‘Foreigners Everywhere’ at the Venice Art Biennale 2024
In a world facing multifaceted crises surrounding human movement and existence across geographical and political boundaries, the theme of the 2024 Venice Art Biennale, "Foreigners Everywhere," curated by Adriano Pedrosa, is strikingly relevant. Over the past decade, the number of armed conflicts in the world has almost doubled, leading to a significant increase in the number of forcibly displaced people. 2024 is a crucial election year, with approximately 2 billion people in 50 countries going to the polls. Immigration has emerged as the most pressing global issue in the US (Gallup).
Migration stories are central to the Biennale, 'Foreigners Everywhere' stands out as the most diverse Biennale to date, with many new voices and perspectives making their debut. The Biennale's voice emphasizes inclusivity and representation in the art world by spotlighting artists who are perceived as foreigners: immigrants, ex-pats, members of the diaspora, migrants and refugees, as well as those who are marginalized in other ways, such as queer artists.
A recurring focus in many national pavilions is colonialism, examined through the lens of its lasting impact and ongoing restitution debates. The art shows the struggle with the legacy of colonialism and its contemporary implications more than half a century after many countries gained independence.
Textile art dominates the Biennale, with numerous works using dyed, sewn or woven fabrics to tell the story. This focus underlines the desire to rectify the historical neglect of textile practices and craft.
Following are the projects that touched the heart of the OvN team visiting the Biennale.
Image by Marco Zorzanello
The Mapping Journey Project by Bouchra Khalili
Bouchra Khalili is a French-Moroccan artist who develops storytelling with members of communities excluded from citizen membership. The Mapping Journey project was created in collaboration with refugees and stateless citizens from North and East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
The project consists of eight videos showing the migration routes of refugees along the Mediterranean Sea. Each of the eight videos consists of one long take focusing on a map, a hand holding a permanent marker and the real-time drawing of often years-long, winding and dangerous journeys undertaken.
You can see more about the project here
The Space in Which to Place Me by Jeffrey Gibson, US pavilion
The US pavilion is a bright and energetic space with a hybrid visual language from American, Indigenous, and queer history with references to popular subcultures, literature, and global artistic traditions. Jeffrey Gibson melds intertribal aesthetics, beadwork, textiles, and found objects from the past two centuries with the visual languages of global modernism. Gibson’s art reflects the vibrant reality of Indigenous communities in the United States, offering cultural criticism that engages with complex histories rather than erasing them.
Integrating voices of writers, poets, and excerpts from founding documents, Gibson explores the distance between democratic ideals and their practical application, grappling with his own identity as a Queer, Indigenous person. By boldly using colour, pattern, and text, his works resist delegitimising cultural expressions outside mainstream norms.
You can see the video played in the pavilion here and more about Jeffrey Gibson and the making of the work here
Virgenes Cholas by La Chola Poblete
La Chola Poblete is a transdisciplinary artist whose artworks are based on the pages of the notebook Chola drew in 2014 and 2015. The drawings were exercises that served as anti-anxiety, the notebook served as a refuge. Through refined queer images, she recovers ancestral knowledge from South American areas.
La Chola Poblete's large-scale watercolours exhibit the fluidity that comes from her identity. A stream of hybrid creatures coexists with abstract, religious and pop motifs. The Virgin is a multifaceted central motif in La Chola Poblete's oeuvre because she embodies the syncretism between Western culture and indigenous communities.
Beyond the Shore by Julien Creuzet, French Pavilion
Julien Creuzet presents an installation that initiates a dialogue between the imaginary founders and myths of our hybrid societies. In his work, water, seas and oceans serve as vehicles for his vision of history, people's movements, ideas and forms. The references he draws from different geographies around the Caribbean, Latin America and West Africa have echoes on the European continent and in Venice.
Creuzet makes films, sculptures, and performances; he also writes poetry. The poetic works at the French Pavilion are at their best in combination with sound: Creuzet is a composer and musician; he mixes samples and clips like a producer, with sudden sharp notes, drops in rhythm or longer, more operatic turns, the music brings the installations that are many different objects that become one to live.
You can see a video about the installation here
Repeat After Me by Open Group Collective, Polish Pavillion
Repeat after Me II is an audiovisual video installation created by the Ukrainian collective Open Group. Repeat after Me II is a collective portrait of witnesses to the ongoing war in Ukraine. The videos presented were made in 2022 and 2024. All the protagonists are civilian refugees who speak about the war through the sounds of weapons they remember and then invite the audience to repeat after them.
The artists use the karaoke format but the accompaniment does not consist of hit songs, but of shots, rockets, howls and explosions. This is the soundtrack of the war. If they wish, Viewers can repeat the gun sounds after the witnesses, learn the language of their experiences or retreat to the safe space that is decorated like a karaoke bar.
You can see a video of the installation here
Come, Let Me Heal Your Wounds by Dana Awartani
Come, Let Me Heal Your Wounds by Palestinian-Saudi artist Dana Awartani is an installation of yellow and orange coloured canvas. Her work represents the destruction of historical and cultural sites in the Arab world during wars and acts of terror. The installation in Venice is a testimony to the destruction in Gaza.
Awartani tears holes in meters of silk, with each tear marking a spot. Then she tenderly tucks each cut as a gesture of healing; the resulting scars symbolize the physical and emotional scars left in the real world. The fabric is dipped in natural dyes based on herbs and spices that have medicinal value, utilizing the sacred healing properties embedded in the traditional textile dyeing practices of Kerala, which Awartani has spent time learning.
Greta Schödl
Artist Greta Schödl can be seen as a visual poet; her artworks are subtle repetitions of words inspired by the intelligence, love and dedication to everyday life through attention to the 'little things' that penetrate it. All-over writing covers her objects' flat or curved faces, giving shape to her words. The lines she creates are described by the artist as 'vibrations' that register the variations in the handwriting and the artist's experience or creative process.
She finds inspiration in connected complex movements in a fluid manner and vibrations of the stroke. She explores the behaviour of the thread and the deep meaning of feminine existence. Feminine characteristics of the millennial tradition must be rediscovered from new perspectives.
You can see a video about her work here
The International Celebration of Blasphemy and the Sacred by Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), Dutch Pavilion
The collective and community of Congolese plantation workers CATPC is based in Lusanga, the site of Anglo-Dutch company Unilever's first plantation. The facade and entrance of the Dutch pavilion in Venice are covered with splatters of palm oil, while the gallery itself smells of bitter notes of chocolate.
The sculptures are carvings of a variety of Congolese effigies and are made using clay from the forests around Lusanga and recast in cacao and palm oil in Amsterdam. The works reflects to the extractive practices surrounding both material goods in the region and the repatriation of profits to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The money used from the sales of these works has historically been used to support Congo, going toward agricultural initiatives and other ventures.
Takapau by Mata Aho Collective
The Mata Aho Collective consists of four Māori women artists who have collaboratively worked for a decade on large-scale fibre-based installations delving into the intricacies of Māori lives and knowledge systems. The term Takapau denotes a finely woven mat traditionally employed in ceremonies, particularly during childbirth. Takapau marks the moment of birth, signifying the transition between light and dark.
The tie-downs used in their installation embody a meticulous material selection, serving as tools of security and support for moving cargo, while also being affordable and accessible. This deliberate choice seeks to recognise often-overlooked labourers, emphasising the strength derived from interdependence and honouring a legacy that deserves acknowledgement. The Takapau installation is positioned at the Arsenale’s entrance and is observable from multiple perspectives. It unveils its intricate construction with the interplay of light and shadows on woven patterns offering a multi-sensorial experience.
You can see a video about the collective and their process here
Falling Reversely, a video installation by Isaac Chong Wai
The central theme of Isaac Chong Wai’s work revolves around reversing movements of falling as a powerful response to institutional violence and attacks against individuals of Asian descent. Throughout history and most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals of Asian descent, including the artist himself, have been victims of racist attacks in public spaces.
For the performance video 'Falling Reversely', Isaac Chong Wai collaborated with artists from the Asian diaspora to express solidarity through collective body movements. The artist and a group of dancers respond to the act of a body falling in front of a community. How do you respond to the falling? Would it be possible to prevent this or at least try to break the fall to reduce the physical pain?
You can see a short video here
The Venice Art Biennale is from 20 April - 24 November 2024.
Location Giardini, Arsenale and Forte Marghera in Venice.
More information can be found here