Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything - Venice

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Does art have anything to offer us in these trying times? Your host visits the 59th International Art Biennale in Venice, the world’s most important art fair and the first since the global pandemic. Plus Digital Ukranians, Sound Art, and NFTs.

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Episodes every other week at neverpo.st and wherever you find pods. This installment is called Venice. About a month ago, I got a call from a digital artist, a guy who made a lot of money two years ago selling NFTs. We're talking millions of dollars, so I'm not going to say his name because obviously he's got more than enough money to sue me for violating the terms of the NDA I signed. But as long as I don't say his name, and as long as I unequivocally state upfront that this is all fiction, I believe it's within my rights to share the following story with you. This story about my encounter with Mr. NFT, which took place in Venice during opening week of the B&I.

It all started with an email from one of Mr. NFT's assistants asking if I had a few minutes for a Zoom call with the man himself. I said yes, and a few hours later i found myself face to face with mr nft in his studio now even though mr nft has always considered himself to be an outsider in the art world he told me that after he had made headlines he assumed that he'd become an insider in fact after his famous nft auction mr n NFT began working on a piece for the 2022 Venice Biennale. He told me that he just assumed that naturally he would be chosen to represent the United States and Venice at the world's most important art event. So when he learned that the artist Simone

Lee had been chosen, Mr. NFT told me he was hurt and confused. But after looking Simone Lee up on the internet, his confusion turned to anger. You see, Simone Lee is the first African-American woman ever chosen to represent the United States in Venice. Then Mr. NFT decided to take a closer look at the Venice Biennale. This is when he discovered that the curator, New York-based Cecilia Almani, had chosen only 21 men out of 213 artists for her central exhibition. Mr. NFT's anger turned to rage. He told me that he felt he had no choice but to act. He decided to create the Real America Pavilion in Venice. And in this Real America Pavilion, he was going to stage a piece of performance art,

a piece he was going to call the Freedom Nazi, a contemporary political artistic reimagining of one of the most popular sketches from the 90s television show, Seinfeld. In the Soup Nazi episode, Jerry Seinfeld and his friends get in trouble with a New York City soup vendor who forces his customers to follow a strict set of rules if they hope to get some soup.

If you order incorrectly or offend his sensibilities in any way, well... George fails on his first try. But Elaine... She offends the soup Nazi so much... She's banged. No soup for you! Come back! One year! Next!

During our Zoom meeting, Mr. NFT showed me images of the replica Seinfeld soup store that he built inside his Real America pavilion. And he told me that he was flying in 21 American lookalike actors to Venice to portray Jerry, George, Elaine, Kramer, and the Soup Nazi. That's five Jerrys, five Georges, five Elains, five Kramers, and one Freedom Nazi. You see, my art piece is a response to the freedoms we have lost to COVID, Mr. NFT explained. So while my actors will comply with Italy's COVID restrictions inside the Real America Pavilion, they will wear masks and follow social distancing. But all these procedures only make it harder for them to fulfill their desire. Now, here's the crazy part.

Each time one of these actors succeeds in reaching the counter, they don't ask for soup. They ask for freedom. And the freedom Nazi responds to these requests by shouting out, No freedom for you! Now, the reason Mr. NFT was reaching out to me was because he was going to record the Freedom Nazis outbursts, and he was going to attach these audio files to digital images, and he was going to mint these files as NFTs, NFTs that would be immediately available for purchase. Every time the Freedom Nazis shouted, no freedom for you.

One of his assistants apparently liked my podcast and had told Mr. NFT that I was really good with sound. So he was hoping I could help him figure out how to best mic the actor for sound. Now, I never met this assistant, so I don't know if this is true or if someone was just having a laugh at my expense, but you know what, dear listener? While I do believe I have a talent for writing and audio, I wouldn't call myself a sound artist. And so this opportunity to burnish my sound art credentials, it seemed like something I had to take advantage of. Plus, even more importantly, it was a free trip to Venice.

So I said yes. My original flight out of New York got canceled. And then my next flight got cancelled as well. And so I didn't land in Venice until the afternoon before the big opening. But after I cleared customs, three of the Elaine look-alike actors were there waiting for me in the airport, holding a sign with my name on it. They escorted me to the Realica pavilion in a water taxi as the driver pulled away after dropping us off he gave me a three-finger salute mr nft did an incredible job with the pavilion the soup store looked just like the one from the TV show, only grander and

more foreboding. I noticed a number of soup pots sitting on a shelf along the back wall. I got someone to hang two of them from the ceiling over the counter. I stuck a shotgun microphone in each one. The first mic I aimed at the spot where the Freedom Nazi would be standing, and the other I aimed at the spot where the Freedom Nazi would be standing, and the other I aimed at the spot where the actor who would be doing the ordering would be standing. I ran both inputs into a small mixer and showed Mr. NFT how he could control the balance. This way, you'll be able to mix in some of the desperation and determination of the freedom seeker, I told him. Mr. NFT was blown away. You have exceeded all of my expectations, he said, giving me a giant bear hug.

You are a true sound artist. I tried to watch the rehearsal, but I was exhausted from all of my flight drama, and I wanted to be sharp for opening day. So I excused myself and went back to the hotel and immediately fell asleep. In the morning, I was awoken by one of the Kramers who burst into my room when I opened the door. We need to hide, he screamed. The cops are here. Before I could close the door, a tall, good-looking Italian police officer filled the doorway. You, come with me, he said, grabbing the Kramer. Run, the Kramer hissed at me. They've discovered

we all faked our Vaxinfo forms. But my vaccine is real, I stammered. What? He shouted in disbelief as the police officer trundled him off. Are you insane? The vaccine isn't safe. I even got a booster, I added as I followed them down to the lobby. Outside the hotel on the pier, Mr. NFT, his two assistants, the lighting tech, five Jerry's, five Alains, five Georges, five Kramers, and one Freedom Nazi were all being herded into a white police boat. I waved as it pulled away. And that's the last I heard from any of them. The real America Pavilion never opened, and I found myself with nothing to do but enjoy Venice, and the real Venice Biennale. I am queen

I am queen I am queen I am queen I am queen The best sound art I saw in Venice was in the British Pavilion, Sonia Boyce's multimedia piece Feeling My Way. Like Simone Lee, she is also the first black woman ever chosen to represent her country in Venice.

She filled her pavilion with sounds from five black female musicians who all improvised with their voices. It was an incredibly powerful and moving piece. But I spent most of my time in the milk of dreams, curator Cecilia Almani's big show, the show with 213 artists, the majority of which are women. In her curatorial statement, Almani says she organized the show around three primary themes, our relationship with our bodies, our technologies, and the earth. These themes are, of course, gateways to some of the most pressing questions of the earth. These themes are of course gateways to some of the most pressing questions of the moment. And as I wandered through the galleries, the artworks and the curation

enabled me to think and see and feel these questions in new ways. It was a truly transcendent experience. But was this because the galleries were filled with primarily women artists? At first, I would have said no. But then I came to a small series of paintings by J. Homer French, the first of which depicted a forest on fire. You see, I had seen this artist's work before, in New York, just before COVID time, and I had assumed incorrectly that Jesse Homer French was a man. I pulled out my phone and scrolled back, and sure enough, I'd taken a photo of another one of Jesse Homer French's paintings. It also depicted a forest on fire. I had taken this photo at the Independent Art Fair

in New York on March 6, 2020. It was the last Sunday I was in New York before leaving for France on the 13th for 15 months. And it was the last time that I'd been at an art fair until this moment here in Venice. It all came back. The terror, the loneliness, the sadness, the anger, the desperation, the hope, and the slowness of those two years. It all came back. And it all came back at the same time. I could see J. Homer French's fire, both then and now, but at the same time. And with this expanded consciousness, I was able to see that the world still burns.

I went to Italy when I was 10 years old for the first time because at the time in Ukraine, a lot of people used to go to work, for work to other countries, especially women. So my mother, she decided to start to work in Italy and then she met a guy who then became a father of my brother. Now they are not together anymore but at the time they were like boyfriend and girlfriend and when I was 10 years old we decided to go to Italy for a vacation. And I was really excited because at the time, you know, going in Italy was like going to another planet. It was really something incredible.

But when we should go back, we lost our bus to Ukraine. And it was already September and I was supposed to go to school and my mother asked me if I gonna stay in Italy and I said yes and after a couple of weeks I went to school in Italy. They really like changed me and I think also I started to be interested in art because of that, because it opened many, many, many things for me. But I always consider myself Ukrainian. And it's actually one of those things that I'm always saying to people. I'm meeting some people at the party, for example.

I really like to say, hello, my name is sergey and i'm ukrainian because i want to you know it's something that i'm considered really important about myself and i really like proud of it actually now i'm even more proud of it and because of all the things going on but i never uh in a professional activity i i i was i never like tried to focus on on the fact that i'm related to ukraine in like i mean nationally speaking because i don't like ukrainian like people i'm i'm saying about like artists the creators who are going you know like out of ukraine and they like all their work is related only to Ukraine you know for me it's important to be related in a context when I'm and also you know to work with Ukrainian but also Italian and international artists and creators and institutions so I never had the necessity to

you know to how to say like to underline my my nationality and my relation to Ukrainian nationality in terms of professional activity but in terms of identity uh it it was something that I really uh felt important and uh even more you know because now it's become really um yeah now is is something that you also i think you have to do in a way yeah so when we met in venice sergey you were sitting in the giardini which is the part where most of the national pavilions are and you were sitting next to this giant pile of sandbags and i guess you saw me you know standing there trying to make sense of this. And, you know, so you explained it to me that it was actually a Ukrainian artwork, a contribution to the Biennale and how in Ukraine right now, people are protecting, you know, monuments with

these giant piles of sandbags, you know, to protect them russian bombs um and then this sparked this whole conversation about art and passivity and politics and identity and you know the reason i hunted you down is because i kind of wanted to to hear it again um but then after you texted me about the the guy you met at the crypto party i guess um i guess we should just you know go back to the monument and and and start there maybe that'll make yeah um this this art this work was created by an artist her name is dana kosmina she is now uh in berlin she moved from ukraine uh as many many artists women artists because men artists are not able to move from Ukraine now. They have to stay there.

And this work was created in Giardini Pavilion by these artists because curators of Biennial decided to give more space to Ukrainian artists. So a part of Ukrainian Pavilion, which has a lot of attention during Biennial, there was also this possibility to make a work in Giardini, which is the main place where all people are meeting and passing by. But the problem is that it's a good idea, it's a powerful idea, but I think in that context it's becoming a bit like, I don't know how to say, like kind of entertainment, you know. Because it's also in front of a cafe and people are eating and nobody really understands what it is. And it's kind of forced a little bit,

because these monuments which people are covering with these packs of sand, they are real monuments, and this monument is not a real monument. There is no... It's a kind of fake monument. So, doing something like this with a real monument will be much more powerful. We have to understand what is the role of art now, you know, in relationship of this kind of situation. I think art is lost its potential, you know, in terms of political meaning and political action. And like there was Godard who was saying there is like cinema about politics and there is political cinema and And the same is for art.

There is like, it's two different things. And of course you can do a political statement in terms of meaning, like in the sculpture, but I think politics is something more about your action. You know, it's more about how you're doing things rather than what you're doing. I'll give you one very simple example. Coming from Ukraine, I always felt kind of periphery of Europe

and I always had complex about my identity. Now, of course, a lot of things changed because I realized that we are actually very strong and very aware of many things. And we are struggling for some values. And these values are important. We are not taking them for granted, like many people are doing here. They are thinking that they already achieved something and you know, they can

just you know, be passive. But it's not like this because in, and it's not about only Russia, Putin who is like close to Ukraine, who is like invaded, it's more about in general, you know, you have to be, you have to be active, you have to be like sensitive and you have to also rethink yourself and the world and many, many, many things. And this is a situation which provoked a lot of people to do that. I see how many also nice thoughts coming from, interesting thoughts coming from Ukraine. I see many, many things coming from that part of the world, which I found very stimulating in terms of emancipation, like in terms of decolonization, in terms of political awareness, in terms of cultural production, in terms of what does

it mean being like, you know, part of society and, you know, and what does it mean being like, you know, part of society and, you know, and what does it mean being empathic and caring and many, many other things. So I think there are a lot of things to learn from Ukraine now, from Ukrainian people. I don't know if you maybe do understand what I mean. Absolutely. But doesn't this, you know, bizarre with the the guy uh you met at the crypto party on the yacht um or maybe i should put it as a question how then does all this you know that you just talked about connect with you know the guy um you met and and the proposition that yeah yeah um i went to party in ven Venice because in Venice there are amazing parties every

day and every night and you can really meet everybody. And there was this guy, very rich who kind of involved in this NFT thing. And we started a conversation and I told him my story a little bit. And then he came up with this idea to produce an NFT piece based on my identity in order to sell it to people who can buy it and feel a bit Ukrainian and in order to, you know, like earn money and like help Ukrainian community like many people are doing at this moment. So he actually told you like, i want to tokenize your ukrainian identity um yeah i think it's a it's a crazy idea but at the same time it's kind of interesting because now people can like all over the world can buy it and and be and feel ukrainian. It could be an interesting idea, actually. You have been listening to Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything.

This installment is called Venice. This episode was written and produced by me, Benjamin Walker, and it featured Sergei Kansada. Special thanks to everyone I met in Venice. The Theory of Everything is a proud founding member of Radiotopia from PRX, home to some of the world's best podcasts. Find them all at radiotopia.fm.