The Foundation assisted Checkerboard in producing a 40 minute video on Kiki Smith called “Squatting the Palace: An Installation by Kiki Smith in Venice,” co-directed by Vivien Bittencourt and Vincent Katz. “The video documents Kiki’s creative work process through casual conversations with Kiki and verité observations. The video focuses on HOMESPUN TALES, a site-specific installation by the artist in the summer of 2005, at the Querini Stampalia Foundation, located in a palazzo in Venice. Smith decided to create an artistic dialogue with The Foundation’s collection, which includes many paintings by Pietro Longhi, who depicted and chronicled the lavish “salon life” of Venice in the 18th Century. Kiki Smith creates a three-dimensional collage of “domestic life” as experienced by American women in the same time period, i.e., the austere life of 18th century colonial women. The cultures of both places engage in a dialogue between the old and the new. In this exhibition, Smith deals with faith, sexuality and childhood, female duty and role, dream and daily life.”
