Curator Adriano Pedrosa’s theme for the 60th International Exhibition of La Biennale
di Venezia is Stranieri Ovunque (Foreigners Everywhere). The Biennale’s title is drawn from a series of works made by the Paris-born and Palermo-based collective Claire Fontaine since 2004, which consist of neon sculptures made in more than 50 different languages, including indigenous languages, featuring the expression Foreigners Everywhere.
The neon sculptures are exhibited at the Gaggiandre shipyards in the Arsenale and in the Giardini central exhibition. The expression Foreigners Everywhere was originally appropriated from the name of Stranieri Ovunque, a Turin collective who fought racism and xenophobia in Italy in the early 2000s.
“Artists have always travelled and moved about through cities, countries and continents. The Biennale Arte 2024’s primary focus is thus artists who are themselves foreigners, immigrants, expatriates, diasporic, emigres, exiled, or refugees.” Adriano Perosa
In the central exhibitions of the Biennale Arte there is an emphasis on artists from
the global South and indigenous art, and indigenous Artists Archie Moore and the Mataaho Collective were awarded Venice’s Golden Lions, with Moore winning best national pavilion for Australia (the country’s first Gold Lion). Moore spent months coating the exterior of the Pavilion with blackboard paint then applying chalk drawings to trace relationships between people and place back for 65,000 years. He references Australia’s cultural heritage, erased histories and the first nation people of Australia who are one of the oldest living cultures.
The Central Stranieri Ovunque exhibitions spread over two vast sites – the Giardini,
where there are around 30 National Pavilions, and the Arsenale, a former ship-building yard. There are around 300 artists exhibiting in the central exhibitions with 88 National Participations. Major museum exhibitions and official collateral events as well as vanity projects of collectors and galleries are dotted around the city. Although the national pavilions of the Biennale don’t have to adhere to the central theme and have autonomy to select an artist to represent their country, there is an overwhelming sense that most countries are presenting artists whose work responds to the Stranieri Ovunque theme.
Indigenous artists are representing USA, Brazil, Denmark and Australia, while diasporic artists or artists from countries that have been colonized are representing some countries, with Spain represented by an artist from Peru and the Dutch Pavilion exhibiting the work of a collective from the Congo, perhaps in a gesture of reparation for Colonization.
Here are some Art Plugged Highlights of the 2024 Venice Biennale
Photo Andrea-Avezzu
Courtesy Biennale Arte
Australia Pavilion: Archie Moore ‘Kith and Kin’.
Archie Moore’s exhibition kith and kin at the Australia Pavilion was awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for Best National Participation at La Biennale de Venezia 2024. This is the first time in history an Australian artist has received this accolade. In kith and kin, Moore transforms the Australia Pavilion with an expansive, genealogical chart spanning 65,000 years. kith and kin is curated by Ellie Buttrose and commissioned by Creative Australia. First Nations peoples of Australia are some of the oldest continuous living cultures on Earth, and statistically one of the most incarcerated. Archie Moore’s kith and kin is both evidence and reminder of these facts. The sprawling chalk on blackboard mural traces his Kamilaroi and Bigambul relations back 65,000+ years, including the common ancestors of all humans. Handwritten across the walls and ceiling, the family tree engulfs the audience.
The education materials refer to the transmission of knowledge and what is left out of history. Kamilaroi and Bigambul words in the drawing assert Indigenous language revival initiatives, while holes signal colonial invasions, massacres, diseases and displacement that sever familial ties.
The central reflection pool is also a void; a memorial to First Nations deaths in state custody attended by piles of coroners’ reports. Archie adds archival records referencing kin to demonstrate how colonial laws and government policies have long been imposed upon First Nations peoples. These bureaucratic papers documenting tragedies are cradled by the reflection of the family tree in the surrounding water. The artist uses his family history to make systemic issues uncomfortably tangible to audiences while providing a prescient reminder that we are all kin. Kith and Kin is curated by Ellie Buttrose.
USA Pavilion: Jeffrey Gibson The space in which to place me
Curated by Kathleen Ash-Milby, Abigail Winograd, the USA Pavilion in the Giardini is dedicated to the breathtaking art of Jeffrey Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent. Multi-disciplinary artist Gibson has created a truly joyful and immersive experience that commences before entering the USA Pavilion, by enveloping it’s classical façade with his rainbow coloured, geometric designs, and uplifting mantras.
Inside the Pavilion is infused with more colour and joy, with intricately beaded and costumed figures inspired by indigenous American tribal aesthetics, and paintings featuring Gibson’s signature geometrical shapes and unique rainbow-coloured font. His mantras include phrases such as ‘If not now then when’, ‘Give my life something extra’ and ‘If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.’ While he references civil injustices against minorities and indigenous American people such as the 1970-71 enforcement acts, his message is one of hope for a more equal and humane society in the future.
He visualises “a space in which Indigenous art and a broad spectrum of cultural expressions and identities are central to the American experience.” Gibson has created an interdisciplinary practice and hybrid visual vocabulary by drawing on American, Indigenous, and queer histories, with references to popular subcultures, literature, and global artistic traditions. His artistic practice reflects the vibrant realities of Indigenous communities in the United States, a form of cultural critique that engages with complex histories rather than erasing them.
Courtesy Biennale Arte
Great Britain Pavilion: John Akomfrah Listening all Night to the Rain
Listening all Night to the Rain, the British Pavilion curated by Tarini Malik in the Giardini, is dedicated to artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah, who fills the 19th Century Neo-classical building with a multiscreen investigation into climate change, racial injustice, and the experiences of migrant diasporas in Britain. Listening All Night To the Rain takes its title from the poetry of 11th century Chinese writer and artist Su Dongpo’s, which explored the transitory nature of life during a period of political exile. The exhibition is organised into a series of song-like movements or ‘cantos’ and unites eight interlocking and overlapping multimedia and sound installations into a single and immersive environment.
Listening All Night To the is the result of decades of extensive research by the artist and his team, using historical records to contextualise our experience of the present day. The exhibition continues Akomfrah’s preoccupation with themes of post-colonialism, ecology and the politics of aesthetics with a renewed focus on the act of listening and the sonic.
Courtesy Biennale Arte
Japan Pavilion: Yuko Mohri Compose
Yuko Mohri Compose is curated by Sook-Kyung Lee for the Japanese Pavilion in the Giardini. Mohri is known for her installations and sculptures centred on “events” that change with conditions such as their environment, and she fills the pavilion with sound, light, movement, and smell. Mohri was inspired by ad hoc efforts seen in Tokyo subway stations to stop water leaks, and Moré Moré ( meaning ‘Leaky’) artificially creates leaks and attempts to fix them, improvising with a variety of household goods available in Venice to construct kinetic sculpture.
The exhibition is Mohri’s comment on the devastating effects of global warming and consequent floods affecting the environment. Moré Moré is especially significant in Venice, a city hit by a flood once every fifty years and in danger of sinking forever at some point in the future. With a title that etymologically signifies “to place together (com+pose)”, the exhibition asks what it means for people to be and work together in a world facing multiple global crises. Paradoxically, the crisis brings out the greatest creativity — inspired by the subway workers’ resourceful measures against water leak.
Courtesy Biennale Arte
Egypt Pavilion: Wael Shawky Drama 1882
Alexandria-Born artist Wael Shawky’s musical film ‘Drama 1882’ was a huge hit during the Vernissage days, with vast queues forming outside the Egyptian Pavilion. Shawky composed and staged a live action opera based on Egypt’s Nationalist Urabi revolution (1879–82) against Imperial rule, which started with a fight in a café which erupted into riots, and ended with British forces bombarding Alexandria and the Battle of Tel El Kebir when the British proceeded to occupy the country. Drama 1882 was filmed in Alexandria in a historic open-air theatre in Alexandria and sung in classical Arabic. Shawky shows a recording of the opera alongside sculptural elements from the film’s sets and uses performance, sculpture, drawing and film to examine common notions of national and religious identity by recasting established viewpoints of history.
European Cultural Centre ‘Personal Structures’
The 7th edition of the European Cultural Centre’s biennial contemporary art exhibition Personal Structures encourages exploration beyond boundaries, fostering a broader perspective, and overcoming restrictions to promote personal, social, and global growth. The exhibition is spread over the ECC’s historical venues of Palazzo Bembo and Palazzo Mora, and there is an enchanting sculpture exhibition in the Marinaressa Gardens not far from the Giardini. Lauren Baker is exhibiting
‘Consciousness Awakening’ in the gardens, a surreal sculpture incorporating multiple
eyes sprouting from a plant. “Consciousness Awakening serves as a poignant reflection on the theme of “Foreigners Everywhere” during the Venice Biennale. Rooted in a profound connection to nature, the sculpture explores the unfamiliarity inherent in our relationship with the natural world. The inclusion of watchful eyes within the sculpture symbolizes a universal language of observation, transcending barriers of language and nationality. In this context, the concept of “foreignness” takes on new meaning, inviting viewers to reconsider their perceptions of what is familiar and what is foreign in the natural realm.” Lauren Baker
Until 24th November 2024 at the Marinaressa Gardens.
credit Lee Sharrock.
Nigeria Imaginary featuring Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Ndidi Dike, Onyeka Igwe, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Abraham Oghobase, Precious Okoyomon, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Fatimah Tuggar
Nigeria Imaginary, curated by Aindrea Emelife in a Palazzo in the Dorsoduro district of Venice, explores the role of both great moments in Nigeria’s history and presents visions of a future Nigeria. Presenting different perspectives and constructed ideas, memories, and nostalgias of Nigeria, Nigeria Imaginary leverages an intergenerational and diasporic lens to imagine a Nigeria for the future.
These voices are articulated via diverse mediums, from painting, photography, and sculpture, to AR, sound, and film. Yinka Shonibare CBE RA explores the Benin Expedition of 1897 and presents a new way to understand the looted objects, whereas Toyin Ojih Odutola reimagines a new world centred around the Mbari House. Onyeka Igwe and Abraham O. Oghobase explore the colonial hangover and question the future of this legacy whilst Tunji Adeniyi-Jones looks to the history of Nigerian modernism to evoke an alternative art-historical future. Fatimah Tuggar presents a utopic vision for a new Nigeria and Ndidi Dike assesses the intersection between the 2020 End SARS protests in Nigeria and the global movement of Black Lives Matter. Finally, Precious Okoyomon invites us into a dream state, placing us into the minds and perspectives of contemporary Nigerians so we can reimagine Nigeria with them.
Qatar Museum ‘Your Ghosts Are Mine, Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices’.
A journey in moving images through contemporary experiences of community life and memory, transnational crossings, and exile. On view at ACP–Palazzo Franchetti, the exhibition unfolds over ten galleries, each dedicated to themes such as deserts (cradles of civilization and places of rebirth), ruins (relics of culture), borders (demarcations between allowed and forbidden places) and exile. Included will be excerpts from works by over 40 filmmakers from Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Lebanon, Lesotho, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Mauritania, Syria, Senegal, Yemen, and more than a dozen other countries, as well as video works by artists Wael Shawky, Lida Abdul, Hassan Khan, and Sofia Al Maria.
Your Ghosts Are Mine, Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices is at ACP–Palazzo Franchetti, San Marco 2847 until 24 th November, 2024.
The Biennale Arte takes place in Venice until 24th November, 2024.
©2024 La Biennale di Venezia
Lee Sharrock is a global creative PR consultant, curator and writer for publications including; Art Doc Photography Magazine, ArtLyst, Creative Review, FAD Magazine, F22, Runway Gallery Magazine, Soho House Magazine and STATE.
