ARTmonday: Venice Biennale 2011


On our second day in Venice we took a guided tour of the Biennale. While I’ve visited Venice before, I’d never been to the art exhibit; needless to say I was thrilled. La Biennale takes place in Venice every two years (hence the name). Foscarini, which is a sponsor of the festival, hosted us on a stroll through some of the 30 permanent national pavilions in the city’s Giardini (public gardens) as well as a guided tour of the “ILLUMInations” exhibit in the Venetian Arsenal. Below are the highlights from the Arsenale, which features 83 artists from around the world. Here’s a glimpse of what I saw:

Song Dong (Born and works in China)

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Andro Wekua (Born in Georgia; works in Switzerland and Germany)

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Franz West (Born and works in Austria)

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Rashid Johnson (Born and works in USA)

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unidentified

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unidentified

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Josh Smith

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unidentified

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Nicholoas Hlobo (Born and works in South Africa)

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Ryan Gander

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Ida Ekblad (Born and works in Norway)

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Annette Kelm (Born and works in Germany)

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Klara Liden (Born in Sweden; works in Germany)

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Luca Francesconi (Born in Italy; works in Italy and France)

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Guilia Piscitelli (Born and works in Italy)

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Elad Lassry (Born in Israel; works in USA)

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Corinne Wasmuht (Born and works in Germany)

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Jean Luc Mylayne (Born in France; works globally)

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Birdhead (Born and work in China)

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Urs Fischer (Born in Switzerland; works in USA)

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Navid Nuur (Born in Iran; works in Holland)

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Anya Titova (Born and works in Russia)

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Rebecca Warren

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Monica Bonvincini Born in Italy; works in Germany)

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Ida Ekblad (Born and works in Norway)

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Fabian Marti (Born and works in Switzerland)

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Ida Ekblad (Born and works in Norway)

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“Good Design” at Foscarini

This fall I started contributing to Design Milk, a refreshingly sleek and focused contemporary design blog founded and run by Jaime Derringer. Lighting company Foscarini invited us to Venice, and since Jaime was about to have a baby, I got to go. It was an amazing trip. Foscarini hosted a handful of bloggers from design sites all over Europe at its corporate offices for a day of discovery and discussion. At the end, they put together this video in which we all put forth the single most important aspect of “good design.” Watch us speak.

The words we chose . . .

“PROCESS” Luca Nichetto, designer (Venice)
“SINCERITY”  Ionna Vautrin, designer (Paris)
“LOVE”  Vicente Garcia Jimenez, designer (Udine, Italy)
VITALITY” Marni Katz, Design Milk (Boston)
“FORM” Jenny Filipetti, Design Boom (Milan)
“EMOTION” Micle Mihai Cristian, Freshome (Romania)
“TEAMWORK”  Costas Voyatzis, Yatzer (Athens, Greece)
“SINGULARITY”  Eric Foulon, Muuuz (Paris)
“TECHNOLOGY”  Philipp Thom, Studio 5555 (Germany)
“RESEARCH” Giuilia Zappa, Designer Blog (Milan)