Détournement Venise 2009
A promenade through memory – itinerary of contemporary art throughout the town of Venice
Collateral event of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
An event involving almost thirty historical sites and about one hundred artists coming from all over the world. A psycho-geographic promenade through the Venetian architecture, where contemporary art becomes a means to understand the world. Détournement Venise 2009 will take place in two different moments: some sites will open in June, whereas others, such as Campo del Ghetto Nuovo (Jewish Ghetto), the church San Salvador, the Telecom Future Centre and the green areas of Molino Stucky, will open in September. Presented as a collateral event of the 53rd International Art Exhibition, Détournement Venise 2009 promotes an intercultural exchange where memory opens up to creativity. A network of international artists and the most picturesque places of Venice mix together in the aim of creating a web of interdisciplinary events – exhibitions, art actions, testimonials, stage shows, films, plays and workshops.
Two installations by Mischa Kuball as part of détournement 2009
Accessible to the public 1 June – 22 November 2009
Opening: 1st of June
5.30 p.m. Ex-Deposito Librario (Zattere, Dorsoduro, near the Chiesa della Salute)
8.00 p.m. Caserma Cornoldi
Mischa Kuball will be contributing two site-specific installations for détournement 2009, a collateral event exhibition of the 53rd Venice Biennial. These two installations address the exhibition's theme "word, image, and memory". As part of the show's concept, the installations are located in usually hidden, historical spaces on the Venetian islands.
Public Preposition no. 1 (2009) at the Caserma Cornoldi
Located along a path between Piazza San Marco and the Arsenale, Public Preposition no. 1 is a two-part light artwork installed at the Caserma Cornoldi. This is a military facility and also an archaeological site to unearth the remains of a church and monastery from the 14th/15th century. This site was converted to a military base in the early 19th century by the French during their occupation of Venice; since the later-19th century, the Italian government has used the site as a headquarters for the administration of international peace missions. These missions are individually referred to by the military as an intervento ("intervention" in Italian).
In this two-part installation, Mischa Kuball will present a light projection of the word "INTERVENTO" against the façade of the front of the Caserma Cornoldi (Riva degli Schiavoni/Castello) in the evening darkness. This work refers to signage of theatres of an earlier generation and the intervention aims to provide a playful cinematographic presence amidst the cool shadows, aura and atmosphere of Venice. The building's interior courtyard, which will be open to the public especially for détournement 2009, will also include another light projection of "INTERVENTO", here, against the partially excavated patio. In both works, the projections alternate from abstract lines that morph to letters spelling out "INTERVENTO".
This installation refers to Kuball's continued interest playing between abstract form and symbolic communication. ("Preposition" here refers to "and", "but", and "or"—the words in between the historical site and the intervention—that facilitate thoughts and discussions about the artwork and its siting.)
Tood-Taboo-Trance (2007/2009) in a historic archive room
This installation is also situated in another hidden place in Venice, this time in a usually closed-access, darkened archive room for the art and science departments at the Ex-Deposito Librario (Zattere, Dorsoduro, near the Chiesa della Salute). For this site, Kuball is installing Tood-Taboo-Trance ("Death Taboo Trance"), which consists of projections of these three words onto three hanging mirror balls in the middle of the room. The colours red, green, and blue (RGB, which when combined produces a broad range of colours) are also projected onto the mirror balls. These projections then reflect on the mirror balls' surfaces and onto the archival material and shelving that surrounds the space. The result is an aura of constantly changing colour and letters of the words against the surfaces of the interior space.
This installation aims to highlight in-between situations and oppositions including: life and death, what should be touched and not touched (taboo), being in control and losing control (trance), as well as time, space, and colour. This installation was influenced by Kuball's readings referring to line and light by French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan from the mid-1960s. This work also refers to five of Kuball's previous interior mirror-ball installations; the first was exhibited at the Konrad Fischer Galerie (Düsseldorf) in 1996.
For more information about Mischa Kuball see www.mischakuball.com.
