generated by making a transaction. The creative instrument is repurposed in order to be driven by commerce, but the linear desires of buying and spending are undermined by the music that plays as a result.  Finally, there are two scaled down replicas of business class airline seats on which a male and a female gymnast perform. The dancers actually perform on a balance beam that replaces the armrests of the seats. Their creative performances again render the seats unusable, undermining the status and comfort of the business class traveller. It is amusing to imagine this actually taking place in a business class cabin where driven capitalists work on their next deals as dancers extend legs and arms on adjoining seats.

Finally, three videos refer to the resistance movements to the US military exercises and environmental devastation in Vieques, Puerto Rico.

The pavilion combines humor and politics as well as simple entertainment in a way that leads us to think in different ways about capitalism, war, and creativity. IT can be deep and critical, or funny and absurd, according to our dispositions and inclinations. The element of Duchampian readymade and Cage musical humor gives the work of these two artists an opportunity to actually make strong political statements masked behind really amusing ideas.