Artwork: Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (These writings, when burned, will finally cast a little light), Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 2022
In yet another wonderful satellite exhibition at the 59th Venice Biennale, Anselm Kiefer was commissioned to create a series of works for the Sala dello Scrutinio in the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace). It is a series commemorating the 1,600 anniversary of Venice, reflecting on its history, and the title is taken from the words of Venetian philosopher, Andrea Emo (1901-83), Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (These writings, when burned, will finally cast a little light).
Artwork: Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (These writings, when burned, will finally cast a little light), Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 2022
The paintings are full of fire and light—illumination; the earth and intimations of heaven; with references to burned books and sticks (charcoal), the written word, the passage of trade from East and West, the empty casket of the patron saint of St. Mark, to the fires of 1577 that damaged the palace located in the Piazza San Marco. Fire is synonymous with destruction and creation; the cycle of life, death and rebirth; a process of transformation and illumination as the title of the exhibition suggests. Kiefer’s paintings also speak to the artistic history of Venice, his own work temporarily affixed over frescoes created by Tintoretto and Jacobo Palma the Younger, such that the past and present, memory and history are layered, a complex tapestry of time, erasure, remembering and forgetting.