looking to the futurepast, we are treading forward

The Bolivian pavilion, Venice

★☆☆☆☆

On until 24 November 2024

The Russian Federation and Bolivia signed a $450 million Lithium deal last December. Its extra contractual perk of free rent on Russia’s Giardini pavilion clearly took the South American state’s Ministry of Cultures, Decolonization, and Depatriarchalization (yes, that’s the real name of the governmental body) by surprise and it barely succeeded in finding content for the presentation.

Thankfully, the tourist office dug up a museum demo of traditional yarn-spinning and a bunch of naive folk paintings came out from the store. A set of panpipes tucked in the corner signal that the contemporary is of no interest to a nation whose future is yet to be dug out from the ground. One star is due, however, for this project’s unintentional geopolitical relevance.

notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

Max Hooper Schneider

Twilight at the Earth’s Crust

★★☆☆☆

Mad Max meets Waterworld in a crossover sequel conceived by a film studio’s marketing department.

Christo

Early Works

★★★★☆

To appreciate Christo’s early works against his wishes, one must forget his later stunts.

Florian Meisenberg

What does the smoke know of the fire?

★★★★☆

Meisenberg’s paintings are either the product of a conspiracy or documents of a conspiracy theory.

Shu Lea Cheang

Scifi New Queer Cinema, 1994-2023

★★☆☆☆

With material this gratuitously explicit and a curator this absent, it’s a miracle that this project wasn’t shut down by the licencing, or indeed art-historical authorities.

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman

Bad Luck Rock

★★☆☆☆

This is a poor man’s version of history or a philistine collector’s absolution.

Michael Andrew Page

Claustrum

★★★★☆

Page’s tent, brain, and the cathedral take the same form for a pretty good reason.