The installation at the Spanish pavilion was compelling, with glowing Plexiglas markers displaying projects along with a video of a woman protagonist in the project (designer or client), narrating her ideas or experience or take on the work. But the decision to use women only was distracting, and not in a good way. The concept of the personal testimonials was strong enough on its own: the subjects were filmed from the waist up (as opposed to a boring talking head), revealing their posture, body languages, et cetera; and one section features videos of regular citizens, such as students, a taxi driver, bicyclist, immigrant, and so on, who speak about their experiences and likes and dislikes about living in their particular city. Having boys and men included in the mix would not have detracted from the installation. The focus on women seemed gratuitous to me…
Archive for the ‘Cathy Lang Ho’ Category
Women on the Verge
Saturday, September 9th, 2006Static Stats
Saturday, September 9th, 2006
This Biennale was, for me, for me, the first one that made me want the catalogue. For other biennales, one usually has to think twice about lugging home weighty catalogues that are essentially monographs of familiar works by an international starchitects. This year’s primary exhibition, however, is one that would be as just as good—if not better—conveyed in a publication. Aside from a few 3D installations to convey factoids and videos and audio recordings to capture street life, the show is nearly all wall texts and flat panels, filled with measurements, demographics, and statistics, too many to absorb or even to remember temporarily to appreciate how one city compares to another (although the exhibition makes a great effort at comparative analysis among various cities in the world, for everything from length of average commute to the amount of pollution generated per capita).
The problem with relying on so many statistics, of course, is that they often beg for more information. Stats are never what they appear, and have the capacity for selective emphasis. In many instances, the curators acknowledge the questionability of certain stats (for example, noting the uncounted populations in favelas or slum quarters in Sao Paolo or Caracas). It calls to question the reliability of measurements in different parts of the world (New York, Cairo, Caracas, Milan…?). In other cases, one wonders and how the curators decided that one measurement or another was the best way to convey an idea. For example, one chart maps the greatest polluters in the world, measured according to CO2 emission per capita. Kuwait tops the list. But its tiny population surely skews this statistic. Would it have been more (or just as) useful to know which countries pollute the most as a whole? The U.S. surely would have Kuwait beat in terms of total pollution generated.
There is an odd lack of historical and political context in the presentations of cities, too, which of course have everything to do with their current states. No protagonists—no important planners or politicians or landmark events—are named, even though in many cases, one can’t comprehend a city without this information (like the role that the 1984 Olympics played in shaping contemporary Barcelona).
