Author: Hannah Wind
Location: Germany
Date: 16-August-2024
Photo Credit: Private Collection.
SUMMARY
The 2024 Biennale Arte di Venezia runs under the motto ‘Foreigners Everywhere.’ This phrase translates to ‘stranieri ovunque’ in Italian and reflects the name of a collective from Turin which fought racism and xenophobia in the early 2000s. Taking up the collective’s mission, the oeuvres exhibited in different locations all over Venice depict precisely those issues and aim to inform about and counter anti-immigrant agendas in states all around the world.
BACKGROUND
Every one of us is a foreigner somewhere – sometimes, or even often when we are at home. As a mixed person, this is a statement that resonates with me a lot. When I get asked, ‘Where are you from,’ I usually say, ‘I am from Germany.’ Based on my looks, people often get confused and reply, ‘Okay, that is where you grew up, but WHERE are you from.’ In fact, due to my maternal Filipino roots, I do not fit the German stereotype, but nonetheless, I hold German citizenship, and Germany is the place where I was born, where I grew up, and where my family lives. Yet, I often feel as much a foreigner there as I am elsewhere.
What is the Biennale Arte?
It is this feeling of being a foreigner everywhere, shared by many, along with the fact that wherever we go, we encounter foreigners, that Adriano Pedrosa, the curator of this year’s ‘Biennale Arte’, wants to pick up with his opus under the motto ‘Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.’ The Biennale Arte di Venezia is a biannual International Art Exhibition that takes place for the 60th time in 2024. Opening its doors from April to November, the exhibition showcases contributions from a total of 331 artists and art collectives from all around the world. Their artworks cannot only be seen in the central pavilion but also in 88 national pavilions located at two main venues, the Giardini and the Arsenale, as well as several palazzos and houses all over the city of Venice.
‘Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere’
In line with its general theme, those artists who have never participated before were given priority to show their work at the Biennale Arte 2024. Among them are also artists from four countries that have never partaken in the Biennale before: Benin, Timor Leste, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. This extended inclusion of nations around the world fits perfectly with the theme ‘Stranieri Ovunque’ or ‘Foreigners everywhere.’ The phrase stems from a 2004 project by artist Claire Fontaine, who created sculptures illustrating the phrases in various languages. It was later also picked up by a collective from Turin, which fought racism and xenophobia in the early 2000s.
While ‘Foreigners Everywhere’ is the direct translation of the Italian ‘Stranieri Ovunque,’ the word stranieri encompasses more than simply foreigners. In its broader sense, the etymological meaning extends to ‘strangers,’ those who do not fit into society. The 2024 exhibition, therefore, not only centres around ‘foreigners’ per its classical meaning but also features artists and the rights and struggles of those who are often outlawed and excluded from the general system: queer, Indigenous, and those who find themselves marginalized within the art scene.
Human Rights & Art – Where is the Connection?
Focusing on broad inclusion, the theme of the Biennale Arte 2024 addresses several fundamental human rights. For one, by highlighting the global crisis of migration, it questions the universality of the right to be recognized and respected, regardless of one’s nationality, ethnicity, or identity. On the other hand, the oeuvres exhibited delve deeper into issues surrounding xenophobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, and further stereotypes or prejudices attached to otherness.
The artists exhibiting at the Biennale, therefore, suggest answers to the following questions, or at least aim to highlight the issues in which such questions are rooted: To what extent can others freely express themselves and, thereby, exercise their right to cultural expression? What happens to those who are stripped of their identity for reasons of otherhood and, therefore, do not have access to other human rights? How free are those who do not fit into the average scheme of society to move?
Highlights & Personal Observations
While every exhibition is special in its own sense and narrates a personal story about either the artists themselves or a particular group of people who experience the implications of otherhood, two projects stood out to me personally. I found them captivating regarding the story they are telling and the means they use to convey a more profound message through art that speaks to a broad audience.
Australian Pavilion: Kith and Kin
The first pavilion that struck me was the Australian one, where Queensland-based artist Archie Moore created a place of silent reflection on Australia’s colonial history. In the centre of his project stands the impact of external influences brought by European colonizers on the ‘First Nation,’ the Indigenous people of Australia, also called ‘Aboriginals.’ Titled ‘Kith and Kin,’ the exhibition consists of a huge family tree extending over the walls and ceiling of the pavilion and a table with thousands of documents stacked up to neat piles, surrounded by a pool of ink-coloured water, to remember those Aboriginals who died during and due to colonial influences.
While the family tree traces back to the artist’s own origins, including the common ancestors of all humans, by depicting the relationship between Kamilaroi and Bigambul up until 65.000 years ago, the documents are educational materials essentially containing everything that is otherwise left out in history. The papers transmit knowledge about those who were killed, about massacres, diseases, and displacement of First Nation people.
Having been to the exhibition myself, I can tell from experience that Moore succeeded in creating a space of remembrance. The issues and impacts of colonialization become very tangible and touch viewers from all corners of the world by transmitting the message that, in the end, we are all kin.
Pavilion of the United States of America
J. Gibson – ‘Action Now Action Is Eloquence.’
A second exhibition that caught my attention at first sight was that of Jeffery Gibson in the Pavilion of the United States of America, which shines in vibrant colours from the outside. Inside the pavilion, the Indigenous-American artist also uses different of colours, textures, and media. This variety inherently reflects the message of his project called ‘the space in which to place me:’ the vision that there is “a space in which Indigenous art and a broad spectrum of cultural expressions and identities are central to the American experience.”
In essence, Gibson manages to convince the spectator by combining history with current narratives and literature, thereby creating a credible story about the importance of Indigenous art in American modernism. The spectator can indulge in this story not only through paintings and murals but also sculptures and video installations.
Viewed in the grand picture, the Biennale Arte 2024 makes an amazing case for the intrinsic cultural, social, and political value of creativity. It is an event that can speak and give food for thought to people of different ages and from various backgrounds, making the spectator feel part of the story told on several levels, seeing as everyone has encountered foreigners or felt foreign themselves at some point in life. It is for that reason that I can only recommend indulging in the exhibitions at the Biennale Arte 2024 and reflecting on a variety of human rights issues through the lens of art.
REFERENCES
Esposizione. (2024, July 26). La Biennale Di Venezia. https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2024/60-esposizione
Australia. (2024, July 23). La Biennale Di Venezia. https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2024/australia
United States of America. (2024, June 7). La Biennale Di Venezia. https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2024/united-states-america
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