burn shine fly

Artwork: Ugo Rondinone, burn shine fly, Venice, 2022

Another great satellite exhibition featured alongside the 59th Venice Biennale is New York based artist Ugo Rondinone’s burn shine fly at the Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista. What is truly magical are the cloud/sky body sculptures falling/flying from the ceiling of the nave of the church. They are life-sized casts of dancers. In the context of a sacred space, it is akin to bringing the heavens that much closer to earth and humanity, as well as the merging of the human body with the elements of air and water. Beings of the heavens, but also of this world.

 Rondinone said this about the project:

 “The sculptures in ‘burn shine fly’ aims to engender an altogether contemporary version of the sublime, one in which the smallest candle sculpture is of no less consequence than the overarching totality of the sun sculpture or the stellar marriage of the earthbound body with the waterfilled sky. The work should dazzle us and send us into a deep reflection about the marvels and mysteries of life.”