VENICE.- Foundation 20 21 in celebration of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene, is mounting Venice in Venice, an ambitious exhibition during the upcoming Venice Biennale. The exhibition is on view from June 2st through July 31st 2011. Curated by Tim Nye and Jacqueline Miro, Venice in Venice has been selected by the Venice Biennale as one of its 40 collateral exhibitions where it will transport a group of revolutionary artists from the 1960s in Venice, California to the city of Venice, Italy for the 54th international Venice Biennale. Artists include Peter Alexander, John Altoon, Charles Arnoldi, John Baldessari, Billy Al Bengston, Larry Bell, Tony Berlant, Wallace Berman, Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, Ron Cooper, Mary Corse, Laddie John Dill, Joe Goode, Robert Graham, George Herms, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken, Ed Moses, Kenneth Price, Ed Ruscha, and James Turrell.

These artists will travel significant metaphoric waters from their roots squatting in an abandoned amusement park—which housed many of their studios as they first began their phenomenological experiments in the mid 1960s—to the opulent Palazzo Contarini Dagli Scrigni on the Grand Canal.

As the Academia Bridge unites the two banks of the Canal Grande, a fleet of psychedelic gondolas designed by Billy Al Bengston will unite Venice in Venice to Palazzo Grassi, creating a space time continuum of Venetian tradition with 1960s surf culture.

Another aspect of this cultural exchange will include the installation of two quarter pipes in Campo San Polo, which will be used to create a piece of unique contemporary art by two of Venice, California’s most beloved Gods in skate culture; Steve and Alex Olson.

VENICE IN VENICE
Linking the two cities of Venice is an inevitable concern with water, a shared unique luminosity (the product of intense sunlight refracted by droplets of mist and fog and light). Sun and Moon and Tides. Either/or, in Goethe’s word: "Venice(s), like everything else which has a phenomenal existence, is subject to Time…” to Light and Space. And Fetish.

Once the event touches down in Venice, Italy, the art world will never be quite the same. As the drivers of Light and Space art embrace the edges of urban pop culture, surfers, skaters, and new technology buffs will gravitate to the heat of a single source of energy—the Biennale. On the evening of June 4 at Campo San Polo, the surrealism of Fellini and the noir of Robert Altman film scores will receive tribute with a concert featuring today’s most revered musicians interpreting Nino Rota and John Williams, a mash-up worthy of the happenings of the 1960’s.

Venice in Venice will be unified by a revolutionary interactive program. Its goal is to not only offer experience which allows the user to actively view read and listen to content but to engage visitors and viewers to ignite their creative energies. A powerful arsenal of tools will be launched to excite the most reluctant of technophobes.

Venice in Venice is not a re-creation, but an homage—an event that only the art, politics, and technical progress of the last 50 years can bring to life at a single event.

The painting of the hulls of Venetian gondolas any color other than black is blasphemy. Wheels are forbidden to roll in her. On June 1st, 2011 the battle cry from a Venice far West of Italy will sound. The revolution begins:

•Venice in Venice—Glow & Reflection: June 1st through July 31st, 2011
•Round Table Discussion: June 2nd
•Billy Al Bengston Gondola Project: June 1st through July 31st
•Skaters Project: June 4th at Campo San Polo
•Venice in Venice Gala Concert: June 4th “Casanova vs. Philip Marlowe, P.I." at •Campo San Polo
•Swell Magazine