As storytellers, artists are often fascinated with the personal lives and creative output of others. But how can (or should) artists transform these stories into their own work? And as these artworks enter public circulation, what responsibilities do artists have to these individuals and their communities, especially marginal ones? In other words, how might artists best represent the historical transformations and cultural movements that these stories signify and embody?
These pertinent questions are central to the practices of two artists featured and whose works are prominently featured at the 60th Venice Biennale. For our cover feature, deputy editor HG Masters spoke with Los Angeles-based Kang Seung Lee about his practice of investigating cultural figures whose lives were neglected by the mainstream narratives of history. Building on his research over the past decade, Kang explains how for Adriano Pedrosa’s Biennale, where “foreignness” is a central theme, he created an intergenerational constellation of artistic figures who died of AIDS in the 1980s and ’90s. In his work at large, Lee explores what it means for the queer community to “take care of our caretakers.” In our second feature, assistant editor Anna Lentchner interviewed Manal AlDowayan about her long history of working with the collective memory of women in Saudi Arabia, and her recent participatory workshops in the run-up to her representation of the kingdom in the exhibition “Shifting Sands, A Battle Song.” For AlDowayan, who is concurrently working on a permanent commission for Wadi AlFann in AlUla, connecting to audiences is a responsibility she feels toward the people who see and live with her artworks.
