June 2009
The Philadelphia Museum of Art commissioning institution for the United States Pavilion at the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, announced today that the U.S. representation, Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens, has been awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for the Best National Participation.
According to a statement from the Biennale, the presentation was selected “in recognition of the sustained energy and precision of Bruce Nauman’s art. From iconic embodiments of human pain and fragility to pithy jabs at our frailties, his oeuvre reveals the magic of meaning as it emerges through relentless repetition of language and form.”
This is the first time since 1990 that the United States has received the much-coveted award.
Organized by the Museum in collaboration with the Università Iuav di Venezia and the Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, Topological Gardens is currently on view in Venice at the U.S. Pavilion and the two universities.
Carlos Basualdo, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art, and Michael R. Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, developed the exhibition with the artist and serve as the U.S. Commissioners.
Paolo Baratta, President of the Biennale, announced the award on June 6, 2009 at 17:00 in the Giardini della Biennale. The ceremony took place just steps away from the neoclassical U.S. Pavilion, where Nauman’s major neon work Vices and Virtues dramatically illuminates the entire exterior.
Among those in attendance were Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic; Massimo Cacciari, Mayor of Venice; Francesco Maria Giro, Italian Undersecretary of Culture; and Daniel Birnbaum, Director of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The selection was made by an international jury proposed by Daniel Birnbaum and approved by the Board of the Biennale.
Chaired by Angela Vettese (Italy), the jury included Jack Bankowsky (USA), Homi K. Bhabha (India), Sarat Maharaj (South-Africa), and Julia Voss (Germany).
Commissioner Basualdo, who accepted the Golden Lion on behalf of the U.S. representation, thanked Bruce Nauman; Michael Taylor, his Co-Commissioner; Erica Battle, the Project Curatorial Assistant, all of whom joined him on stage, as well as the entire Museum staff and its Board of Trustees.
Said Basualdo following the ceremony: “We at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are extremely grateful for the enormous support this project has received all along the way, beginning with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, as well as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Henry Luce Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and so many donors and lenders to the exhibition."
"We are also so grateful to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Universitá Iuav and the Univesitá Ca’ Foscari. Most of all, it has been an amazing honor to work closely with one of the great artists of our time, Bruce Nauman. We hope that this project will help establish a lasting and expanding relationship between the U.S. Pavilion and the educational institutions of the city of Venice.”
Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens presents a thematic survey comprising four decades of the artist’s innovative and provocative work and is featured at three exhibition sites throughout the city of Venice: the United States Pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale, Università Iuav di Venezia at Tolentini, and the Exhibition Spaces at Università Ca’ Foscari.
The exhibition is structured around the notion of topology—a field in mathematics that examines the continuity of space amid changing conditions—which is used to understand the artist’s work as well as the context in which it will be displayed.
On view are more than 30 works lent from public and private collections in the United States and Europe, some of which the artist has adapted and redeveloped specifically for Venice, working in direct response to the spatial context of the sites.
The exhibition also includes two new sound-based works, Days and Giorni, the latter created by Nauman working in collaboration with students at each university. These two works will travel to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to make their U.S. premiere.
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