Venice Art Biennale 2024 | A voice for voiceless artists

Bold, diverse, provocative, the most important visual art exhibition in the world this time gives voice to artists who gravitate outside the great Western circles. On the occasion of the 60^e Venice Art Biennale, presented until November, The Press offers you an eight-point overview of what you need to know if you pass through the Serenissima.

Foreigners Everywhere

Foreigners Everywhere (Strangers everywhere). This is the theme of the exhibition commissioned by the Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa, who gives it two meanings: first, no matter where we are, we encounter strangers everywhere on our path. But also: wherever we go, we ourselves are strangers in the eyes of others. Many indigenous artists, artists or artisans from the South, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, or even from LGBTQ+ communities – considered foreigners in their own country – were invited to the Biennale, but also European artists who have lived abroad. In short, Pedrosa wanted to give a voice to those who do not have one.

The Arsenale and the Giardini

These are the two main historical locations of the Venice Art Biennale. The Arsenale is an ancient shipyard that is over 1000 years old! More than 350 artists exhibit their works there in connection with the theme Foreigners Everywhere. A stop halfway is planned to take a break and refuel. In the Giardini, the pavilions of the different participating countries can be visited in a rather unique universal exhibition atmosphere. But other pavilions and museums also house delegations which are scattered throughout the labyrinthine streets of the city. The Biennale obviously provides a detailed map of the exhibition locations. In total, 88 countries are represented at the Biennale this year. We particularly recommend the pavilions of Finland, Egypt, France and Japan, among others…

The political dimension

It is impossible to ignore the political dimension of the Biennale, the equivalent of the Olympic Games of visual arts. This year, Russia was completely banned from the Biennale (two years ago, it was the Russian artist who withdrew in reaction to the invasion in Ukraine), but not Israel, whose presence irritated many countries. This time, it is the Israeli artist Ruth Patir who has chosen to suspend her exhibition. “The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a ceasefire agreement and release of hostages is reached,” we can read on the building’s window. A gesture welcomed by many observers. The only shadow in this idyllic Giardini, two armed Italian soldiers stand guard.

Canada well represented

Tanzanian-Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga, who grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, was chosen to represent Canada this year. Its installation called Junk – commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada – consists of several curtains of small glass beads from the Venetian island of Murano, once used as currency, now considered cheap objects. The curtains that surround the exterior walls of the pavilion are blue, those that line the interior walls create patterns with several colours. All this to illustrate “the way in which certain societies have been built through trade, exchanges and encounters between peoples”. Another Canadian artist represented at the Biennale, Montrealer Joyce Joumaa, presents her installation Memory Contours in the central pavilion of the Giardini.

Read our interview with Kipwani Kiwanga

Immigration at the heart of the Biennale

The theme of immigration, eminently topical in Europe (as elsewhere), is brilliantly explored in several works and installations in this Biennale. Among them, The Mapping Journey Project, by the Franco-Moroccan artist Bouchra Khalili, an installation of eight videos produced between 2008 and 2011 which can be seen at L’Arsenale. On large screens, we hear the chaotic stories of several migrants who left their country for all kinds of reasons. On a map, we see their hand tracing with a felt-tip pen the multiple routes that led them (or not) to their final destination. Often poignant testimonies during which, in the absence of a face, we cling to the stories.

The war in Gaza mentioned

A moving installation created by the artist of Palestinian and Saudi origin Dana Awartani can be found in the first third of the route of the immense hall of L’Arsenale. Come, let me heal your wounds. Let me beg your broken bones is a requiem for all the cultural and historical sites destroyed in Gaza since the start of the war. Awartani designed an assemblage of silk canvases torn in several places, each tear corresponding to the destruction of a place. But upon closer inspection, every tear has been stitched back together. The webs were then soaked in a mixture of herbs and essences that promote healing.

The crazy Swiss pavilion

The Swiss pavilion is like a breath of fresh air in this often charged journey – politically, socially, emotionally – with very powerful works. The artist Guerreiro do Divino Amor has designed an immersive, kitsch work full of self-mockery that represents an all-powerful Switzerland, which would be part of a superior civilization. An exhibition that is part of an even larger project called Super Superior Civilizations. It is thus a question of the Swiss miracle, and in a dome film projected at 360 degrees, the Swiss creator of Brazilian origin has a blast presenting us with an allegory of superpowerful Switzerland, an earthly paradise, with its lush gardens and its deities. A surprise awaits us at the exit, a nod to the fall of great empires.

The National Golden Lion of Australia

The Australian installation Kith and Kin, designed by Archie Moore, plunges us into darkness. On the slate walls that surround the room, and even on the ceiling, we can see a monumental First Nations family tree written in white chalk, with holes to fill. A dense, but incomplete tree, which traces a 65,000 year old history (to which the artist belongs). At the center, hundreds of documents were deposited on an island, including coroner’s reports discussing suspicious deaths or abuse suffered by these people at the hands of the state. The jury chose to reward this work which required years of research and months to write all the names in chalk for “its aesthetics, its lyricism and the evocation of its hidden past”. The Franco-Turkish artist Nil Yalter also received a Golden Lion for all of his work.

The Venice Art Biennale is on view until November 24, 2024.

Visit the official Biennale page (in English)