Venice Biennale 2024
The 60th International Art Exhibition, titled Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, opened to the public on April 20 and continues to Sunday November 24, 2024, at the Giardini and the Arsenale.
The exhibition is curated by Adriano Pedrosa and organised by La Biennale di Venezia.
Alongside the exhibition, the Biennale includes 88 national pavilions at the Giardini, the Arsenale and various sites around the city.
If you are pressed for time, here’s my top 5 pavilions to see at the Giardini
5 national pavilions to see at the Giardini in 2024
USA
Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me
The U.S. pavilion, classical facade, has been transformed by bold strokes of color and geometric shapes featuring the title of Jeffrey Gibson’s presentation, “the space in which to place me.” This title is drawn from a poem by Layli Long Soldier, an Oglala Lakota Nation poet, which challenges the oppressive constraints and colonial forces experienced by Indigenous peoples. In response, Gibson presents a powerful act of reclamation and celebration, weaving together Native and queer stories through his unique technicolor approach, blending text, patterns, colors, and historical references.
Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee heritage, is the first Native American artist to have a solo exhibition at the U.S. pavilion. His work is deeply influenced by his upbringing across different countries and his experiences as a queer man within a tapestry of diverse cultural settings. While his art frequently draws from the aesthetics of drag culture, nightlife, and dancehall, his Biennale presentation takes a more subtle approach, focusing on a rich exploration of Indigenous visual language and expression.
France
Julien Creuzet, Atttila catatact our source at the feet of the green peaks will end up in the great sea blue abyss where we drowned in tidal tears of the moon
The French pavilion immerses visitors in a vibrant underwater celebration, soundtracked by rhythms inspired by the Caribbean diaspora. Created by multidisciplinary artist Julien Creuzet—a poet, composer, and performer—this installation uses water as a symbolic link connecting his roots in Martinique, his French identity, and the city of Venice itself. Within this imagined realm, divine beings, sea creatures, and Caribbean ancestors all converge. The result is a blend of beauty, poetry, and whimsy—a refreshing contrast to other exhibitions that grapple with themes of colonialism and migration.
The pavilion’s rooms are populated with surreal sculptures that evoke an underwater forest of seaweed or coral. These suspended creations, dripping with wax-like textures and vibrant filaments, form a maze-like environment that invites exploration.
A soundtrack accompanies the installation, reflecting Creuzet’s signature approach of gathering, remixing, and reassembling. The electronic soundscape oscillates from pulsating dance beats to deep, resonant echoes. Grounding these elements is a series of poems on the walls, offering moments for visitors to pause and consider Creuzet’s vision of a liberated future.
UK
John Akomfrah RA, Listening All Night To The Rain,
The British Pavilion presents John Akomfrah RA’s multi-layered exhibition which encourages visitors to experience the British Pavilion’s 19th century neoclassical building in a new way.
Through his work, Listening All Night To The Rain, Akomfrah continues to explore the themes that have featured throughout his work of the past four decades and his investigation of issues of contemporary life, such as memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change – with a renewed focus on the act of listening and the sonic.
Listening All Night To the Rain,draws its title from 11th century Chinese writer and artist Su Dongpo’s poetry, which explores the transitory nature of life during a period of political exile. Organised into a series of song-like movements or ‘cantos’, the exhibition, curated by Tarini Malik, brings together eight interlocking and overlapping multimedia and sound installations into a single and immersive environment that tell stories of migrant diasporas in Britain. The exhibition is the result of decades of extensive research by the artist and his team, using historical records to contextualise our experience of the present day.
The exterior of the British Pavilion’s 19th century neoclassical building, presents a large three-screen film installation suspended onto its façade. This artistic intervention brings imagery and voices from the Global South to the forefront, honouring those who have been marginalised by the legacies of imperialism.
Inside the Pavilion, film screens embedded within sculptural installations are inspired by the structure and form of altarpieces from religious sites, evoking a sense of contemplation and reverie. Each gallery space layers together a specific colour field, influenced by the paintings of Rothko, in order to highlight the ways in which abstraction can represent the fundamental nature of human drama.
Egypt
Wael Shawky, Drama 1882
For the Egyptian Pavilion, artist Wael Shawky has created Drama 1882, a filmed rendition of an original musical play directed, choreographed, and composed by the artist, around Egypt’s nationalist Urabi revolution against imperial influence (1879-82). The year 1882 was when this revolt was crushed by the British, who then went on to occupy Egypt until 1956.
While I am not usually one for video and film based art, this one is worth watching, both beautiful in delivery and presentation, in sound and visual, the film is accompanied by sculpture, vitrines and drawings.
Watch here for a clip of the pavilion and Shawky talking about his work
https://www.lissongallery.com/venice2024/venice-2024-wael-shawky-egyptian-pavilion
Wael Shawky, Drama 1882
2024 4k video, sound, color, VFX, Arabic
Australia
Archie Moore, kith and kin
In kith and kin, Moore charts his First Nations Australian connections spanning more than 2,400 generations and 65,000 years in a vast hand-drawn genealogical chart. As a memorial it confronts how the ongoing legacies of Australia’s colonial history – with a focus on the overincarceration of First Nations peoples – sever familial connections. kith and kin represents the expansiveness of First Nations Australian history, whilst speaking to the universality of the human family.
The Australian pavilion and Archie Moore won the coveted Golden Lion award in 2024
Archie Moore / kith and kin 2024 / Australia Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024 / Photographer: Andrea Rossetti / © the artist / Image courtesy of the artist and The Commercial