Venice Golden Lion for Rafael Moneo, Peter Eleey Joins UCCA, and More: Morning Links from April 30, 2021

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The Headlines
THE CASTELLO DI RIVOLI MUSEUM IN TURIN, ITALY, has become a vaccination site, and is offering special perks for those getting shots. The Swiss artist Claudia Comte has designed a relaxing sound piece for the occasion, and since the museum is closed, they will have exclusive access to the institution until it reopens May 6. In a new essay for ARTnews , the institution’s director, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, explains why the building is now home to vaccinations. “Art has always helped, healed, and cured,” she writes, “and our museum has enough space for safe, physically distanced interactions and friendly guides who are trained in monitoring the public.”

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AFTER A ONE YEAR DELAY, THE VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE is set to open in just three weeks, and its organizers have announced that it will bestow a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on the Spanish architect and theoretician Rafael Moneo, 83. His buildings include the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, Spain, the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and an expansion of the Prado in Madrid. The biennale’s curator, Hashim Sarkis , said that Moneo “has highlighted the ability of every architectural project to respond to contingencies of site and program while transcending them.” At the awards ceremony on May 22 in the floating city, the late, great Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi will also will be honored with a Golden Lion.
The Digest
Speaking of Venice . . . Despite a decree from the Italian government prohibiting massive cruise ships from sailing through its historical center, they are continuing to do so, Anna Somers Cocks writes. The issue: the alternative port that they are supposed to use has apparently not yet been readied for them. [The Art Newspaper]
Former MoMA PS1 chief curator Peter Eleey is joining Beijing’s UCCA Center for Contemporary Art as curator-at-large, based in New York. The UCCA is getting ready to unveil a new branch in Shanghai. [ARTnews]
Newark, New Jersey is currently considering designs for a Harriet Tubman monument that were submitted by artists Abigail DeVille, Dread Scott, Jules Arthur, Nina Cooke John, and Vinnie Bagwell. A 14-member jury will make the final decision. [New Jersey Stage]

A finger that was severed from an ancient bronze sculpture of the Roman emperor Constantine more than 400 years ago has been reattached at the Capitoline Museums in the empire’s former capital. The digit was identified at the Louvre in Paris by a wise researcher in 2018. It had previously been misidentified as a toe. [The Guardian]
Following the donation of some 23,000 artworks by the family of Samsung leader Lee Kun-hee to state museums in South Korea, the government said that it is looking into ways to expand its art storage capacity.  [The Korea Herald]
Artist, poet, and chef Precious Okoyomon has been on a tear of late, with a residency at Luma in Arles, France, and an exhibition at Performance Space New York. Now they have on deck an 18-month show at the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado, a performance as part of Frieze New York—and a project in the May 2021 “New Talent” issue of Art in America. [Financial Times]
The Kicker
IF YOU ARE NOT ENTIRELY BURNED OUT on the topic of NFTs: The Museum of Modern Art has just posted a freewheeling conversation between curator Michelle Kuo and artist Seth Price on the subject. It turns out that both Price and Beeple use the same 3D movie-making program to create still imagery. “So it’s a use of this extremely complex tool in a very dumb way, and it can be interesting when you misuse a tool,” Price says. When it comes to the rise of NFTs, he argues that “the reason that art is used here is because it, itself, is a good tool to further the larger project, which is developing these new forms of trading, speculation, circulation. Art is just a useful idiot in this scenario.” [MoMA]
Thank you for reading. We’ll see you on Monday.

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