Fred Wilson: Speak of Me as I Am

The United States is represented at the 50th Venice Biennale by artist Fred Wilson, known for questioning accepted notions of “truth” through installations of historical artifacts, art objects, film, video, audio and altered museum labels. Wilson’s U.S. pavilion deals with Renaissance Venice and the role Black Africans played in what was then the most cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse city in the world. Part of Wilson’s exhibition focuses on more personal themes of sadness and regret through an installation circling the Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice. A fully illustrated 66-page catalogue, produced by the MIT List Visual Arts Center, features acknowledgements by Jane Farver; essays by Paul H.D. Kaplan and Salah Hassen; and an interview of the artist by Kathleen Goncharov. The catalogue is accompanied by a CD documenting Wilson’s work in Venice.