Interesting interview with Daniel Birnbaum:

The 53rd Venice Biennale is awaited with great anticipation. At the heart of the event is Biennale director Daniel Birnbaum’s curated exhibition "Making Worlds," which includes a project by the architectural visionary Yona Friedman. Oliver Koerner von Gustorf spoke with Daniel Birnbaum shortly before the opening.

To be sure, he has every reason to feel stressed. In just about two weeks, the Venice Biennale opens under his directorship; after documenta, it’s probably the most important art exhibition in the world. Yet Daniel Birnbaum seems extraordinarily relaxed. This must have something to do with his many years of experience—including with Venice, as he co-directed the international section of the Biennale in 2003. The Swede, who was born in 1963, is rector of the Städelschule in Frankfurt as well as the director of the Portikus; he is considered one of the most influential figures on the international art scene. With his exhibition Fare Mondi/Making Worlds at this year’s Biennale, he calls attention to the process aspect of art from the sixties to the present day—particularly art’s interdisciplinary nature and the manner in which things arise.

An important project in the show is The Ville Spatiale—Visualisation of an Idea by architectural visionary and urban planner Yona Friedman, born 1923 in Budapest. Together with his students, Friedman has installed a grid structure of wire cable; hovering above the exhibition, participants have inserted their own models into it. The materials are simple and the ideas democratic: the installation refers back to Friedman’s Ville Spatiale, a kind of megastructure stretching over existing cities that he developed in the nineteen-fifties. His architectural utopias have made Friedman into an art star: he was invited to documenta 11 in 2002 and participated in the Venice Biennale for the first time in 2003. In 2008, together with students of the Städelschule, he realized a site-specific installation at the Portikus in Frankfurt that was sponsored by the Deutsche Bank Foundation. His latest work in Venice continues this collaboration and is once again supported by Deutsche Bank.

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For more than a year Gillick has been travelling, researching and developing his project in continuous dialogue with curator Nicolaus Schafhausen. Making extensive use of computer modeling of the existing German Pavilion and following a long period of work on site in Venice the final questions for Gillick circle around models of social behaviour and the problem of how to create new forms of address within loaded ideological sites.

Crucial components of the exhibition were determined during the final installation days. However, the first step of the process was the fabrication of an edition in the form of a model of Arnold Bode’s 1957 proposal for a new German Pavilion.

For the final work, the pavilion is not obscured or hidden. Both the inside and outside of the building can be seen and examined. It has recently been painted white, as part of the general maintenance of the building and Gillick has left it this way. A simple table and bench designed by the artist are sited outside for use by the pavilion team. Every room of the building is open. No part of the pavilion has been closed off or used for storage.

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The 53rd International Art Exhibition’s (Venice, from 7th June to 22nd November 2009) Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to Yoko Ono and John Baldessari – two of the most important artists of our time.

As decided by the Board of the Venice Biennale, chaired by Paolo Baratta, on the proposal of the Director, Daniel Birnbaum, the award will be officially presented to the two artists on 6th June 2009 during the opening of the 53rd International Art Exhibition titled Making Worlds.

“The Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement are honouring two artists whose ground-breaking activities have opened new poetic, conceptual and social possibilities for artists around the globe working in all media,” commented Director Daniel Birnbaum also stressing that “Yoko Ono and John Baldessari have shaped our understanding of art and its relationship to the world in which we live. Their work has revolutionized the language of art and will remain a source of inspiration for generations to come.”

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The 53rd International Art Exhibition, entitled Making Worlds, directed by Daniel Birnbaum, organized by La Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta, will open to the public from Sunday June, 7th to Sunday November, 22nd 2009 in the Giardini (50,000 sq.m.) and the Arsenale (38,000 sq.m.) as well as in various other locations around the city. The press preview will take place on June 4th, 5th, and 6th 2009.

The Director of the 53rd Exhibition, Daniel Birnbaum, has been Rector of the Staedelschule Frankfurt/Main and its Kunsthalle Portikus since 2001. Fare Mondi // Making Worlds, presented in the renewed Palazzo delle Esposizioni in the Giardini and in the Arsenale, is a single, large exhibition that articulates different themes woven into one whole. It is not divided into sections. Considering collectives, it comprises works by over 90 artists from all over the world and includes many new works and on-site commissions in all disciplines.

“The title of the exhibition, Fare Mondi // Making Worlds – says Director Daniel Birnbaum – expresses my wish to emphasize the process of creation. A work of art represents a vision of the world and if taken seriously it can be seen as a way of making a world. The strength of the vision is not dependent on the kind or complexity of the tools brought into play. Hence all forms of artistic expression are present: installation art, video and film, sculpture, performance, painting and drawing, and a live parade. Taking 'worldmaking' as a starting point, also allows the exhibition to highlight the fundamental importance of certain key artists for the creativity of successive generations, just as much as exploring new spaces for art to unfold outside the institutional context and beyond the expectations of the art market. Fare Mondi // Making Worlds is an exhibition driven by the aspiration to explore worlds around us as well as worlds ahead. It is about possible new beginnings—this is what I would like to share with the visitors of the Biennale.”

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The Venice Biennale's 53rd International Art Exhibition will run from 7th June to 22nd November 2009 in the traditional venues of the Giardini and the Arsenale, as well as in various other locations around the city. The dates have been fixed by the Biennale’s Board of Directors, chaired by Paolo Baratta. As already announced, the Director of the Visual Arts section of the Biennale is Daniel Birnbaum, with specific responsibility for curating the 53rd International Art Exhibition.

Born in Stockholm in 1963, Daniel Birnbaum is curator for institutions and exhibitions internationally and has since 2001 been Rector of the Staedelschule in Frankfurt-am-Main (Germany), an international Academy that brings together contemporary art and the development of new practices and techniques. Since 1998, he has been an editor of Artforum, New York, for which he has been regularly writing since 1995. He has also regularly contributed to other periodicals, such as Parkett and Frieze since the early 1990s.

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