It was cold, it was raining and it was wonderful! Time was short: one week. Friends were abundant: old and new. Traveling mates: a dream. The dramatically good-looking city of Venice, which I had visited only once before in the summer of 2022, showed us one of its many faces, a more local and historical one. As rain is default weather when in a lagoon comprising 126 islands, one rainy night we heard the siren warning its residents of acqua alta or floods. Venice’s strength and resilience throughout its long eventful existence spoke through those surprising nocturnal sounds. That night I learned to love the city. And that wine can be spiritoso.
And then there’s the art. Titled Foreigners Everywhere, the main exhibition is curated by Adriano Pedrosa, a fellow compatriot, who sourced works mainly from the global south, his intention being to “highlight the differences and disparities conditioned by identity, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, freedom and wealth” (curator’s statement). Much of the art is shown for the first time at the Biennale, including works created by indigenous peoples—a strong presence—asserting the idea that being colonized can make you feel like a foreigner in your own country as well.
Foreigners Everywhere, Claire Fontaine, installation by Palermo-based collective by the Italian-British artist duo Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill.
Giardini and Arsenale’s main exhibition pavilions greet the visitor with monumental works that feel like portals setting the tone for what’s to come. At the Giardini the stunning mural created by the Huni Kuin indigenous collective MAHKA (Acre, Brazil) represents the myth of Kapewë Pukeni (alligator bridge) and narrates the story of the migration of their people between Asian and American continents through the Bering Strait. Entering the Arsenale we walk under the dazzling large-scale installation by Mataaho Collective (New Zealand), a collaboration between four Māori women artists inspired by takapau, finely woven mats made for ceremonies, particularly childbirth, marking the transition between light and dark. Here they were made of heavy duty straps used to secure loads to trucks. The shadows they cast on walls and floors adds to the startling effect and multi-sensorial experience.
While walking through both venues here are some notes we took: much care in grouping, hanging and spacing the works (Nucleo Storico: Abstraction); harmony and rhythm between rooms and subjects; great artist pairing (Madge Gill and Giulia Andreani); well-placed over-sized works and installations (Aloïse’s drawing Cloisonné de Théâtre; Daniel Otero Torres’ installation Lluvia); sound not bleeding from works on video; spaces felt vibrant but never uncluttered; we were being offered a masterclass on hanging and displaying art. Not all was praise though: the dark spiral structure chosen to show videos part of the Disobedience Archive at the Arsenale was disorienting if very interesting as form. The Arsenale is a famously complex space, yet the curator composed a precious score, achieving great rhythm. The glass easels designed by Lina Bo Bardi in 1968 (Nucleo Storico: Italians Everywhere) have a stunning effect of people walking around floating paintings!
The marvelous and unusual grouping of artworks at this year’s Biennale may represent a snapshot of this moment, however it may not come around again. An excellent reason to attend. For yours truly, a second visit feels compulsory.
Some favorites: Nucleo Contemporaneo: Aloïse, Madge Gill, Aycoobo, Kang Seung Lee; Nucleo Storico: “Abstractions" and “Italians Everywhere”; National Pavilions: Brazil, USA, Great Britain, Australia, Nigeria, Canada, France, Nordic, Kalaallit Nunaat, Italy. Collateral shows: Pierre Hyughe, Ewa Juszkiewick, Julie Mehretu, De Kooning, Jean Cocteau.
Below are some images of what we saw, including views of Venice, part and parcel of our experience of visiting the Biennale.
MAHKU (Movimento dos Artistas Huni Kuin), Kapewë pukken, 2022, detail of mural painted at the Giardini.
Ione Saldanha, Bambus, 1960’s-70’s, acrylic on bamboo. Giardini.
Canadian Pavilion, Kapwani Kisangani, Trinket, 2024.
Judith Lauand, Acervo 290, concreto 18, 1954, glaze on hardboard, 72 x 60 cm. Giardini.
Lauren Halsey, The Eastside of South Central Los Angeles Hieroglyph Prototype Architecture (I), 2023. Arsenale.
Nigerian Pavilion. Nigeria Imaginary. Here: Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul by Yinka Shonibare that explores the Benin Expedition of 1897 and presents a new way to understand the looted objects. Dorsoduro.
Mexican Pavilion, Erick Meyenberg, As we marched away, we were always coming back, 2023. Installation of table and videos.
Venice views
Holy See (Vatican Pavilion), Con I miei Occhi, Maurizio Cattelan, Bintou Dembelé, Simone Fattal, Claire Fontaine, Sonia Gomes, Corita Kent, Marco Perego & Zoe Saldana, Claire Tabouret. Casa di Reclusione Femminile, Giudecca.
Bouchra Khalili, The Mapping Journey Project, 2008-11. Arsenale.
La Chola Poblete presents a series of representations of the Virgin Mary produced with watercolors on paper between 2023 and 2024. Arsenale.
Rafa al-Nasiri, Untitled, 1971, pigment on plywood, 100 x 105.5 cm. Giardini.
Lina Bo Bardi, glass easels, 1970, “A legendary device in the history of exhibition displays. It was especially conceived for MASP’s picture gallery and was first revealed at the museum’s opening in 1968. It consists of a thick glass plate inserted into a concrete cube, for a self-supporting transparent panel onto which the picture is hung. The artwork’s lane is affixed to the back, so that the visitor may first encounter the work without any historical contextualization. She aimed to present the works as the product of labour, aiming to desacrilise them.” (exhibition guide). Arsenale.
Another view of Lina Bo Bard’s glass easels. Arsenale.
Italian Pavilion. Massimo Bartolini, Due Qui / To Hear, consisting of two installations. Here: Pensive Bodhisattva on A Flat, 2024. Arsenale.
Pierre Huyghe, Liminal, 2024, real time simulation, sound, sensors. Punta della Dogana
Great Britain Pavilion, John Akomfrah, Listening All Night To The Rain, 2024.
USA Pavilion, Jeffrey Gibson, The space in which to place me, 2024. Show here: The Enforcer, 2024, ceramic, glass beads, plastic beads, nylon grosgrain ribbon, tin jingles, nylon thread, canvas, acrylic, felt, cold-rolled mild steel, 213.4 x 101.6 cm.
Pacita Abad, Haitians waiting at Guantanamo Bay, 1994, oil, painted cloth, buttons and beads on stitched and padded canvas, 238.8 x 175.3 cm. Arsenale.
Pierre Amourette, Chiesa di Sant'Eufemia, Giudecca, façade. His work is also shown in the interior and back garden of the church.
Madge Gill, Crucifixion of the soul, detail, 1936, ink on calico, 147 x 1062 cm. Giardini.
Yours truly happily hopping onto what happens to be my favorite speedboat.
Abel Rodríguez, El árbol de la vida y la abundancia, 2022, ink on paper. Giardini.
Aloïse, Noël, 1951-60, mixed media on paper. Giardini.
Australia Pavilion, Archie Moore, kith and kin, 2024
Australia Pavilion, Archie Moore, kith and kin, 2024. Another view.
Aravani Art Project, Diaspora, mural, 2024. Collective composed of cis and transgender women from Bangalore, India, with the aim of spreading positivity and hope to their communities through their commissioned murals. Arsenale.
German Pavilion. Thresholds, artists Yael Bartana, Ersan Mondtag, Michael Akstaller, Nicole L’Huiller, Robert Lippok, Jan St. Werner.
Dalton Paula, Pacífico Licutan, 2024, gold leaf and oil on canvas. Arsenale.
Marco Scooting with Ursula Bieman (and others), Desobedience Archive, 2010. Multiphase, mobile, and evolving archive that concentrates on the relationship between artistic practices and political action. Arsenale.
Nil Yalter, Exile is a hard job, 1983-2024. “Named using the words of Turkish poet Nâzim Hikmet, this installation features videos and fly-posters documenting the lives and experiences of immigrants and exiles, with the work’s title painted over them in bold red letters, in the manner of a political slogan” (exhibition guide). Arsenale.
Argentinian Pavilion. Luciana Lamothe, Hope the Doors Collapse, detail, 2024.
Eva Jospin, Selva, detail, 2024, Palazzo Fortuny.
French Pavilion, Julian Creuset, Attila cataracte ta source aux pieds des pitons verts finira dans la grand mer gouffre bleu nous nous noyâmes dans les larmes marées de la lune, interactive installation, 2024.
Fondazione Prada, Christoph Büchel, Monte di Pietà, Büchel uses the site to explore the various ways in which debt is still used as a means of power and suppression. Palazzo Ca’ Corner della Regina.
Brazilian Pavilion. Glicéria Tupinambá with the Tupinambá community of Serra do Padeiro and Olivença, Bahia, Olinda Tupinambá, Ziel Karapotó, Ka’a Pûera: We are Walking Birds, 2024. Shown here: Ziel Karapotó’s installation flying maracas.
Ewa Juszkiewicz, In a Shady Valley, Near a Running Water (after François Gérard), 2023, one of the fifteen paintings at the show called Locks with leaves and swelling buds. Palazzo Cavanis.
Willem de Kooning, Red Man with Mustache, 1971, oil on paper mounted on canvas. 186 x 91.5 cm. Gallerie dell’Accademia.
amazing coverage and sensitivity!! Thx for that!!
Fantastic! Thanks for posting all the pictures too! (It's not likely that I will get to see the show in the flesh...)