"Temporary monuments for alien agencies" is what they were showing at the Mexican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale - specifically the installations of Rafael Lozano Hemmer, a Montreal - based Mexican artist working in what could be loosely termed electronic art.
It's all very interactive and experiential, and most of all really fun.
My favourite work was Pulse, which looked like a series of randomly blinking light bulbs arranged in a grid hanging from the ceiling in a darkened room in the Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel - which is for sale, a bargain at £11m (note to self - develop reality tv show "Pimp my Palazzo")
Viewers were invited to grip the electrodes as their heartbeat was recorded. It was then added to the queue of individual recorded heartbeats that the light bulbs were all steadily beating to. The whole point of the work was that moment of realisation when the viewer made the connection between the pulsing light bulbs and the heartbeats of all the people who had been before you and were now gone...
It was spiritual, and moving, in a way that totally surprised me. I think that is an impressive achievement.
Link to the Mexican Pavilion site
My pictures of the Mexican Pavilion after the jump...
The outside of the Palazzo...
Pulse
Wavefunction
Surface Tension
1000 Platitudes
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