Latifa Echakhch discusses her Venice project
IN DEVELOPING THE PROJECT for the Swiss pavilion, I knew I wished to make a radical break from what I had been doing earlier than. The Venice proposal was a possibility for me to unlearn my method of working as a visible artist and method the exhibition as a musician. To assist me, I recruited the curator Francesco Stocchi, who, in his former life, was a DJ of dub music. I additionally invited the musician and composer Alexandre Babel. I understand how I undertaking visible artwork in area, however I questioned what occurs in his mind when he’s projecting music.
I learn all this unbelievable historical past of sound and composition. I took singing and piano classes—every part I may to shift from working like a visible artist to working like a musician. Music is extra instantly linked to the concept of time passing. You possibly can really feel it in your physique. If you share a portray or sculpture, you see the world round you and also you give it again by your art work. This strategy of sharing music is way more rapid.
The thought for the pavilion is straightforward: I need individuals to really feel as if they simply left a live performance. I need to talk what it’s to really feel and play music, the way it impacts your physique, the way it types reminiscences. The second you step out of a live performance is a second of transformation, and I wished to seize that. I began with the impression individuals will take away from the present quite than with the works themselves. It’s like I’ve been getting ready not an exhibition, however the reminiscence of exhibition.
I used to be fairly acutely aware of the Biennale’s cyclical nature. The pavilion is empty more often than not, and then you definitely arrive together with your stuff and set up it, and then you definitely pack it up and go away, and one other particular person arrives with their stuff. It’s a cycle of dismantling and promoting. I wished to simplify that. We’re working with a sustainability firm referred to as Rebiennale. Most every part we use—partitions, acoustic panels, wooden—comes from earlier editions. And after the exhibition closes, it should all be recycled once more. This can assist us use your entire area, indoors and out, in order that it’s not only one alpha room. This implies, after all, you open your self as much as different cycles, like daylight and surrounding sounds.
—As instructed to Kate Sutton
