‘Venice – a victory for brains over brawn’ by Maria Lind in Art Review

“Three smallish pavilions without big budgets were my highlights during this edition of the Venice Biennale. Not only do they exemplify that plenty of money and grand gestures are not necessary to make a difference at the world’s most prestigious events, they also indicate a shift in the formulation of agendas.”

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“Scotland’s presentation, high up in the old Palazzo Pisani, is more classical. But as with Georgia it is the precise choice of artists – Duncan Campbell, Corin Sworn and Hayley Tompkins, curated by The Common Guild in Glasgow – and the generous installation of their works that contributes to the pavilion’s success. Entering the space, you immediately feel the effects of efforts to mediate the work through people onsite and by providing written material that goes beyond the dutiful provision of facts. An ‘Information Assistants Programme’ has been devised whereby students from five academic institutions in Scotland are getting professional training with regard to how a pavilion like this one is conceived.”

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“These three pavilions turn what seems to be a disadvantage into an advantage. In addition to demanding the efforts of climbing many steps, they all use their modest scale and equally modest conditions of production to show interesting work in well-curated presentations that refer back to the current situation on their home turf. Small and often young nations (or young-nations-to-be, in the case of Scotland?) like these, with small economies and no fixed pavilion in the Giardini to act as an automatic platform for visibility, have shown that the Venice Biennale cannot be the same after this year’s edition. In fact, among the nations that have consistently had the most interesting and significant presentations since the early 2000s are Lithuania and Scotland, being right where new ideas and ways of acting are being formulated. Brains, probably helped by aerobic agility, have won over the plain force of muscles.”