Venice & the world: Art installations from pavillions of five countries

The theme for the 58th Venice Biennale, which opened this month, is May You Live in Interesting Times.

Here are art installations from pavillions of five countries that mirror the theme, with subjects ranging from news on social networks to beach boredom to the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.

Iceland: Chromo Sapiens - Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir has created a cave of colourful synthetic hair.

The labyrinthlike artwork is a fuzzy abstraction of nature.

Anurendra Jegadeva’s Yesterday In A Padded Room shows with posters and thrones a desire for garishness and pastiche and takes inspiration from a 18th century work of Malay literary work.

Titled The Slinky Effect, Ulviyya Aliyeva and Kanan Aliyev use slinks to represent the constant flow of news people receive from social networks and how they communicate only through these flows.

The theme is the 150 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and this wall installation by GR Iranna titled ‘We Together’ shows hundreds of distinct paduka or wooden footwear as if marching in unison.

Rugile Barzdziukaite, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelytee recreate the bustle, boredom and clichés of a beach – a strong sun, colorful beachwear, sunscreendabbed limbs on bright towels, children playing amid the sound of crashing waves.

(Source: labiennale.org; getty images, lifestyleasia.com)