The Italian pavilion has a very funny video installation, called Democrazy, by Francesco Vezzoli, a satire of the American (and increasingly, the world’s) political campaign process. It consists of two sixty-second videos — parody presidential campaign spots — that play simultaneously on large screens facing one another in a darkened space. In one the actress [...]

The distinguished thing itself. Isn’t that what Henry James, on his death bed, called death? The distinguished thing is a motif of sorts at this Biennale. The U.S., of course, is represented by the late Felix Gonzalez-Torres. (Though the pavilion doesn’t include his loveliest commentary on mortality, Untitled (Perfect Lovers), two simple round wall clocks [...]

Okay, I said I would get back to the Joseph Beuys/Matthew Barney compare-and-contrast exhibition at the Venice Guggenheim. A useful show, obviously. The line between them is as straight as a crooked line could be, and I haven’t seen this just-begging-to-be-mounted comparison mounted anywhere else. In one room there are artifacts from Beuys’ 1977 performance, [...]