KATERINA GREGOS: TILMAN WENDLAND (COPYRIGHT: 2011 AUTHOR, THE DANISH PAVILION, 54TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION, LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA)
Tilman Wendland’s constructions and architectural interventions emphasise, shift, or highlight the given character of a space through minimal and frugal methods. Wendland creates installations with an economy of means, using basic, light, humble, inexpensive materials such as paper, plasterboard, PVC, MDF, or white-coated fibreboard. These modern, anonymous materials are employed for their combination of stable and flexible properties, as well as their neutral appearance. For the artist, maintaining this economy of materials largely means working with the potential of the everyday; it also means knowing how to productively use the logic and function of a given space.At the Danish Pavilion, Wendland took as his point of departure the existing architecture of the two connecting buildings, and “activated” or modified existing spaces and details, thus following the “rhythm” of the building but adding a new “melody”. By adding new architectural elements (extending beams, building a stage to an existing niche, devising three-dimensional structures), Wendland creates an imperceptible shift in the perception of the architecture and its spatial volumes. Other interventions, like a large freestanding wall that cuts through the main hall, creates a dramatic interplay with the interior architecture of this light, airy, uplifting space. There is a strong alternation between the horizontal and the vertical that is almost constructivist in appearance, which creates a dynamic juxtaposition of lines and volumes, and imparts a geometric, minimal sculptural character to the space. The aim throughout has been to keep the spaces as open as possible, but also to create intimate areas where the artists’ works can be viewed one-on-one. Wendland’s focus has not only been on the architectural elements themselves, but on how the surrounding architecture frames the art works, and gives them prominence. His elegant, discreet, and sometimes-prominent interventions seem to effortlessly accommodate the large number of artists in the exhibition.
Katerina Gregos
The Danish Pavilion, 54th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, June 4—November 27, 2011