THE PERFORMANCE Art We Learn in Venice
Icelandic visual artist Katrín I Jónsdóttir Hjördísardóttir became a teacher for her performance Art We Learn held in Venice at the Visual Art Biennale. The performance is disguised as a didactic adventure where teacher, student and classroom are co-protagonists of a new experience. The aim of this project is to raise awareness on the functional side of contemporary art through an individual who has a steady position against the utilization of public expenditure on art.
The performance took place in Venice on the 18th and 19th of November 2017 during the Biennale and combined both outdoor and indoor scenarios, that have been chosen specifically to give frame and structure to the educational journey. The student has been carefully chosen and came from Iceland to fulfill the niche of an immovable opinion against art. His job as a fisherman gives depth to his persona, a curious and open personality when it comes to facing new experiences but also a borderline irrational aversion to modern art. This turned the performance into a challenging quest for both teacher and student. Acknowledging and embracing the difficulty brings beauty, depth and personality to an artwork that actively feeds from that challenging nature and fuels itself with the vicissitudes that the uncertainty of each possible outcome may bring.
Various recording methods have been used during the performance for documentation purposes. The student has been using the snapchat platform under the ArtWeLearn nickname to record the experience. The face-to-face lectures have also been recorded and it will be complemented with footage from the exhibitions taking place at the Biennale. The student’s role has been very active in this, choosing the moments that are more relevant to his interests and recording them through social media. After the performance is concluded, the audiovisual material will be put together into a movie-documentary that will illustrate and highlight the project.
Now that the journey has concluded, it is crucial to highlight the concepts that were most relevant to the student.
During the lessons, and on the way to the galleries that were visited there was an active exchange of thoughts in a conversational fashion. The first one, that took place in the Giardini della Biennale had an introductory purpose, to prepare and teach the student about the different artistic disciplines that were presented by the different pavilions. The following areas that were visited were, chronologically, Arsenale di Venezia, the Icelandic pavilion in Giudecca, Glass and Bone in Abbazia di San Gregorio and Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable in Palazzo Grassi.
On the way from Giudecca to Abbazia di San Gregorio Katrín discussed with him the limitations an artist must face unleashed a metaphorical slap of raw and harsh reality. She brought up the issue of the art life as an occupation, a restless lifestyle. Through her life experiences, she proves that being an artist is by no means as easy as it seems. This topic caught Robert off-guard but it sparked his attention and lit up his eyes. Firstly, he understood the limitations that artists must face to earn a living out their work. He also acknowledged that those artists that need financing to develop their projects would not be able to do so without external investment and that the ones who don’t need it, would not request any help.
THE PERFORMANCE Art We Learn in Venice was founded by The Icelandic Visual Art Copyright Association
