Art Insight #1: Okwui Enwezor

Meet the director of the 56th Venice Biennale 2015, Okwui Enwezor

Okwui Enwezor’s insight on contemporary art, Biennale, and fine art.

Held every two years, the Venice Biennale is arguably the most important event on the art calendar. While the biennale’s main exhibition is impressive in scale, it is the national pavilions that give the biennale its epic scale that is recognized as the “Olympics of the art world.” At the end of 2013, after the 55th Venice Biennale was brought to term with great success by Massimiliano Gioni, there was a great deal of curiosity surrounding who would be given the responsibility of directing the 56th Biennale. Okwui Enwezor was appointed to the position, building even greater expectations for the next biennale. Enwezor also served as the artistic director of the 2008 Gwangju Biennale. Enwezor was born in Calabar in Nigeria, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at the New Jersey City University. He currently lives and works in New York and Munich.

Okwui Enwezor became interested in African societies and art during his undergraduate years. It was at that time he recognized the large gap between the world’s understanding of African art and its actuality, and has continuously worked to narrow that divide. Distinguishing himself as artistic director of the 1996 Johannesburg Biennale, he also became the founding editor and publisher of the art journal Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, which educates the insular art world about contemporary African and African-American artists. Since Johannesburg, Enwezor has directed several other major international exhibitions. He was also artistic director of Documenta 11 in Kassel (2002), and the senior curator of La Triennale d’Art Contemporain in Paris (2012). The current director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Okwui Enwezor is also active as an educator, holding positions at various institutions such as the San Francisco Art Institute, Columbia University, and the University of Illinois. We sat down with the one-man powerhouse, accomplished in both theory and practice.

There are moments when perception is indistinguishable from reality. I think that exhibitions, including biennales, should not hesitate to think about the world or to discuss its complexity. Politics, society, culture, and economy are all dimensions of that world, and of art by extension. It is only natural that they are relevant to exhibitions. - Okwui Enwezor -

Providing an excellent curator training course and an exhibition program for the 7th Gwangju Biennale was what made the event so important. I’m personally quite proud that the curator training course has been doing well for the past six years. Through it, curators have been planning and operating public programs related to each biennale, and I hear that it has become a very important part of the Gwangju Biennale.

- Okwui Enwezor -

Q. The 2008 Gwangju Biennale was curated under your artistic direction. The biennale’s seventh installment opened under the title Annual Report: A Year in Exhibitions, and it was recognized as a very successful art event. Could you share some overall reflections from your time as director?

Exhibitions such as the Gwangju Biennale are based on the ongoing process of change. As a result, each exhibition is in communication with other exhibitions, and connected to other biennales. I put a lot of effort into organizing the biennale. In particular, I wanted to hear some young and diverse voices, so I brought in younger curators like Kim Hyun-jin and Ranjit Hoskote. I wanted to experiment with the biennale, not only with how the works are exhibited but also with how the event could find a place within the intellectual culture in society and play a larger role in it. Providing an excellent curator training course and an exhibition program for the 7th Gwangju Biennale was what made the event so important. I’m personally quite proud that the curator training course has been doing well for the past six years. Through it, curators have been planning and operating public programs related to each biennale, and I hear that it has become a very important part of the Gwangju Biennale. We collaborated with China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and hosted an important conference in Beijing. Speakers from Australia, China, India, the U.S., and Britain participated on the panel discussing the concept of civicness. Most people are unaware of the extent of coordination that made that event possible, but nonetheless it was a very important part of the biennale. It was the process that made possible many aspects of what the biennale would signify.

Q. What would you say distinguishes a biennale from an art gallery?

To be blunt, an art gallery is a space where art is shown in a static way. Biennales embody a space that is more suggestive. Art galleries are also generally more institutionalized and formal with an emphasis on studies, but biennales have a tendency to be more attentive to social phenomena. The number of biennales has recently increased tremendously, and we need to consider the reason behind that increase in demand. Although boundaries are blurring between biennales and art galleries, they must ultimately be distinguished from one another: Biennales must continue to exist independently as a model for dynamic “destruction,” perpetually challenging the art gallery that has embraced the process of “delay” as its mechanism.

Q. What plans do you envision for the 2015 Venice Biennale?

I want to express the possibility of mutual connection between arts holding different positions. It’s too early to divulge details, but I can tell you that it will be about the “experimental nature” of biennales in the 1980s and 1990s, and also that we’re planning on placing greater emphasis on newer works over older ones.

Q. You have initiated dialogue on the subject of “periphery” throughout the biennales you have directed. Will that be a recurring theme for the upcoming Venice edition?

Well, I think that “periphery” comes from an outdated vernacular. In this rapidly changing world, boundaries between the central and peripheral have long since disappeared. So given that changing landscape, you could say I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what characteristics the new perspectives might embody.

Q. Have you made any particular plans with respect to the location of the biennale?

The 2015 Venice Biennale will follow a general configuration of retrospective exhibitions, special exhibitions, installation art exhibitions, and public art exhibitions. I expect the individual exhibitions to collectively form a certain discourse. We also plan on installing numerous historically significant works within the biennale venue. That is because the Venice Biennale, first founded in 1895, is celebrating its 120th anniversary next year. It is my intention to recommit the Venice Biennale as an episode of history. I am yet contemplating if it would be appropriate to draw attention to the anniversary with respect to the changing face of the biennale.

Q. Biennales you have directed in the past have been called “politically charged.” What are your thoughts on that description?

There are moments when perception is indistinguishable from reality. I think that exhibitions, including biennales, should not hesitate to think about the world or to discuss its complexity. Politics, society, culture, and economy are all dimensions of that world, and of art by extension. It is only natural that they are relevant to exhibitions. In some ways, exhibitions can include political aspects. That doesn’t mean they should be presented in a fabricated form wrapped in art. Personally, I welcome discussions on the critical and connective relationship of art.
Q. To what extent will your Gwangju Biennale experience contribute to the upcoming Venice Biennale?

Lately, I have been looking back on the past six years of all that has happened at the Venice Biennale. The national pavilions of the Venice Biennale have been an age-old particularity. The structures and models you see at the pavilions are unlike the main exhibition. Each of the 90 participating countries have a large pavilion, and more than a thousand exhibitions take place simultaneously. Its scope can be overwhelming at times. The most important question is, how will the Venice Biennale, amidst the chaos of public expectations and myriad of ongoing events, deliver and satisfy standards for excellence? That is the difference between Venice and Gwangju. For the Gwangju Biennale, I looked over contemporary art and looked into how one could gauge the principles that regulate what goes on in this world. I was able to put on a single page, an analysis of Gwangju Biennale’s characteristics, its major exhibitions, critical discourses of its surrounding art industry, cultural trends and issues. Venice is a different environment, so it needs a different approach. One thing is for sure, however. My experiences at the Gwangju Biennale led me to the Venice Biennale.

Q. Do you have any advice for aspiring young artists?

Think about a masquerade where the masks are changing from one moment to the next. Standing from a single point, there is no way to understand what is going on, let alone participate. To fully observe it, you will have to move with the same dynamics as the masquerade. If you are interested in Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East, all of which are rapidly changing, then you need to become involved. Only then will the art industry truly come to life. ■ with ARTINPOST

<Entwurfszeichnung für die Umgestaltung der ehemaligen “Ehrenhalle”>

Max Ott, 1956, Haus der Kunst, Historisches Archiv
<Entwurfszeichnung für die Umgestaltung der ehemaligen “Ehrenhalle”>

Max Ott, 1956, Haus der Kunst, Historisches Archiv
<Fassade Haus der Kunst>

2012 Photo: Marino Solokhov
<Haus der Kunst with Lettering Sculpture by Lawrence Weiner>

2007 Photo: Jens Weber, München
<Archive Gallery in Haus der Kunst>

2014 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
<Archive Gallery in Haus der Kunst>

2014 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
<Archive Gallery in Haus der Kunst>

2014 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
<Mittelhalle nach ihrer Umgestaltung>

1956, Haus der Kunst, Historisches Archiv
<Vergleichsstudie:Raumhöhen unterschiedlicher Museen,o.D.>

Atelier Paul Ludwig Troost Haus der Kunst, Historisches Archiv
<Auszug aus dem “Depotbuch für Bilder”>

1941/44 Haus der Kunst, Historisches Archiv
View of ‘Spring(opening ceremony)’, 7th Gwangju Biennale 2008

Courtesy: Gwangju Biennale Foundation
View of ‘Spring(opening ceremony)’, 7th Gwangju Biennale 2008

Courtesy: Gwangju Biennale Foundation

Biography

Born in Calabar, Nigeria, Okwui Enwezor earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at the New Jersey City University. He lives and works in New York and Munich. Enwezor has served as the director of many large-scale international exhibitions: the Johannesburg Biennale (1996); Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany (2002); the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (2008); and La Triennale d’Art Contemporain in Paris (2012) as the senior curator. Since 2011, he has been the director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich. He is also the founding editor and publisher of the critical art journal Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. He will be director of the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale, slated to open May 2015.

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