Switzerland Picks Hirschhorn and Thal for 2011 Venice Biennale

For the 54th Venice Biennale, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture selected two politically engaged artists: Thomas Hirschhorn and Andrea Thal. Hirschhorn will exhibit in the Giardini pavilion, while Thal takes over the Teatro Fondamenta Nove. The choice surprised many after Hirschhorn's 2004 scandal at the Swiss Cultural Centre in Paris, where a performer urinated on a portrait of a far-right former federal councillor. Hirschhorn refused interviews before the opening, but a dedicated website provides texts, interviews, and book references. His project, "Crystal of Resistance," is conceived as the interior of a crystal representing resistance. The installation will include four "fields of form and force": love, philosophy, politics, and aesthetics. Hirschhorn aims to create a space for his "non-exclusive public" outside the art world. At the Fondamenta Nove, Andrea Thal presents "Chewing the Scenery," featuring an installation by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, a theater performance by Tim Zulauf, plus conferences, concerts, and screenings, accompanied by critical texts and artistic contributions.