Recycle Group: Conversion

The Russian art duo Andrey Blokhin and Georgy Kuznetsov, otherwise known as the Recycle Group, staged an installation called Conversion at the church Saint Antonin, founded in the VII century.  At the ancient church’s sanctuary  Recycle Group presented the ruins of the XXI century. 

The project refers to the life of a modern man as it is in the age of the world web and new gadgets. Data transmission speed, constant data refreshing and availability with every seventh person on earth owning a smartphone have given birth to the cult of new technologies. The Recycle Group’s project compares the globalization of information networks to the conversion to some new ‘religion’ where the scope of information available in the virtual space is a new presiding deity.  It presents the all-consuming cult of Facebook as a real religion, complete with a sans-serif F cross and commandments based on the social network’s terms and conditions.

The show includes sculptures and bas-reliefs, in which figures of  ‘Neo-Apostles’ appear as the bearers of a new sacred knowledge manifested in the stream of virtual information. This  structure is sited in the traditional position of the church altarpiece. At the center is a giant Facebook ‘cross’.  Their sculptures and bas-reliefs take on the appearance of ancient monuments that display the ravages of time, as if artifacts from some lost and forgotten civilization. In the relief pictured below the ‘holy’ figures rise cell phone masts and by ironic coincidence there is an existing cell phone mast sited in the bell-tower of the church.

To make sculptures of the presumed ‘saints’, the preachers of the new technologies, as well as multi-figured bas-reliefs they made use of polyurethane, plastic mesh, rubber, polyethylene and new technologies.  Rubbish becomes art to be kept for future generations, while the artists seek to give their viewers an idea of the future traces to be left by the paradoxes of our own age, of what will go down in history.  The work is not merely a send-up of modern diversions; it explores how seemingly innocuous interactions with technology are mediating the way we see the world, as well as how our waste will one day communicate our reality to future generations. 

To make these reliefs they used a rubber mold taken from a live subject then cast it in a resin which they then cut apart.  You can check out a short teaser video of the creation of this exhibit  or look at other images online here.

Here are those mantis shrimp from the market earlier.

Time for lunch, halfway between Pointe di Rialto and Piazzo San Marco is Alle Testiere, a most unlikely part of Venice to find good food.  This is a classic osteria, only open on market days, food simply prepared from the freshest available.  Don't take my word for it, the novelist Donna Leon is a regular here, so must be Commissario Brunetti.

Gnocchi with shrimp.

Basilica San Marco e Il Ponte dei Sospiri

After the Pescaria, continuing being a tourist, here's a brief look at the Basilica San Marco and the Bridge of Sighs, il Ponte dei Sospiri in Italiano.  All the photos here are of the facade, mostly showing some of the great mosaics.

What is it with selfies?  Take it quick before the crowds start to thicken up.

Above the left door, the body of Saint Mark is presented to the doge of Venice, showing the basilica itself how it looked in 13th century

Over the main door, the Last Judgement

The two left bronze horses above the main door, copies, the originals looted from Constantinople during the fourth crusade, are in the church museum.

Saint Mark's body venerated by the doge

OK, now let's go around the corner to the Bridge of Sighs.  It's necessary to get all the punches in your ticket before moving on to more contemporary things.

A traffic jam of gondolas, maybe a dozen

From the other side with a rather elegant looking taxi

And of course the crowd on the Ponte della Paglia taking their selfies with il Ponte dei Sospiri.

Leaving the Piazza San Marco, a bit of western economic contrast

During odd numbered years Venice hosts Biennale Arte, this year running from the 9th of May to the 22nd of November.  It probably would take that long to see it all.  The idea was to cross the Pointe Accademia but that stopped at the exhibit from Azerbaijan.  One of the two exhibits, Beyond the Line, spotlighted the resilient spirit of artists whose lives and work were overshadowed by the repressive Soviet regime of the mid 20th century and presented works from the Soviet period artwork of the non-conformist artists Javad Mirjavadov, Tofik Javadov, Ashraf Murad, Rasim Babayev, and sculptor Fazil Najafov.  Here are photos of Rasim's painting and Frzil's sculpture.

From the words of art critic Veli-Matti Hentonnen, "The work of this painter exists apart from politics. He creates in an untraditional manner. His colors are unexpected and shocking. The artist does not belong to the Russian Soviet School of realism. Rasim Babayev's paintings represent a mixture of the modern art of avant-garde and oriental color. The work of this artist is deeply rooted in Azeri mythology, in the wonderful and original world of folk fables, stories and legends."

There is a nice interview with Fazil Najafov where he talks about the changes in Azerbaujan and the impact on him as an artist but also as a citizen.  

"People aren't treating art as if it's important....   The feeling of anticipation and expectation is one of the most difficult experiences in life. Waiting. Waiting. We're all waiting. It gnaws at me, preventing me from concentrating on my work. Spiritually, it's very difficult to create in an atmosphere when I no longer feel needed.   ...  I've named one of my most recent works, "Knock at the Door". When you hear a knock at the door, you never know what will happen? Who is knocking? Will it bring fortune or disaster? That's how I see the period we're living in."

"The Epoch" by Fazil Najafov. "We were all waiting for something to happen. But nothing ever did. There was no protest. And all the faces among the masses looked the same."

Fazil Najafov. The Blinds, 1973

Fazil Najafov

The following Venice posts will be mostly from Biennale 2015, I hope you enjoy.  Many of the installations were not really photographable and of course those that were aren't the work itself.