In Venice, Italy, the 60th Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition, curated for the first time by a Latin American, is giving overdue recognition to outsider, queer, and Indigenous artists.
Adriano Pedrosa, a curator from Brazil, has organized the main show at the Venice Biennale, which includes 88 national pavilions for a seven-month period. The show focuses on figurative painting and includes more artists from the Global South, who have been long ignored by the mainstream art world. Some of the artists, like Frida Kahlo, are no longer alive, and her painting “Diego and I” is being displayed alongside one by her husband, Diego Rivera, for the first time at the Venice Biennale.
Despite being fewer in number, living artists have a strong presence in the exhibition, each showing either one large-scale work or a collection of smaller works, with the majority making their Venice Biennale debut.
In the main venues, the Giardini and the Arsenale, visitors will see a neon sign with the exhibition’s title, “Stranieri Ovunque — Foreigners Everywhere,” displayed in 60 different languages.
Given the global conflicts and increasing border restrictions, the title of the exhibition serves as a challenge to uncompromising governments, or at the very least, an encouragement to contemplate our common humanity. The exhibition, featuring artists with underrepresented perspectives, addresses themes of migration, diaspora, indigeneity, and the role of craft.
According to Pedrosa, the expression “foreigners everywhere” has multiple meanings. It can be interpreted as always being surrounded by foreigners wherever you go, and also as feeling like a foreigner deep down inside regardless of your location.
Refugees, foreigners, queer individuals, outsiders, and Indigenous people are the main subjects of interest in the exhibition.
Some highlights from the Venice Biennale, which runs through Nov. 26:
GEOPOLITICS AT THE BIENNALE
Due to the threat of protests, the Israel Pavilion remained closed as the artist and curators refused to open it until a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas-led militants.
Ukraine is making its second appearance at the Biennale as a country under invasion, aiming to use soft diplomacy to keep the world focused on the war. Russia, which has not participated since the Ukraine invasion began, has loaned its historic building in the Giardini to Bolivia this time.
During this week’s previews, a sign hung on the Accademia Bridge briefly labeled Iran as a “murderous terrorist regime,” expressing the Iranian people's desire for freedom and peace. The Iranian pavilion nearby did not show any activity, but the Biennale stated it would open on Sunday, two days after the departure from Italy of the Group of Seven foreign ministers who warned Iran about sanctions due to escalating violence against Israel.
GOLDEN LIONS
The prize for best national pavilion at the Venice Biennale was awarded to Australia for Archie Moore’s installation “kith and kin,” which explores his Aboriginal heritage over 65,000 years. The project, created with chalk on the pavilion’s dark walls and ceiling, took several months to complete. The Mataaho Collective from New Zealand won the top prize for the best participant in Pedrosa’s main show with their installation inspired by Maori weaving, which covers the gallery space with shadows and delves into interconnectedness.
LGBTQ+ ARTISTS
Kang Seung Lee, a queer artist from South Korea working in Los Angeles, expressed his resonance with Pedrosa’s theme of viewing lives as outsiders and visitors to the world.
Lee's installation, “Untitled (Constellations),” reflects on the artists who passed away during the AIDS epidemic through a collection of objects. It is juxtaposed with spare paper-on-canvas works by British artist Romany Eveleigh, who passed away in 2020. Lee, 45, remarked that the pieces engage in an intergenerational dialogue. His work has been displayed in various international exhibitions, including Documenta 15. This marks his debut at the Venice Biennale.
Meanwhile, transsexual Brazilian artist Manauara Clandestina showcased her video “Migranta,” which tells the story of her family’s migration. She expressed the emotional impact of being able to hear her father's voice in the video. Clandestina, from the Amazon city of Manaus, received support from Pedrosa during a press preview for her debut in Venice. She mentioned that despite facing discrimination and violence against transgender individuals, she continues her work in Brazil.
NEWER NATIONAL PARTICIPANTS
The Giardini accommodates 29 national pavilions, representing some of the longest-standing participating nations such as the United States, Germany, France, and Britain. More recent additions either exhibit in the nearby Arsenale or select venues further away, as Nigeria did this year in Venice’s Dorsoduro district.
The Nigerian Pavilion, a previously unused structure with raw brick walls, hosts an exhibition featuring various art forms, including figurative art, installation, sculpture, sound art, film art, and augmented reality, by artists residing in the diaspora and in Nigeria.
Curator Aindrea Emelife highlighted the distinctive and diverse perspectives of Nigeria stemming from the different relationships artists have with the country. She expressed that the exhibition delves into the theme of nostalgia and criticality, exploring how departing a space sparks yearning for what could have been and enables an artist to envision an alternative continuation of it.
The eight-artist Biennale exhibition “Nigeria Imaginary” will be displayed at the Museum of West African Art in Benin City, Nigeria, where Emelife serves as curator, providing it with a new context and enhanced relevance.
BREAKTHROUGHS
Ghanaian-born British artist John Akomfrah created eight multimedia film- and sound-based works for the British Pavilion, which explores the experience of “living as a figure of difference” in the U.K. Water imagery serves as a link, symbolizing memory.
“I'm mainly trying to uncover something about shared memory, the things that have shaped a culture, specifically British culture, over the past 50 years,’’ Akomfrah said to The Associated Press. “As we delve deeper, we realize we're going back even further, all the way to the 16th century. So it's an examination of 500 years of British life.”
When considering the issue of fairness in the art world, Akomfrah mentioned the nearby French Pavilion — where French-Caribbean artist Julien Creuzet created an immersive exhibition — and the Canadian Pavilion on the other side, which features an exhibition exploring the historical significance of seed beads by Kapwani Kiwanga, who is in Paris.
“I mean, this feels like a very important moment for artists of color,’’ said Akomfrah, who took part in the Ghana Pavilion in 2019. “Because I’m in the British Pavilion. Next to me is the French one, with an artist, Julien, who I greatly admire, of African origin. And then next to me is a Canadian pavilion that has a biracial artist, once again, with African heritage.
“So that’s definitely never happened before, that three major pavilions have artists of color dwelling, occupying, creating work in them. And that feels like a breakthrough,” he said.
UKRAINE
The Ukrainian Pavilion involved ordinary Ukrainians collaborating with artists on work that records how they are experiencing, and in some ways adapting to the Russian invasion.
The artistic projects include silent video portraits of European actors styled by Ukrainians displaced by the war to represent an “ideal” refugee. In another, neurodiverse young adults display their linguistic flexibility in adapting to a new reality where niceties like “quiet night” have a whole new meaning. And a film installation has become a kind of archive, taken from social media channels that once documented pre-invasion pastimes but that shifted their focus to documenting the war.
Co-curator Max Gorbatskyi said it was significant for Ukraine to be present at the Biennale to assert its uniqueness from Russian culture, but also to use the venue to maintain the wider world’s attention.
“We wanted to look at stories of real people,’’ he said. “There was no way we were going to show some abstract paintings, maybe beautiful and interesting, but which only pose questions in the art discourse. Instead, we wanted to bring real people together with artists in a non-hierarchical way to tell their stories.”
COLLATERAL EVENTS
Greek American George Petrides’ installation “Hellenic Heads” outside of Venice’s Church of Saint George of the Greeks and the Museum of Icons is among the many collateral events that spill over into the city.
Petrides’ created six oversized busts, each inspired by a significant period of Greek history, using family members as models. His mother, in turquoise blue, is in the classical style and his daughter represents the future in a golden hue. To withstand the weather, Petrides recreated an earlier series but this time from recycled plastic, using a digital sculpting software and a 3D printer, reworking details from hand.
“This place is special. We have the Museum of Icons here, which has one of the most impressive collections of icons in the world. We have a church that began while Michelangelo was still alive, which any sculptor would find interesting. Moreover, this particular area is the Greek quarter,’’ he said, mentioning an increase in population after Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453.
At the foot of the Accademia Bridge, the Qatar Museum’s exhibition “Your Ghosts Are Mine” displays clips of feature films and video art from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia organized thematically and examining issues such as migration, conflict and exile. The films will be shown in full four days a week.
“These different themes tell a story about all the similarities and connections that exist among filmmakers who may have never met or are from different parts of the global south,’’ said assistant curator and filmmaker Majid Al-Remaihi. “Some films were the first from their countries to premiere in Cannes or make it to the Oscars, so these are important milestones and also a part of our journey.”
