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Hollywood outside the building and which, when viewed from a specific point to the windows on the second floor, were seen to be completed by the remaining letters. The title was none other than “Hollywood suicide”, in English. Fortunately for France, and for the public at the Biennial, all this nonsense was vigorously countered by the exhibit of the French-Polish artist Roman Opalka (1931). Opalka paints the inexorable flow of time, time as substance. Since 1965, when he began his work entitled 1965–1 (infinite), he has painted or drawn numbers in an uninterrupted sequence which will end only with his death. At the end of each work session, he photographically records his face, always in the same frontal position, always using the same lighting. He also records his voice, pronouncing the numbers and invoking time. White numbers on an
almost white background, like the white hair of the artist. Of the numerous entries from the Central European countries, mentions should be made to the high quality of the engravings and drawings. Far East, Asia and Africa Japan and South Korea were present in the 19th edition of the Biennial. Of the Japanese artists, the most interesting was Kawamata (1953), who works with structures in wood which are similar to walls, labyrinths or scaffolding in the midst of urban landscapes. The work shown at the Biennial consisted of photographic documents and design models of these projects. Kawamata frequently chooses actual demolition sites as his place of work. For a period of three or four days he halts the demolition process, constructs and destroys his structures and then looks
for somewhere else to work. In São Paulo he actually worked in a favela and ideally in three other points of the city, including a building on the Avenida Paulista which was demolished after a fire there in recent months. The wood, consisting generally of linear planks, creates a subtle envelope for the architecture, a sign that something strange is happening inside. The three Korean artists were much more traditional: painting derived from calligraphy, beautiful watercolors on themes from nature, hyper realistic oil paintings depicting droplets of water. India and Bangladesh were also well represented with a pot-pourri of folkloric paintings, drawings and a large amount of engraving done in a technique similar to that of colography. The African countries of Angola, Egypt, Morocco and Mozambique emphasized the violent clash which has occurred between their own traditions and Western art. Most of the entries were pictures, an imported form which is difficult to reconcile with the native forms of expression of these countries. And so we come to the end of this utopian journey through the XIXth edition of the São Paulo Biennial. ln a subsequent visit we shall look at the entries from the enormous territory of Brazil itself. Notes
Anselm Kiefer. Zweistromland. 1985-1987. Familia Boyle. Study of the Surface of the Earth. 71 3/5 x 143 3/4 in.
1. Sheila Leirner, General. Catalog, p. 17. 2.On the first and third floors, only two of the sectors were allocated for the exhibition. The Museum of Contemporary Art and the administrative services of the Biennial itself occupied the rest. 3. “Reduzionismo” in Portuguese. 4. Gabriela Suzana Wilder, General Catalogue, p. 338. 5. Idem. 6. Sonia Salzstein-Goldberg, Ivo Mesquita, General Catalogue, p. 343. 7. A similar experiment was carried out by Marta Menujin at the last Venice Biennial. 8.Mirko Lauer, General Catalogue, p. 284. 9. The catalogue does not give the date of birth of this artist. 10. Anselm Kiefer, General Catalogue, p. 166. 11. Fernando Huici, General Catalogue, p.I84. Translation: Brian Mallet
María Elvira Iriarte Ph.D. in Art History, University of Paris I, Sorbonne. Member of the Editorial Committee of ArtNexus l Arte en Colombia.