Art and Culture
Italy
Vadim Zakharov
by Lara, Chiara and Jenny
It is a performance in five acts that Vadim
Zakharov staged at the Russian pavilion in
the Giardini of the Biennale. The starting
point is the Greek myth of Danaë, who had
already inspired works of art. Perseus,
grandson of King Acrisius of Argos, had
made a prophecy about the death of the
king. The king decided to combact it, locked
his daughter Danaë in a tower of bronze but
Zeus impregnanted her going to visit her
under the form of golden rain. Mother and
son were able to survive and even to the
sea tide, where they had been abandoned
by Acrisius inside a wooden crate.
It was created an opening between the
two floors of the pavilion in 1914. From a
hole the bucket full of coins minted by
Zakharov passes . Each coin is a Danaë
distributed along a circular path: it falls
from the ceiling of the first floor as rain to
reach the ground floor. They are collected
from women protected by an umbrella to
be placed in the bucket and then brought
back to the ceiling. The entrance to the
women’s room on the ground floor is
forbidden to men because it symbolizes the womb. You can take has many coins as you
want and put them into the bucket that is in the middle of the entrance.
The rooms of the men are on the top floor
and contain a hard invitation to reflect on
their sins. In the first room there is a man
in a suit and tie hanging on a beam, astride,
reflecting on his mistakes eating peanuts.
In the second room, around a large central
opening through which the coins fall from
the ceiling, there is a red velvet kneeler:
men are forced to an act of humility.