The (inter)national (inter)face of (inter)action

Abstract

Art objects have since time immemorial presented a certain degree of interactivity to a visiting audience, walking around a sculpture or looking at a painting from various vantage points being the commonest occurrences within galleries and museums. A visitor’s experience to a static work of art is therefore to a large extent dependent on the physical circumstances presented by the work and its surroundings, by such attributes as the walking space around a sculpture or the colour of a wall behind a painting and numerous others. Opportunities for artwork-visitor interaction increase exponentially not only when one endows the art object with the ability to affect the audience or vice-versa, but also when the work itself is able to do both and influence itself through its own physical and virtual state of being. Under the umbrella title Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind. Art in the present tense, the 52nd International Venice Biennale curated by Robert Storr presents the visitor with a showcase of contemporary art promising diverse sensual, mental, physical and especially virtual, interactive opportunities and experiences.