saturday 5 may
et al.: the fundamental practice, 51st Venice Biennale 2005Photographer: Jennifer French
Reorder, Regroup, Restore
Just opened at Auckland’s Artspace is the first-ever showing in New Zealand of arts collective et al.’s 2005 Venice Biennale exhibition the fundamental practice in a reordered, regrouped, restored version. Following the so-called controversy and its antagonistic reception by a rear guard New Zealand media, finally the public can judge the exhibition for itself. The installation has already been reconfigured and exhibited abroad at galleries including The Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, and the Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery, New York. But strangely, in light of the exhibition’s success, the Arts Council (Creative New Zealand) has pulled its backing and won’t be sending a New Zealand exhibition to this year’s 52nd Venice Biennale. Et al.’s installations have been described as control-rooms or testing plants for theories. The project deals with ideologies and their structures of delivery, testing and provoking, allowing us (restricted) access to the test-zone.
The fundamental practice – reorder, regroup, restore runs at Artspace until June 9. An article about the Venice exhibition can be found in White Fungus issue 4.
http://www.etal.name/
