A stand-out work: 'The Feast of Trimalchio' by AES+F

After traipsing through the vastness of the Arsenale and then finding the right boat, I finally got to Russian art collective AES+F’s mind-boggling new multi-channel video The Feast of Trimalchio. It's a fantasia on many themes familiar to me as a visitor to Venice: religious iconography, luxury consumer goods, tourism and exoticism. AES+F construct a very particular type of ‘vacation’. The backdrop is a tropical island resort where a series of maids, cleaners and other service-people are at the beck and call of the holidayers—usually always clad in white: linen dresses, tennis whites, Lacoste sneakers and chinos. Sometimes these relationships are turned around: a holiday-maker becomes a waiter or an elegant blonde matron is ritualistically dressed in a traditional Thai outfit. While the work represents a visual typhoon of cultural stereotypes, bodies and costumes are often interchanged.

 

All the usual 'Club Med' activities are on site – squash, golf, massage, aerobics and gyms. Children are looked after elsewhere. Platters of fruit and rows of reclining chairs are arranged in perfect symmetry. The holiday-makers exercise en masse; rows of treadmills extend into the horizon. Like in other AES+F works, there are often classical and religious motifs and references. A weights machine stands in for the cross – capturing the focus of the new religious zeal: ourselves.

 

 

The gentle, balletic movements repeated by the figures in quasi-loop form evoke the serene calm and knife-edge professionalism of travel providers like Singapore airlines. Bodies and cultural costumes are given over to the almighty brand. Identical suitcases on wheels become part of the dance-like sequences. This digital choreographing of travel and leisure shows just how commodified the experience has become.

 

A young, chisel-featured man in a wheelchair floats by, escorted by his quasi-Nubian carers who submissively put him on a drip. Mortality is an obvious theme here; but this could also be a comment on the appearance of medical tourism and society’s increasing appetite for extreme physical self-improvement.

 

The massive cruise ships that glide to and from Venice, dwarfing the buildings and creating an ever-changing skyline, are just as ubiquitous in the work – sliding into shot against a soundtrack of Verdi’s Aida. Golf balls fly by, whirling in concentric circles like a cyclone or mushroom cloud. There is also a Buddhist temple on a catamaran. This work is completely and utterly wild and I’d love to sit amongst it many more times.

 

This work is in an exhibition called Unconditional Love which is near the Arsenale. I think there might be a way of getting to it from the back streets of Castello, (without entering the Arsenale), however I'm not entirely sure. These are the quirks of the Biennale experience: finding your way around is tough - in fact so is finding a good map. For those on their way, I recommend the British Council map and ArtWorld magazine's small pocket sized guide.

Comments

Keep up with the good work. Love your program