Venice Biennale 2024: everything you need to know about the 60th edition of the exhibition

Titled Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere , the 60th Venice Biennale opens to the public on April 20 and runs until November 24, 2024 . Curated by Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa , artistic director of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) , the exhibition highlights artists from around the world who have never been featured in the International Exhibition. Some of them have already had their work presented in a national pavilion or in some event parallel to the Biennial. Housed in the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and the Arsenale , the International Exhibition will be divided into two sections: the Contemporary Core and the Historical Core. In these two locations, outdoor projects will receive special attention from the organization, which is planning a program of performances with events during the pre-opening and closing weekend. The title Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere was inspired by a series of works started in 2004 by the collective Claire Fontaine , created in Paris and based in Palermo, Italy. The works consist of neon sculptures in various colors , which reproduce in different languages the words Foreigners Everywhere . The phrase, in turn, alludes to the name of a collective from Turin that fought against racism and xenophobia in Italy in the early 2000s. According to Adriano Pedrosa , the expression Stranieri Ovunque has several meanings. "Firstly, wherever you go and wherever you are, you will always encounter foreigners – they/we are everywhere. Secondly, that no matter where you are, you are always truly, and deep down, a foreigner." See below what to expect from the 60th Venice Biennale!

Contemporary Core

In this section, the exhibition focuses on the following subjects: the queer artist , who has moved between different sexualities and genders, often being persecuted or banned; the outsider artist , who is situated on the fringes of the art world, such as the self-taught artist , the popular artist and the indigenous artist , often treated as a foreigner in his own land. Productions from these four themes make up the Contemporary Section. Brazil will be present in this area with the Mahku collective , which represents indigenous artists in an emblematic way in the Central Pavilion. The artists will paint a monumental mural on the facade of the building, which will be the first work that visitors will be able to see upon arriving at the site. Measuring 700 ^m2 , the painting depicts hallucinatory visions inspired by sacred rituals based on ayahuasca. The Amazonian indigenous art collective tells the story of the “kapewë pukeni” (the alligator bridge), taking the audience to the origin of the separation between different peoples and places.

At Corderie, Aotearoa New Zealand collective Maataho will present a large-scale installation in the first room. Queer artists are also featured throughout the exhibition at Corderie, with a large area dedicated to them. The Contemporary Center will also feature a special wing in the Corderie dedicated to the Disobedience Archive , a project by Marco Scotini, which has been nurturing a video archive focusing on the relationships between artistic practices and activism since 2005. The presentation of the Disobedience Archive was designed by Juliana Ziebell, who also worked on the exhibition architecture for the entire International Exhibition.

Historical Core

In the Historical Center, Latin America , Africa , the Middle East and 20th-century Asia will be highlighted. Several rooms will present works from these continents, representing a curatorial exercise that seeks to question the boundaries and definitions of modernism. “We are all familiar with the histories of modernism in Euroamerica, but modernisms in the Global South remain largely unknown. European modernism itself traveled far beyond Europe throughout the 20th century, often intertwined with colonialism, and many artists from the Global South traveled to Europe to be exposed to it,” explains Pedrosa. In the Central Pavilion, three rooms are planned for the Historical Nucleus: one is entitled Portraits , another Abstractions and the third is dedicated to the worldwide Italian artistic diaspora in the 20th century. Portraits brings together works by 112 artists , including paintings, works on paper and sculptures, spanning the years 1905 to 1990. The theme of the human figure has been explored in countless different ways by artists from the Global South, reflecting on the crisis of representation surrounding that same figure that marked much of 20th century art. The Abstractions room includes 37 artists : most of them are being shown together for the first time. “We will learn from these unforeseen juxtapositions in the flesh, which will then hopefully point to new connections, associations and parallels far beyond the simple categories I have proposed,” says Pedrosa. The third room is dedicated to the worldwide Italian artistic diaspora in the 20th century , with works by 40 first- or second-generation Italian artists, displayed on the glass easels of Lina Bo Bardi — an Italian who moved to Brazil and won the 2021 Architecture Biennale Special Golden Lion award for her lifetime achievement in Memoriam.

Other pavilions

The Venice Biennale will also include 88 national participations in the historic pavilions of the Giardini, the Arsenale and the city centre. Four countries will participate for the first time in the Biennale Arte with their own pavilions: Benin, Ethiopia, Tanzania, East Timor, Panama and Senegal. The Italian Pavilion of the Tese delle Vergini at the Arsenale, sponsored and promoted by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, is curated by Luca Cerizza. The project Due qui / To hear by artist Massimo Bartolini includes contributions created specifically by musicians and writers. The Holy See Pavilion will take place this year in Venice's women's prison on the island of Giudecca. The exhibition, entitled With My Eyes , is curated by Chiara Parisi and Bruno Racine. The City of Venice will participate with its own pavilion, the Venice Pavilion , in the Giardini di Sant'Elena.