Issue date: 08 Sep, 2019
VENICE BIENNALE. The future is now
Innovation in stamps continues, not only in printing systems but also in subject matter. A commitment to modernity is notable with an issue dedicated to contemporary art appearing in the 2019 Venice Biennale.
The Venice Biennale is one of the world’s oldest, most important and prestigious contemporary art exhibitions. It was first held in 1895, and this year will be the 58th (from 11 May to 24 November). The title for 2019 is May You Live in Interesting Times, alluding to a supposed Chinese curse involving periods of uncertainty, crisis and unrest. We are certainly living in “interesting times”. This edition does not have a theme per se, but will highlight a general approach to artistic creation and a vision of the social function of art, covering both pleasure and critical thinking. The artists working in this way offer alternatives to the meaning of so-called “facts”, suggesting other ways to connect and contextualise them.
Andorra is participating with its own pavilion for the fifth time, with a provocative speculative fiction theme titled “The Future Is Now”, in which the French-born artist Philippe Shangti shakes the collective consciousness with his vision of the world. It is a fragmented installation of bits and pieces which should be examined separately to understand this multidisciplinary project: a criticism of exacerbated consumerism and its effects.
The stamp shows the main work, in which the goddess of oxygen appears, where the artist transmits his disillusionment, leading him to imagine, for example, that one day oxygen could be a luxury.
Philippe Shangti creates a critical discourse about human abuse of the earth, a protest against the misuse of resources and the excessive consumerism of modern society. An invitation to reconsider the consumerist present which is leading us to an unpleasantly near, uncertain future.
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