Elad Lassry at the Arsenale with "Untitled (Ghost)", 2011. 35 mm color film (1.33 full frame), 18', silent.

…is mostly my reason for stopping off on my way north to Germany – to my old island home (from 1990-91 while studying at I.U.A.V. – though it sure has changed in that short time – with the tourist mobs now seeming to run the place) since I avoided the stresses and crowds of the June opening in favor of a later viewing con calma – and despite some rather pessimistic informal anecdotal reviews from friends, I was happy to have some time spent with a few personal highlights, such as Mike Nelson’s dream-like Istanbul-like other-world-within-a-British-Pavilion-world installation, Gelitin’s Gelitin Pavillion which seemed like the only place in the Biennial where I’d really like to spend some time and hang out, though I’m really sorry to have missed the glass-blowing, performances, music, fire-tending, and requisite public nudity from the opening; Urs Fischer’s really cool half-melted baroque sculpture candles boasting their own full time Vigili del Fuoce attendants in case something goes wrong; the mountian of houseplants in front of the Dutch pavilion; the amazing crowds of black tadpoles trying to find shade in the stagnent giardini reflecting pools (but I don’t think that was ‘art’); but especially Elad Lassry’s silent dance film”Untitled (Ghost)” which had me transfixed and truly happy for the first time that day – one of many great folks representin’ L.A. like Shannon Ebner and Frances Stark. (website)