The first thing visitors will see when they enter the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale—an art show dedicated to the modern and cutting edge—will be a nod to the past: a three-paneled triptych on which the 20th-century Italian artist Tano Festa reproduced details from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The paintings, in tones of tan and ocher, serve two functions. They remind viewers of the Vatican's past importance as a sponsor of art, and they serve as a frame for the rest of the show inside. The theme for the pavilion, the Holy See's first at the Biennale, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 24, is the same subject Michelangelo depicted in his famous ceiling: the opening chapters of Genesis. Spanning the history of biblical creation, from "Darkness on upon the face of the deep" through the collapse of the Tower of Babel, the events include the forming of the earth and the animals, the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel and Noah's flood. (MORE: Venice Biennale – Summer Entertainment Preview 2011) Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who has been leading the effort, is careful to stress that the works are not liturgical—meaning they aren't meant to be used as part of on altarpiece or otherwise be used in a religious ceremony. But it's clear that he sees the art as serving a religious function, if only to offer a counterbalance to blasphemous iconic works of contemporary art like Andres Serrano's Piss Christ or the Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka's depiction of the Last Supper as a gay bacchanal—works that Ravasi argues demonstrate the continued power of religious symbols. "They found it necessary to attack them, to try to rub them out," he says. The Biennale itself is no stranger to controversial works. In 1990, the American artist collective Gran Fury exhibited a piece titled "The Pope and the Penis," a critique of the Vatican's approach to AIDS. The 1991 sculpture by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was even more direct, depicting Pope John(http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&blog=19871253&post=86636&subd=timeglobalspin&ref=&feed=1)
Via: TIME GlobalSpin