Chris Burden's 'Shoot' and the 2015 Venice Biennale: Reflections on Mortality

The article revisits Chris Burden's 1971 performance 'Shoot', where he had a friend shoot him in the arm at F-Space gallery in Santa Ana, California, on November 19, 1971. Burden, then 25, aimed to confront mortality and challenge art conventions. He died on May 10, 2015, at 69 in Topanga, California. The text connects this to the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), curated by Okwui Enwezor, titled 'All the World's Futures'. The Biennale featured works by Marlene Dumas, Pino Pascali, Katharina Grosse, Adel Abdessemed, Bruce Nauman, Monica Bonvicini, Mel Edwards, Christian Boltanski, Chris Marker, Tetsuya Ishida, and Adrian Piper, exploring themes of death and crisis. The Italian pavilion 'Codice Italia', curated by Vincenzo Trione, was criticized for its funereal presentation. The article argues that contemporary art often lacks the visceral impact of Burden's act.