Venice Biennale 2024: Romanian exhibition focuses on history and relationship of work and leisure

venice biennale 2024: romanian exhibition focuses on history and relationship of work and leisure

The Romanian Pavilion at the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2024, set to open on April 20, will showcase an exhibition by Romanian artist Șerban Savu centered around the history and relationship of work and leisure. Curated by Ciprian Mureșan, the exhibition will be on show in both the Giardini della Biennale and at The New Gallery of the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice.

Șerban Savu’s exhibition What Work Is “intricately weaves the complex iconography of work and leisure, drawing inspiration from historical realism, its ideology, and propaganda art of the Eastern Bloc,” the organizers explained. “Instead of challenging or deconstructing these discourses, Savu rearranges the themes of revolutionary spirit and cohesion among workers. His aim is to capture and portray moments of pause and inactivity as reflections of broader societal changes or crises.”

Inside the Romanian Pavilion, arranged in a vast polyptych consisting of about forty paintings – a cross-section of Savu’s work over the last fifteen years – are populated by disorientated protagonists and lethargic extras, all caught in the lull between work and rest. Across from the polyptych, a large bench incorporates plinths displaying four architectural models adorned with mosaics.

“These mosaics deviate from the usual themes found in religious settings or the labor-focused narratives typical of Socialist mosaic art. Instead of portraying grand achievements or symbolic representations, the mosaics convey bathos, ambiguity, calmness, and confusion. The paintings and models create a space that raises questions about work and challenges its negative definitions: what work is not, what it does not look like, and what it does not mean,” the same source said.

Brussels-based graphic design studio Atelier Brenda (Sophie Keij and Nana Esi) was invited to respond to Savu’s project, offering a site-specific intervention on the façade and in the lobby of the Romanian Pavilion. And according to the organizers, “their large-scale design messaging will be a study in non-ideological propaganda, like the advertising for a social factory: a production facility for a new kind of subjectivity.”

Complementing the presentation in the Romanian Pavilion, Șerban Savu will transform The New Gallery of the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice into a mosaic workshop. The New Gallery thus becomes “a space for production carrying on the manufacturing tradition while the Giardini Pavilion functions as a space for reflection and meditation.”

The New Gallery will also host a public program of talks on topics ranging from the histories of mosaics to theories of work in contemporary anthropology, economy, and philosophy, on ecology and the post-work.

The exhibition will be complemented by the publication at the end of the Biennale Arte 2024 of a book edited by Mihnea Mircan that will bring together a series of critical texts relevant to the themes raised by the works presented in Venice and illustrate it.

[email protected]

(Photo source: the organizers)

News Related

OTHER NEWS

From arts to sciences: Once a teacher, always a teacher

Despite doing education at the university, Mellon Kenyangi, also known as Mama Bear, did not think of going to class, and teaching students was her dream job.“Since it was not ... Read more »

WC squad was picked on players’ performance, says Pramodya

213 Sri Lanka Cricket’s Chairman of Selectors, Pramodya Wickramasinghe reported to the Sports Ministry’s Special Investigation Unit( SMSIU) for the Prevention of Sports Offences yesterday for the second day. He ... Read more »

Malindu Dairy bags Industrial Excellence Silver Award

137 Malindu Dairy (Pvt) Ltd., a leading food production company in Sri Lanka, won the Silver Award in the medium-scale dairy and associated products category at the Industrial Excellence Awards ... Read more »

Africans Urged to Invest Among themselves, Explore Investment Opportunities in Continent

Africans Urged to Invest Among themselves, Explore Investment Opportunities in Continent Addis Ababa, November 27/2023(ENA)-The Embassy of Angola in Ethiopia has organized lecture on the “Foreign Investment Opportunities in Angola ... Read more »

Mohan Wimalaratne will lead Police this season

144 The dynamic front row player Mohan Wimalaratne will lead the Police Sports Club Rugby team at the upcoming Nippon Paint Sri Lanka Rugby Major League XV-a-side Rugby Tournament scheduled ... Read more »

Church assists the disabled in Bulawayo

Dozens of people living with disabilities from New Hope Inclusive in Entumbane, Bulawayo on Saturday last week received an early Christmas gift in the form of groceries. The groceries were ... Read more »

Somalia Joins East African Community

The East African Community (EAC) Summit of Heads of State has admitted the Federal Republic of Somalia to the regional bloc, making it its 8th member country. The decision was ... Read more »
Top List in the World