The Venice Biennale 2024 kicked off on April 20, with around 331 artists from Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the Central and South Pacific, and South Asia. Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa has chosen "Foreigners, everywhere" as the theme for this year's exhibition, which aims to shine a spotlight on historically "marginalized" artists. Pedrosa explains that the theme has a double meaning: "First of all, wherever you go, wherever you are, you will always meet foreigners – they/we are everywhere. Secondly, no matter where you are, deep down, you may always be an 'outsider'." The same is true at the Venice Biennale, where the artists are foreigners and most of the visitors come from overseas, where they can see unfamiliar cultures and find cultural symbols and thoughts from their own homeland.
At this year's exhibition, the thematic exhibition "Outsiders Everywhere" is divided into two sections: "Nucleo Contemporaneo" (Contemporary Core) and "Nucleo Storico" (Historical Core). The Contemporary Core focuses on queer artists who are gendered, persecuted, or accused, artists from outside the art world, such as self-taught artists, folk artists, and street performers, and Indigenous artists who are seen as outsiders in their own land. In addition to thematic exhibitions, national pavilions have also been the highlight of previous editions of Venice. Works from 88 countries were exhibited at the Green Garden, the Arsenale and the Venetian City Center. Among them, the Republic of Benin, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, the Republic of Panama and Senegal participated for the first time in the form of national pavilions.
▲Exhibition view.
The Venice Biennale has always been regarded by many as a one-time opportunity to "concentrate on the works" of the world's top artists, which are the "things not to be missed"? Based on media recommendations such as CNN and ArtNet, iWeekly has prepared the following exhibition list~
"Willem de Koonin and Italy"
By威廉·德·库宁(Willem de Kooning)
The exhibition will include 75 works by William de Kooning. As one of the most revolutionary and influential artists of the 20th century, de Kooning's exhibition will be a very important exhibition and the largest exhibition of the artist ever organized in Italy. In 1959, the Dutch-born artist hurried to Rome, where he stayed for almost four months, a short trip that became the focus of the exhibition "Willem de Koonin and Italy". The exhibition opened on the 17th at the Italian Accademia Gallery in Venice.
“带叶子和膨胀芽的锁” （Locks with Leaves and Swelling Buds）By伊娃·尤什基耶维兹（Ewa Juszkiewicz）
Yushkiewicz's interpretation of the portrait has a distinctly rebellious purpose. Deliberately obscuring faces and challenging the very nature of portraiture, the work not only transforms these images into powerful symbols of women's struggles in a patriarchal society, but also constructs complex bonds of gender and identity, highlighting a sense of resistance. "Breasts" curated by Carolina Pasti
A series of breast-themed works will be exhibited at the Palazzo Franchetti San Marco., including Touch and Prayer, a work by Marcel Duchamp from 1947. The exhibition showcases the work of more than 30 artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, photography and film, including Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Lucas and Irving Penn, among others. The exhibition explores the ways in which breasts are understood and presented in different cultures and traditions, reflecting a range of themes from motherhood, empowerment and gender to body image.
“沉没太阳的升起”（Rise of the Sunken Sun）By伊努特·斯托尔奇（Inuuteq Storch）
Greenlandic photographer Innut Stolch captures the quiet everyday life of her local community. The overall project of Stolch consists of more than 200 images that aim to tell the visual history of Greenlanders: they are not seen through the eyes of tourists, but through the eyes of Greenlanders themselves. The photographs will present contemporary images of everyday life in Greenland from multiple perspectives. Curated by Louise Wolthers, this exhibition also marks the first major exhibition by the Danish Pavilion by artists from Greenland.
"Beauty in Common: Collection"
The theme of this year's exhibition of the China National Pavilion is "Beauty and Beauty: Collection", highlighting the meaning of convergence, exchange and integration, hoping to convey the values of inclusiveness, harmony and symbiosis, and beauty and beauty in traditional Chinese culture. Co-curated by Wang Xiaosong, a professor at Zhejiang University, and Jiang Jun, an independent curator, the exhibition is divided into two parts, namely the "Collection" composed of the "Great Collection of Chinese Paintings" and the "Biography" composed of the works of seven Chinese contemporary artists. The "Collection of Chinese Paintings of the Past Dynasties" includes 12,405 pieces (sets) of fine works of Chinese paintings from more than 260 cultural and museum institutions at home and abroad. In the "Collection" section, a selection of 100 digital archives of Chinese paintings scattered overseas will be displayed in multimedia form. In the "Biography" section, seven contemporary Chinese artists have launched new creations based on the "Great Collection of Chinese Paintings of the Past Dynasties", starting from different painting elements such as architecture, landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, which not only reflect the elegant collection culture of traditional Chinese literati, but also emphasize the inheritance between tradition and contemporary.
"通往无限之旅"Pie柳永国(Yue Younguk)
Yoo Yong-kook is one of South Korea's most influential artists, and this is his first exhibition in Europe, including many works that have never been exhibited outside of Korea before. Born into a wealthy family in Donguljin-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Yoo Yong-kook graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Tokyo Bunka Institute in 1938, where he was exposed to Western abstract painting and decided to become an abstract painter. Despite his time in war and turmoil, Yoo Yong-kook produced vibrant, far-reaching abstract works that influenced generations of Korean artists after him.
“弓中的拱门”（The Arch within the Arc）By瑞克·劳（Rick Lowe）
Houston-based artist Rick Law has created Untitled" (2023), an acrylic collage, inspired in part by the waterways of Venice. Rick Law's first solo exhibition in Italy was held at the Palazzo Grimani, a building that houses a large collection of Greek and Roman sculpture from the 16th century.
《现有的手段》（By the Means at Hands,2024年）
Photographic documentation of the transport of exhibits
The theme of this year's International Biennale is "Foreigners Everywhere", and Vlatka Horvat of the Croatian Pavilion has invited a number of foreign artists to participate in the exhibition. She invited a group of artists living in a foreign land to create a small work and sent it to Venice. Interestingly, these works had to be passed from hand to hand by a network of strangers, which gave a glimpse of the importance of temporary logistics networks for people living abroad and for artists around the world. The exhibition includes a display of the works that have been delivered, as well as a record of their transportation. In addition to the rare works of art in the above exhibition halls, the event was also under the pressure of demonstrations. On April 18, the second day of the preview for the Venice Biennale, at least 100 protesters gathered in front of the U.S. and Israel pavilions to call for a "free Palestine." Demonstrators shouted "You should be ashamed" and "Biden, Biden, you have nowhere to run." We accuse you of genocide" to protest against the United States' support for Israel with billions of dollars in aid and weapons, creating a regional military conflict. The U.S. Pavilion features the work of Jeffery Gibson, the first Native American artist to represent the United States alone at the Biennial. During the protests, a man broke into the exhibition and began shouting "This is the real genocide pavilion", while the protesters waved Palestinian flags and held several large posters with images of soldiers and labels such as "No Death in Venice" and "ANGA", ANGA, an acronym for "Art Non-Genocide Alliance", an international group of artists, writers and cultural workers who had previously called for Israel's exclusion from this year's Biennale.
Another highlight of the Venice Biennale is the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, which is awarded to the Paris-based Turkish artist Nil Yalter and the Italian-born Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino. Neil Yalt never received a formal education in the visual arts, and her work spans painting, drawing, video, sculpture, and installation. She focuses on social themes, particularly those related to immigration and the women's experience, and explores conceptual art. A self-proclaimed "self-taught artist", Ana Maria Meolino is a member of Brazil's famous Nova Figuração art movement. From the late 1960s to the present, McOlino has gradually developed his own medium, including painting, poetry, performance art and clay. Both artists participated in the Venice Biennale. "Because the exhibition focuses on artists who have traveled and migrated between the North and the South, between Europe and other regions." As immigrants, two remarkable pioneering female artists embody in many ways the spirit of 'outsiders everywhere'. ”
▲Neil Yart (left) and Anna Maria Meolino (right).
▲尼尔·亚尔特参展作品《Topak Ev》。
News sources: CNN, The New York Times, ArtNet, some pictures are from the exclusive manuscript of iWeekly Weekend Pictorial, please do not reprint without permission