The Venice Questionnaire #18: Vadim Zakharov
ArtReview sent a questionnaire to a selection of the artists exhibiting in various national pavilions of the Venice Biennale, the responses to which will be published over the coming days. Vadim Zakharov is representing Russia. The pavilion is in the Giardini
What can you tell us about your plans for Venice?
At present I can only tell you that it is an on-going process. Everybody will be able to experience it during the opening days of the Venice Biennale.
Are you approaching the show in a different way to how you would with a ‘normal’ exhibition?
The Venice Biennale is a very complex format for an artist – the more so because of the specifics of exhibiting in the national pavilion. There are a lot of parameters to take into account. The year I spent working on the project was particularly difficult. I had to make the effort to squeeze all of the experience that I have gained in thirty years into one project. Those years of experience are almost invisible to the viewer, but they are very present, woven into the overall pattern of the project. It was highly important for me to create a conceptual ornament, which could be seen at once, without having to struggle through the personal creative biography of the artist.
Vadim Zakharov, Fountain Aqua Sacra, 1992. Courtesy the artist.
