Part
2 continues.... 49th Venice Biennale, 2001
Platea dell' Umanita; Plateau of Humankind, Plateau d'Humanite, Plateau der Menschheit curated by Harold Szeemann
Two senses of representation: Part 1
Some statistics
In 2001, Harold Szeemann's Plateau of Humankind included:- 63 nations with 113 groups/ teams which included 130 individual artists of which 27 women artists were included. In 2001, women artists were 23.8 % (of 113 teams/artist) - 20.7 % (of the 130 individual artists) included.
The percentage of women in such international shows although it is widely perceived as generally rising across the twentieth century from less than 10% to more consistently levels of 20% is not any simple measure of progress or finally the acknowledgement and international recognition due to women artists. The figures at international shows like the Venice Biennale vary quite dramatically up and down. Surveys of Venice Biennales 1978-1986 showed women's participation as moving from 10% (1978); to 13.6% (1980), to 20.4% (1982), but down to 10.3% (1984), and 9.7% (1986) (figures from Pauline Barrie "The Art Machine Part 2" Women Artists Slide Library Journal (London) Feb/March 1988 no. 21 pp.16-17. - Figures researched by Fre Meijer, Nicole Roeperts, Sya Stam & Annet Zondervam for SVBK). n.paradoxa (print edition, volume 4) surveyed the number of women in the last Venice Biennale in 1999 where Harold Szeemann's D'APERTutto showed the work of 103 artists, 25 of which were women - 24%. In the 1999 national pavilions, there were 98 projects/ artists: 25 of which were by women artists or joint projects in which women artists participated - 25%.
Some countries have shown the first woman artists ever in their pavilion in the early 1990s, while others have maintained their record of never showing any work by women. Some national pavilions have chosen to alternate between the sexes in their strategy of showing a single artist each year or maintained a well-calculated gender balance in the groups of artists they have chosen to show every two years. Several countries showed for the first time in 2001, New Zealand and Hong Kong, for example.
The question remains: why has the percentage of women artists dropped in 2001, especially in an exhibition which lays claim to bring together a platform for humanity? Did Szeemann's selection of themes for "humankind" reproduce a male-centred account of the issues facing "humanity", even as it chose to focus on artist's perceptions of the representation of humankind ? Below are the names of artists, Part 2 goes on consider these last two questions in relation to what did this exhibition represent?
Artists included in 2001 were:-
A1-53167 (Anibal Asdrubal Lopez Juarez), Chantal Akerman, Sunday Jack Akpan, Francis Alys, Tiong Ang, Gustavo Artigas, Atelier Van Lieshout, Samuel Beckett, Vanessa Beecroft, Joseph Beuys, Richard Billingham, Pierre Bismuth, Botto & Bruno, Martin Bruch, Tania Brughera, Roderick Buchanan, Chris Burden, Maurizio Cattelan, Loris Cecchini, Com & Com, Cracking Art Group, Chris Cunningham, Josef Dabernig, Max Dean - Raffaello D'Andrea, Lucinda Devlin, Rineke Dijkstra, Stan Douglas, Atom Egoyan - Juliao Saramento, Helmut Federle, Regina Galindo, Cristina Rodero Garcia, Yervant Gianikian - Angela Ricci Lucchi, Luis Gonzalez Palma, Paul Graham, Veli Grano, Hai Bo, Frederico Herrero, Gary Hill, Laura Horelli, Yishai Jusidman, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Marin Karmitz, Abbas Kiarostami, Susan Kleinberg, Mattheiu Laurette, Marko Lehanka, Christiane Löhr, Ingeborg Lüscher, Mark Manders, Tuomo Manninen, Eva Marisaldi, Viktor Maruschtschenko, Barry McGee/Stephen Powers/Todd James, Marisa Merz, Chantal Michel, Priscilla Monge, Ron Mueck, Marco Neri, Ernesto Neto, Carsten Nicolai, Olaf Nicolai, Manuel Ocampo, Arnold Odermatt, Joao Onofre, Tatsumi Orimoto, Tanja Ostojic, Manfred Pernice, Paul Pfeiffer, John Pilson, Alexandra Ranner, Neo Rauch, Heli Rekula, Gerhard Richter, Gerd Rohling, Alexander Roitburd, Tracey Rose, Mimmo Rotella, Anri Sala, Charles Sandison, Sarenco l'Africano, Ene-Liis Semper, Richard Serra, Santiago Sierra, Lars Siltberg, Nedko Solakov, Eliezer Sonnenschein, Georgina Starr, Do-Ho Suh, Fiona Tan, Javier Téllez, Alessandra Tesi, Jaime David Tischler, Niele Toroni, Gavin Turk, Richard Tuttle, Cy Twombly, Salla Tykkä, Keith Tyson, Eulalia Validossera, Minnette Vári, Francesco Vezzoli, Bill Viola, Not Vital, Massimo Vitali, Jeff Wall, Magnus Wallin, Nick Waplington, Maaria Wirkkala, Yu Xiao , Zhen Xu , Vadim Zakharov, Heimo Zobernig.
Plateau of Thought - Erich Bödeker, Seni Camara, Ousmane Ndiaye Dago, Gilberto De La Nuez, John Goba, Ettore Jelmorini, Cheff Mwai, Jean Baptiste Ngnetchopa, August Rodin, Hans Schmidt, Peter Wanjau....
Special Projects: Poetry Bunker - Marco Nero Rotelli; Homage to Chen Zhen; Refreshing : - Massimo Bartolini, Cai Guoqiang, Olafur Eliason, Tobias Rehberger, Rikrit Tiravanija; Human Condition - Anur; Museum in Progress - Ken Lum; Heli Global Art Tour - Michael Schmitz; Secession Vienna - Matthias Herrmann; Homage to Alighero Boetti.
The 49 pavilions and national projects included 144 groups, teams, or individual artists of which were 29 women artists: - 20 %.
Argentina: Leandro Erlich, Graciela Sacco; Armenia: Hamlet Hovespian, David Kareyan, Tigran Khachatrian, Hovhannes Margarian, Karine Matsakian, Tate Mnatsakanian, Mher Azatian, Nora Badalian, Samuel Saghatelian, Harutyun Simonian, Arpine Tokmajian, Ara Hovsepian, Diana Hagobian, Sona Abgarian, Narine Aramian; Australia: Lyndal Jones; Austria: Granular=Synthesis; gelatin; Belgium: Luc Tuymans; Brasil: Vik Muniz, Ernesto Neto; Canada: Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller; Chile: Juan Downey; Croatia: Julije Knifer; Czech Republic & Slovak Republic: Jiri Suruvka, Ilona Németh; Cyprus: Andreas Karayan; Denmark: Ursula Reuter Christiansen and Henning Christiansen; Egypt: Mostafa Ramzi El-Sayed; Estonia: Ene-Liis Semper, Marko Laimre; Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Milija Pavicevic, Oleg Kulik; France: Pierre Huyghe: (FYROM) Macedonia: Jovan Sumkovski; Germany: Gregor Schneider; Great Britain: Mark Wallinger; Greece: Ilias Papailiakis; Esri Hatziargyrou, Nikos Navridis; Hungary: Tamás Komoroczki, Antal Lakner; Iceland: Finnbogi Pétursson; Ireland: Siobhan Hapaska, Grace Weir; Israel: Uri Katzenstein; Italy: Alighiero Boetti; Jamaica: Arthur Simms, Keith Morrison, Albert Chong; Japan: Masato Makamura, Yukio Fujimoto, Naoya Hatakeyama; Korea: Michael Joo, Do-Hu Suh; Lithuania: Deimantas Markevicius; Luxembourg: Doris Drescher; Netherlands: Liza May Post, Frank van der Salm, Edwin Zwakman, Rob Johannesma, Mike Tyler, Marijike van Warmerdam, Job Koelewiin, Michael Raedecker, Mark Manders, Aernout Mik; New Zealand: Peter Robinson, Jacqueline Fraser; Nordic - Norway: Anders Tomren; Sweden: Carl Mikael van Hausswolff, Leif Elggren; Finland, Tommi Gronland & Petteri Nisunen; Poland: Leon Taraswicz; Portugal: Joao Penalva; Latvia: Veistures Kairis & Ilmars Blumbergs; Laila Pakalnina; Singapore: Suzann Victor; Chen KeZhan; Mathew Ngui; Salleh Japar; Slovenia: Tadej Pgacar, 0100101110101101.org, Vuk Cosic, Context, Gheorghe Ravovsky; Romania: Gheorghe Rasovszky, Context Network; Russia: Segei Shutov, Olga Chernysheva, Leonid Sokov; Spain: Ana Laura Alaez, Javier Perez; Switzerland: Norbert Moslang/Andy Guhl, Urs Luthi, Terapia; Turkey: Lawrence D "Butch" Morris, Ahmet Oktem, xurban.net, Sermin Sherif, Murat Morova; Ukraine: Panorama; USA: Robert Gober: Uruguay: Rimer Cardillo; Venezuela: Victor Hugo Irazabal.
Cultural institutions: Bolivia: Ugalde Gaston; Chrystal Ostermann Stumpf, Hortensia Montenegro, Ricardo Perez Alcala; Columbia: Nadin Ospina; Costa Rica: Villacruz, Rafa Fernandez: Cuba: Ibrahim Miranda Ramos, Luis Gomez Armeteros: Dominican Republic: Dionisio Blanco, Antonio Guadalupe, Mariano Sanchez; Ecuador: Jose Antonio Cauja, Roberto Noboa; El Salvador: Vladimir Montufar; Rene Chacon; Guatemala: Juan Francisco Yoc Cotzajay; Doris Contreras; Haiti: Mario Benhamin, Guerdy Preval; Honduras: Regina Aguilar; Nicaragua: Hugo Palma Ibarra: Panama: Alessandra Rosas Fuentes, Aristides Urena Ramos; Paraguay: Lucy Yegros "Arete", Christian Ceuppens, Adrian Gonzalez Brun; Peru: Roberto Huracaya.
China - Hong Kong: Ellen Pau, Siu-Kee Ho, Chi-Wo Leung.
Taipei: Shu-min Lin, Shih-fen Liu, Michael Ming-hong Li, Chien-chi Chang, Wen-chih Wang.
Additional Special Exhibitions at Venice, part of the official program
Allora Dunque - Lothar Baumgarten, Willem Boshoff
Authentic/Excentric - Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Godfried Donkor, Berni Searle, Zineb Sedir, Yinka Shonibare, Rachid Koraichi
Hollywood - Marizio Cattalan
IASPIS project: Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Jeppe Hein, Annika Larsson, Annee Olofsson
La Trahison des images: Nordproject & Co. & Ann Veronica Janssens, Marcel Berlanger, Francois Curlet, Michael Dans, Edith Dekyndt, Eric Duyckaerts, Patrick Everaert, Michel Francois, Jean-Marie Gheerardijn, Patrick Guns, Johan Muyle, Benoit Plateus, Benoit Roussel, Jacques Lizene.
The Deliverance and the Patience - Mike Nelson
Terraferma - Gabriele Basilico, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Gabriel Orozco, Louise Bourgeois.
Awards at Venice were given to
Richard Serra, Gregor Schneider (Pavilion prize), Anri Sala, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Pierre Huyghe, Marisa Merz, John Pilson, A1-53167.
Special Mention to Fiona Tan and Yinka Shonibare. Lifetime Award to Juan Downey.
Copyright © : n.paradoxa, July/September 2001
N.Paradoxa : Issue No. 15, 2001