“A glum trudge,” a “morose, joyless, and ugly” exhibition that “beats the visitor up with political theory rather than giving us the pleasures and stimulations of great art.”1 The consensus gleaned from the reviews is that Okwui Enwezor's decision to focus the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale on investigating and critiquing the place of art within advanced neoliberal capitalism is “hypocritical” due to the fact of art's existence as a “bastion of privilege,” a luxury good for the top percentile of the global one percent.2 The basic tautological lesson from these reviews is that a critique of capitalism is disqualified by participation in the capitalist economy (just as Occupy Wall Street was disqualified by activists using iPhones). Until the contradictions of culture under capitalism are resolved, these critics imply, a principled renunciation of any sector of the public sphere contaminated by the market is the...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Fall 2016
September 01 2016
All the World's Futures: The 55th Venice Biennale
All the World's Futures: The 55th Venice Biennale
May 9–November 22, 2015 multiple venues, Venice, ItalyOnline ISSN: 1937-2108
Print ISSN: 0001-9933
© 2016 by the Regents of the University of California.
2016
African Arts (2016) 49 (3): 86–87.
Citation
All the World's Futures: The 55th Venice Biennale. African Arts 2016; 49 (3): 86–87. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/AFAR_r_00303
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionEmail alerts
Advertisement
Cited By
Related Articles
Is a Global History of Architecture Displayable? A Historiographical Perspective on the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and Louvre Abu Dhabi
ARTMargins (February,2015)
When the computer came into the music scene: the collaboration between the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale and La Biennale di Venezia
Leonardo (May,2023)
Theresa, I Miss You (Arsenale Veneto)
October (October,2019)
Sidewalk’s Cloud (2014)
TDR/The Drama Review (March,2015)
Related Book Chapters
Practicing Civic Ecology: Venice and the Lagoon
Critical Care: Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet
Prague-Milan/Venice-Moscow/Moscow-Prague
Networking the Bloc: Experimental Art in Eastern Europe 1965–1981
The Exchange Rate and All That
Emerging Capital Markets in Turmoil: Bad Luck or Bad Policy?
What’s It All Mean?
The Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth?