Venice Biennale power play - Front Page - Brief Article

The mid-December announcement in the New York Times that Robert Hughes had been approached to serve as the visual-arts director of the 2003 Venice Biennale caught most art-world readers by surprise. Time magazine's longtime critic acknowledged his conservative reputation and freely admitted that he is an utter novice as a curator. All but overlooked in the subsequent welter of speculation was the specific source of the invitation: Italy's minister of culture. While Hughes ponders his options [as we go to press, no decision has been announced], that invitation stands as another salvo in what is shaping up to be a culture war waged by a ministry that has already shaken the international arts community with its plan to privatize the administration of Italy's museums [see "Artworld," Jan. '02].

According to the Biennale press office, it was not culture minister Giuliano Urbani but the outspoken undersecretary who often upstages him, Vittorio Sgarbi, who first approached Hughes. In any case, the move preempted the authority of the president of the Biennale, Paolo Baratta, and the advisory council members, who are charged with nominating the directors of the Biennale's artistic sectors (visual arts, architecture, cinema, theater, dance, music). Since 1999, Baratta has successfully steered the institution through its transition from a public agency to a semiprivate foundation that relies increasingly on earned income. Many had hoped for his reappointment when his term expires in April 2002. But Beretta is no favorite within the culture ministry of Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing government, where the preponderance of new media at the 2001 Biennale, which was directed by Harald Szeemann, and the prizewinning successes of non-Western filmmakers at the last Venice Film Festival (which is overseen by the Biennale) seem to have aroused displeasure.

An earlier attempt to outflank Beretta ended in public embarrassment when the ministry asked American filmmaker Martin Scorsese to replace Alberto Barbera as the director of the film sector. Scorsese declined. Then, as word of the Hughes invitation spread, Urbani disclosed that business leader Franco Bernabe would be the next Biennale president. The premature designation of his successor led to Baratta's decision to step down in January.

Along with naming Bernabe, Urbani announced the appointment of director Franco Zeffirelli as his special adviser on the arts and theater. Zeffirelli's precise views on the visual arts are not known, but he described an Italian culture in crisis and characterized the last Venice Film Festival by saying, "they spend money, they make small talk, they end up giving the Golden Lion to a Turkish film or a Pakistani film." (Prizes actually were awarded by the 2001 jury to directors from Iran and India.)

The reforms which Baratta oversaw were intended to provide political autonomy as well as fiscal stability for the Biennale. The century-old organization used to be at the mercy of the often contentious parties in Italy's coalition governments. As Sgarbi uses the pronoun "we" in comments on the present search for the visual-arts director, it seems that the safeguards may be short-lived indeed.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group