Justin Brice Guariglia
Responsibility
Statement
Artists Need To Create On The Same Scale Society
That Has The Capacity To Destroy: Mare Nostrum
58th Venice Biennale, Official Collateral Event
Venice, Italy
May 8 – Nov 24, 2019
Curated by Francesca Pietropaolo & Phong Bui of the Brooklyn RailThe show brings together over 70 artists of different generations and cultural backgrounds whose selected works, in a wide range of media, invite critical awareness on the fragility of nature and human life while poetically invoking the regeneration of living systems. On view are works by Shoja Azari & Shahram Karimi, Lauren Bon, Julian Charrière, Newton Harrison, Wolfgang Laib, Maya Lin, Shirin Neshat, Amy Sillman, Kiki Smith, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tomas Vu, Jack Whitten, and Lisa Yuskavage, among many others that meditate on themes such as ephemerality, transformation, and interconnectedness.
“Art as a Social Activity”
Present with its staff during the course of the exhibition, the Brooklyn Rail—a radical and free publication based in New York City—recreates its Social Environment in Venice. The inspiration for our Social Environment comes from an understanding of our work as a creative act, which produces the monthly journal, public forums, and informal gatherings that are a platform for the diverse voices of our community. In Venice, we will produce our monthly issues in addition to a special issue of the River Rail, a publication documenting our exhibition and its interdisciplinary public programming bringing together artists, scientists, scholars, poets, writers, and musicians focusing on environment and climate change.