Sadie performing the routine during "Gloria" at the U.S. Pavilion in Venice.

Body in Flight (Delta) is currently situated in the IMA’s Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion for an exhibition opening today, and will be on display through April 22. Local gymnasts Taylor Brown, Caitlin Marlow, Kelsie Sexton, and Adrianna Spiteri will conduct ongoing performances in Efroymson for the duration of the exhibition. See the Body in Flight (Delta) exhibition page for further information and a schedule of performances.

USA Gymnastics, the governing body for the representation of American gymnasts at the Olympic Games, is based in Indianapolis and helped recruit gymnasts for this exhibition. Through the organization’s network of athletic clubs, we were able to recruit these talented gymnasts for the exhibition.

First our volunteers started training with Sadie on the prototype for Body in Flight (Delta). The routine was initially developed on this model by choreographer Rebecca Davis, gymnast David Durante, and artists Allora & Calzadilla in collaboration with the four dancers/athletes who performed in Venice (Olga Karmansky, Chellsie Memmel, Rachel Salzman, and Sadie).

Sadie training with Adrianna Spiteri on the model for "Body in Flight (Delta)" in a closed gallery at the IMA.

For the last week, the gymnasts and Sadie have been working in public in the IMA’s entry pavilion to hone their performances on the actual artwork.

Sadie and works with local gymnast Kelsie Sexton to perfect the routine in the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion.

I hope that you’re able to join us over the course of the exhibition to see local talent showcased in our lobby. If not, you can view the performance as it was filmed in Venice from a far.

Also in the galleries and opening today is Allora & Calzadilla’s Vieques Series, a group of three videos filmed on and about the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

At the 1952 Venice Biennale, Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion, Eloise O. Spaeth, employed a different approach with mixed results. Four established and well-known artists – Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1893-1953), and Alexander Calder (1898-1976) – were honored with small retrospective exhibitions. In his review of July 20, 1952, Stuart Preston of the New York Times expressed disappointment with the uninspired exhibition concept, stating that the American Federation of Arts “play[ed] [it] safe this year.” Despite this critique, Preston found merit in the apt selection of Hopper to represent the United States abroad. Preston observed that: “Hopper made the deepest impression. Foreigners recognized, and rightly, something authentically American in the pathos of his landscapes, a germ of loneliness which they detect in our literature.” The IMA’s Hotel Lobby (1943), which was among the works displayed at the 1952 Biennale, conveys the feeling of isolation described by Preston and noted by the show’s attendees. Hopper’s figures, whether alone or in the company of others, appear detached from their surrounding environment.

Edward Hopper, "Hotel Lobby," 1943. William Ray Adams Memorial Collection. ©Edward Hopper.

The motif of the contemplative figure is hardly unique to the work of Hopper, or even American art, though. Scholar Gail Levin and others have cited artistic precedence in the domestic interiors of Dutch seventeenth-century painter Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), which were likely seen by Hopper on his many trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or on the three occasions he visited Europe from 1906 to 1911. According to art historian Pamela Koob (“States of Being: Edward Hopper and Symbolist Aesthetics”), Vermeer studies experienced a revival during this period due to the organization of several exhibitions in New York.

Hopper’s paintings also bear a strong resemblance to those of Dane Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916). In December 1912, an exhibition of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish art, sponsored by the American-Scandinavian Foundation and organized by Christian Brinton, opened at the American Art Galleries in New York. Since Hopper lived in the city at this time, it is possible that he was introduced to Hammershøi’s paintings in person or in print, as they were discussed in three separate New York Times reviews. Interestingly, art critics lauded the curator’s selection of Hammershøi and praised the authenticity of his work. In a preview of the exhibition, published  August 11, 1912, a Times reporter found that Hammershøi “…not yet in his fifties, has taken an isolated place in the art of Denmark, belonging to no school, and betraying in his work no clearly defined inheritance from the past.”

Vilhelm Hammershøi; Interiør med ung læsende mand 1898.Olie på lærred. 34,4 x 51,8 cm. (via www.hirschsprung.dk)

Forty years apart, the reviews of Hopper and Hammershøi exhibited rather provincial slants, as they failed to acknowledge the wider application of the artists’ themes.  However, Robert Rosenblum’s seminal Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition (1975) would later propose the existence of a “Northern” sensibility, which manifested itself in the artistic production of Europe and America for at least a century and a half. Noting parallels in form and feeling, Rosenblum traced a trajectory from the German Romantic landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) (who, incidentally, popularized the motif of a contemplative figure seen from the back, called a Rückenfigur) to the chromatic abstractions of Mark Rothko (1903-1970). Clearly, the cases of Hopper and Hammershøi substantiate Rosenblum’s argument. (The prolific scholar even identified the works of the two artists as analogous in a 1997 essay on Hammershøi.) Yet, the broader context of their paintings seems to have been lost on critics of the American-Scandinavian exhibition in 1912 and, later, of the 1952 Biennale.

We are now a few months into the Biennale and the Gloria installation at the U.S. Pavilion has maintained a consistently high level of attendance, with over 250,000 visitors since the opening.

Working from Venice for the past two and a half months, I had the chance to assist with the performances and meet some of the athletes. Two of them, Sadie Wilhelmi and David Durante, have kindly agreed to answer some of my questions about their experience at the Biennale.

Dave was a member of the USA Gymnastics team for six years, including a participation in the Olympic games in Beijing.  Sadie is a gymnast with extensive dance and circus background. Before coming to Venice, she performed as a freelance aerial artist with a company in New York and took part in other dance and choreography projects.

Here is what they have to say about their experience at the Venice Biennale:

How did you get involved in this project?

Dave: The IMA and USA Gymnastics are both in Indianapolis. When the project was selected, I was asked to participate based on my background and experience with the U.S. team. Besides performing myself, I am the athletes’ coordinator for the whole project and in charge of the logistics, including finding the performers and runners. I worked with the choreographer and performers who were selected to create the routines. We trained in New York for about four months before coming to Venice at the end of May.  I’ll be here in Venice for the entire run.

Sadie: I got involved through my friend Olga Kaminsky, who is good friends with Dave.

 How long did it take to create the choreography?

 Dave: The choreography took a little bit of time. Initially we did not have the sculptures, so we worked with mats and foam blocks.  Rebecca Davis, the choreographer, was instrumental in putting it all together and bridged the gap between the gymnastic and the dance world.  The performers also had input here and there.

 Sadie: It took us months to put this together. We started in January of this year and it came together during lots of hours of training and rehearsal.

 How many people have performed these routines since the opening of the show in early June?

 Dave and Sadie: We’ve had three guys and three girls for the gymnastics, as well as five runners.  At the opening, we also had Chellsie Memmel, who was part of the team in Beijing, and world champion runner Dan O’Brien.

 Were the artists involved in the choreography?

 Dave and Sadie: They gave us some guideline parameters to work with. They wanted gymnastic movements that one could see during a routine at the Olympics.  The real challenge for me was to take gymnastics and push the limit on what is physically possible on these sculptures, while staying safe and not get injured.

 The routines are much longer than what you are normally used to. Is this difficult?

Dave: Initially the artists wanted the performances to be about a half an hour long. Gymnastic routines are usually between 60 and 90 seconds, while circus routines are normally between six and seven minutes. So to push this to a much longer extent of time (the routines are now fifteen minutes) was a real challenge.  The artists came to New York for a week and we put together a series of little sketches for them. They really liked certain pieces and did not like others, so we cut certain things and started to work with them over that week to put their final stamp on the pieces.

How does it feel to perform so close to the public?

Dave:  It has been the best part of performing, because when you are competing in an area with 15,000 people, it’s just you and the apparatus and the judge watching you. You feel such a disconnection with the public. Here their energy is what you use. They are not speaking, but their eyes are speaking. There is such a connection, you can feel them holding their breath.  They can see you sweat and breathe heavily. That part is really cool for me.

 Sadie: It is such a new feeling for me.  Both with dance and the aerial work there is much more distance between you and the public, so it is really really intimate to have the public so close. Sometimes I kick people or the sweat is flying around. My toe started bleeding one time. It makes it very real when people can see everything that is going on.  It brings people in. They can really follow you once they can connect with that.

 How does it feel to be part of an artwork?

 Dave: I love art and I do a bit of art myself, mostly drawings and pastels. But this is a whole new realm for me as an artist. This is something that I do not think has ever been done from an athletic side of things.  To be a first in that sense is special. The whole ride has been scary at times, not knowing if we could pull everything together in time, and making sure that the pieces were what the artists and the museum wanted.

Sadie: The more I learned about the Biennale and the more involved I was getting with the project, the more honored I felt about being part of it and how we are basically inscribed in art history.  It’s really unique to be part of a performance in a contemporary art piece.  We have had such interesting and good feedback from the audience.

What about your experience in Venice?

 Dave: I had been here a couple of times but living here is a completely different experience. Not too many people get to live in Venice. Being able to come here and perform has been great. Sadie and I have our own blog where we tell all of our adventures and stories here in Venice: http://www.daveandsadie.blogspot.com

Sadie: I had never been to Italy before and it has been an incredible experience. Coming to work by boat every morning and working in a museum in the middle of a garden is magical. We have been doing the most amazing things. It has been truly the most amazing project I have worked on in my life.

What’s next for you?

David and Sadie: We will be here until the end of November. We are currently in the process of putting together some acts of our own. We have some other gigs around Italy and hope to possibly extend that to New York. We will also be in Indianapolis to perform in March.

The 68th Venice Film Festival.

Just like the art exhibition, which displays works from over 65 countries, the Film Festival also has an international focus, with films hailing from the U.S., France, Italy, the UK, Israel, Japan, Greece,  etc. Most of the films in competition this year are more or less commercial undertakings representing different genres, from the political thriller (The Ides of March), to the spy story (Tinker, Sailor, Solder, Spy, based on the John le Carré novel of the same name), to the period drama (Wuthering Heights directed by Andrea Arnold and A Dangerous Method by David Cronenberg, based on the turbulent relationships between psychiatrist Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and patient Sabina Spielrein), as well as a number of films that dissect and criticize contradictions and idiosyncrasies of our modern society such as Carnage by Roman Polanski and Dark Horse by Todd Solondz.

One of the most eagerly awaited film at the festival this year is Shame, by British contemporary artist Steve McQueen, who exhibited one of his artwork at the Venice Art Biennale in 2009. Shame, which is a compelling examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives, and the experiences that shape us, is the second feature film by the artist after Hunger, which won the Camera d’Or award for first-time filmmakers at The Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Steve McQueen is not the only contemporary artist to have successfully tried his hand at another artistic genre. Julian Schnabel, for instance, who directed intense films such as Basquiat, and Before the Night Falls and who won the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, was present this year at the Venice Art Biennale with a retrospective of his work.

Another example of how the distinction between genres is becoming more and more blurred in today’s artistic world is seen in Vivan las Antipodas!, a movie by Russian director Victor Kossakovsky, which was screened yesterday evening out of competition. Part film, part documentary, part visual artwork,  this movie chooses not to follow a specific narrative but rather suggests, through a series of breathtaking and stunning shots, the wonders and contradictions of nature and people in the world’s rare inhabited land-to-land antipodes.

Given the high number of premieres in and out of competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, as well as the quality of the films shown, my hope is that they’ll be coming to Indianapolis soon.

Learn more on how you can Go for the Gold!

Here’s the Central Canal in 1894, in a work from the IMA’s collection by Richard Buckner Gruelle:

Richard Buckner Gruelle, "The Canal Morning Effect," 1894, John Herron Fund.

Venice’s Grand Canal also has its roots in trade, and provides the main connecting thoroughfare in the heart of Venice.  We’ve been getting to know the Grand Canal very well – it’s our main route to and from the U.S. Pavilion and the evening events (that is – when we’re not walking, which is another experience in itself!).  Here’s a work by Vaughn Trowbridge (featured in the Venetian Views exhibition!) created eleven years after Gruelle’s view of the Indiana Canal:

Vaughn Trowbridge, "The Grand Canal, Venice," 1905; Bequest to Delavan Smith.

And here a photo of the Grand Canal today, as we head towards work:

The boats have been updated, and it’s definitely more crowded (and even more so, now that the Biennale crowd has kicked in), but a lot remains the same from that 1905 artwork.  Being surrounded by that level of preserved history is something we are conscious of every day, even if it means reminding ourselves to pause in between work to look around and take it all in.  Plus, it’s been pretty surreal taking a boat to work every day – maybe it’s something I should look at working into my IMA commute?

The first thing you encounter at the Pavilion – and really, when it’s running, throughout much of the Giardini – is the massive upside-down tank and treadmill, Track and Field. I’d seen pictures and renderings, and heard stories about the sheer size of this thing, but it’s hard to imagine the – I guess overwhelming, is the best word – feeling of being next to those fast-moving treads.  The runner on top of the treadmill actually can control the speed of the tank, based on how fast he or sets the treadmill to run.  Olympian Dan O’Brien performed today for a packed crowd at the press conference (see him in this great slideshow here) and I heard him tell the artists that one of the most difficult parts was not getting too distracted by the moving treads on the side, and to focus straight ahead instead.  And speaking of those treads, check these things out:

Allora & Calzadilla, "Track and Field," 2011. U.S. Pavilion, 54th International Art Exhibition, presented by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Photo by Andrew Bordwin.

Once you’ve enter the doors of the Pavilion, the first work you’ll see is Armed Freedom Lying on a Sunbed. The statue is a scaled down replica of the Statue of Freedom, on top of the U.S. Capitol building. As you recently read about, I love that the iconic image of this statue that’s being used in all exhibition branding was taken by an amateur photographer we found on Flickr.

Allora and Calzadilla, "Armed Freedom Lying in a Sunbed," 2011 U.S. Pavilion, 54th International Art Exhibition, presented by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Photo by Andrew Bordwin.

To the left and the right of this work are the business class airline seat replicas. Body in Flight (American) approximates a pommel horse and is used by male gymnasts and Body in Flight (Delta) is substituted for a balance beam and used by the female gymnasts. I knew the performances would be incredibly powerful – and intensive, being three times longer than a typical gymnast routine – but I didn’t anticipate how pulled in the audience would be.  The room is very intimate, and you can hear the labored breathing of the gymnast as they move around the wooden seats.  I heard audible gasps from the crowd during particularly hard (and slightly painful looking) parts of the routine, and laughter during one section when the gymnast actually takes a seat in the, well, seat.

Allora & Calzadilla, "Body in Flight (Delta)," 2011 U.S. Pavilion, 54th International Art Exhibition, presented by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Photo by Andrew Bordwin.

Allora & Calzadilla, "Body in Flight (American)," 2011 U.S. Pavilion, 54th International Art Exhibition, presented by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Photo by Andrew Bordwin.

Beyond Body in Flight (Delta) is the work Algorithm, a pipe organ that has been custom made with a working ATM inside. Visitor reaction is another favorite with this work – when money is withdrawn, a composition of sounds emits from the organ.  Even though they’re expecting it after waiting in line, the face expressions when the visitor hears the sounds their pin number produces are so much fun to watch – usually ranging from laughter, serious, a little embarrassed, jubilant victory-style motions, or a variety of dance moves. Watch this video to see the work in action.

The last work, through the room by Body in Flight (American) features Half Mast\Full Mast, Allora & Calzadilla’s film on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. They used a human body to create a likeness of a flag, in sites that symbolically mark places of victory or setback on the island (listen to the artists discuss this idea further here). Place, and the stories behind a place, are an important part of the piece, and to me, provides a perfect final note to the exhibition.

Allora & Calzadilla, "Half Mast/Full Mast," 2010 high definition two-channel video, color, silent 21:11 minutes. U.S. Pavilion, 54th International Art Exhibition, presented by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Courtesy of the Artists and Lisson Gallery, London; Barbar Gladstone Gallery, New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Kurimanzutto Gallery, Mexico DF.

The fury of the Biennale has begun, and Gloria at the palladian U.S. Pavilion is looking polished and practiced for the crowds. In the past week, many of the final touches and adjustments have been made in the gallery, a fact made many times more complicated with 13 live performers, a dual channel video room and operating sunbed, ATM, pipe organ, treadmill and tank. Most of this was accomplished under the watchful eye of the IMA’s on-site installation team, Brad Dilger and Mike Bir, who oversaw the installation of all of the work and fine tuned just about everything you see in the pavilion, and Yvel Guelcé, the Director of IT who installed the attendance counter and the localized wireless for the TAP Gloria mobile tour.

Amanda York, Brad Dilger, Yvel Guelce and Gabriele HaBarad diligently working during practice and installation week.

After all this prep, here are some of the interesting and funny stories that developed while we put the final touches on Gloria!

After the installation of the organ, the music composer Jonathan Bailey arrived to test the ATM and organ sound precision and listen to the music in the gallery space. He had to cancel the transactions or else remove hundreds of dollars from the machine during this testing phase.

Jonathan Bailey compares notes with his notes.

While he was testing the machine, I asked him about the possibility of our banks getting worried about multiple cancelled transactions and locking our cards. Jonathan switched to an older card in his wallet just in case something like this happened, and not a moment to0 soon. Shortly after, someone walked up to say hello to him and he got distracted when the machine ejected his card. After a brief wait, the machine ate the card, never to be seen again! This is a feature of the machine’s security, in case you leave your card behind, but is a bit inconvenient if you need to make about 100 transactions in 2 hours!

Another interesting development came after the female gymnasts arrived in Venice to begin rehearsals on the Delta seat.

The gymnasts and choreographer Rebecca Davis warm up in the white room for rehearsals.

They lithely hopped on to the armrest, only to find themselves swimming in mid air, looking for visual purchase. In Circus Warehouse, their practice space, they unknowingly had hundreds of objects upon which to anchor their gaze and find balance. In the white gallery space, they couldn’t hold their poses. They spoke with Jennifer and Guillermo and agreed something had to be done. The IMA’s Brad Dilger painted custom dots, then had each gymnast test for placement. The final position of the grey dots can be seen during the performance of Body in Flight (Delta) in the pavilion today.

On the left, the pair of dots on the wall, placed for the gymnasts varying heights.

Another bit of valuable behind-the-scenes info: U.S. Pavilion Commissioner and IMA Chair of Contemporary Art Lisa Freiman gives a sharp looking haircut.

Photographer Nick D'Emilio needed a trim.

So what are we up to back in the motherland? A few things really…

While our traveling cohorts organize and gather the documentation materials, a team of us are ready and on-hand to help get that content to you (and our friends in the media) as quickly as possible. Working within a system that includes a 6 hour time difference isn’t always easy, but multiple process meetings prior to the trip has made for smooth sailing (knock on wood).

Most of my job entails getting the content out to you, our online audience. From updating the website with videos, images, and information to managing our Facebook and @imamuseum Twitter account, my work is 90% online and 10% meetings about the online material. I sincerely love this job and it’s because of this job that I feel like I am in Venice along with everyone else.

Closely following all of the @la_biennale and @USPavillion11-related tweets, I am inundated with updates, sightings, and picturesque views. I could open my Hootsuite account now and virtually connect with the city of romance and its temporary visitors. Tweets from everyone in Venice and the subsequent correspondence with those from all over the world have really been fascinating.

Another part of my job (web management) means that I’m one of the luckier ones who gets to see the new IMA content the second its published to our website. I don’t think this really hit me until I was able to publish photos and videos of the US Gymnasts performing on Body in Flight (Delta) and Body in Flight (American).

Slideshow: Allora & Calzadilla, Body in Flight (Delta) and Body in Flight (American), 2011. Photos by Andrew Bordwin.

Tethered to my computer, I’ll be anxiously waiting all week for our Publishing and Media team to send over their latest creations. If you aren’t following @imamuseum or @USPavilion11 – now is the time to stay up to date on the latest. Also, be sure to “like” us on Facebook (a behind the scenes photo album coming soon) and browse our Venice Biennale microsite. There is a page for each of the six commissioned artworks, which includes videos and photos (stay tuned for some installation shots and full performance videos).

It’s because of all of these things (and the workings of a lot of people) that I can actually feel the energy radiating from the US Pavilion, 4,500 miles away. Reading tweets from the US gymnasts (@USATeamGloria), I sense their anticipation before opening performances and share in their pride for this wonderful opportunity with which we are all involved.  Watching rehearsal videos I can see the hard work and collaboration needed to pull it all together, while the final installation shots show me why it’s all worth it.

As I write this, I did just finish a nice glass of cabernet so while I may not be riding a vaporetto to work or rubbing elbows with international elites, my focus and heart (along with many others still in the building) is 100% Venetian this week.

Who’s up for some gelato?

The works in the collection feature many of Venice’s most popular highlights, including St. Mark’s Square, or Piazza San Marco.  The Piazza is the principal square in Venice, with the massive Basilica dominating one side.  Now thronged with tourists, it’s one of the rare vast open spaces in the city, with lots to explore on all sides. Henry James wrote, “It’s not easy to catch the real complexion of St. Mark’s…if you cannot paint these things you can at least grow fond of them.” Many artists have attempted it, and seeing their impression of this kinetic (and often frenetic) place gives you a glimpse into a specific moment.  However, at the same time, though many years and people have passed by, it’s interesting to also see how little has actually changed.

One of the works that features the Piazza in Venetian Views is this work by Frank Duveneck from 1883:

Frank Duveneck, "Piazza San Marco," 1883, gift of Frank Duveneck and L.H. Meakin.

Another incredible example from the IMA’s collection, is this one by Canaletto from 1735. The light in the square still looks like this:

Canaletto, "View of the Piazzetta San Marco Looking South," about 1735, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Elijah B. Martindale.

Still a meeting place, the amount of people has (just slightly) increased today: