Venice Biennale 2015

Launched in 1895 to celebrate the marriage of Italy’s King Umberto and Queen Margherita of Savoy, the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale is considered by many as the best in modern memory. Much credit goes to Paolo Baratta, the Biennale’s patrician president and his board, for having had the conviction to name the Nigerian-born Okwui Enwezor for the hugely coveted curator slot. The chemistry of mutual respect and admiration palpable between the two has formed the basis for a spectacular biennale this year.When Enwezor, who is the director of Munich’s Haus der Kunst, announced the biennale’s theme of All the World’s Futures and with the proviso that the essence should be “a parliament of forms” to look into the “current disquiet of our times,” he ruffled more than a few feathers. It was “highfalutin and pretentious” — and horrors of horrors, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital would be read in marathon at the Central Arena as a performance art!Nonetheless, the 136 artists from 56 countries lucky to be anointed with a space in the Giardini or Arsenale venues responded with gusto. So did organisers of the 44 semi-official “collateral events” of galleries, foundations and governments that showcase in palazzos, hotels, churches, convents and monasteries. Equally, most of the national pavilions rose to the occasion, helping Enwezor orchestrate “a multi-part chorus which rings out as the most cohesive, authoritative, arresting, urgent biennale for decades” — Jackie Wullschlager of the Financial Times, put it. Seven of the national pavilions are African, the highest number ever: Angola, Egypt, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Eighty-eight of the 136 artists are appearing for the first time — it’s never has been like this before.