With massive destruction, and a huge displacement of people continuing around the globe, within Meloni’s Italy, this year’s provocatively entitled  Stranieri Ovunque (Foreigners Everywhere) at the Venice Biennale was always going to be politically charged. 

What started as an anniversary present to King Umberto in 1895, the The Venice Biennale has been attracting artists with their passions, benefactors with their money, and politics from around the world ever since.  This year, 88 countries are represented in the collective exhibition spaces as well as in the national pavilions in what has become the ‘Olympics of the art world’. But you can’t keep politics or big bucks away from either art of sport, and like it’s eponym, the Venice art show has also faced controversy and criticism throughout the years. 

The Biennale first became politicised by the fascist government in the 1930’s, and Mussolini’s personal propaganda machine with art explicitly showing military dominance. In the 60’s, it became a symbol of political and cultural unrest, with protestors occupying the pavilions and turning the art to face the wall. In 1974, the exhibition “antifascist”was a direct response to Pinochet’s military coup in Chile, and in 1977, the ‘Biennale of Dissent’ showcased artists from the Soviet Union who were not sanctioned by the state. In 1993, German artist Hans Haacke smashed the stone floor of his country’s pavilion where Hitler had stood in 1934. 

This year, the Russian pavilion has been loaned to Bolivia, where Andean weaver Elvira Espejo Aycawho invites us to muse over traditional yarn making techniques while the cynical amongst us can only think of Bolivia’s huge lithium reserves. And despite being given a petition to ban Israel, Italy’s culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano gave it the go ahead calling the petition ‘shameful’.

Fortunately, the artist had better decision making skills and the pavilion remains closed. 

With the emphasise on migration and marginalised communities, art by indigenous artists is everywhere, and it’s no coincidence that most of the major European players have chosen representatives that inextricably link them back to an often ugly past.

Peruvian born Sandra Gamarra Heshiki representing Spain this year, reminds us that most of our churches and museums have been formed from plunder, privilege, and violence. An uncomfortable premise delivered via the medium of clever paintings and a beautiful polyptych which hilights notions of accumulation and ostentation. In the Italian pavillion, Massimo Bartolini’ adopts a more self reflective approach and asks us ‘To Hear’.

Indigenous artist Jeffrey Gibson gives us a colourful  eyeful of textiles in the US Pavilion and a juxtaposition of traditional native dance with modern DJ music in a catchy, visually delightful foot tapping videoscape.

Brazil reclaimed it’s ancient name and changed it’s pavilion to Hãhãwpuá, and gave a voice to it’s 300 indigenous people’s. A television perched on top of a mound of earth transmits a chilling reminder that we are burning what the earth took thousands of years to create and releasing it into the environment, with a warning ‘you are on the path to creating your own extinction’. 

A welcome reprieve from Martinican artist Julien Creuzet, who has created one of the most beautiful experiences in the French pavilion with an installation that features a calming underwater utopia and hanging sculptures that make you feel like you’re walking through an enchanted space.  

THe French Pavillion

Next door the water theme continues in the British pavilion, with Ghanaian born John Akomfrah’s Listening All Night To the Rain, with bodies of water as the central motif.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent a powerful message this year with artist Manal AlDowayan’s focus on the evolving role of women in Saudi Arabia and their journey to reshape the narratives that have historically defined them.

In Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, visitors are invited to wind their way through a maze of large-scale, printed silk, petal- like sculptural elements that take their forms from the “desert rose”, a crystal commonly found in Saudi Arabia’s desert sands. The surface of these sculptures is silkscreened with texts written about Saudi women, which have had a profound impact on their perception and self-representation.

KSA, Saudi Arabia at The Venice Biennale

Vocabulary

Provocatively

Politicised

Eponym

Controversy

Cynical

Emphasise

Inextricably

Ostentation

Juxtaposition

Utopia

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