United States Pavilion

53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

BRUCE NAUMAN

TOPOLOGICAL GARDENS

MEDIA EVENTS

Press Preview
Wednesday, June 3, 9:30-12:00
Università Iuav di Venezia at Tolentini and Exhibition Spaces at Università Ca' Foscari

Press Conference
Thursday, June 4, 15:30
United States Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale
(access to the Giardini with press accreditation from the Biennale office only)

Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens, the official United States representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, explores the work of one of the most influential living American artists. Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the exhibition underscores recurrent themes in Nauman's 40-year career and offers a thematic view of the work that Nauman has produced, including video, installation, performance, sculpture, and neon. The presentation includes seminal works, a number of which have seldom, if ever, been seen in Europe, and premieres two new sound installations by the artist. The exhibition is structured around the notion of topology—a field in mathematics that examines the continuity of space amid changing conditions—which is used to understand the artist's work as well as the context in which it will be displayed. It is accompanied by a major catalogue, co-published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Yale University Press.

Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens is on view across three prominent locations in Venice: the U.S. Pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale; Università Iuav di Venezia at Tolentini; and the Exhibition Spaces at Università Ca' Foscari. Carlos Basualdo, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art, and Michael R. Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, of the Philadelphia Museum of Art are the exhibition's U.S. Commissioners.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art pursued its partnerships with the universities, two of Venice's premier academic institutions, in part to enable thousands of Venetian students to engage fully with Nauman's work, while at the same time encouraging Biennale visitors to explore the urban fabric of Venice beyond the Giardini. At the Università Iuav di Venezia, Nauman's works are installed in the school's main building, located in the cloisters of the former Tolentini convent near Piazzale Roma. Topological Gardens also occupies the Exhibition Spaces at Università Ca' Foscari, two floors of a 15th-century Gothic palace, prominently situated on the Grand Canal. In the Giardini, Nauman's works across various mediums fill the neoclassical building of the U.S. Pavilion, emphasizing its architectural volume.

Bruce Nauman (b. 1941, Fort Wayne, Indiana) is regarded as one of the most innovative artists of his generation and is often cited as a catalyst for the recent shift in much international artistic practice toward conceptual and performative uses of language and the body. In work encompassing video, installation, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and neon, Nauman engages mundane situations and interpersonal communication, only to subvert them through paradoxical visual and linguistic manipulation.

LOCATIONS/PUBLIC HOURS

United States Pavilion (Giardini della Biennale)
Vaporetto Stops: Giardini 1, 2, 8, 41, 42, 51, 52, 61, 62
Sunday, June 7 – Sunday, November 22, 2009
10:00-18:00
The Giardini will be closed Mondays (with the exception of June 8) while the Arsenale will be closed on Tuesdays (with the exception of June 9).

Università Iuav di Venezia at Tolentini (Santa Croce 191)
Vaporetto Stops: Ferrovia 1, 2, 41, 42, 51, 52 / Piazzale Roma 1, 2, 41, 42, 51, 52, 61, DM
Sunday, June 7 – Sunday, October 18, 2009
10:00-18:00
Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday

Exhibition Spaces at Università Ca' Foscari (Calle Foscari 3334)
Vaporetto Stops: S. Toma 1, 2 / Ca'Rezzonico: 1
Sunday, June 7 – Sunday, October 18, 2009
10:00-18:00
Wednesday through Monday; closed Tuesday

FUNDING

Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens, the official U.S. representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and presented in collaboration with the Università Iuav di Venezia and the Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia, with the support of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.
Major support for the U.S. exhibition is provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Henry Luce Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
Additional funding is generously provided by Agnes Gund, Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann, Sperone Westwater Gallery, and many other Friends of Bruce Nauman, including the Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, and Dr. Friedrich Christian Flick; Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, The Broad Art Foundation, Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy, Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz, Jaimie and David Field, Gemini G.E.L., Glenstone, Jeanne and Michael Klein, Jill and Peter Kraus, Rachel and Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Palazzo Grassi, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the Sender Collection, Peter and Mari Shaw, and Sotheby's, with an in-kind contribution from Codess Cultura. Additional support was provided by Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Borja Coca, Dorothee Fischer/Konrad Fischer Galerie, Marion Stroud Swingle, Selma and Joseph Vandermolen, and Robin Wright and Ian Reeves.
The accompanying catalogue has been made possible by Isabel and Agustín Coppel.

The exhibition at Ca'Foscari is sponsored by FriulAdria - Crédit Agricole.

Credits as of May 13, 2009

MEDIA CONTACTS

Kellie Honeycutt or Antoine Vigne
Blue Medium, Inc.
T: +1 (212) 675-1800
E: kellie@bluemedium.com

Norman Keyes or Elisabeth Flynn
Philadelphia Museum of Art
T: +1 (215) 684-7862 / +1 (215) 684-7364
E: nkeyes@philamuseum.org / eflynn@philamuseum.org