"THE GRAND TOUR" 2007
This June something extraordinary is happening in the world of art. In a rare alignment of events, four of Europe’s premier contemporary art exhibitions will open within days of one other. This once-in-ten years occasion has been dubbed “The Grand Tour,” an homage to the 17th century tradition where elite youth would travel through Europe’s greatest capitol cities in quest of heightened cultural knowledge.
The Tour opens in Italy June 10 with the 52nd Biennale di Venezia. To increase the rate at which modern art is disseminated throughout the world, the Biennale has constructed 30 permanent national pavilions in Venice’s historic city centre. This year debuts a new pavilion dedicated entirely to Italian culture. The Biennale will also premiere a large exhibition hall that will house a themed demonsration by the show's Director, Robert Storr. This year’s theme is “Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense.” Storr believes that since the existence of Plato philosophers have divided and compartmentalized human consciousness pitting one faculty against another - mind versus body, thought versus feeling, etc. He suggests the challenges to understanding this reality exceed the power of theories and definitions to contain them. “Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind” is based on the concept that art is the means by which humans are made aware of the whole of their being. According to Storr “to make sense of things in given circumstances is to grasp their full complexity intellectually, emotionally and perceptually.”
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Published at BarbaraBalkin.com. June 2007.
posted by Leanne Matzenger @ 12:54 PM
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