Andre Cadere & Art Interventions at the 53rd La Biennale Di Venezia

Propped against the wall throughout the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in the Giardini of the 53rd La Biennale di Venezia were Andre Cadere's Barres de bois rond. These colourful wooden bars seemed purposefully out of place. They had no apparent relationship to the work they were exhibited with, and they were scattered around throughout the exhibition pavillion placed adjacent to other artists' work, or almost tucked away in forgotten spaces.

Andre Cadere, Barre de bois rond, 1970-78
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

The label copy simply stated: "Cadere's Barres de bois rond, made between 1970 and 1978, work as sculptures, paintings, and unconventional interventions into the spaces of art institutions. The artist often carried them through the city, installed them in public spaces, or inserted them into other artists' exhibitions."

Cadere produced 180 Barres de bois rond in different lengths and colours. The barres were created using a series of wooden segments, all the same size and painted in different colours. The length of the barre relates to its radius, based on a numerical ordering system developed by Cadere. Each individual segment was made by hand, drilled and painted before being fitted together.

Cadere travelled throughout Europe and New York City carrying his Barres de bois rond and placing them in exhibitions or biennials often uninvited and typically unwelcomed. He wanted his interventions to create a disturbance encouraging discussion and debate about the art system.

It is somewhat ironic that 31 years after his death, Cadere's Barres de bois rond are not seen as interventions but an integral part of the 53rd La Biennale di Venezia.

Orange Bicycle
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

Wandering the grounds of the Giardini we discovered a number of unattributed interventions. Having lived in downtown Toronto and Vancouver, I have become accustomed to abandoned and stripped bicycles attached to bike racks, sign posts, benches, or other urban fixtures. I have to admit that my first thought upon seeing the brightly painted abandoned and stripped bike locked to a post was, "That's odd, I have not seen any other bikes around Venice." We had just entered the Giardini, so I had not yet seen Cadere's work, and was not thinking about art interventions.

Red Bicycle
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

I snapped a quick photo, and kept walking as I wanted to get to the British Pavillion to see Steve McQueen's Giardini before it got too crowded. It was only a few moments before I spotted another bike.

White Bicycle
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

Then another, and another. As we wandered the grounds of the Giardini we discovered ten randomly placed painted and stripped bicycles.

Green Bicycle
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

As I am interested in audience engagement and the arts I watched to see if anyone else was taking any interest in or even noticing or acknowledging these interventions.

White Bicycle
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

Most visitors seemed intently focused on their Biennale programs, paying attention to which pavillions they had visited and where they were going. Few visitors seemed very conscious of their surroundings.

Red & White Bicycles
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

One of the reasons I did not pursue a PhD in Art History is that I am as interested in how art functions and operates in society and how we engage with art, as I am in the actual object. Not that art historians are not interested in these issues, but at the time I wanted to look at art from a broader and more holistic perspective.

Purple Bicycle
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

As a result, I find it fascinating and a bit sad that visitors to art exhibitions are often so focused on finding and looking at the object that they are supposed to see, that they do not see or think about anything else around them.

Blue Bicycle
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

I loved that these colourful bikes were hidden in plain view, so obvious but yet so invisible.

Yellow Bicycle
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

While we discovered the bikes before discovering Andre Cadere's Barres de bois rond, after seeing and thinking about Cadere's work I became much more aware of my surroundings. On exiting the Palazzo delle Esposizioni I spotted a flash of red in the shrubbery. On closer inspection the red we spotted was actually a beautiful intricate web of red string.

Red String Web
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

Walking through the Giardini one last time we spotted a single rubber boot sitting abandoned against the side wall of the British Pavillion. Filled with cobwebs, it had obviously been there for sometime.

Rubber Boot
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

Tucked in beneath the trees behind the Danish Pavillion was a small cooler. Unlike the boot which was covered with dirt, the cooler was shiny and clean.

Cooler
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

On our journey through the Giardini I noticed that the garden hoses were in a variety of different colours: light blue, purple, and yellow. They were not hidden from view but often placed coiled in clearings, creating colourful little vignettes.

Yellow Hose
Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

I wondered was this intentional? The yellow hose reminded me of Gabriel Orozco's Long Yellow Hose, 1996 in the garden of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego / La Jolla. While visiting the Egyptian Pavillion earlier in the day we discovered that if we snuck out the back emergency exit, we would be two blocks from our hotel. So as we headed across the bridge towards the Egyptian pavillion we spotted this guy using the yellow hose to have an impromptu shower. It seems unexpected interventions are still very much a part of 21st century art exhibitions and biennales.