This year’s Venice Biennale Arte, curated by Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa, marks 60 years of the globally-renowned international art exhibition. The theme: Strainer Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.

Presented across Giardini and Arsenale venues,  the city comes alive with local and international visitors to experience works curated to evoke curiosity and insight into the current world we live in.

Champ team correspondent Benedetta Anghileri presents her top 5 Pavilions not to miss.

AUSTRALIA PAVILION

Indigenous Australian artist Archie Moore presents ‘kith and kin‘, a work delving into Australia’s First Nations history, his heritage, showcasing his ancient culture and disproportionate detention rates.

Working together with Brisbane-based curator Ellie Buttrose on this year’s Pavilion work, Moore created a mural which traces his Kamilaroi and Bigambul heritage over 65,000 years, shedding light on colonial injustices, systemic issues, and the resilience of indigenous peoples. The mural serves as a poignant reminder of historical traumas and ongoing struggles while emphasizing the interconnectedness of all humanity.

The Australia Pavilion received this years Golden Lion award.

JAPAN PAVILION

The solo exhibition “Compose” by Yuko Mohri (Kanagawa, 1980) in the Japan Pavilion seems to grasp a secret about human nature.

The space is a curious mosaic of aquatic sculptures that, borrowing from the Japanese practice of improvising solutions for leaks, divert water into unpredictable and essentially musical paths: rain boots, umbrellas, light bulbs, and fans trace delicate choreographies, accompanied by rotting fruit connected to electrodes to transform impulses into music. The bizarre and playful polyphony of all these elements in a kind of “grand distiller” leads to a broader reflection on the balance between art and life.

MALTA PAVILION

In “I Will Follow the Ship,” Matthew Attard intertwines digital drawing with historical imagery, exploring the legacy of naval graffiti and simple ex-votos found on the facades of Maltese churches.

Utilizing an eye-tracker as an extension and intelligent collaborator, he delves into the hybrid territory between machines and humans. The meanings of these anonymous ship drawings still resonate today, as mass artistic emancipation supported by the internet and computer technology has challenged traditional local power centers. A parallel emerges between these stone engravings and digital drawing.

US PAVILION

The US Pavilion by Jeffrey Gibson is a vibrant celebration, blending Cherokee and Choctaw heritage with a queer identity. Indigenous artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in a solo presentation.

Gibson’s colorful works range from playful bead-covered ducks to engaging visual poetry. The pavilion closes with a mesmerizing kaleidoscopic video, featuring dancers performing a traditional indigenous dance to the music of the Canadian electronic duo The Halluci Nation. It’s irresistible.

ITALY PAVILION

Italian pavilion by Massimo Bartolini suggests that listening, and even more so, truly hearing, is a form of attention towards others.

Sound, music, and silence intertwine, creating a giant musical instrument that resonates throughout. Many layers of interpretation, as always in Massimo Bartolini’s works. An invitation to listen that is also a message, an approach, and a lesson. For Massimo Bartolini, art is a path of knowledge. “Listening” is a tool to perhaps become better people.

Special Mention

Bouchra Khalili: The Mapping Journey Project (Video Installation. 2008-2011)

A series of videos that details the stories of eight individuals who have been forced by political and economic circumstances to travel illegally and whose covert journeys have taken them throughout the Mediterranean basin. Following an initial meeting, the artist invited each person to narrate his or her journey and trace it in thick permanent marker on a geopolitical map of the region. The videos feature the subjects’ voices and their hands sketching their trajectories across the map, while their faces remain unseen. Khalili’s work takes on the challenge of developing critical and ethical approaches to questions of citizenship, community, and political agency.

2024 Arte Biennale
Across Giardini and Arsenale Locations
20 April until 24 November

For more art stories, find them here 

Text: Benedetta Anghileri 
Images: Panglossian Studio