While on IQP I had the opportunity to visit the Biennale which is an olympic-esque international art exhibition. The Biennale in art occurs every two years with a different theme, the overarching theme in 2024 was “Foreigners Everywhere”. The pictures and video are from Germany’s exhibit Thresholds which featured multiple giant space ship installations as well as a large corridor which has slits in the walls to let light in. While it’s sort of visible, the amount of dust and smoke in the air used to create the light projections was insane. The fog was so thick you really couldn’t see very far around you, the only clear things were the giant space ship and the bright light creating the beams projecting the light around the space. One of the points of the space was to create juxtaposition in the art (1), this was clear as the light in the room with the spaceship added to its intimidating presence while the light in the room with the video almost felt like a relief, as if thats what was creating peace in the space. Not pictured (because the line to get into the room was too long) is a room where you could see the fire creating all of the smoke in the space. I interpreted this fire to be a representation of the fire of creation and that the room with the sunlight was the beginning of humanity, where nature reigned represented by natural light which enters the space. And the room with the spaceship is where humanity ends on earth as the spaceship is backlit by the light, as if its moving away from it into the darkness of the rest of the space (1,2).

Sources:
1. “Thresholds – the German Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale Di Venezia.” Thresholds – the German Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale Di Venezia, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, 15 Apr. 2024, www.ifa.de/en/press-release/thresholds-the-german-pavilion-at-the-60th-international-art-exhibition-la-biennale-di-venezia/.
2. “Biennale ARTE 2024: Germany.” La Biennale Di Venezia, 29 Oct. 2024, www.labiennale.org/en/art/2024/germany.