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Vedute Manoeuvres – A commission for the 54th Venice Biennale

Vedute Manoeuvre, 2011 (performance, video, artists publication), draws upon Brennan’s performance art-based research into how both the psychological and physical ‘view’ of an environment may affect our knowledge of a place, considering whether through the ‘manoeuvre’, art-tourism can acquire a shared aesthetic level of critical engagement. Canaletto was an exponent of what was to become known as ‘Veduta’ – a view painting (Plural: Vedute). Brennan adopted a number of Canaletto images of St. Marks Square as way-markers to form the spine of a route to be walked by participants. The walker utilises a collection of view-cards (15x8x6” in all) each of which presents a different Canaletto (reproduction) view of the Palazzo. The reverse of each view-card carries a quotation that contrasts that of Caneletto’s image whilst keying into the City’s fictional and factual past. (e.g.the Camponile/bell tower is coupled with a Marinetti quote relating to the fact that a Futurist manifesto was launched from the site in 1910). ‘Vedute’ has been performed on several occasions by groups touring St. Mark’s Square, involving them reading the cards aloud. The periods of travel between each station enables conversational exchanges, attention to the built environment and everyday phenomena. In this way the artwork sucks the ‘everyday’ into its framework.

Vedute Manoeuvre was commissioned for James Putnam’s curated exhibition ‘The Knowledge’ at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), Gervasuti Foundation. A limited-edition publication of printed ‘view cards/quotations’ is published by Information as Material and formed part of the London Art Book Fair, Whitechapel Gallery (2011).