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ARTICLE VIEW:
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What to see at the 2024 Venice Biennale
By Nicole Mowbray, CNN
Updated:
5:03 AM EDT, Thu April 18, 2024
Source: CNN
This week sees the opening of the Venice Biennale, an 8-month-long
festival of art and culture staged every other year. For 2024 — the
show’s 60th iteration — Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa has
chosen the topic of “Foreigners Everywhere,” and announced an
intention to spotlight artists from diverse and historically
marginalized backgrounds.
The theme, , has a dual meaning: “First of all, that wherever you go
and wherever you are you will always encounter foreigners—they/we are
everywhere,” he said. “Secondly, that no matter where you find
yourself, you are always, truly, and deep down inside, a foreigner.”
Seen by many as an opportunity to see some of the world’s best
artists all in one place, the art biennale consists of three parts: A
central show, housed in a series of sprawling industrial buildings; 88
national pavilions, most of which are located in the Giardini parkland
area of the city; and finally, a series of satellite or
“collateral” exhibitions and pop-up events dotted throughout the
city.
With the main event running from April 20 to November 24 2024, here’s
our pick of what to see if you’re headed to Venice.
“Willem de Kooning e l’Italia” — Willem de Kooning
One of the most revolutionary and influential artists of the 20th
century, de Kooning is the subject of a major exhibition exploring his
time in Italy in 1959 and 1969 and the impact it had on his work.
Spanning the 1950s to the 1980s, will bring together around 75 works,
making this the largest presentation of the artist ever organized in
Italy.
Gallerie dell’Accademia
“City of Refuge III” — Berlinde De Bruyckere
Taking its title from a Nick Cave song of the same name, ”is the
third in a series of exhibitions by thematizing art as a place of
sanctuary and shelter. The sculptures and installations respond to the
venue’s spiritual intensity (a 16th century Benedictine church on the
island of San Giorgio Maggiore).
Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore
“Locks with Leaves and Swelling Buds” — Ewa Juszkiewicz
Juszkiewicz’s serve a rebellious purpose. The intentional covering of
historical faces confronts the essence of portraiture, transforming the
images into potent symbols of women’s struggles under patriarchy,
unravelling the intricate threads of gender and identity and revealing
a defiant spirit.
Palazzo Cavanis, Fondamenta Zattere Ai Gesuati
“Portraits in Life and Death” — Peter Hujar
One of the most important American photographers of the 20th century,
Peter Hujar was a major figure in New York City’s avant-garde
community during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, when he documented the
artistic life of the city. This exhibition assembles all 41 of the
photographs that Hujar included in the book “Portraits in Life and
Death,” published in 1976.
Santa Maria della Pietà, Palazzo Cavanis Dorsoduro
“Breasts” — curated by Carolina Pasti
This exhibition showcases the works of over 30 emerging and established
international artists (including Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah
Lucas, Irving Penn) spanning the realms of painting, sculpture,
photography, and film. Exploring how breasts have been understood and
represented in art across cultures and traditions, it reflects on a
range of themes from motherhood, empowerment and sexuality to body
image and illness.
Palazzo Franchetti San Marco
“With My Eyes”
Works created with the participation of inmates from Giudecca women’s
prison will form part of the exhibition presented by the Vatican at
this year’s biennale which focuses on human rights and the
experiences of those living on the margins of society.
A 12-minute video installation directed by actor Zoe Saldana and her
director and producer husband Marco Perego around the concept of
freedom features some of the inmates as actors and works by the late
Corita Kent, American pop artist, activist and former Catholic nun,
will be displayed in the cafeteria.
Maurizio Cattelan will also create a large outdoor installation for the
presentation which Pope Francis is scheduled to visit on April 28.
Giudecca Women’s Prison
“Rise of the Sunken Sun” — Inuuteq Storch
This photography exhibition by Greenlandic artist Inuuteq Storch,
curated by Louise Wolthers, marks the first time that the Danish
Pavilion has showcased both a major exhibition by an artist from
Greenland and a presentation dedicated to photography. Comprising of
over 200 images, Storch’s overarching project aims “to tell the
Greenlanders’ visual history, not seen through the visitors’ eyes,
but through the Greenlanders’ own,” and combines historical and
family photographs with contemporary images of everyday life in
Greenland.
Danish Pavilion
“Listening All Night To The Rain” — John Akomfrah
Known for his art films and multi-screen video installations, John
Akmofrah explores major issues including racial injustice, colonial
legacies, diasporic identities, migration, memory and climate change
with a renewed focus on the act of listening and sound. The exhibition
— commissioned by the British Council — has been conceived as a
single installation with eight interlocking and overlapping
multi-screen sound and time-based works and encourages the idea of
listening as activism.
British Pavilion
“A Journey to the Infinite” — Yoo Youngkuk
The first exhibition in Europe of one of Korea’s most influential
artists, including many works never exhibited before outside Korea.
lived through war and occupation, but created vibrant, soaring
abstractions inspired by Korea’s natural landscape that influenced
generations of Korean artists.
Fondazione Querini Stampalia
“The Rooted Nomad” — M.F. Husain
This immersive exhibition will examine the life and work of the
modernist painter dubbed “India’s Picasso.” Celebrating his
versatility as an artist, thinker and writer, the show juxtaposes his
wooden toys, paintings, photographs, letters and snippets from his
films with collages, letters and poetry that shaped his vision of India
as a richly layered “cultural mosaic.”
Magazzini del Sale
“Net Making” — Co-curated by Viktoria Bavykina and Max
Gorbatskyi
Two years into the Russian invasion, the will present a group show
sharing similarities with the Biennale’s “Foreigner’s Everyone”
theme. Showcasing a diverse range of voices responding to the effects
of war, the exhibition title refers to the practice of citizens of all
ages and backgrounds meeting to weave camouflage nets — a symbol of
the collective resistance of everyday Ukrainians.
Ukraine Pavilion
“Neither Nor” — Ai Weiwei
traces the creative career of Ai Weiwei, from 2006 to today, featuring
a large selection of new works made between 2019 and 2023 using LEGO
bricks alongside historical works made from porcelain, wood, marble,
bamboo, and assemblages of different materials.
Galleria Continua, San Gimignano
“The Spirits of Maritime Crossing”
Presented by the in advance of the city’s own biennale in October,
“The Spirits of Maritime Crossing” brings together 15 artists
from the Global South from countries such as Thailand, Laos, Cambodia,
Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore to explore themes of diaspora,
displacement, and colonialism through the lens of ocean and sea
travel. Spanning performance, painting, film and sculpture, the
exhibition also draws parallels Venice and Bangkok, with the latter
being known as the “Venice of the East” due to its network of
canals (khlongs) where people live, work and travel on a daily basis.
Palazzo Smith Mangilli Valmarana
“Odorama Cities” — Koo Jeong A
During the summer of 2023, Koo collected scent memories for by asking
people for their “scent memory of Korea.” More than 600 written
statements were received in response, which were then translated into
17 distinct scents created specifically for the pavilion. Each will be
experienced alongside installations including mirroring infinity
symbols, two floating wooden möbius-shaped sculptures and a
levitating, scent-diffusing bronze figure.
South Korean Pavilion
“The Arch within the Arc” — Rick Lowe
The first solo exhibition in Italy of takes place at Palazzo
Grimani, home to a large collection of 16th-century Greek and Roman
sculpture. Inspired by the surroundings, Lowe has created a series of
paintings reflecting the aesthetic influence of ancient and pre-modern
architecture alongside the urban planning of Venice and the experience
of moving through the city and its waterways.
Museo di Palazzo Grimani
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