Continuing from our last post, here are the highlights of what made an impression on us at the Central Pavilion.
Enjoy some music while browsing
Shown above, the cover is a painting by Ayocoobo (1967-) who lives in Colombia.
The primary focus of this year’s Biennale Arte is artists who are immigrants, expatriates, exiled and refugees, particularly those who have moved between the Global South and Global North. Migration and decolonization are key themes here.
Within the Nucleo Storico section of the Exhibition, in addition to works grouped under Abstractions, there are several rooms in the Central Pavilion that are dedicated to Portraits.
<< Marchr Clugny 1950’s by Seneque Obin (1993-) Haiti
Adriano Pedrosa, the curator of this year’s Biennale Arte is the director of Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP) in Brazil, and the first openly queer curator.
Below are work made by artists from the Brazil Yanomami indigenous territory. Click to enlarge these photos.
Brazil, in addition to the Portuguese who colonized the country, is also home to the largest African, Italian, Japanese and Lebanese diaspora in the world.
Crucifixion of the soul – a massive work created in 1936 by Madge Gill (1882-1961) in the UK – who had mental health challenges. The faces are theorized to be self-portraits.
<< Metropolitan 2019 by Louis Fratino (1993-) of USA.
His works depict how LGBTQ+ people navigates the world as outsiders.
Untitled (Desert series, 1986) by Aref el Rayess (1928-2005), born in Lebanon, now residing in Saudi Arabia.
Abel Rodriguez (1944-), Colombia – an artist who lived with Nonuya indigenous people and painted the Amazonian rainforest with taxonomic information.
Aloïse (1886-1964) of Switzerland spent most of her life in a psychiatric hospital. Her work led to Jean Dubuffet’s theorization of Art Brut. We saw many examples of Art Brut in a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, dedicated to works by artists with no formal training.
Pablo Delano’s installation titled “The Museum of the Old Colony” includes photographs, objects, newspapers, etc. that depict the US and Spanish domination of people in Puerto Rico.
Columns and facade of the Central Pavilion were painted by the Huni Kuin Artists Movement (MAHKU) based in an indigenous territory, near the border of Peru and Brazil. The painting depicts Kapewe pukeni – “The Aligator Bridge” – a myth about a bridge that connects Asia and America through the Bering Straits.
This neon sign is the flip side of the sign of the exhibition’s title. When you enter the Central Pavilion, the neon sign facing you is the title in Italian – Stranieri Ovunque.
Watch this space. More photos from the Exhibition to come …
To catch up on the 60th Venice Art Biennale, Part 1 is here; vintage posters from past exhibitions are here.