Felix Gonzalez-Torres represented the United States in the US Pavilion. Gonzalez-Torres died of AIDS in 1996. He was the official representative of the US. In this and the next posting you can get a sense of his installation. Consisting of licorice candies wrapped in cellophane, this rectangular space was said by some to be magical and peaceful. The public understood that they could pick the candies, in a sense disturbing the nature of the installation. I took two home with me. I saw a woman unwrap and eat one of the candies. I chose not to. According to Nancy Spector, curator at the Guggenheim and curator of the pavilion here, she was surprised that his work was chosen. She spoke about the influence on younger artists (Pierre Huyghe, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tino Sehgal). I have to confess, I had never heard of these artists before reading their names in Randy Kennedy's article.In addition to the licorice--candy spill--were hugh stacks of paper free for the taking. You can see that Jim has some of them rolled up. We later decided that we would not take these and gave them to someone else. As we wandered around the Giardini, we saw some people wearing the paper as a kind of skirt and others sitting on them on the lawn. Some of the papers were edged in black, reminiscent of a funeral announcement. Somehow because they were free people took them. I guess than they had to decide what to do with them.
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