FUTURE PASS – 54th Venice Biennale

From Asia to the Future World of Art


GRIMANESA AMOROS


Is “Asia” a cultural conception? Or is it merely a geographical designation> Is it a collective term that stands for certain shared qualities? Or is it simply the name of a location on the globe? We could persue such a discussion endlessly and never reach a conclusion.

I first conceived of this special exhibition as a forum through which to demonstrate how the creative energy of Asian contemporary art exists in dialogue with the rest of the world. I also wanted to reveal the new aesthetic movements that are being led by artists from Asia. This is an exhibition about the new art of the 21st century that is conscious of questions of heritage, environmental issues, and innovations in the green resources for the future. In the digital environment of the 21st century, channels for sharing knowledge have become more diverse then ever. Contemporary art through out the world is tending toward neo-eclecticism, uniting the experiences of conceptual art with investigations into new materials and subject positions, and destabilizing the pre-existing hierarchies found in the dialogues among different cultures. “Future Pass – From Asia to The World” is co-organized by the Fondazione Claudio Buziol, Venice; The UNEEC Foundation, Taipei; The Today Art Museum, Beijing; The Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam; and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung. “Future Pass” will be presented at both the original location (Palazzo Mangilu- Valmarana) and the new location (Abbazia Di San Gregorio) of the Fondazione Claudio Buziol in Venice from June 4 to November 6, 2011. In fact, “Future Pass” will serve as the inaugural show for the recently renovated Abbazia Di San Gregorio, a 14th – Century building. The exhibition will then travel to the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam in December and to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung and the Today Art Museum in Beijing in 2012. Thanks to the efforts of the Streaming Museum, some of the new media works included in the exhibition will be shown on large outdoor screens on seven continents, as well as on the Streaming Museum’s website.

Victoria Lu