yitong law firm ( 忆通 ) is a law firm in the people 's republic of china engaged in defense of human rights .

its clients include hu jia and chen guangcheng .

in february 2009 chinese authorities announced that the firm would be shut down for six months , ostensibly because an unlicensed lawyer was practicing there .

the accused lawyer , li subin , was a former deputy director of the firm who had been denied the chance to renew his professional license by the provincial authorities in henan after he had successfully sued the henan judicial bureau for overcharging .

the managing partner of the firm , li jinsong , denied that li subin had engaged in the practice of law claiming he was only engaged in administrative duties and charged that the government authorities " are distorting facts ... to get revenge " for the way the firm 's lawyers have criticized or defied government agencies .

yitong law firm

read a blog article by liu xiaoyuan , a yitong law firm attorney , regarding the forced closing of the firm .
chinese communist party ( ccp ) officials ordered well - known beijing human rights law firm yitong law office to cease operations on feb . 17 for six months for allegedly allowing a lawyer in the firm to practice without a license .
chinaaid urges the international community to speak out on behalf of yitong law firm . their work defending human rights cases , including persecuted house church christians , has made them a target of the government . contact the chinese ambassador and let him know your concern for the actions against yitong law firm :
yitong law firm was closed down for six months on tuesday for allowing a lawyer to practise without a licence , said li jinsong , who heads the company .
cases : a beijing law firm ordered shut defended famous activists such as hu jia , shown here in 2007 .
according to a copy of the court document posted on yitong & apos ; s website , the firm violated the law in allowing lawyer li subin to work there without a licence .
according to yitong , on february 16 , 2009 , officials of the haidian district judicial bureau delivered a notice to yitong that the firm will be punished for permitting a lawyer to practice without a license . the following day , yitong received a second notice stating that the judicial bureau intends to shut down the firm for six months and that the firm can request a hearing by february 20 .
a chinese news source ( urltoken ) , interviewed attorney liu xiaoyuan of yitong law firm . attorney liu said that the law firm will defend itself on the basis of the following three aspects : 1 ) haidian district bureau of justice is not qualified to impose the administrative penalty of forcing the law firm to close for six months . 2 ) li subin did not act as an attorney in the firm ' s cases ; he was only involved as a legal advisor . 3 ) even if the charge was legitimate , the penalty of closing down the law firm for six months is not fair or just . in similar cases , the penalty is generally a warning , an order for improvement , or a fine .
in a draconian decision on march 17 , 2009 , the haidian district bureau of justice in beijing ordered a six - month shutdown of yitong , the beijing law firm well known for handling controversial and sensitive cases . in addition , the bureau ordered the firm to turn in the licenses of all their lawyers . the bureau of justice said that the firm violated the law in allowing a lawyer , li subin ( 李苏滨 ) , to work without a license .
at a hearing next week the yitong law firm , which has been at the center of several high - profile political cases , will appeal a ruling by a local justice department in beijing suspending the practice for six months , according to managing partner li jinsong .
in october 2008 , li and cheng hai ( 程海 ) , another prominent defense lawyer , left yitong under pressure from the firm . earlier , five other lawyers at the firm , also signers of the appeal , had been dismissed or left voluntarily .
the allegation , however , underscores a major hindrance to the practice of law in china .
i & apos ; ll continue working in the law ,
mr li said .
a chinese court has ordered a beijing law firm which specialises in human rights cases to close for six months amid a crackdown on dissent in a year of sensitive anniversaries .
chinese authorities have told a law firm in beijing known for its human rights work that it will be closed , lawyers and activists said friday . a beijing judicial bureau told the yitong law firm on tuesday that it would be shut down for six months , with a final decision to be made after a court hearing in the coming days , said li jinsong , the firm’s managing lawyer . the firm has represented some of china ’s leading dissidents , including hu jia , who is serving a jail term for inciting subversion , and chen guangcheng , jailed in 2006 after campaigning against forced abortions and sterilizations .
the beijing yitong law firm was given notice that it will be shut down for six months for , the authorities claimed , allowing a lawyer in the firm to practice without a license . however , the lawyer in question , li subin ( 李苏滨 ) , said that most likely the authorities wanted to punish the firm because some of its lawyers were among the signers of an appeal in august 2008 that called for direct election of the beijing lawyers association and because the firm has handled a number of controversial cases .
last year , li and several other lawyers in yitong law office including cheng hai , wen haipo , and yeung huwen launched a campaign to call for direct elections in the beijing lawyer’s association .
chinese authorities have shut down a beijing law firm known for its human rights work and efforts to confront corrupt officials , the head of the company and a rights group said .
li jinsong said that he believes the ccp member’s ultimate goal is to shut down yitong because the firm is capable of playing a leading role in challenging the actions of corrupt ccp officials .
i did it to save the law firm and to save them ,
he says now , though the gesture does not appear to have been enough to prevent the closure .
a spokeswoman for the justice department in haidian , the beijing district where the firm is headquartered , says she could not comment on the yitong case because it had not yet been finally decided .
[ * gao zhisheng wrote a series of open letters criticizing the chinese authorities ' suppression of falun gong practitioners in 2005 . his beijing law firm was shut down soon after that . ]
lawyers at the firm have said that most likely the authorities wanted to punish the firm because some of its lawyers were among the signers of an appeal in august 2008 that called for direct election of the beijing lawyers association , and because of the type of cases the firm handles .
it & apos ; s ridiculous . it & apos ; s against the law ,
mr li said by telephone , refering to the court & apos ; s decision to shut the firm .
yitong’s owner li jinsong and partner liu xiaoyuan took the leading role in the case to defend yang and his family’s interests .
he was forced to stop working at yitong late last year under government pressure and had been one of the supporters of the election .
a beijing firm known for defending famous activists is told to close . attorneys elsewhere have been detained or tried .
yitong ' s partners are the latest casualties in a growing list of rights lawyers to have suffered at the hands of the chinese authorities .
some lawyers at the firm , yitong , had also been involved in calling for direct elections to the state - controlled beijing lawyer & apos ; s association , which had angered the government , the new york - based group human rights in china said .
that would kill the firm ,
says mr . li .
they are distorting facts . . . to get revenge
for the way the firm ' s lawyers have criticized or defied government agencies , he charges .
mr . li , however , says the closure order accuses his firm of illegally employing a lawyer who does not have a professional license to practice law . he denies the charge , saying the employee dealt only with administrative , not legal matters .
yitong has handled hundreds of cases dealing with the violation of the rights of ordinary citizens by allegedly corrupt local - level officials , mr li said .
' s most prominent human rights law firms is fighting a government closure order , as authorities here step up a crackdown on troublesome lawyers .
the henan authorities ' refusal to process li subin ' s paperwork when he moved to beijing made it impossible for him to practice law .
beijing , mar . 6 / christian newswire / - - on march 3 , a hearing was held for the beijing yitong law firm which is being forced to shut down for six months by the haidian district judicial bureau . chinaaid sources say the reason behind the forced closure is that authorities are punishing the firm because some of its attorneys signed an open letter in august 2008 asking that independent candidates be allowed to run in the election of the leadership of the beijing lawyers association [ equivalent to the u . s . bar association ] , and because the firm has provided representation for a number of human rights cases , including cases of persecution against house church christians .
li said that if he violated the law , the authorities should have targeted him personally with measures such as expulsion from the communist party . he said that lawyers ' support for the direct election probably angered the authorities , and that the action against yitong is meant to
kill one person to warn 100 .
liu xiaoyuan ( 刘晓原 ) , a lawyer at yitong , pointed out that a six - month shutdown was an uncommonly harsh punishment for the alleged violation , and that authorities could have issued warnings or confiscated the earnings resulting from the alleged violation . he believes the authorities ' aim is to finish off the firm , and that this is exactly the same way that gao zhisheng ' s ( 高智晟 ) firm was shut down in 2005 . *
gone : gao zhisheng , whose firm was forced to close in 2005 , has been missing since police took him away three weeks ago .
the firm also has a reputation for taking up legal cudgels on behalf of ordinary citizens who claim to have been mistreated by the authorities .
the government says the forced closure is because the firm allowed christian attorney , li subin , to practice law without a license . however , the firm says that li subin , who worked as deputy director of the firm , served only in administrative duties and acted as a legal advisor . although he has been a fully qualified and licensed attorney since 1991 , he never acted as an attorney at the firm because the government refused to renew his license after he brought a lawsuit in 2001 against the louyang city bureau of justice and louyang bar association for collecting illegal lawyer license registration fees . even though li subin won the suit , his license has been refused renewal ever since , and he has had no explanation from authorities for the reason .
the six - month shutdown sends a chilling warning to all lawyers that the authorities will not tolerate any perceived challenges to their power . this is not the path to a rule of law .
the forced closure of the firm is the most recent in a series of government tactics to shut down the firm in order to stop their human rights defense work . in october , government officials pressured the firm to fire some of their attorneys , including li subin , because they signed the open letter asking for the free election of the leadership of beijing lawyers association . the implication for a free election is that the member lawyers would be able to choose their own leadership rather than accept the leaders the government chooses .
the shutdown is effective from march 13 to september 12 , 2009 . the decision stipulates that at the end of this period , the firm must re - apply in order to resume operation , and that it can reopen only after inspection by the bureau . the firm is given 60 days to appeal the decision and three months to bring an administrative suit against the bureau .
at the same time , he says , a number of lawyers in his practice have been very vocal in a campaign to hold free elections for the leadership of the beijing law association , the state - controlled local bar .
their campaign has gained the support of several beijing lawyers and has been a cause of alarm for the ccp controlled beijing bureau of justice and beijing lawyer’s association . in sept . 2008 , li and the other lawyers involved left yitong under duress .
gao zhisheng , whose own law firm was closed by official fiat in 2005 , has not been seen since police took him from his family home three weeks ago . barefoot lawyer yuan xianchen was put on trial last month for
inciting subversion of state power
after having assisted land rights activists . zheng enchong , a veteran rights defense lawyer , is under house arrest for signing
charter 08 ,
a public appeal for democratic reforms .
“the six - month shutdown sends a chilling warning to all lawyers that the authorities will not tolerate any perceived challenges to their power . this is not the path to a rule of law , ” said sharon hom , executive director of hric .
the yitong partnership is well known for having represented some of china ' s most famous dissidents , including hu jia , an aids activist who received the european parliament ' s top human rights award last year and is now serving a three - year sentence for inciting subversion .
the lawyer in question , li subin , a former deputy director of the firm , was denied the chance to renew his professional license by the provincial authorities in henan , whose judicial bureau he had successfully sued for overcharging .
the six - month shutdown sends a chilling warning to all lawyers that the authorities will not tolerate any perceived challenges to their power . this is not the path to a rule of law ,
said sharon hom , the group & apos ; s executive director .
the firm was also involved in the yang jia case , the man who was accused of murdering six shanghai police officers with a knife and was executed . his case received international media attention for the sympathy that chinese citizens felt for him .
yitong has been a leading light in the
rights defense movement ,
through which
increasing numbers of citizens are using the legal system as a means of redress for violations of their rights ,
states a 2007 report by human rights in china , a new york - based watchdog group .
these cases
show there is a long way to go to the rule of law ,
which chinese leaders say is their goal , says ho .
lawyers are treated as subservient to the system . any who are not obedient run the risk of being penalized .
after the association issued a
stern statement
last september warning that the campaign was
illegal
and
a total repudiation of china ' s current [ system for managing lawyers ] , judicial system , and even political system ,
li asked several of his activist colleagues to resign from yitong .
li , a prominent defense lawyer , was previously unable to renew his license in henan province , where he was then based , after he sued the local judicial bureau for overcharging lawyers ' registration fees and won . li then went to beijing and joined yitong as an administrator and assistant to other lawyers .
only li jisong , the director of the law firm , was allowed to attend the public hearing on march 3 at 9 : 30 a . m . in north room b101 , office area no . 1 of haidian district people ' s government of beijing municipality ( address : 17 , changchunqiao road , haidian district , beijing ) . the other 12 lawyers and workers from the firm were forbidden to attend the hearing , even though the hearing was public and they filed official request forms asking permission to attend immediately after receiving the hearing notice on february 23 . the government officials said there was no room , because all the seats were filled by february 25 . in fact , the government deliberately filled all the seats with haidian district bureau of justice officials . presiding over the two - hour hearing was a committee organized by the bureau of justice . the committee has not yet released a decision .
the lawyer in question , li subin , had his license suspended after he filed a case against henan province’s judicial bureau for overcharging legal fees . he was illegally detained for 391 days before eventually winning the case . however , he still has not been able to get his license back . li then moved to beijing and joined yitong as an administrative assistant .
li believes the closure order , which was issued five months after the event in question , is just a front . he feels the real reason behind the closure is a number of controversial cases the firm has taken up , such as the case of hu jia , winner of the european parliament’s top human rights award in 2008 and who is now serving a three - and - a - half year sentence for supposedly “inciting subversion . ”
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the closure order , which activists here say is unlikely to be overturned at the hearing , is part of
a wider effort to stifle and intimidate lawyers who aspire to defend human rights and the public interest ,
says albert ho , chairman of the china human rights lawyers concern group in hong kong .
this is really a very serious matter .
the result , according to the report , is that
lawyers are increasingly being attacked for defending them .
chinese lawyers must renew their licenses every year , a regulation that critics say offers officials great scope to put pressure on them .
the system is designed to intimidate ,
argues mr . ho .
li jinsong says that after having gone up against the shanghai police , a senior beijing judge , and the minister of railways among others , either in court or in forthright public denunciations ,
a lot of powerful officials hate me .
we have been involved in many cases that challenged the authorities ,
he points out .
they are killing the chicken to warn the monkeys ,
he says ,
trying to close us down to suppress other lawyers .
if the judicial authorities insist on stage - managed elections to the bar ,
it raises very troubling questions about the capacity for independent lawyers to develop in china ,
worries sharon hom , executive director of human rights in china .
we have to ask whether it is possible to defend rights if there is no independent bar association ,
she adds .
china has appeared truculent recently in the face of challenges to its human rights record . beijing reacted to a critical report by the un committee against torture last november by angrily denying all the charges , and rejected almost all the recommendations that other countries made during a review of its record earlier this month by the un human rights council .
internationally , china denies there is any problem , and domestically it takes punitive action against those who point out the problems ,
says ms . hom .
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li subin told human rights in china ( hric ) that the decision is not only “a sorrow for all chinese lawyers but also a sorrow for all chinese people . ”
hric hong kong office : gpo , p . o . box 1778 , hong kong
we are concerned that this seems to be part of a pattern of misuse of judicial and regulatory process to punish lawyers who take on matters deemed sensitive by the authorities .
we are concerned that this seems to be part of a pattern of misuse of judicial and regulatory process to punish lawyers who take on matters deemed sensitive by the authorities ,
said sharon hom , executive director of human rights in china ( hric ) .
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this was just a pretext - the main reason they wanted to close us down is that some corrupt leaders are trying to protect their names and don ' t want us to bring cases against them ,
he said .
the agency that issued the order - the judicial department in the beijing ' s haidian district - has declined to comment .
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mr li had represented chen guangcheng , a blind rights activist jailed for disrupting traffic and damaging property , charges critics say were concocted by officials angry at his exposure of forced late - term abortions in his hometown in shandong province .
he was unable to renew his own legal licence after winning a case against a judicial bureau in central henan province over overcharging lawyers & apos ; registration fees .
the chinese government has been cracking down on dissent in a year marked by several sensitive anniversaries , including 20 years since troops bloodily put down pro - democracy protests around beijing & apos ; s tiananmen square on june 4 , 1989 .
evie amati : trial starts of woman accused of axe attack caug . . .
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the encyclopedic palace of the world ( il palazzo enciclopedico del mondo ) is a mixed media , sculptural model that was created by self-taught italian-american artist marino auriti in the 1950s .

now in the permanent collection of the american folk art museum in new york city , the work came to international attention in 2013 when its name was adopted as the title of the 55th venice biennale by curator massimiliano gioni .

the encyclopedic palace of the world

marino auriti , “encyclopedic palace of the world” ( ca . 1950 ) , arsenale pavilion .
above – marino auriti , il encyclopedico palazzo del mondo or encyclopedic palace of the world , ca . 1950s
venice biennale oliver croy and oliver elser’s “387 houses of peter fritz , ” right , part of the main show , “the encyclopedic palace . ”
marino auriti , il enciclopedico palazzo del mondo ( the encyclopedic palace of the world ) , c . 1950s , installation view , arsenale . courtesy : la biennale di venezia ; photograph : francesco galli
with the headline : beyond the ‘palace , ’ an international tour in one city .
encyclopedic palace / palazzo enciclopedico / palacio enciclopedico / palais encyclopédique or monumento nazionale . progetto enciclopedico palazzo ( u . s . patent no . 179 , 277 )
each week , over one million subscribers trust us to help them make sense of the world .
. ) for a truly encyclopedic show about the human condition , that seeems to be a gap .
,
the encyclopedic palace ,
is that happiest of things : a staggeringly ambitious undertaking that has been beautifully realized and immediately acclaimed , bound to inspire other biennial curators to contend with its innovative approach .
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after retiring in the 1950s , he began work on the tower , a stack of seven cylindrical layers surrounded by a colonnaded piazza , constructed of wood , glass and plastic ( including hair combs ) . he conceived it as a model for a museum to be called the encyclopedic palace of the world , which would display the range of human achievement , “from the wheel to the satellite . ”
andre may be a big name , but the encyclopedic palace also teems with creative spirits like auriti who operated outside of the mainstream art world , such as the chinese artist guo fengyi , a former technician in a rubber plant who made drawings so dense and detailed that they appear to be made out of animal fur rather than pencil or ink .
view of “il palazzo enciclopedico , ” arsenale , 55th venice biennale , 2013 . center : marino auriti , encyclopedic palace of the world , c . 1950 . wood , plastic , glass , metal , hair combs , and model kit parts , 355 x 213 x 213 cm . courtesy of la biennale di venezia . photo by francesco galli .
valérie rousseau , “encyclopedic palace , ” exhibition label for self - taught genius : treasures from the american folk art museum . stacy c . hollander and valérie rousseau , curators . new york : american folk art museum , 2014 .
“today , in a world full of conflicts and shocks , art bears witness to the most precious part of what makes us human . ”
the kraken has risen for the 55 th time , drawing itself up out of the canals and extending its reach into every disused building , church , park , alleyway , boat and purpose - built pavilion on the film - set known as venice . this edition , the encyclopedic palace , takes its title and curatorial foundation from the ideas of marino auriti and the museum he wanted to build housing all the world’s knowledge .
serpentine swimmers complain about christo’s floating pyramid ; and hermitage’s psychic cat is a world cup oracle : the . . .
the show takes its title from the name of an imaginary museum dreamed up by marino auriti , an italian émigré who spent his retirement creating a painstaking architectural model of a 700m - tall encyclopedic palace of the world , which he hoped would be built in washington dc . his vision was never realised , but , for gioni , who places auriti’s model at the entrance to the arsenale , it is testament to a particular model of human creativity : idiosyncratic , obsessive , and motivated by the same desire to catalogue the world around us that led aristocratic collectors to keep cabinets of curiosities in centuries gone by .
although ‘the encyclopedic palace’ is often thrilling , what gioni has achieved is not exactly new in the realm of postwar exhibition - making . take a look at the catalogue for harald szeemann’s documenta v ( 1972 ) , and you’ll find that it included sections titled ‘artistry of the mentally ill’ and ‘individual mythologies’ , as well as an area dedicated to museum - like collections by artists . if this sounds familiar , it’s because they constitute the three dominant themes of ‘the encyclopedic palace’ . if what gioni has done feels new , that could say more about the way in which biennials of the last decade have become stagnant and routine .
artists , according massimiliano gioni , director of the biennale , are the central focus of the show “the encyclopaedic palace , ” which borrows its title from a utopian project by architect marino auriti .
s mark gubb , one of 23 artists who received a venice go and see bursary from a - n to visit the biennale during the preview period , reviews the encyclopedic palace exhibition at the arsenale and giardini – and pops his head in at a few national pavilions , including jeremy deller ' s english magic show .
on november 16 , 1955 , self - taught italian - american artist marino auriti filed a design with the u . s . patent office depicting his palazzo enciclopedico ( the encyclopedic palace ) , an imaginary museum that was meant to house all worldly knowledge , bringing together the greatest discoveries of the human race , from the wheel to the satellite .
artspace is pleased to have partnered with net - a - porter to give you access to the world ' s best art online .
because of an editing error , a picture caption on thursday with an art review of the venice biennale misstated part of the name of the main show in some editions . as the review correctly noted , it is “the encyclopedic palace , ” not “the encyclopedia palace . ” in addition , the review misstated the surname of an artist whose work sits amid roman sculptures at the national archaeological museum and referred incompletely to her . she is maría magdalena campos - pons , not camos - pons , and while she was born in cuba , she is an american citizen and lives in massachusetts .
cuoghi ' s belinda is one of the many bizarre , unsettling and peculiar things that have been brought together by massimiliano gioni , director and curator of the current venice biennale ' s keynote exhibition , the encyclopedic palace . a colossal enlargement of a microscopic life - form , cuoghi ' s sculpture was made by a 3d printer , then coated in so much stone dust that it is unrecognisable as anything at all , except perhaps a monument to futility . it is a great misshapen lump . that it exists is what seems to matter , and it is one of many works in the encyclopedic palace whose interest lies as much in the artist ' s backstory as in the work itself .
, has been fine - tuning a novel format of exhibition since his 2010 gwangju biennale that begins instead with a thoroughly researched thesis and then sets out to prove it through a range of objects , many of them artworks and some of them not ( books , documentary materials , etc . ) . in
the encyclopedic palace ,
the thesis seems to be as follows : life is mysterious and unknowable , but secular humanism and art present myriad ways of engaging with the world around us , and their consolations are largely sufficient .
venice biennale commissioner proudly described
the encyclopedic palace
as
a message of hope
and a call to
build your own encyclopedic palace ,
and indeed the show is a feel - good affair , presenting many possible paths to being actualized human beings ( or whatever the best thing is people can achieve in a secular universe ) . gioni noted in his speech that there ' s a
melancholy note
in the show , because so many of the visionary and mystical efforts by individuals in the show
failed ,
such as marino auriti ' s attempt to construct a $ 2 . 5 billion skyscraper on the washington mall to house all of human knowledge in his namesake
blurring the line between professional artists and amateurs , outsiders and insiders , the exhibition takes an anthropological approach to the study of images , focusing in particular on the realms of the imaginary and the functions of the imagination . what room is left for internal images – for dreams , hallucinations and visions – in an era besieged by external ones ? and what is the point of creating an image of the world when the world itself has become increasingly like an image ?
it is the one - off brilliance of individual artists that arrests me in gioni ' s show , rather than its compendiousness ; it would have perhaps better suited an actual museum than a biennale , if there were ever a museum big enough for it . maybe that ' s the point of the show , which was inspired by an enormous architectural model built by marino auriti , an italian émigré to the us in the 1920s . auriti wanted his encyclopedic palace of the world to contain the sum of all human knowledge , every important artefact . like auriti ' s mad building , this exhibition has megalomaniac ambitions . you expect gioni to leap out of auriti ' s tiered architectural cake of a building yelling :
today we curate the biennale ! tomorrow , the world !
through these pieces and many other works on view , the encyclopedic palace emerges as an elaborate but fragile construction , a mental architecture as fantastical as it is delirious . after all , the biennial model itself is based on the impossible desire to concentrate the infinite worlds of contemporary art in a single place : a task that now seems as dizzyingly absurd as auriti’s dream .
these personal cosmologies , with their delusions of omniscience , shed light on the constant challenge of reconciling the self with the universe , the subjective with the collective , the specific with the general , and the individual with the culture of her time . today , as we grapple with a constant flood of information , such attempts seem even more necessary and even more desperate . the 55th international art exhibition explores these flights of the imagination in a show that , like auriti’s encyclopedic palace , combines contemporary artworks with historical artifacts and found objects .
these personal cosmologies , with their delusions of omniscience , shed light on the constant challenge of reconciling the self with the universe , the subjective with the collective , the specific with the general , the individual with the culture of her time . today , as we grapple with a flood of information , such attempts to structure knowledge into all - inclusive systems seem even more necessary and even more desperate . the 55th international exhibition of art will explore these flights of the imagination in a show that—like auriti’s encyclopedic palace—will combine works of contemporary art with historical artefacts and found objects…
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camille henrot : animals are perceived as more mysterious because we don’t understand their language , and what we cannot quickly put into words is projected on them and they become an answer , a sign on the road . it’s the anthropomorphic way of seeing the world . in every culture , animals become concepts . it’s the way mythological stories are formed . for example , the turtle is a representation of the universe , the heaviness of creation . atlas carrying the world .
“the encyclopedic palace” appears to be an alchemical project—a nexus of conversions , from much of what has been inscribed within the realm of outsider art into treasured specimens “outside of” the claims of history . in the figures of the giraffe zarafa and perhaps even in the squirming worm in john bock’s above the point of glowing silence ( 2013 ) , nestled in a far corner of the arsenale grounds , we are reminded that in today’s neoliberal regime of knowledge production , distinctiveness is a burden of the past that can quite easily be converted into novelty for cultural and political use in our present . and in these times of accelerationism , it is even more evident that the claim of novelty is after all a vice that leads to histories of plunder as subsumption . ( 5 )
these seemingly disconnected fragments add up to some sort of coherent whole : ‘ugly and cute’ ( clearly a clay model of e . t . ) sits next to ‘anna o dreaming the first dream interpreted by freud’ . nothing directly connects any of this stuff , but it all makes sense together , highlighting how we need all of these things to try and make sense of the world . this room , as a single element , seems closest out of anything to representing what an impossible task the encyclopaedic palace is .
necessarily , the approach in this section feels more museum - like , but that’s not to say the show becomes dry or formulaic at any point . highlights include the architectural models of austrian insurance clerk , peter fritz , discovered by oliver croy and oliver elser in a junk shop . this vast collection of models represent a very real take on the world ; farm buildings , gas stations , modest family homes , banks and churches . fritz clearly wasn’t trying to reinvent the architectural wheel , but these models allude to an imagined world , barely different from our own , but a world created by fritz nonetheless .
once outside , you’re in a world of hit and miss among the national pavilions , which tend to be high in polish , low in impact . some of the best extend the accumulative density of mr . gioni’s show . this is true of sarah sze’s assemblages of countless tiny found things in the united states pavilion , and of archival photographic installations by petra feriancova at the pavilion of the czech republic and slovakia .
the exhibition will place at its heart
a reflection on the ways in which images have been used to organize knowledge and shape our experience of the world .
inspired by what scholar hans belting has called
an anthropology of images
, the biennale arte 2013 will attempt
an inquiry in the realms of the imaginary and the functions of imagination .
among the exhibition’s outdoor installations and performances ( which include john bock , ragnar kjartansson , marco paolini , erik van lieshout , and others , extending to the giardino delle vergini at the very end of the arsenale ) are works that build on and transform the sixteenth - century venetian tradition of the theatres of the world , visual allegories of the cosmos in which actors and temporary architectures composed miniature representations of the universe .
in a press statement , the curator pronounces the exhibition to be “an inquiry in the realms of the imaginary and the functions of imagination . ” when standing before the delicate clay figures of shinichi sawada—an autistic japanese artist who compulsively sculpts the monstrous beings registered in his psyche—i couldn’t help but think , with an admitted dose of hyperbole , that autism also emerges as a mirroring , performative behavior within the show . it is marvelously illustrated , but renders a false uniqueness around the individual through a retreat from the world . “the self” imagining the world into being is thereby compromised as a politically irrelevant and illusory paradox .
for too long now , contemporary art has belonged to big - ticket artists , churning out signature work that feels overly glossy and slick . what we find in the encyclopedic palace is something different : an exhibition privileging wonkier , more homespun offerings by lesser - known talents . here is a view of the human imagination as an untameable beast , dominated by dark desires and impulses , now finally unleashed and allowed to roam free .
he’s right . the encyclopedic palace , curated by massimiliano gioni , a young director from the new museum of contemporary art in new york , and featuring work by more than 150 artists from 38 countries , is a triumph . instead of a sprawling , unstructured hodgepodge , we find an intelligent , well - argued proposition , which suggests that contemporary art is setting off in new directions . walking through it isn’t enervating at all , but energising and exciting .
mr . jaar is telling a story about the alignment of art and power : many of the older , pre - world war ii pavilions are relics of a murderous nationalism were built as cultural trophies by economically competitive nations that created colonial empires and eventually led europe into war .
the debate about the catalogue , the archive , the fabrication of personal genealogies , becomes almost implicit in any artistic practice of interest . by definition , an artist is a collector of images . between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s , aby warburg’s “mnemosyne atlas , ” composed in 1929 , received renewed critical attention . in 1989 , the first edition of atlas , an impressive collection of images by the german painter gerhard richter , was published . in the early 1990s this collection of personal images heavily influence art produced by emerging artists , for whom the archive , its documentary material , became a style and no longer merely a source . i truly feel that massimiliano’s “encyclopedic palace” should have included some of the first artists to confront this discourse at the beginning of the 1990s , such as renée green or mark dion , among others .
guardian art critic adrian searle ventures through the weird and wonderful landscape of the world ' s foremost art festival . from creative savants to phallic yachts , via recreations of biennales past and a machine that scatters pennies from heaven , join him as he sifts through the highlights .
camille henrot : i hope that woman artists are now at a point where they don’t have to react to centuries of humiliation but can just do what they feel up to . the experience of being a woman has an impact on the way you see the world , but i’ve always been interested by the idea of the neutral .
if anything , this part of the show seems to discuss , more directly , the curator’s interest and take on the encyclopaedic palace , at the same time showing us how and why such a place is impossible , but revealing artistic attempts to harness this intangible knowledge and represent it to the world . i’m left wondering if one of the notions being explored is that art is somehow superior to mere knowledge , and whilst we willingly institutionalise the preservation of great art , it’s too messy and all - enquiring to ever be truly contained or held anywhere .
alongside the pavilions is the main show . often a disappointment , this year it is the highlight of the festival . “the encyclopedic palace” , curated by massimiliano gioni of the new museum in new york , is about how people order all the information that bombards them . alongside some well - known names , mr gioni has included works made by self - trained artists from the periphery of society , such as asylum inmates and autistics . shinichi sawada , who barely speaks , has a gallery dedicated to his deeply sinister clay animals . his work—and the show as a whole—offers something different : art that is genuinely surprising .
camille henrot : everything that’s a moving image – including the turtle giving birth – i shot for the film . the only found footage is the animated gif with the monkey going to the moon and the image of my computer in my living room playing ( rainer werner fassbinder’s 1973 sf classic ) world on a wire .
other works , like a series of model houses obsessively built by the austrian clerk peter fritz ( credited as the artwork of oliver elser and oliver croy , who discovered them in a junk shop ) , are less pieces of visual art than object lessons in the weirdness of the human mind and our pursuit of meaning in the world . by including these works , gioni makes much of the show into an investigation of the psyche—particularly in the giardini , which is organized around carl jung ' s hermetical
carolee schneemann is the recipient of the golden lion for lifetime achievement of the 57th international art exhibition .
camille henrot : the exhibition is called the pale fox , the title of a book by marcel griaule and germaine dieterlen written in 1965 ( derived from the myths of the dogon people in mali ) . it’s an extremely complex story depicting the creation of the world as a messy , chaotic process . there are a lot of moments when amma , the creator , has to start over . the pale fox character plays an important role by always bringing disorder to the world because he’s impatient . he’s restless and always unsatisfied . to me , the pale fox refers to the sickness of curiosity – how curiosity becomes a malady . so the exhibition refers to the urgency to reconstruct a coherent system in which everything can be included and explained , but also the necessity of disorder to the creative process .
douglas crimp once made the argument that the museum should be added to michel foucault’s trio of institutions of confinement : the clinic , the asylum and the prison . at points in ‘the encyclopedic palace’ , it felt as though gioni had this genealogy in mind , with several recent works developing from situations of confinement . for example , rossella biscotti developed dream diaries with the inmates of a women’s prison on giudecca ( the prison of santo stefano , 2011 ) , while eva kotátková’s asylum ( 2013 ) was made in collaboration with patients at a psychiatric hospital near prague . this is not to mention the many works that were made from within the walls of asylums and prisons , such as the handkerchief paintings ( or paños ) made by inmates in texan jails .
the main show , “the encyclopedic palace” — organized by massimiliano gioni , 39 , chief curator at the new museum in manhattan and this biennale’s director — is a quiet success . spread over two sites , in the park called the giardini and the fortresslike arsenale nearby , it’s immense , with more than 150 artists , but as tightly thought out as a small show — maybe too tightly to allow for wild - card surprises . most shows on this scale are too messy ; this one may be too neat . but it works .
all of our frames come with picture quality . 090 mm plexiglass , which blocks 66 % of uv to prevent color fading from exposure to light , keeping your art protected for years to come . it is now considered the industry standard for artists , museums and galleries throughout the world .
it was interesting to note which pavilions drew prohibitively long queues and simply stayed that way . these included usa , germany , france ( once it opened ) and finland . i’ll be honest , i didn’t queue , so have no idea of the encyclopedic delights contained within .
does finishing an exhibition that claims to be about competing visions with a stately parade of works by old white men – bruce nauman , otto piene and stan vanderbeek are also in the final galleries – feel like more than carelessness ? yes , i think it does . but then ‘the encyclopedic palace’ prides itself on magnanimous inclusiveness , even while less than a quarter of the participating artists are women . how does this still happen ? perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that a return to the museum is a return to business as usual , but it is a little sad .
a sense of cosmic awe pervades many of the other works on display , from melvin moti’s films to laurent montaron’s reflections on nature , all the way to the sublime landscapes of thierry de cordier . the ceramic dreamscapes of ron nagle , the intricate patterns of anna zemánková , the mental maps of geta bratescu and the painted palimpsests of varda caivano describe an inner world where natural forms overlap with imaginary presences . these secret links between microcosm and macrocosm also animate marisa merz’s hieratic figures and maria lassnig’s fleshly ones : both turn self - portraits and bodies into ciphers of the universe .
the world’s biggest art festival , the venice biennale , has never been just about art . in 1930 italy’s fascist dictator , benito mussolini , saw the biennale’s potential as a propaganda showcase and ran it from his office . he regarded the event as such a success that four years later he took hitler on a personal tour . since the second world war state involvement has been more arm’s length . the british pavilion , for example , is run by the british council and the state department delegates responsibility for the american pavilion to the peggy guggenheim collection , which is based in venice .
the encyclopedic palace begins in the giardini ' s general pavilion and ends several hundred yards away . as the biennale ' s themed exhibitions always do , it feels interminable . that said , gioni has given it a surging flow , filling it with surprises and electrifying moments . we go from the spiritual to sex , from the biblical to the angst - ridden , from the trees to the stars . watch out for pawel althamer ' s room of flayed figures , and avoid them if you can . linger over cindy sherman ' s photographs of 1970s transvestites living a life of suburban normality in upstate new york . and marvel at french philosopher roger caillois ' s gorgeous collection of cut and polished rocks .
the exhibition brings together many examples of artworks and figurative expressions that reveal approaches to visualizing knowledge through representations of abstract concepts and manifestations of supernatural phenomena . in the galleries of the central pavilion , intertwined with works by contemporary artists are the abstract paintings of hilma af klint , augustin lesage’s symbolic interpretations of the universe , the divinations of aleister crowley . yet the ecyclopedic palace is not a show about artists as mediums . rather , the works of these artists help illustrate a condition we all share : we ourselves are media , channeling images , or at times even finding ourselves possessed by images .
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at the end of this tour of the 55th venice biennale , what i’m left with is the feeling you have after a sleepless night spent searching the internet with dozens of web pages left open . we don’t even recall where we started . such is knowledge in the age of the digital . it is the “wikipedic palace , ” after all . it is a greedy and bulimic show with blind spots and omissions . with its interesting but fragmented materials , the contents have somehow already been assimilated by the discourse of art .
the bodies imagined by evgenij kozlov are animated by the fantasies of a rapt adolescent , and seem right at home next to friedrich schröder - sonnenstern’s seductive matrons and kohei yoshiyuki’s voyeurs . a similar scopophilic yearning is also found in the paintings of ellen altfest , who trains a lenticular gaze on the bodies of her subjects , as if trying to capture and discover the world one inch at a time .
auriti’s plan was never carried out , of course , but the dream of universal , all - embracing knowledge crops up throughout the history of art and humanity , as one that eccentrics like auriti share with many other artists , writers , scientists , and self - proclaimed prophets who have tried often in vain , to fashion an image of the world that will capture its infinite variety and richness .
. but that ' s not entirely true , since the show suggests many twists on the old it ' s - not - the - destination - it ' s - the - journey philosophy , according to which everyone should just
do the best you can ,
as auriti wrote as one of the inspirational maxims he hoped to etch around the base of his palace . ( next to it he wrote ,
the central thrust of the exhibition positions sicily as the fulcrum of geopolitical conflicts over migration , trade , . . .
auriti’s plan was never carried out , of course , but the dream of universal , all - embracing knowledge crops up throughout history , as one that eccentrics like auriti share with many other artists , writers , scientists , and prophets who have tried—often in vain—to fashion an image of the world that will capture its infinite variety and richness .
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the ecstatic gift drawings of shaker communities transcribe divine messages , while the drawings of shamans from the solomon islands are peopled by deities and demons . the depiction of the invisible is a key theme of the show , as evidenced in the cosmographies of guo fengyi and emma kunz , the religious icons and danses macabres of jean - frédéric schnyder , and artur zmijewski’s video of a group of blind people painting a world they cannot see . the idea that images are living , breathing entities , endowed with magical qualities and capable of influencing , transforming , and even healing , may seem like a dated concept cloaked in archaic superstitions . yet how can we deny the talismanic power of an image when we still carry pictures of our loved ones in our cell phones ?
camille henrot : national geographic was a huge inspiration . there’s this awareness of the disaster man is making in nature , but then there are these bright colours saying , ‘get a subscription ! ’ and , ‘amazing pictures of the world by canon ! ’ we continue to consume the gorillas disappearing . we even find a way to consume destruction .
the gallery will be closed july 6—july 15 for installation of handstitched worlds : the cartography of quilts .
schneemann was a pioneer of feminist performance in the early 1960s and has been one of the most important figures in the development of performance and body art .
in the redesigned spaces of the arsenale , the exhibition sketches a progression from natural forms , to studies of the human body , to the artifice of the digital age , loosely following the typical layout of sixteenth - and seventeenth - century cabinets of curiosities . in these eclectic microcosms , natural artifacts and marvels were combined to compose new images of the universe through a process of associative thinking that resembles today’s culture of hyper - connectivity .
plus — a significant plus for anyone fed up to here with big - buck art — “palace” doesn’t seem to have much interest in the mainstream market . it doesn’t say no to it , exactly . it just goes its own interesting way , not without problems .
from jung’s red book , to shinro ohtake’s scrapbook assemblages , to xul solar’s collaged volumes , the exhibition celebrates the book – an object now at risk of extinction – as a depository of knowledge , a tool of self - exploration , and an escape into realms of fantasy . yüksel arslan illustrates the encyclopedia plates of an imaginary civilization that resembles a slightly warped version of humanity . the aspiration to create a magnum opus that , like auriti’s palace , can contain and describe everything , also flows through r . crumb’s visual chronicle of the book of genesis , frédéric bruly bouabré’s cosmogonies , and the legends recounted by papa ibra tall . camille henrot’s recent video studies the creation myths of different societies , while the nearly two hundred clay sculptures of fischli and weiss offer a wry antidote to the romantic excesses of such sweeping visions of human history .
everyone should visit the romanian pavilion , where alexandra pirici , manuel pelmuş and a small group of performers restage dozens of works from the previous 54 biennales : using nothing more than their own bodies , they act out and mime picasso ' s guernica , hans haacke ' s famous destruction of the german pavilion ' s floor in 1993 , paintings by modigliani , sculptures by rodin , performances by marina abramović and photographs by nan goldin . both homage and parody , these quick - change charades in the otherwise empty pavilion take place all day , every day . marvellous , funny and affecting , the immaterial retrospective of the venice biennale is much more than a parlour game . it is about history and memory – and it shows that the real encyclopedic palace is not to be found in a collection of objects , but in people themselves .
on one level , the show feels like a conscious celebration of britishness , but at the same time points out how crap things can be too – strikes , barricades , the troubles and high ranking suicides , amongst other things . what it does do , overall , is present an artist who’s just fascinated by the world and how all this stuff might fit together – very much in keeping with the main theme of the biennale .
as a basis for a biennale , this is both interesting and curatorially canny ; an exhibition about all the knowledge in the world can hardly be accused of including anything superfluous or irrelevant . that said , the exhibition at the core of this year’s biennale , split across the two key sites of the giardini and arsenale , is engaging , inspiring , beautiful , dark , amusing , enlightening and , above all , well - curated . this genuinely feels like somebody’s attempt to make sense of such a gloriously - ridiculous idea .
1 ) michael allin , zarafa : a giraffe’s true story , from deep in africa to the heart of paris ( new york : delta , 1999 ) . 2 ) special thanks to hannah hurtzig for bringing the story of zarafa to my attention . 3 ) when french poet frank andré jamme came upon tantric painting in 1970 , he noted with astonishment : “it was strange that such modern , occidental - looking patterns already existed in india during the 17th century . ” this problematic view remained unchallenged by the display within “the encyclopedic palace . ” see frank andré jamme , ed . , tantra song . tantric painting from rajasthan ( los angeles : siglio press , 2011 ) . 4 ) see urltoken . 5 ) see urltoken .
its three galleries have been turned over to the creation of the world , though anyone expecting images of the almighty will be disappointed . the high point is “a sensory journey where the audience is involved in a dialogue that encompasses a crossing of temporal experience” . this is biennale - speak for an interactive video . in “creation” by studio azzurro , an italian art collective , the viewer can stretch out a hand in the manner of god on the ceiling of the sistine chapel , and touch a figure on a film being screened on the surrounding walls . the pavilion , which also includes photographs of disintegrating landscapes by a czech artist , josef koudelka , is regarded as a success for its dogma - lite approach .
the official catalogue and the short guide of the biennale arte 2017 are now available for online purchase .
exhibitions and initiatives enriching the diversity of voices that characterizes the international art exhibition .
and of course , the show is not the whole story . the biennale is as much an archipelago of islands as venice itself is .
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is the lack of social mobility in the arts due to a self - congratulatory conviction that the sector represents the . . .
more than 80 participating countries in the historic pavilions at the giardini , at the arsenale and in the city centre of venice .
in this first room is auriti’s own model of his palace – a beautiful architectural model of an impossible dream . it’s only when we look at the ubiquitous information panels on the wall that we see the ramshackle odds and ends auriti used to mock - up his vision , including the likes of hair combs . surrounding the model , on sweeping circular walls , are jd ‘okhai ojeikere’s photos of nigerian women and their immaculately sculpted hair , maybe a further nod to the power of the hair - comb - as - sculpting - tool . in the next room , roberto cuoghi’s belinda looks like it’s come straight from the set of the latest alien blockbuster , and sits alongside lin xue’s meticulous bamboo and ink drawings of imaginary landscapes ; alien , familiar , organic and intriguing , all at the same time .
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in the case of multiple bidders placing the same maximum bid , the first person to place the maximum amount takes precedence as the highest bid until another bidder exceeds the maximum amount .
camille henrot : yes . while i was doing research at the smithsonian i made lots of ideas and discoveries . i’m very attached to objects . i think the arrangement of a domestic space is very much connected with building up your own mental order . collections , accumulation and hoarding are ways to build up a barrier between yourself and the other world , like an auto - immune system made out of objects . that’s what museums are about , but also an artist’s studio or your home .
the exercise of the imagination through writing and drawing is a recurring motif in the exhibition . christiana soulou brings to life the imaginary beings catalogued by jorge luis borges , while josé antonio suárez londoño translates into images the diaries of franz kafka . the rare stones collection of french writer roger caillois combines geology with mysticism , while the blackboard diagrams of rudolf steiner feverishly relate the idealist dream of grasping and conveying the universe as a whole .
gift of colette auriti firmani in memory of marino auriti , 2002 . 35 . 1
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second part of the photo tour through the central international exhibition : palazzo delle esposizioni , giardini .
camille henrot : to be honest , there were a lot of moments when i thought i would not be able to make my way into the institution . it was extremely difficult to do the research and get permission to film . some of the researchers and curators were very suspicious because my research of the history of the universe is basically research on everything and that’s the opposite of scientific research’s spirit of division and specification .
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handstitched worlds : the cartography of quilts
explores the relationship between quiltmaking and map - making .
the other part of the show in the padiglione centrale dei giardini includes three other great father figures . here is the red book by carl jung , the grandfather of modern psychotherapy . after his death , jung’s successors would try to hide this work . jung began compiling data for this diary of the unconscious in 1913 , the year he broke away from freud , at a time when he feared he was teetering on the edge of madness . leaving the magic circle of the red book , or liber novus as it was originally titled , we find ourselves in front of a cast of andré breton , the father of surrealism , made by rené iché . a decade after paul klee , the surrealists turned to madness as a means of freeing language from bourgeois conventions , logic and linear thinking . the movement helped re - evaluate the creative value of artistic expressions by the insane . nothing is new here ; and so it went during the rainy inaugural days of the 55th biennale .
as a contrast to the white noise of the information age , an installation by walter de maria celebrates the mute , gelid purity of geometry . like all works by this legendary artist , this abstract sculpture is the result of complex numerological calculations – a self - contained system in which the endless possibilities of the imagination are reduced to an extreme synthesis .
camille henrot : i was doing a lot of internet research on the smithsonian database . i often had a lot of windows open on my desktop . when you look at a cluster of windows on a desktop , your mind makes these connections , not because there is a connection but because your brain needs to resolve the images . i encountered a very interesting text about the invention of hypermedia publishing , which talks about the pop - up window and the scroll and the ideas behind these designs . i found that the whole design of the computer , the way computers organise information , is connected to the original ambition of the computer to be an extremely powerful machine potentially capable of dealing with everything – starting with immense numbers . the very first computer was a calculation machine . from the beginning , the computer tries to answer archimedes’ the sand reckoner ’s very old question of determining limits of number and operations : what is the size of the universe ?
at the center of the arsenale , is a curatorial project by cindy sherman – an imaginary museum of her own devising in which dolls , puppets , mannequins , and idols cohabit with photos , paintings , sculptures , votive offerings , and drawings by prison inmates , composing an anatomical theater in which to contemplate the role of images in the representation and perception of the self . the word “image” is linked , by its very etymology , to the body and its mortality : the latin imago referred to the wax mask the romans made to preserve the likeness of the recently deceased .
appropriately enough , the exhibition contains many variations on the idea of collecting – including rare specimens of stone emblazoned with swirling patterns gathered by the french intellectual roger caillois ; the pages of the american minimalist carl andre’s surprisingly un - minimalist , 100 - page scrapbook passport , which is chock full of diverse and fascinating imagery ; or a series of more than 40 black - and - white photographs taken by jd ‘okhai ojeikere recording fluctuating fashions in the hairstyles of nigerian women from the sixties to today .
it ' s an unusually upbeat and earnest show as a result , weaving artists and non - artists of all kinds—some terrifically accomplished and successful , some of them outsider artists who lived in institutions or on the fringes of society—into a beautiful tapestry of common , questing humanity . gioni ' s layout is masterful , too , having tamed the gargantuan arsenale ( with the help of architect - to - the - art - stars annabelle selldorf ) and made the best of the knotty warren that is the giardini . considering the significance of the show , however , it ' s worth lingering over a few of its novelties to consider how the parts meshed together . here are four observations .
please note that if the auction moves to a physical live event ( the auction page will specify this and the bidder will be noticed as such by email ) , the highest bidder after the close of the online auction will be the opening bid at the event and will be notified within 48 hours after the event if the bid is the final winning bid or been outbid by someone at the event .
later , it is time for rudolf steiner and his blackboards drawings . founder of the anthroposophical movement , steiner was a prolific and inspiring lecturer who is said to have held all - inclusive conferences even for the milkman and the plumber who came to his house . i think of joseph beuys , who isn’t in the show . in the central garden pavilion are exceptional gems , like kp brehmer’s skies and aleister crowley and frieda harris’s tarot cards . pardon my leaps between styles and periods , but that is what occurs in massimiliano’s palace , built upon his personal cosmology . are we witnessing curatorial superpowers ? is massimiliano a curator of exhibitions who would like to curate worlds ? isn’t this omnipotence the secret ambition of every curator ? let’s just rearrange the universe the way we like it , man . i begin to feel overwhelmed by all the material .
the atlas of the empire . pavilion of the istituto italo - latinoamericano ( iila ) . commissioner : sylvia irrazábal . curator : alfons hug . 19 artists and groups . arsenale , isolotto .
we make our way to the center of the galleries in the arsenale and arrive at the heart of the show — the section curated by massimiliano with artist cindy sherman . as i approach the three figurative sculptures that open this section — by jimmy durham , paul mccarthy and john de andrea — i have the sense of something that looks familiar but feels alien . i experience an uncanny feeling .
artist’s practice is a series of short videos made by the artists selected for viva arte viva about themselves and their way of working .