The weight of the world
Venice’s central mystery is that it exists at all, but it may not for much longer. The most singularly wondrous expression of humanity’s textural, sensual and spiritual potentials will likely disappear, eventually, under rising tides attributable to another, completely human-made creation: climate change. And yet despite being on its last legs, Venice still resists the contemporary urge to control and know everything about it. It’s impossible not to get lost there, no matter how well you know it; even the Sauron-eye of Google Maps glitches in its alleyways. But in the end it will go, and we will be entirely responsible for its destruction.
The depressing truth at the heart of Dane Mitchell’s excellent exhibition , New Zealand’s official presentation at this year’s Venice Biennale, is that when Venice sinks, nothing at the macro level will change — because despite constant processes of erasure, extinction and loss, the weight of the world never really shifts; matter just transforms. Mitchell’s fascination with this material conundrum is at the heart of : a project generated by loss, not as an idea but as an actuality. At its core is a massive list, assembled by the artist and his assistants, running to more than two million items, of things that have disappeared from our world. The list is so big that to hear the whole thing being read at
