COMMERCIAL BREAK
Garage Projects, 54th Venice Biennale
June 1 - June 5, 2011


For our second project in Venice, we are presenting the mobile installation Commercial Break from 1 to 5 June 2011 as part of the opening week of the 54th Venice Biennale.

On a giant mobile video screen, which will sail through the center of Venice, over eighty artists engage with the relationship between advertising and culture. The short digital works by globally recognized and emerging artists from around the world will bring the form and language of advertising to Venice. The project is curated by Neville Wakefield and powered by POST magazine. Since the early days of Pop – think Lichtenstein, Ruscha and Warhol - art has drawn direct influence from the language of advertising in the creation of hybrid collisions of high and low cultural forms. Nowhere are these collisions more evident than in the city of Venice, host to one of the most well-established and oldest Biennale in the world. Steeped in history and tourism, it is a city of contradictions, a place where every two years art and the traditions of the past play host to the provocations of the present. Venice is a city of commerce without commercials – a place that advertises only itself.

Commercial Break is both an intervention with the architecture of the city and an iPad application created by POST, the world’s first magazine created specifically for the iPad. The special art issue will allow readers to explore individual artists and films for the 5 months of the Biennale as well as on location in Venice.


CURATOR

Neville Wakefield is a writer and commentator on contemporary art, culture and photography. Author of ‘Postmodernism: the Twilight of the Real’ (1990), Wakefield has contributed to numerous magazines Artforum, Art + Auction, Art in America, I-D, Interview, The New York Sunday Times, American, British and Italian Vogue, High Times, ACNE Paper and the Journal and many others. As well as contributing to monographs on many significant artists including Matthew Barney, Dan Colen, Vija Celmins, Daido Moriyama, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha and Rachel Whiteread, Wakefield co-edited the highly influential 'Fashion: Photography of the Nineties' (1996), was creative director of Tar Magazine and continues to work as creative director for Adam Kimmel Projects and creative consultant for Calvin Klein. In 2005 he co-founded ‘Destricted’, an ongoing series of pornographic films by artists such as Marina Abramovic, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noe which shook critics at Edinburgh, Lorcarno, Sundance and Cannes. Since then he has also served as Senior Curatorial Advisor for PS1 MoMA and Curator of Frieze Projects at the Frieze Art Fair. Recent shows include Greater New York (PS1 2010), 'Matthew Barney: Prayer Sheet with Wound and Nail' (Schaulager 2010) and the upcoming 'Jack Smith: Thanks for Explaining Me,' Barbara Gladstone Gallery opening May 6th 2011.


Participating artists include:

Aaron Young; ABC Group; Adam McEwen; Adel Abdessemed; AES + F; Agathe Snow; Agnieszka Kurant; Ahmet Ogut; Aida Ruilova; Aleksandra Mir; Alex Hubbard; Andrea Chung; Annika Larsson; Anton Ginzburg; Ari Marcopoulos; Assume Vivid Astro Focus; Baptist Coelho; Barbara Kruger; Blue Soup Group; Brendan Fowler; Bruce High Quality Foundation; Cevdet Erek; Christian Jankowski; Collier Schorr; Cyprien Gaillard; Dan Colen and Nate Lowman; Daniel Newman; Dima Gutov; Dmitry Bulnygin; Dominic Nurre; Dzine; Electroboutique; Eloise Fornieles; Erika Verzutti; Francesco Vezzoli; Gardar Eide Einarsson; Gelitin; Gillian Wearing; Hanif Kureshi; Hank Willis Thomas; Hans Op De Beek; Helmut Lang; Heman Chong; Hu Jieming; Huang Kui; Ilya Korobkov; Janaina Tschäpe; JD Walsh; Jen DeNike; Jennifer Wen Ma; Jeppe Hein; Jitish Kallat; Johan Grimonprez; John Pilson; Jonathan Horowitz; Josephine Meckseper; Julião Sarmento; Karen Kilimnik; Kon Trubkovich; Kris Martin; Lais Myrrha; Lara Favaretto; LaToya Ruby Frazier; Liz Cohen; Liz Magic Laser; Lu Yang; Marcel Odenbach; Marco Brambilla; Marcos Chaves; Maria Petschnig; Marilyn Minter; Martin Murphy; Martynka Wawrzyniak; Matias Faldbakken; Matthew Day Jackson; Maurizio Cattelan; Melodie Mousset; Meredith Danluck; Michael Sailstorfer; Mika Rottenberg; Mike Bouchet; Miltos Manetas; Monica Narula; Munir Kabani; Narendra Yadav; Natalie Czech; Nicolas Provost; Norma Jeane; Olaf Breuning; Olympia Scarry; Paola Pivi; Paolo Canevari; Pascual Sisto; Pavel Buchler; Peter Coffin; Pinar Yolacan; Prasad Raghavan; Rashaad Newsome; Raymond Pettibon; Richard Phillips; Rirkrit Tiravanija; Riyas Komu; Rodrigo Matheus; Ruangrupa; Ruben Bellinkx; Ryan Gander; Ryan McNamara; Ryan Trecartin; Samar Jodha; Sara Ramo; Sarah Morris; Scott King; Sergey Bratkov; Shezad Dawood; Shreyas Karle; Shwetal Patel; Slater Bradley; Stefan Brüggemann; Sudarshan Shetty; SUPERFLEX; Terence Koh; The Propeller Group; Thiago Rocha Pitta; Tintin Wulia; Tom Sachs; Uri Aran; Valeska Soares; Vanessa Beecroft; Wilfredo Prieto; Wilhelm Sasnal; Xu Tan; Yi Zhou; Yoshua Okon; Zhou Xiaohu.