Venice Biennale 2024, here are the first photos of the international exhibition

by Editorial Staff, written on 04/16/2024
Categories: News Focus / Topics: Contemporary art – Venice Biennale

Press day of the Venice Biennale 2024: here are the first photos of the international exhibition, which opens to the public on 20 April. Then come the weighted assessments.

First images from Venice Biennale after press day, the day reserved for the press which anticipates the three-day preview before the great international exhibition finally opens its doors to the public (this year it will do so from 20 April to 24 November 2024). Curated by the Brazilian Adriano Pedrosadirector of the MASP of Sao Paulo (Brazil), this year’s edition is entitled Foreigners everywhere. The aim of the exhibition is to challenge cultural stereotypes with an exhibition that talks about diversity, similarities, juxtapositions and contrasts, and then themes such as immigration, diaspora, globalization and cultural coexistence.

The theme “Foreigners everywhere” aims to present itself as a reminder of the plurality and fluidity of human experience in the contemporary era. Through works of art by artists from all over the world, the Biennale therefore offers an insight into the complexity of global identities, challenging traditional notions of belonging. The title Foreigners Everywhere – Foreigners Everywhere is taken from a series of works created by the Claire Fontaine collective since 2004. These works consist of neon sculptures of various colors bearing the words “Foreigners Everywhere” in different languages ​​(also present in the exhibition). The expression was in turn taken from the name of a Turin collective of the same name which fought against racism and xenophobia in Italy in the early 2000s.

For this edition the curator Pedrosa has chosen to invite artists who have never participated in the International Exhibition, even if some of them have already exhibited in a National Pavilion, in a Collateral Event or in a past edition of the International Exhibition. Particular attention is paid to outdoor projects, both in the Arsenale and in the Gardens, and to a program of performances during the pre-opening days and on the last weekend of the 60th Exhibition.

The international exhibition is essentially divided into two parts: the Contemporary Core and the Historical Core. Outsiders, indigenous people and queers make up the backbone of the Contemporary Core. The Historical Core, however, is made up of 20th century works from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Arab world. This core aims to explore the global modernisms of the Global South, presenting works from such territories as a curatorial essay aimed at questioning the boundaries and definitions of Modernism. The room entitled “Portraits”, the one dedicated to “Abstractions” and a third room dedicated to the Italian artistic diaspora in the world will constitute the Historical Core in the Central Pavilion.

The context in which this edition of the Biennale arrives, explains Pedrosa, “is a world full of multifaceted crises that concern the movement and existence of people within countries, nations, territories and borders and which reflect the risks and pitfalls hidden within the language, its possible translations and nationality, expressing differences and disparities conditioned by identity, citizenship, race, gender, sexuality, freedom and wealth. In this panorama, the expression Foreigners Everywhere has more than one meaning. First of all, it means that wherever you go and wherever you are you will always encounter foreigners: they are everywhere. Secondly, regardless of your location, deep down you are always truly a foreigner. Furthermore, the expression takes on a very particular and specific meaning in Venice: a city whose original population was made up of refugees from Roman urban centres, a city which in the past represented the most important hub of international exchange and commerce in the Mediterranean, a city that was the capital of the Republic of Venice, dominated by Napoleon Bonaparte and conquered by Austria, and whose population today consists of around 50,000 inhabitants, but which in high season can reach 165,000 in a single day due of the enormous number of tourists and travelers (foreigners of the privileged type) who visit it. In Venice foreigners are everywhere. But you can also think of this expression as a motto, a slogan, a call to action, a cry of excitement, joy or fear: Strangers Everywhere! And, above all, today it takes on a crucial significance in Europe, the Mediterranean and the world, since in 2022 the number of forced migrants reached its peak (with 108.4 million according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ) and is assumed to have increased further in 2023.”

The Biennial 2024 will meet expectations? It will take some time before we see them come out first thoughtful reviews: for now, a roundup of photographs, and then the evaluations will come.