A tennis star is the model for a work of art at the Venice Biennale – and hardly anyone has noticed. The installation has long since ended, but those who are interested still have a chance.
Basel – tennis maestro Roger Federer was part of an art object unnoticed by the public. A life-size figure modeled after him hung blue and white like a cloud under the ceiling of a church in Venice 2022. The 41-year-old has now revealed on his social media channels that he had posed for the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone. The installation included a total of seven naked figures, which the artist called “flying body clouds”. Last year it was on view at the same time as the Biennale in the lagoon city.
The installation called “Burn Shine Fly” was also recently exhibited in Paris and is to be shown again, as the artist’s studio in New York told dpa. “Whether the characters will be shown together or individually remains to be seen,” the studio said. It has not yet been able to name a date or location.
The Federer replica figure floated with the others under the ceiling of the Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista church in Venice. For this, the artist took impressions of Federer’s face and his hands, for example, as the retired tennis professional showed with photos on Twitter, among other things. He is seen with the blue material for the casts on his face and hand. Federer also shows the finished model without cloud painting. His facial features are clearly recognizable. However, when installed, the figures hung at a great height and the Federer model was oriented facing upwards, so the face could not be seen from below.
“In the past two years I have had the unique opportunity to work with my compatriot and famous artist Ugo Rondinone to discover art on a deeper level,” Federer wrote. dpa
