“The Concert”: Latifa Echakhch has the Venice Biennale dancing
For the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale, the visual artist Latifa Echakhch has taken over the Swiss Pavilion building, designed by Giacometti in 1951. Each of the rooms that make up the installation, called “The Concert”, houses a ritual fire scene like the Sechseläuten in Zurich, where the “Böögg” is burned at the end of winter. These scenes linked to the cycle of life unfold in reverse through space and time. The visitor begins their journey from the end. From the fire’s extinction, to its initial quivering. In collaboration with the Geneva-based percussionist Alexandre Babel, and Italian art historian, curator and ex-DJ Francesco Stocchi, Latifa Echakhch has conceived her performance as if it were a concert, of which ” the rhythm and the fragments of memory still resound ” at the end, when silence is restored. As usual at the Biennale, an evening in honor of the artist was organized to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. On Friday evening, Dvir Gallery, Kamel Mennour, Kaufmann Repetto and PACE invited a lucky few to a “Dance Party” at Tesa 113 in the Arsenale. In the light of the red spotlights, Gilda Ambrosio, Pier Paolo Piccioli, Laure Prouvost and Luca Guarini, took over the dance floor.
Photo: Ludovica Arcero
