Stealing the show.(51st Venice Biennale commentary)

The Venice Biennale boils down to a competition for visibility. While not exactly a shocking revelation, this rather sweeping conclusion came forcefully to mind as I lay trapped inside a Disney-like metallic pod in the Arsenale, watching a light-and-music show--purportedly generated by my own sensor-affixed cranium. As Mariko Mori's overproduced, obviously expensive, and calculatedly entertaining Wave UFO, 1999-2002, implies, the competition this year in Venice is pretty steep. Artists don't just "compete" with each other, or for one of the juried prizes; they have to ...