ADRIANO PEDROSA
CURATOR OF THE 60th INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION OF LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
FOREIGNERS EVERYWHERE
The title of the
60th International Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is drawn from a
series of works made by the Paris-born and Palermo-based collective Claire
Fontaine since 2004. The works consist of neon sculptures in different colors
that render in a growing number of languages the expression “Foreigners
Everywhere”. The expression was in turn appropriated from the name of a
collective from Turin that in the early 2000s fought racism and xenophobia in
Italy: Stranieri Ovunque. There are currently some 53 languages in Claire
Fontaine’s series of neon scultpures, both western and non-western, including
several indigenous languages, some that are in fact extinct—they will be
exhibited at the Biennale Arte this year in a new, large-scale installation in the
iconic Gaggiandre shipyards in the Arsenale.
The backdrop for the work
is a world rife with multifarious crises concerning the movement and existence
of people across countries, nations, territories and borders, which reflect the
perils and pitfalls of language, translation, nationality, expressing
differences and disparities conditioned by identity, nationality, race, gender,
sexuality, freedom, and wealth. In this panorama, the
expression Foreigners Everywhere has several meanings. First of all,
that wherever you go and wherever you are you will always encounter
foreigners—they/we are everywhere. Secondly, that no matter where you find
yourself, you are always truly, and deep down inside, a foreigner. In addition,
the expression takes on a very particular, site-specific meaning in Venice: a
city whose original population consisted of refugees from Roman cities, a city
that was at one point the most important centre for international trade and
commerce in the Mediterranean, a city that was the capital of the Republic of
Venice, dominated by Napoleon Bonaparte, and taken over by Austria, and whose
population today consists of about 50,000 residents that may reach 165,000 in a
single day during peak seasons due to the enormous number of tourists and
travelers—foreigners of a privileged kind—visiting the city. In Venice,
foreigners are everywhere. Yet one may also think of the expression
as a motto, a slogan, a call to action, a cry— of excitement, joy or
fear: Foreigners Everywhere! More importantly, it assumes a critical
signification today in Europe, around the Mediterranean and in the world, when
the number of forcibly displaced people hit the highest in 2022, at 108.4
million according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and is
expected to have grown even more in 2023.
Artists have always
traveled and moved about, under various circumstances, through cities,
countries and continents, something that has only accelerated since the late
20th century—ironically a period marked by increasing restrictions
regarding the dislocation or displacement of people. The Biennale Arte 2024’s
primary focus is thus artists who are themselves foreigners, immigrants,
expatriates, diasporic, émigrés, exiled, or refugees—particularly those who
have moved between the Global South and the Global North. Migration and
decolonization are key themes here.
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A CELEBRATION OF THE
FOREIGN, THE DISTANT, THE OUTSIDER, THE QUEER, AS WELL AS THE INDIGENOUS
On a personal level, I
myself feel implicated in many of the Exhibition’s themes, concepts, and motifs
and in its framework. I have lived abroad and have been fortunate to travel
extensively during my lifetime. Yet, I have often experienced treatment typically
reserved for a Third World foreigner—although I’ve never been a refugee, and in
fact, I hold one of the highest-ranking passports from the Global South,
according to the Henley Passport Index. I also identify as Queer—the first
openly Queer curator in the history of the Biennale Arte. Moreover, I come from
a context in Brazil and in Latin America where the Indigenous artist and the
artista popular play important roles; although they have been marginalised in
art history, they have recently come to receive more recognition. Brazil is
also home to many diasporas; it is a land of foreigners as it were: besides the
Portuguese who invaded and colonised the country, it is home to the largest
African, Italian, Japanese, and Lebanese diasporas in the world.
Biennale Arte, an international event with so many official participating countries, has always been a platform for the exhibition of works by foreigners from all over the world. In this long and rich tradition, the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, will be a celebration of the foreign, the distant, the outsider, the Queer, as well as the Indigenous.
In conclusion, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the board of La Biennale di Venezia and to former president Roberto Cicutto, who appointed me the Artistic Director of the Visual Arts Department in December 2022, in charge of curating Biennale Arte 2024. His only request was for me to construct an exhibition full of beauty. I gather we are delivering a foreign, strange, uncanny, and Queer sort of beauty.
LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 60th INTERNATIONAL
ART EXHIBITION
STATEMENT BY PIETRANGELO BUTTAFUOCO PRESIDENT OF LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
This 60th edition of the International
Art Exhibition is all there in the title Foreigners Everywhere – Stranieri
Ovunque. Strong words, explosive when paired that evoke both current scenarios
and possible universes, on whose borderline the curator’s line of thought is
constructed, sharp in its longer focus and vibrant with complex contrasts
nearer to hand.
Adriano Pedrosa has
curated a Biennale Arte that reflects his personal approach to study and
research, which is free of any prejudice in favour of the already established –
where the vertigo of the unknown is an integral part of the process of
exploration and enjoyment, and disorientation becomes a potent instrument for
identifying new compass points.
And the compass is
important to understanding this paradigm shift. Pedrosa is the first South
American curator of the Biennale Arte and he is well aware that the compass
points themselves are anthropized symbolic forms, with the North at the head –
complete with a tall hat – and the South at the foot, a bare foot needless to
say.
A stranger among strangers is the (barefoot) wanderer making his way along the most daunting of goat tracks, the beggar under whose rags a God may be hiding, that deity unknown to himself from whom the renewal of dynasties springs. He is Aeneas quitting the flames of Troy to found – as a foreigner – a universalising civilization where no one is a barbarian and all are citizens. This is the principle guiding the selection of the artists, privileging those who have never previously participated in the Exhibition. Casting unaccustomed light on the paths of Modernism outside the Anglosphere. Foregrounding overlooked geographies on the margins of current dictates, albeit clear enough on the mappa mundi. Giving substance to voids that were never such – akin to what is going on in Rachel Whiteread’s sculptures – and coming back, finally, to auroral thinking, to that nostalgia for things that never had a beginning – as we see in language too, as the flatus vocis acquires meaning.
Pedrosa explains, with explicit reference to Oswald de Andrade’s Manifesto antropófago, how it was necessary for the ‘Modernisms’ of the global South to cannibalise hegemonic postcolonial cultures in order to establish themselves. A form of artistic resistance that in the case of Brazil recalls the pre-invasion cannibalistic rituals of the Tupinambá people. De Andrade was in fact inspired to write his Manifesto by a painting of Tarsila do Amaral entitled ‘Abaporu’, which in the Tupi language means “the man who eats people.” And it is eating, nourishing oneself, that constitutes for him a sacred root – and certainly not a mere anthropological phenomenon – as in the familiar Mediterranean example of those two provocateurs, Dionysus and, later, Jesus the Nazarene. Two versions of the resurrected ‘slain God’, two banquets attended by people eating other people: Dionysus – born from the thigh of his father Zeus, torn to shreds, chewed up and swallowed by the Maenads – and Jesus, son of Mary the Chosen One, become eucharistically the host in the liturgy, a presence in the rite and the embodiment of the Almighty’s promise, food for all.
This edition of the
Biennale Arte features both a contemporary and a historical nucleus, with a
large presence of Italian artists from the 20th-century diaspora, whose works
are displayed on the glass easels originally designed by architect Lina Bo
Bardi for the São Paulo Museum of Art. For the first time, an indigenous
Amazonian art collective – MAHKU (Movimento dos Artistas Huni Kuin) – also
takes centre stage, with a large-scale work on the facade of the Central
Pavilion. Seven hundred square metres of hallucinatory visions inspired by
sacred ayahuasca-based rituals, experiences mirrored by those – no less sacred
– that the Old Continent has experimented through, for example, Ernst Jünger’s
Annäherungen.
Two constant threads run
through the curator’s selection: an explicit desire to focus on works that
adopt the language of textiles; and the blood kinship that connects several of
the artists on show. A return, then, to the corporeal res extensa and to
visceral human relationships, understood as a repository of tradition and the
transmission of knowledge, in an age dominated by the immaterial and the
depersonalisation of form and content.
This Biennale Arte, then,
hosts samples of marginalised, excluded, oppressed beauty, erased by the
dominant matrices of geo-thinking. The interlacing themes of Pedrosa’s
Exhibition – the different, the foreigner, the journey, integration – will
reverberate nowhere better than in the calm and everrenewed waters of the lagoon
city. Once again Venice - over the centuries an open cradle of knowledge and
communication between peoples, ethnicities, religions - is the natural forum in
which to marshal new points of view and Fare Mondi (‘Making Worlds’) - to adopt
the local lexicon of an earlier Biennale Arte 2009.
The city that as many as
129 years ago had the idea of staging the first International Art Exhibition
thus renews its commitment to curiosity and the love of knowledge. That same
impulse that drove Marco Polo – the 700th anniversary of whose death will be
celebrated in this same 2024 – to meet and explore cultures seen as distant and
threatening: finding acceptance, as a foreigner in those lands, by virtue of a
sincere openness to human and equal exchange. Those were times when the Rialto
market teemed with languages, ethnicities, styles and vitality. And many
countries had Fondeghi – trade centres in modern terms – in Venice: Turks,
Syrians, Germans… showcasing their goods and expertise. Biennale Arte – with
its National Pavilions, artefacts, artists and visitors from all over the world
– was already there in embryo.
For Venice, in fact,
diversity has stood from the outset as a basic condition of normality. A
process of mirroring and confrontation with the Other, never perceived in terms
of denial or rejection. Pedrosa has been on an elevenmonth-long physical and
mental journey, taking in Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico,
Guatemala, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Angola, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, the
Middle East, before landing here in the lagoon to construct his own Fable of
Venice, his Sirat al Bunduqiyyah. Venice is the only European city to have had,
since 1000 AD, a name in Arabic. A constellation of meanings that functions as
a fine counterpoint to the 60th International Art Exhibition. Bunduqiyyah:
different, mestizo, mixture of peoples, foreigner.
THE TÜRKİYE PAVILION
PRESENTS HOLLOW AND BROKEN: A STATE OF THE WORLD
BY GÜLSÜN KARAMUSTAFA AT THE 60TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION OF LA BIENNALE
DI VENEZIA
Arsenale, Sestiere
Castello Campo della Tana 2169/F Venice 30122
April 20, 2024 – November 24, 2024
The Türkiye Pavilion
presents Hollow and Broken: A State of the World, a site-specific
installation by Gülsün Karamustafa, one of Türkiye’s most influential and
outspoken artists, at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di
Venezia.Situated in the Arsenale’s historic Sale d’Armi, the exhibition runs
from 20 April to 24 November, with its pre-opening on 17, 18 and 19
April.Karamustafa’s installation invites viewers to consider the tragic and
tumultuous realities of a world impacted by wars, earthquakes, migration and
nuclear peril. Comprising an interconnection of sculptural works that champion
her use of disparate materials, the premiere of a new film, and a sound
installation, these works reflect her perception of the world as broken and
empty.
Space plays a central
role in the exhibition, with Karamustafa drawing inspiration from the
rectangular shape of the Sale d’Armi, reminiscent of the dimensions of the
historical Hippodrome of Constantinople in Istanbul, and the building’s former
history, reinforcing her connection with the surroundings. Upon entering the
Pavilion, visitors encounter three striking chandeliers suspended from above,
crafted from discarded Venetian glass, each representing a monotheistic faith:
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. These luminous symbolic objects are shrouded
in a web of barbed wire – conveying the historic tensions and quarrels between
each religion and serving as a lens through which she explores the state of our
world today.
This concept echoes
Karamustafa’s 1998 artwork, Trellis of My Mind, a 20-metre frieze composed
of 300 colourful religious illustrations from Islamic, Christian, and Jewish
manuscripts. The artwork portrays the intersection and coexistence of these
religions, drawn from her experiences living in Istanbul. Despite their shared
narratives, Karamustafa acknowledges these religions have endured perpetual
conflict throughout history and continue to be shaped by her personal memories
of past wars.
Hollow, plastic moulds
that resemble concrete columns are scattered throughout the space, the choice
of materials starkly contrasting the traditional associations to glory,
artillery and power. The column moulds, supported only by propping devices,
embody the artist’s feelings of emptiness and brokenness in the current world –
their vacant nature is accentuated by lighting, contrasting the ‘force’ of
columns inherent in architecture – stability, prowess, durability, and victory.
Shattered Venetian glass
emerges as a recurring motif within the installation as a material that
resonates deeply with Karamustafa’s feelings. Situated within the Pavilion are
four dismantled wheeled carts – with their ends cut off on either side – loaded
with discarded remnants of Murano glass shards, evoking the transportation of
heavy cargo. Propped up solely by rails, the carts give the impression that
they’re floating, albeit constrained by their restricted movement. These works
establish a direct link to the historical significance of the Sale d'Armi, once
Venice’s largest production centre during the pre-industrial era and a potent
symbol of military power.
Premiering for the first
time is a new film by the artist, comprising black and white images from found
propaganda footage depicting migration, war, and demonstrations from around the
globe. Originally screened in cinemas, these images have been reimagined by
Karamustafa, devoid of the cameraman’s original viewpoint, to spotlight the
human condition. By reframing this material, the film delves deeper, shedding
light on the suffering of the individuals captured in the footage. The film
interweaves all elements of the artist’s installation into an impactful
statement. An accompanying sound composition both envelopes and shadows the
movement of visitors, where a deep, resonant tone fills the air, fluctuating in
intensity as it traverses the exhibition space.
“What I am dealing with” Karamustafa
says of this work, “is the state of a world hollowed out to the core by
wars, earthquakes, migration and nuclear peril unleashed at every turn,
threatening humankind while nature is ceaselessly scathed and the environment
made sick. I attempt to physically and emotionally summon into existence this
phenomenon: the emptiness, the hollowness, the brokenness produced by the
devastation that has become commonplace, whose pace becomes ever more
impossible to keep up with, by the unimaginable grief that keeps on striking
again and again at relentless intervals, by empty values, identity struggles
and brittle human relationships.”
ABOUT GÜLSÜN KARAMUSTAFA
Gülsün Karamustafa
(b.1946) is one of the most influential artists for younger generations.
Through her art practice, spanning the course of over fifty years, she focuses
on such topics as the modernisation of Türkiye, uprooting and memory,
migration, locality, identity, cultural difference and gender from an array of
perspectives. Within her works, which stem from both personal and historic
narratives, she champions the use of disparate materials and methods. Through
media as diverse as painting, installation, photography, video and performance,
she calls into question historical injustices in the social and political
fields.
Karamustafa has
participated in numerous international biennials, including Istanbul, TR; São
Paulo, BR; Gwangju, KR; Kyiv, UA; Singapore, SG; Havana, CU; Thessaloniki, GR;
Sevilla, ES. She has presented solo exhibitions at major institutions and
galleries worldwide, including Salt Beyoğlu and Salt Galata, Istanbul, TR;
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum fürGegenwart, Berlin, DE; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven,
NL; IVAM InstitutValenciàd’Art Modern, Valencia, ES; EMST National Museum of
Contemporary Art Athens, GR; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, DE; LundsKonsthall, Lunds,
SE; SalzburgerKunstverein, Salzburg, AT; KunsthalleFridericianum, Kassel, DE;
Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, DE, among others.
Her works have been
included in the permanent collections of Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Tate
Modern, London, GB; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US; Museum of
Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, US; Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, FR; Van
Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL; Ludwig Museum, Cologne, DE; MUMOK, Vienna, AT; Wien
Museum, Vienna, AT; Warsaw Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL; Neues Museum
Nürnberg, Nuremberg, DE; EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens,
Athens, GR; Istanbul Modern Art Museum and Arter, Istanbul, TR.
She received the
RoswithaHaftmann Prize in 2021 and Prince Claus Award in 2014.
The artist lives and
works in Istanbul and Berlin.
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EDITH KARLSON: HORA LUPI, ESTONIAN PAVILION AT
THE 60th INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE
DI VENEZIA
Church of Chiesa di Santa
Maria delle Penitenti, Cannaregio, 893–894
April 20, 2024 – November
24, 2024
Edith Karlson will present Hora lupi for the Estonian Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia from 20 April 2024 until 24 November 2024. Presented at the church of Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Penitenti, the exhibition explores primitive human urges in their banality and solemnity and questions the possibility of redemption in a world that is never worthy of it. Located in Cannaregio overlooking the district’s canal, the arresting interior of the church, which dates back to the 18th century, helps to build the emotional atmosphere of the exhibition. Here, everything is left unchanged, even the dust of the centuries past remains. Lying in abandonment, Karlson uses the space as a metaphor for being human, equally sad, and incomplete. Full of cracks and fissures, through which eventually, perhaps, a redeeming light will shine. The exhibition spaces are filled with clay and concrete sculptures that evoke the inevitable misfortune of being born, and the always-endeavouring nature of being human. The title of the exhibition Hora lupi (hour of the wolf) refers to a mythical time before dawn, when things arise and disappear – an hour of deep darkness but also of transformation. It is believed to be the time of night, when the most people are born and die. The exhibition centres around a vast series of handcrafted clay self-portraits created by people who surround the artist: children and elderly people, state officials and common workers – a gallery of contemporary faces that will someday become their memorial. The sculptures are inspired by the 14th century terracotta sculptures in St. John’s Church in Tartu, Estonia, most likely depicting townspeople of the time. It has been suggested that the sculptures are a memorial ensemble commemorating the victims of the plague. Sculptures by Karlson reside in the remaining rooms of the church, including the artist’s recognisable anthropomorphic figures inspired by folklore and mythology: as waves from passing vaporetti gently crash through a gaping hole in the collapsed floor, we see weremermaids perched on the verge of its opening. For Hora lupi, Karlson presents an existential narrative of the animalistic nature of humans. Depicting that the sincerity and bluntness of instinct can sometimes take a brutal and violent form, but also poetic and at times a little absurd, gentle, and melancholy. So, by and large, the theme of the exhibition for the Estonian Pavilion at La Biennale Arte 2024 could be concluded as “our world today”.
ABOUT EERO EPNER
Eero Epner is an art historian, dramaturge and writer who has worked for the avant-garde theatre NO99 as well as with many Estonian artists. He worked with Edith Karlson for her last large-scale show Return to Innocence (Estonian Contemporary Art Museum, 2021). He was granted the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s award for researching and introducing the works of Konrad Mägi, an Estonian artist from early 20th century in 2017. Participating since 1997, this is the 14th time Estonia is exhibiting at the Venice Biennale. The Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art is the official representative of the Estonian exposition, and it is financed by Estonian Ministry of Culture.
ABOUT EDITH CARLSON
Edith Karlson is a sculptor who often presents her work as installation, using an entire exhibition space. Her works tackle the most inexplicable feelings and sensations in the current world: fear, melancholy, brutality and joy, which she transforms into material form, often in clay, concrete or found materials. Frequently working with animal forms and anthropomorphic figures, she approaches humans as animalistic beings whose impulses, wants, and desires are hidden just under the surface of their wellpressed suits. Karlson studied installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA, 2006; MA, 2008). She was awarded the EAA Young Artist’s Prize (2006) and Köler Prize People’s Choice Award (2015). Karlson is among the recipients of the national artists’ salary between 2018-2020 and 2022-2024 and was granted the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s main award (2020).
PAVILION OF THE UNITED STATES 60TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION –
LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA - THE SPACE IN WHICH TO PLACE ME BY JEFFREY GIBSON
April 20, 2024 – November
24, 2024
Presented by Portland Art
Museum, Oregon, and SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico Commissioners: Louis Grachos,
Executive Director, SITE Santa Fe; Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator of Native
American Art, Portland Art Museum; Abigail Winograd, Independent Curator
Curators: Kathleen
Ash-Milby, Abigail Winograd
Portland, OR and Santa
Fe, NM – April 17, 2024 – The United States Pavilion at the 60th International
Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia presents a multidisciplinary
exhibition by Jeffrey Gibson, an artist recognized for a hybrid visual language
that employs abundant color, complex pattern, and text to articulate the
confluence of American, Indigenous, and Queer histories and imagine new
futures. Gibson’s exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion, the space in which to place
me, engages concepts that have shaped the artist’s practice over his 20-year
career. Bringing together sculpture, multimedia paintings, paintings on paper,
and video, the exhibition explores the dimensions of collective and individual
identity and the forces that shape its perception across time.
The 2024 U.S. Pavilion is
presented by Portland Art Museum in Oregon and SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico, in
cooperation with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs. The Pavilion is commissioned by Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator
of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum and a member of the Navajo
Nation; Louis Grachos, Phillips Executive Director of SITE Santa Fe; and
Abigail Winograd, independent curator. The exhibition is curated by Winograd
and Ash-Milby, who is the first Native curator to organize a U.S. Pavilion.
Gibson joins an esteemed group of contemporary artists who have represented the
United States on the Biennale Arte’s global stage and, as a member of the
Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, he is the first
Indigenous artist to represent the country with a solo exhibition.
the space in which to
place me considers Indigenous histories within an American and international
context, expanding upon the varied materials and forms that Gibson has employed
over the past two decades. The title references Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long
Soldier’s Ȟe Sápa, a poem whose geometric shape parallels Gibson’s meditation
on the physicality of belonging. Gibson often draws influence from poetry and
literature, as well as music, fashion, and theory, which materialize in his
intuitive use of text. This long-held engagement continues throughout the space
in which to place me. Gibson incorporates language from foundational American
documents from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including constitutional
amendments, legislation, speeches, and official correspondence, as well as song
lyrics and musical references. Often pointing toward moments in history that
were meant to spark change, Gibson’s use of text encourages viewers to examine
our past when considering the present.
“This exhibition extends
the timeline of Indigenous histories,” said Ash-Milby. “Jeffrey combines
ancient aesthetic and material modalities with early 19th and 20th century
Native practices to propose an Indigenous future of our own determination. I’m
honored to be a part of this historic project, and I especially look forward to
seeing how Native communities and students engage with the work as a tool for
innovation and healing.”
“Few artists working
today are so expert in engaging our hearts and our collective conscience.
Operating within and beyond the constructs of the contemporary canon, Jeffrey
proposes alternate worlds that embrace our shared humanity and create space for
joy while acknowledging hardship,” said Winograd. “I’m so proud to bring
Jeffrey’s worldview to the Venice Biennale, where he activates the U.S.
Pavilion in a manner truly unlike anything that’s come before it.”
“It’s been a privilege to
witness how this exhibition has come together over many months and across
multiple states. Seeing the murals, which were created in Santa Fe, installed
in Venice is a particularly resonant moment that encapsulates, for me, the
collaborative experience of this project,” said Grachos. “Helping to realize
Jeffrey’s vision for this monumental exhibition has been a great joy, and it’s
the kind of work that is core to SITE Santa Fe’s mission of supporting artistic
innovation.”
“This exhibition will
introduce an international audience to Jeffrey’s powerful work for the first
time, and, in turn, to the complex histories of our country and of Native
people,” said Brian Ferriso, Director of the Portland Art Museum. “We are
grateful to be a part of such a significant global moment, and to help provide
opportunities for access and education that are so essential to Jeffrey’s work
and the values of the Portland Art Museum.”
In conjunction with the
presentation at the U.S. Pavilion, Gibson and the commissioning institutions
are collaborating with two educational partners, the Institute of American
Indian Arts (Santa Fe, NM) and Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY) to realize
programming that connects Indigenous, Native American, and international
undergraduate humanities students, graduate art students, and the public.
ABOUT THE SPACE IN WHICH
TO PLACE ME
For the U.S. Pavilion,
Gibson has created an exhibition of new and recent work that invites viewers to
examine collective history and its capacity to prescribe a societal center and
periphery. With the space in which to place me, Gibson reorients this
established framework and creates a new nexus that makes room for generations
of marginalized voices.
The exhibition begins in
the pavilion’s forecourt with the titular work: a large-scale, site-specific
sculpture that combines a series of classical bases in a multi-level platform
painted in a singular, vibrant red. Encouraging public interaction, the
installation offers a site for celebration, respite, and gathering. On opening
day, a dance program featuring members of the Colorado Inter-Tribal Dancers and
Oklahoma Fancy Dancers will inaugurate the space.
Beyond the forecourt, Gibson
wraps the neoclassical building in hand-painted murals that explode with his
signature expression of color, pattern, and text. Extending across the eastern
and western facades of the building are two introductory phrases: the title of
the exhibition on the left is joined on the right by “We hold these truths to
be self-evident,” an opening line from the United States’ Declaration of
Independence, which preludes Gibson’s integration of foundational American
documents throughout the exhibition.
Surrounding the exterior
facade is a series of eight flags, each mounted on twenty-foot-tall teepee
poles and patterned in their own unique design. Flags have been a part of
Gibson’s practice since 2012 when he first constructed them from recycled army
blankets and painted directly on the wool. Often a marker of territory or a
signal of affiliation, here Gibson’s vibrant, geometric flags represent
inclusivity, welcoming visitors to a space that acknowledges collective memory
alongside individual experience.
Entering the pavilion’s
first gallery, visitors encounter two towering figures, The Enforcer (2024) and
WE WANT TO BE FREE (2024). Standing approximately 10 feet high, the figures
take their shape from beads, ribbon, fringe, and tin jingles—elements inspired
by traditional Native regalia. Their heads, rendered imperfect and asymmetrical
in glazed ceramic, reference Mississippian effigy pots, an ancient tradition
from the American Southeast. Their bodies bear beaded text on each side: The
Enforcer’s chest refers to the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, known as the “Reconstruction Amendments,” which abolished slavery
and intended to protect the civil rights of Black American citizens. Also
referenced is the Enforcement Act of 1870, which established penalties for
interfering with a person’s right to vote. WE WANT TO BE FREE is emblazoned on
the front of the adjoining figure, whose additional text refers to the Indian
Citizenship Act of 1924, a law granting basic rights to Indigenous people within
U.S. boundaries, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the first federal law to
define citizenship and claim all citizens equal under the law. On a mural
behind the figures are the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “We are made by
history,” a phrase employed by King in 1954 to urge his congregation to take an
active role in their futures, and one that Gibson borrows here to emphasize how
our reality is shaped by our past.
Gibson continues to
approach these ideas in the next gallery, where two beaded bird sculptures, we
are the witnesses (2024) and If there is no struggle there is no progress
(2024), perch atop stone pedestals. A consistent motif in Gibson’s practice,
the birds are inspired in part by “whimsies,” Victorian era Nativemade objects,
which were originally created to appeal to the taste and aesthetics of the
period. Once viewed as kitsch, the objects fell outside of culturally specific
definitions, which is what drew Gibson to them initially. More than just a
source of inspiration, Native-made objects are integrated in the paintings on
paper on view in the second and fourth galleries. Gibson sourced examples of
traditional Native beadwork, which includes bags, belts, and medallions from
websites and estate and garage sales. Applying them first to a felt base and
then to painted cotton rag paper, the objects are attached to the surface of
the paintings with care and kept intact in their original form. This method of
construction allows the objects, whose makers are unknown, to be easily removed
if a viewer is able to identify the object and maker. In the event that an
object is claimed, Gibson has committed to returning the work and commissioning
an Indigenous artist to create a replacement or to make one in his studio. The
objects introduce a physical dimension to the kaleidoscopic works on paper, as
seen in ACTION NOW ACTION IS ELOQUENCE (2024), which incorporates a vintage
beaded belt that still holds the curved shape of its original wearer.
Gibson has swathed the
walls of the rotunda in a deep red, reimagining the space as the beating heart
of the exhibition. At the center hangs one of the artist’s iconic punching
bags, created specifically for the U.S. Pavilion. Titled WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS
TO BE SELF-EVIDENT (2024), the bag’s multi-colored fringe cascades in diagonal
layers to the floor below. The beaded bag is precisely lit, while the rest of
the room remains dim, creating a space for respite and reflection at the
midpoint of the exhibition.
In the next gallery,
Gibson’s enduring exploration of hybridity takes a new form with I’M A NATURAL
MAN (2024), Be Some Body (2024), and Treat Me Right (2024) three busts elevated
to eye level on marble bases. Like many of Gibson’s figures, they are
intentionally indeterminate; their beaded skin and intricate hair cannot be
ascribed to any one specific culture or aesthetic. The busts also blur the
boundaries between historical eras—integrated among the swirling beads are
vintage pinback buttons with the language of advocacy groups and organizers,
such as the slogan “If we settle for what they’re giving us, we deserve what we
get!”. Surrounding the busts are related works on paper and large-scale
paintings, including THE RETURNED MALE STUDENT FAR TOO FREQUENTLY GOES BACK TO
THE RESERVATION AND FALLS INTO THE OLD CUSTOM OF LETTING HIS HAIR GROW LONG
(2024). The work’s title and its matching text draw from a 1902 letter from the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Superintendent of the school district of
Round Valley, California, in which a directive is given for male Indians to cut
their hair to “hasten their progress towards civilization.” Positioned in front
of these words are the three busts whose ribbon and beaded hair falls long past
their faces, a refusal rendered in defiant, electric color.
In the final gallery of
the exhibition, Gibson immerses viewers in a multi-channel video installation,
She Never Dances Alone (2020), a work originally shown in New York’s Times
Square. In the U.S. Pavilion, the video is projected simultaneously across nine
screens and features artist and dancer Sarah Ortegon HighWalking (enrolled
Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho) performing the Jingle Dress Dance, a
powwow dance that originated with the Ojibwe tribe. The centuries-old dance is
traditionally performed by women to call upon ancestors for strength,
protection, and healing. Dancing to the beats of First Nations electronic group
The Halluci Nation, Ortegon HighWalking performs in a series of her own dresses
adorned with jingles or rows of ziibaaska’iganan (metal cones). As the dance
progresses, her image multiplies within each screen and across the gallery,
representing generations of Indigenous women and acknowledging their
persistence for years to come. Inviting viewers to imagine a response to the
dance’s ancestral call, Gibson gestures toward a future that can be shaped by
acceptance and healing.
ABOUT JEFFREY GIBSON
Jeffrey Gibson (American,
born 1972) is the United States Representative to the 60th International Art
Exhibition in Venice. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and
of Cherokee descent, Gibson’s artistic practice combines Native art traditions
with the visual languages of modernism to explore the confluence of personal
identity, popular culture, queer theory, and international social narratives.
Across sculpture, painting, and collage, Gibson’s multi-disciplinary work
embraces ideas of hybridity and reveals intersections between contemporary
issues and past histories.
Gibson recently
collaborated with both commissioning institutions on presentations of his work.
Portland Art Museum commissioned Gibson’s site-responsive installation They
Come From Fire, which transformed the exterior windows of the façade as well as
its two-story interior Schnitzer Sculpture Court from October 2022 to April
2023. Gibson’s 2022 solo exhibition The Body Electric was organized by SITE
Santa Fe and debuted in Santa Fe before traveling to the Frist Art Museum in
2023.
Concurrent with the
opening of the Biennale Arte, Gibson’s work is on view in Jeffrey Gibson: no
simple word for time (Sainsbury Centre, Norwich) and Unravel: The Power and
Politics of Textiles in Art (Barbican Centre, London). A forthcoming solo
exhibition of the artist’s work will debut at The Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) on October 13, 2024. A new mural by the artist,
created with MASS MoCA, will be on view in Boston's Dewey Square beginning June
1, 2024. Gibson has also been commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York to create new works for the Museum’s Fifth Avenue facade, which will
be unveiled in September 2025.
Recent solo exhibitions
and projects include Jeffrey Gibson: DREAMING OF HOW IT’S MEANT TO BE (Stephen
Friedman Gallery, London, 2024), Jeffrey Gibson: ANCESTRAL SUPERBLOOM (Sikkema
Jenkins & Co., New York, 2023), This Burning World: Jeffrey Gibson (ICA San
Francisco, 2022), Jeffrey Gibson: The Body Electric (SITE Santa Fe, 2022),
Jeffrey Gibson: They Come From Fire (Portland Art Museum, 2022), Jeffrey
Gibson: INFINITE INDIGENOUS QUEER LOVE (deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum,
2022), and Jeffrey Gibson: Like A Hammer (Denver Art Museum, 2018). In addition,
the artist was commissioned to create sets for the New York City Ballet’s
Copland Dance Episodes, which premiered in the fall 2023 season. Gibson’s work
was also exhibited in the 2019 Whitney Biennial.
Gibson has received many
distinguished awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Fellowship Award (2019) and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors
Grant (2012). Gibson also conceived the landmark volume, An Indigenous Present
(2023), which showcases diverse approaches to Indigenous concepts, forms, and
mediums. He collaborated with Pavilion cocurator Abigail Winograd on their
co-edited monograph, Jeffrey Gibson: Beyond the Horizon (2022) which
accompanied the exhibition, Beyond the Horizon (2021-2022).
The artist’s work is
included in many permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art,
Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Smithsonian
National Museum of the American Indian, National Gallery of Canada, Denver Art
Museum, and Portland Art Museum.
Gibson lives and works
near the Hudson Valley region of New York State. The artist holds a MFA from
the Royal College of Art, London (1998), a BFA from the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago (1995) and was awarded honorary Doctorates from the Institute
of American Indian Arts (2023) and Claremont Graduate University (2016). Gibson
is currently an artist-in-residence at Bard College.
ARCHIE MOORE: KITH AND KIN, AUSTRALIA PAVILION AT THE 60th INTERNATIONAL
ART EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, CURATED BY ELLIE BUTTROSE
ARCHIE MOORE: KITH AND KIN, AUSTRALIA PAVILION AT THE 60th INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, CURATED BY ELLIE BUTTROSE
April 20, 2024 – November
24, 2024
the phrase ‘kith and kin’
now simply means ‘friends and family’. however, an earlier old english
definition that dates from the 1300s shows kith originally had the added
meanings of ‘countrymen’ and also ‘one’s native land’, with kin meaning ‘family
members’. many indigenous australians, especially those who grew up on country,
know the land and other living things as part of their kinship systems — the
land itself can be a mentor, teacher, parent to a child. this sense of
belonging involves everyone and everything, and for first nations peoples of
australia, like most indigenous cultures, is deeply rooted in our sacred
landscapes from birth until death. i was interested in the phrase as it aptly
describes the artwork in the pavilion, but i was also interested in the old
english meaning of the words, as it feels more like a first nations
understanding of attachment to place, people and time.
when i was younger, i had
little interest in discovering my first nations roots and history — there was a
shame and embarrassment in being known as aboriginal. i once had to attain a
certificate of aboriginality for approval of a loan from a first nations
organisation — they asked for the surnames of my family and where they were
from, and that’s all they needed to confirm my status. this proof may be
required for employment in indigenous-identified positions, enrolling in
schools, for government loans and assistance, and for land rights claims, where
a continuous and unbroken connection to country since colonisation needs to be
proven. now, it is with pride i identify as aboriginal, and i see those
feelings of shame and embarrassment as a product of racism and the colonialist
project.
i became interested in
genealogy six years ago and started looking in the archives for information on
my mother’s kamilaroi and bigambul side, and my father’s british and scottish
side. when my mother had a stroke in 2016, i started to realise how much
information would be lost if she died. she also became more open about discussing
family history, and more lucid too. i have come across material in archives and
museums, on the national library of australia’s search engine trove, and i have
3484 people in the family tree on the genealogical website ancestry.
the family tree in kith
and kin is limited by recorded information — how far back written records go,
which is much sooner on my aboriginal side than my european side. i referenced
the genealogical chart from anthropologist norman tindale’s visit to
boggabilla, when he interviewed my maternal great-grandmother, jane clevin, in
1938. what tindale recorded from my great grandmother seems accurate and
correlates with what my mother has said, but it reflects a western idea of how
people are interconnected as a family. in indigenous kinship, there are several
people that you call ‘mother’ or ‘father’, and cousins are called ‘brothers’.
many researchers have traced descent as a way to categorise and document
aboriginal people, without necessarily understanding indigenous family
structures.
my artwork also
historicises terms now considered highly derogatory to mark a time in australia
when these terms were more commonly used in the language of cultural conflict.
the words ‘black’, ‘full blood’, ‘halfcaste’, and ‘quadroon’ were common descriptions
on government records, which seems to reaffirm the racist myth of a ‘dying
race’, as if first nations peoples could be bred out. ‘gin’ and ‘lubra’ are
indigenous words for woman/wife but have come to be used as pejorative terms,
often in connection with the sexual exploitation of aboriginal women by
colonisers. this shows how language can become weaponised, and also the
european settlers’ need for classification. i found these racist words in
archival documents about my family — often about members, like my grandparents,
who couldn’t read or write. i don’t believe the inclusion of the words in kith
and kin reinstates their usage, as indigenous peoples refuse to occupy and
entertain the terms’ denigrated meanings
some of the names i’ve
used in the family tree have anglo first and surnames. there are also joke
nicknames from the 19th century, like ‘one eyed jack’ and just a singular first
name that is a shortened version of the proper name, like ‘bobby’ instead of ‘robert’.
if a surname exists, sometimes it was assigned by the pastoralists who were
putting their surname or the property’s name on indigenous people. higher up on
the family tree, i use singular traditional aboriginal names. i’ve tried to
write as many kamilaroi names as i can.
over 550 first nations
people have died in the state’s care in the years since the royal commission
into aboriginal deaths in custody 1987-1991. the redacted coroners’ reports and
archival material of my family members hover above a pool of water, facing
their ancestors at the furthest reaches of the family tree — in and between the
stars. with no one held accountable for any death in custody, and many of the
339 recommendations of the commission yet to be acted upon, the volume of cold
administrative documents visualises the scale of inaction. the stillness and
quiet of the space serve as a memorial or shrine — a place for reflection and
remembrance of all of those who have come before us.
the family tree shows a
65,000+ year scope of time. i wanted to show how long aboriginal cultures have
existed and — in spite of invasion, massacres, and systemic over-incarceration
— continue to exist into the now. the drawing begins as a representation of
genealogical descendancy and time in a western linear sense, but as we go back
a few hundred years it resembles more of a first nations notion of kinship and
time, where the present, past and future share the same space in the here and
now. the australian anthropologist william edward stanner conveyed the idea in
his germinal 1956 essay the dreaming, in which he coined the term ‘everywhen’:
‘one cannot “fix” the dreaming in time: it was, and is, everywhen’.
ELLIE BUTTROSE ON KITH
AND KIN
I. historiography
first nations peoples of
australia are among the oldest continuous living cultures on earth. archie
moore’s kith and kin is both evidence and reminder of this fact, tracing the
artist’s aboriginal relations from the kamilaroi and bigambul nations over
65,000+ years up the walls and across the ceiling of the australia pavilion. it
is a continuation of archie’s ongoing assertion of the sovereignty (and
reflections on the subjectivity) of indigenous australians in his artistic
practice. in school, archie was taught that australia’s history started with
british colonisation in 1770, founded on the principle of terra nullius (land
belonging to no one), without reference to indigenous peoples who cared for the
continent for millennia. the artist’s choice of materials for this celestial
map of names — fragile chalk on blackboard — invokes the transmission of
knowledge and how what is taught within, and what is left out of, the
prevailing education system reverberates into the future with consequence.
II. kinship
the vast drawing traces
the artist’s personal history from himself, close kin, distant relatives,
segueing through racist slurs, and extending to countless generations of
ancestors. anthropologist norman tindale’s linear genealogical diagram that
professed to document archie’s aboriginal relations is exceeded by the greater
complexity of first nations kinship systems. kinship is the organising
principle for indigenous social relations and responsibilities, and
incorporates all living things including plants, animals, land and waterways.
archie’s drawing reaches so far into time that it captures the common ancestors
of all humans, a timely reminder that every person on the planet has kinship
duties to one another.
III. archives
the words that appear in
this linguistic taxonomy are taken from archives, newspapers and government
documents, and include names, racist slurs, and gamilaraay (the kamilaroi
nation’s language) and bigambul kinship terms. the inclusion of archie’s
ancestors’ languages enacts indigenous language maintenance. derogatory terms
and diminutive names attest to how language has been used to classify and
disempower first nations peoples. speculative names appear amongst the
ancestors to redress omissions in the written records on oral indigenous
cultures. holes occur throughout the family tree, these absences signal the
severing of familial ties through colonial invasion, massacres, diseases,
displacement and the deliberate destruction and suppression of archival
records. while archie represents his lived experience and his family’s history,
these chronicles resonate worldwide.
IV. memorialisation
another black void
occupies the centre of the pavilion. this reflective pool is a memorial for the
first nations individuals who have died in police custody since 1991.
indigenous australians are one of the most incarcerated people globally; they
comprise 3.8% of the australian population yet are 33% of prison inmates.1
above the water hover stacks of coronial inquests that date back to the royal
commission into aboriginal deaths in custody 1987–1991. appointed by the
australian government, it found that self-determination and addressing health,
schooling, employment, and housing inequality would contribute to a lower
incarceration rate.2 more than 30 years later, many of its recommendations have
yet to be implemented, and deaths continue unabated. the volume of coronial
inquests makes visible the vast scale of this preventable horror. by placing
this publicly available information at arm’s length archie articulates the gap
between knowledge and action. names have been redacted out of respect for the
deceased. reports that are not publicly accessible are represented with a blank
ream of paper, with these white voids expressing breaches in the record. the
administrative reports are cradled by the reflection of the family tree in the
water below, commemorating that each of the deceased belongs to this expansive
web of relations.
V. carceral
legacies australia’s
history is inextricably linked with the carceral system. british colonisation
was established with penal colonies from 1788. archie’s genealogy is
illustrative of this, with his british and scottish great-greatgrandfather
arriving as a convict in 1820; while his kamilaroi and bigambul great uncle was
imprisoned in the notorious boggo road gaol after accidentally killing his
father during a fight over their paltry wages. within the sea of coronial
inquests, archie incorporates archival records referencing his kin that
evidence how punitive laws and government policies have long been imposed upon
first nations peoples. these include reports by the protector of aboriginals
denying his grandparents exemption from the queensland government’s aboriginal
protection and restriction of the sale of opium act 1897, and subsequent
amendments that would have enabled them to access rights that non-indigenous
citizens enjoyed — such as freedom of movement, the ability to control their
money and the right to marry without approval. archie uses his family history
to make the systemic issues imposed upon first nations peoples uncomfortably
tangible
VI. time
kith and kin is an
extensive account of history — a vast abyss of time — yet it is a statement
told from one point of view. the fragility of archie’s perspective is reflected
in the impermanence of chalk that could seemingly be wiped away without a
trace. while his voice is singular, the vertiginous volume of names is
confirmation that archie’s position draws upon the knowledge of hundreds of
thousands of his forebears. in kamilaroi astronomy the ancestors reside in the
sky, including the dark patches between stars, and archie’s white drawing on a
black background resembles an astronomical chart. the artwork reaches into the
deep time of space and simultaneously into the future through the suggestion of
endlessly reproduced kinship connections. in the kamilaroi understanding of
time, the past, present and future co-present (a view shared by other first
nations in australia). by placing 65,000+ years of family on a single
continuum, kith and kin immerses audiences in the co-presence of ancestors and
the co-existence of time, and by doing so archie enfolds each of us into the
everywhen.
1. thalia anthony,
‘factcheck: are first australians the most imprisoned people on earth?’, the
conversation, 6 june 2017, , viewed 1 february 2024. australian bureau of
statistics. ‘estimates of aboriginal and torres strait islander australians.’
abs, 30 june 2021, , viewed 1 february 2024. australian bureau of statistics.
‘prisoners in australia’, abs, 2023, , viewed 1 february 2024.
2. ‘recommendations’,
national report volume 5, royal commission into aboriginal deaths in custody,
australasian legal information institute: indigenous law resources, , viewed 1
february 2024.
NUCLEO CONTEMPORANEO BY
ADRIANO PEDROSA
The Italian stranieri, the Portuguese estrangeiro,
the French étranger, and the Spanish extranjero, are all etymologically connected to the strano, the estranho, the étrange, the extraño, respectively, which is
precisely the stranger. Sigmund Freud’s Das Unheimliche comes
to mind—the uncanny in English, which in
Portuguese has indeed been translated as “o estranho”–the
strange that is also familiar, within, deep down side. According to the
American Heritage and the Oxford Dictionaries, the first meaning of the word
queer is strange, and thus the Exhibition unfolds and
focuses on the production of other related subjects: the queer artist, who has moved within different
sexualities and genders, often being persecuted or outlawed; the outsider artist, who is located at the margins of
the art world, much like the self-taught artist, the folk artist and the artista popular; as well as the indigenous artist, frequently treated as a
foreigner in his or her own land. The productions of these four subjects are
the interest of this Biennale Arte, constituting the International
Exhibition’s Nucleo Contemporaneo, and although
their work is often informed by their own lives, experiences, reflections,
narratives and histories, there are also those who delve into more formal
issues with their own strange, foreign or indigenous accent.
Indigenous artists have
an emblematic presence in the International Exhibition, and their work greets
the public in the Central Pavilion, where the Makhu collective from Brazil will
paint a monumental mural on the building’s façade, and in the Corderie in the
Arsenale, where the Maataho collective from Aotearoa—New Zealand will present a
large-scale installation in the first room, two other iconics locales in the
exhibition. Queer artists appear throughout the exhibition, and are also the
subject of a large section in the Corderie, which gathers works by artists from
Canada, China, India, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, and the
USA, and one devoted to queer abstraction in the Central Pavilion, with works
by artists from China, Italy, and the Philippines. From Europe, three of its
most remarkable female outsider artists are presented: Madge Gill, from the
United Kingdom, Anna Zemánková, from the Czech Republic, and Aloïse, from
Switzerland.
The Nucleo Contemporaneo will feature a special section in
the Corderie devoted to the Disobedience Archive, a project by Marco Scotini,
which since 2005 has been developing a video archive focusing on the
relationships between artistic practices and activism. In the Biennale Arte
2024, the presentation of the Disobedience Archive is designed by Juliana
Ziebell, who also worked in the exhibition architecture of the entire
International Exhibition. The section is divided into
two parts especially conceived for our framework, diaspora activism and gender
disobedience, and will include works by 39 artists and collectives
made between 1975 and 2023.
THE TAKAPAU INSTALLATION BY MATAAHO COLLECTIVE
Te Atiawa Ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangātira, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Rangitāne Ki Wairarapa
Founded in Aotearoa, New Zealand, 2012
Based in Aotearoa, New Zealand
The Mataaho Collective, consisting of Māori women artists Bridget Reweti, Erena Baker, Sarah Hudson, and Terri Te Tau, has collaboratively worked for a decade on large-scale fibre-based installations delving into the intricacies of Māori lives and knowledge systems. The term takapau denotes a finely woven mat, traditionally employed in ceremonies, particularly during childbirth. In Te Ao Māori, the womb holds sacred significance as a space where infants connect with the gods. Takapau marks the moment of birth, signifying the transition between light and dark, Te Ao Marama (the realm of light), and Te Ao Atua (the realm of the gods). The tie-downs used in their installation embody a meticulous material selection, serving as tools of security and support for moving cargo, while also being affordable and accessible. This deliberate choice seeks to recognise often-overlooked labourers, emphasising the strength derived from interdependence and honouring a legacy that deserves acknowledgement. The Takapau installation, observable from multiple perspectives, unveils its intricate construction with the interplay of light and shadows on woven patterns offering a multisensorial experience.
This is the first time the work of Mataaho Collective is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Amanda Carneiro
MATAAHO COLLECTIVE
LIPID MUSE BY WANG SHUI
April 20, 2024 – November
24, 2024
Dallas, USA, 1986
Lives in New York, USA
WangShui’s practice is
driven by a desire to dematerialise identity. With the same fluidity, they work
across video, installation, and painting to inhabit shifting states of
materiality and consciousness. Deepening their investigation of liminality,
WangShui presents a newly commissioned installation comprising three
large-scale aluminium paintings and an LED video sculpture. Exploring the
migration of matter and form between Latin America, Asia, and Europe, the
installation builds on the artist’s interest in the transnational interpolation
of form. Each work integrates haptic and mechanical processes to blur the line
between mind and machine. For this new suite of paintings, WangShui manually
anodised aluminium panels with cochineal – a globally traded Mexican red
pigment made by grinding up parasitic insects. The multichannel video sculpture
is assembled with interwoven LED mesh screens, another transmutation of image
and light. The video sculpture’s pulsing lights both attract and disorient its
viewers – the artist’s reminder that consciousness is formed in the latent
spaces between nodes of legibility.
This is the first time
the work of WangShui is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Wong Binghao
BIOGRAPHY CURATOR ADRIANO
PEDROSA
Adriano Pedrosa (Brazil)
has a degree is Law from the Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro and
masters’ degree in Art and Critical Writing from the California Institute of
the Arts. He has published in Arte y Parte (Santander), Artforum (New York), Art
Nexus (Bogotá), Bomb (New York), Exit (Madri), Flash Art (Milan), Frieze
(Londres), Lapiz (Madri), Manifesta Journal (Amstersdã), Mousse (Milano),
Parkett (Zurich), The Exhibitionist (Berlin), among others.
Pedrosa has been the
artistic director of Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand - MASP
since 2014.
Prior to that he was
adjunct curator of the 24th Bienal de São Paulo (1998), curator in charge of
exhibitions and collections at Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte
(2000-2003), co-curator of the 27th Bienal de São Paulo (2006), curator of
InSite_05 (San Diego Museum of Art, Centro Cultural Tijuana, 2005), artistic
director of the 2nd Trienal de San Juan (2009), curator of 31st Panorama da
Arte Brasileira-Mamõyaguara opá mamõ pupé (Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo,
2009), co-curator of the 12th Istanbul Biennial, and curator of the São Paulo
pavilion at the 9th Shanghai Biennale (2012).
At MASP Pedrosa has
curated many exhibitions, including solo shows dedicated to the work of Tarsila
do Amaral, Anna Bella Geiger, Ione Saldanha, Maria Auxiliadora, Gertrudes
Altschul, Beatriz Milhazes, Wanda Pimentel, and Hélio Oiticia, as well as the
ongoing series devoted to different Histories: Histories of Childhood (2016),
Histories of Sexuality (2017), Afro Atlantic Histories (2018), Women’s
Histories, Feminist Histories (2019), Histories of Dance (2020), Brazilian
Histories (2022).
He is the recipient of
the 2023 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, given by the Central for
Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York.
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