Featured Events in Venice in April, 2024 (May Updated)

Curated by Caroline Bourgeois, Chief Curator of the Pinault Collection, with Julie Mehretu, the exhibition brings together a selection of more than fifty works, between painting and printmaking, that the artist produced over the timespan of 25 years, including several of the artist’s recent paintings from 2021-2024. Presented over two floors of Palazzo Grassi, the exhibition unites 17 works from the Pinault Collection, as well as loans from international museums and private collections. The exhibition is punctuated by the presence of the works by some of her closest artist friends, with whom she has developed a powerful affinity over the years and with whom she has exchanged and collaborated. Organised following a principle of visual echoes, this exhibition is conceived as a free, non-chronological journey through Julie Mehretu’s work. It allows us to explore her artistic practice, to understand both how it came into being and how it is constantly renewed. The palimpsest of her work, forming multiple surfaces images, echoes with the collective dimension, the idea of working together, which we have sought to bring out here. In this exhibition, pieces by Mehretu’s friends Nairy Baghramian, Huma Bhabha, Tacita Dean, David Hammons, Robin Coste Lewis, Paul Pfeiffer and Jessica Rankin enter into a rich dialogue with her own art. Beyond their formal differences, common concerns and shared driving forces become apparent, challenging the idea that the artist is self-sufficient and showing that, on the contrary, she is connected to others, to their thoughts and sensibilities. Their works inspire her and resonate with her own, with her way of looking at the world—all the more since each of these artists, like Julie Mehretu herself, experienced displacements that deeply shaped who they became, by force or by choice, leaving or fleeing Ethiopia, Iran, Pakistan. Their participation in the exhibition is a testament to Julie Mehretu’s acute attention to these gradually woven relationships, to their seminal role and creative power. The exhibition is realised in cooperation with K21–Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf) that will present it in 2025. It is accompanied by a visitor's guide and a catalogue published by Marsilio Arte, Venice, with texts by Hilton Als, Caroline Bourgeois, Patricia Falguières, Julie Mehretu, Jason Moran and two conversations, one between Julie Mehretu, Paul Pfeiffer and Lawrence Chua and another between Julie Mehretu and Caroline Bourgeois. The exhibition will also be enriched by a series of conferences and cultural events open to the public, that will bring light to the protagonists of the project and explore its themes within the frame of the cultural programme of the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi. Among others, a conversation with Julie Mehretu and the artists of the “Ensemble” exhibition is scheduled on 20 March, and the performance “Archive of Desire” will be presented on 21 March. Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana will present a podcast dedicated to the protagonist of the exhibition Julie Mehretu, in collaboration with CHORA Media, from April 2024.

Curated by Caroline Bourgeois, Chief Curator of the Pinault Collection, with Julie Mehretu, the exhibition brings together a selection of more than fifty works, between painting and printmaking, that the artist produced over the timespan of 25 years, including several of the artist’s recent paintings from 2021-2024. Presented over two floors of Palazzo Grassi, the exhibition unites 17 works from the Pinault Collection, as well as loans from international museums and private collections. The exhibition is punctuated by the presence of the works by some of her closest artist friends, with whom she has developed a powerful affinity over the years and with whom she has exchanged and collaborated. Organised following a principle of visual echoes, this exhibition is conceived as a free, non-chronological journey through Julie Mehretu’s work. It allows us to explore her artistic practice, to understand both how it came into being and how it is constantly renewed. The palimpsest of her work, forming multiple surfaces images, echoes with the collective dimension, the idea of working together, which we have sought to bring out here. In this exhibition, pieces by Mehretu’s friends Nairy Baghramian, Huma Bhabha, Tacita Dean, David Hammons, Robin Coste Lewis, Paul Pfeiffer and Jessica Rankin enter into a rich dialogue with her own art. Beyond their formal differences, common concerns and shared driving forces become apparent, challenging the idea that the artist is self-sufficient and showing that, on the contrary, she is connected to others, to their thoughts and sensibilities. Their works inspire her and resonate with her own, with her way of looking at the world—all the more since each of these artists, like Julie Mehretu herself, experienced displacements that deeply shaped who they became, by force or by choice, leaving or fleeing Ethiopia, Iran, Pakistan. Their participation in the exhibition is a testament to Julie Mehretu’s acute attention to these gradually woven relationships, to their seminal role and creative power. The exhibition is realised in cooperation with K21–Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf) that will present it in 2025. It is accompanied by a visitor's guide and a catalogue published by Marsilio Arte, Venice, with texts by Hilton Als, Caroline Bourgeois, Patricia Falguières, Julie Mehretu, Jason Moran and two conversations, one between Julie Mehretu, Paul Pfeiffer and Lawrence Chua and another between Julie Mehretu and Caroline Bourgeois. The exhibition will also be enriched by a series of conferences and cultural events open to the public, that will bring light to the protagonists of the project and explore its themes within the frame of the cultural programme of the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi. Among others, a conversation with Julie Mehretu and the artists of the “Ensemble” exhibition is scheduled on 20 March, and the performance “Archive of Desire” will be presented on 21 March. Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana will present a podcast dedicated to the protagonist of the exhibition Julie Mehretu, in collaboration with CHORA Media, from April 2024.

Le premier étage est le théâtre d’un dialogue artistique inédit entre les pièces sculptées dans la glace du duo Perrin & Perrin et les oeuvres en savon, allégoriques et poétiques, de Mircea Cantor. Les différentes matières, formes et couleurs utilisées par les artistes s’entrecroisent, invitant à découvrir chaque sculpture sous un nouvel angle. Les travaux présentés par Mircea Cantor esquissent une réflexion sur la contamination et la pureté, la fragilité et la perte. Émergeant d’îlots de gravats qui, associés aux titres des oeuvres, évoquent les catastrophes de l’actuelle guerre en Syrie, les décorations sinueuses de l’artiste sont fabriquées en savon d’Alep, selon la recette d’origine qui, dans l’Antiquité, a fait la célébrité de cette ville. Les piliers se dressent entre histoire majestueuse et présent tragique. Le savon est un matériau paradoxal pour la figure de la saleté et de l’infestation généralement associée à la migration par le discours populiste et dans lequel sont sculptées la destruction totale de l’origine et la déliquescence du patrimoine. Les sphères de Mircea Cantor reproduisent la forme de rouleaux ou de tas de cordes et reposent sur des socles en béton endommagés. Fragiles et apparemment destinés au transport d’objets, en cohérence avec un destin fait d’errances, ces « mondes » miniatures – tels que le titre les décrit – suggèrent des fragments de vies précédentes que l’on pourrait rapidement empaqueter pour leur éviter d’être détruites, à la fois preuves d’une origine que l’on sauvegarde et fardeau que l’on porte. Duo créatif à quatre mains, Martine et Jacki Perrin oeuvrent en alchimistes. Depuis plus de quarante ans, ils explorent les richesses insoupçonnées du verre et toutes les possibilités qu’offrent la matière, dans laquelle couleurs et jeux de transparences et d’opacités se fondent, contrastent ou se révèlent. Travaillé à travers la fusion du verre, le modelage de la terre, mais aussi par la pratique du dessin et de la calligraphie, le verre se fait sculptures minérales. Perrin & Perrin sont par ailleurs à l’origine de la conception d’une méthode unique, intitulée le « Build-in-Glass », qui leur permet d’explorer en permanence de nouvelles frontières et de réinventer leur art en permanence. Les installations et sculptures en verre de Perrin & Perrin reflètent la maîtrise créative du duo. Le travail qu’ils effectuent sur le verre donne lieu à d’infinies variations des couleurs et reflets de la matière. Le bleu glacial de l’oeuvre « Eight-3 » côtoie ainsi les reflets ambrés de l’installation « Cabane », qui semble s’envoler. À cette occasion, la première monographie consacrée au travail du duo sera publiée le 7 mars 2024, dévoilant les multiples facettes de leur travail. L’ouvrage de 264 pages rassemble près de 150 oeuvres des artistes et des interventions de spécialistes, tels que les architectes et designers Nathalie Chapuis et Sylvain Dubuisson, les conservateurs Amélie Banwart, Jean-Luc Olivié et Catherine Thomas ou encore la directrice du MusVerre, Éléonore Peretti.

Le premier étage est le théâtre d’un dialogue artistique inédit entre les pièces sculptées dans la glace du duo Perrin & Perrin et les oeuvres en savon, allégoriques et poétiques, de Mircea Cantor. Les différentes matières, formes et couleurs utilisées par les artistes s’entrecroisent, invitant à découvrir chaque sculpture sous un nouvel angle. Les travaux présentés par Mircea Cantor esquissent une réflexion sur la contamination et la pureté, la fragilité et la perte. Émergeant d’îlots de gravats qui, associés aux titres des oeuvres, évoquent les catastrophes de l’actuelle guerre en Syrie, les décorations sinueuses de l’artiste sont fabriquées en savon d’Alep, selon la recette d’origine qui, dans l’Antiquité, a fait la célébrité de cette ville. Les piliers se dressent entre histoire majestueuse et présent tragique. Le savon est un matériau paradoxal pour la figure de la saleté et de l’infestation généralement associée à la migration par le discours populiste et dans lequel sont sculptées la destruction totale de l’origine et la déliquescence du patrimoine. Les sphères de Mircea Cantor reproduisent la forme de rouleaux ou de tas de cordes et reposent sur des socles en béton endommagés. Fragiles et apparemment destinés au transport d’objets, en cohérence avec un destin fait d’errances, ces « mondes » miniatures – tels que le titre les décrit – suggèrent des fragments de vies précédentes que l’on pourrait rapidement empaqueter pour leur éviter d’être détruites, à la fois preuves d’une origine que l’on sauvegarde et fardeau que l’on porte. Duo créatif à quatre mains, Martine et Jacki Perrin oeuvrent en alchimistes. Depuis plus de quarante ans, ils explorent les richesses insoupçonnées du verre et toutes les possibilités qu’offrent la matière, dans laquelle couleurs et jeux de transparences et d’opacités se fondent, contrastent ou se révèlent. Travaillé à travers la fusion du verre, le modelage de la terre, mais aussi par la pratique du dessin et de la calligraphie, le verre se fait sculptures minérales. Perrin & Perrin sont par ailleurs à l’origine de la conception d’une méthode unique, intitulée le « Build-in-Glass », qui leur permet d’explorer en permanence de nouvelles frontières et de réinventer leur art en permanence. Les installations et sculptures en verre de Perrin & Perrin reflètent la maîtrise créative du duo. Le travail qu’ils effectuent sur le verre donne lieu à d’infinies variations des couleurs et reflets de la matière. Le bleu glacial de l’oeuvre « Eight-3 » côtoie ainsi les reflets ambrés de l’installation « Cabane », qui semble s’envoler. À cette occasion, la première monographie consacrée au travail du duo sera publiée le 7 mars 2024, dévoilant les multiples facettes de leur travail. L’ouvrage de 264 pages rassemble près de 150 oeuvres des artistes et des interventions de spécialistes, tels que les architectes et designers Nathalie Chapuis et Sylvain Dubuisson, les conservateurs Amélie Banwart, Jean-Luc Olivié et Catherine Thomas ou encore la directrice du MusVerre, Éléonore Peretti.

Two immersive environments explore how images are constructed and memories are formed. Sze will take over the gallery with a new moving-image installation and present a suite of new paintings in surroundings that bring the of Sze’s New York studio to a nearby Venetian apartment, uncannily evoking a sense that the artist has just stepped away from her place of work. Sze’s latest video work transforms the gallery with an array of ever-changing projections suspended throughout the space. Carefully composed, the projections invite the viewer to visually navigate the work, forming a personal narrative by journeying from one image to the next. Interested in shattering the singularity of an image, and in dismantling any hierarchy of visual material, Sze’s installation questions the nature of looking and underscores how images are fundamental to memory. On view in the salon rooms of an apartment opposite the gallery, Sze creates a total environment with a series of paintings presented within a simulation of the space in which they were made. Again considering the perception of images, Sze’s enquiry is one of orientation: how does one locate oneself in a painting, and how can a painting’s effect be one of disorientation? Compositionally complex, the works incorporate both art historical strategies and digital techniques. These are paintings that reward the act of looking: the eye is always engaged in a process of putting the paintings together and taking them apart. A sense of discovery and indulging the pleasure of being lost rather than arriving at a destination has informed all of Sze’s oeuvre, and the experience of Venice as a place, its unique invitation to wander, is echoed within the exhibition. All of the works on view incorporate imagery – even if layered and hidden – that Sze has captured or created in the city. About the artist For the past thirty years, Sarah Sze has developed a singular visual language that challenges the static nature of art with a dynamic body of work spanning sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, video, and installation. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1969, Sze lives and works in New York. Sze represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003. The artist has exhibited in museums worldwide, and her works are held in the permanent collections of prominent institutions, including Tate, UK; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; MUDAM, Luxembourg; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Sze has also created public works for the High Line in New York, the city’s Second Avenue Subway Station, and the new LaGuardia Airport. Current and recent solo exhibitions include: Sarah Sze: Timelapse, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2023) and a solo exhibition at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas (until 18 August 2024). Sarah Sze: , a new work co-commissioned and co-produced by Artangel, UK, OGR Torino, Italy, and Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark, opens at ARoS on 18 May and continues until 20 October 2024.

The Icelandic Art Center is delighted to announce that Reykjavik-based artist Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir will represent Iceland at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (20 April – 24 November 2024). She will collaborate with American curator Dan Byers to realise her presentation, which will be an exhibition of new sculptural and installation works. The Icelandic Pavilion will be located in the Artigliere in the Arsenale for the second time in 2024. Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir is renowned for her nuanced artistic practice, which explores concepts of beauty, utility, and value. The artist often uses and misuses the systems we have developed to produce our material world. Her work draws inspiration from the affective possibilities of items such as computer buttons, plastic clips, hang tags, labels, and stickers presented at distorted scales and through often unnerving methods of display. The artist’s interventions into globalized systems of production, distribution, and commerce and the pleasure taken in the least heroic products of these systems, result in projects that are deadpan and surreal, playful and subversive. Working with Dan Byers, her presentation for the Icelandic Pavilion will respond to the Pavilion space and the Venice Biennale itself. Dan Byers is a curator of contemporary art with a current focus on commissioning new work with living artists. Throughout his curatorial career, Byers has worked closely with artists to help conceptualize and produce new work for varying site and institutional contexts. In addition to his current post as the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, he has held curatorial positions at the ICA/Boston, the Carnegie Museum of Art (where he was co-curator of the 2013 Carnegie International), and the Walker Art Center. Birgisdóttir and Byers share an interest in playing with the standard conventions of display and the exhibition format. They met through Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson and began conversations around Birgisdóttir’s Biennale presentation in 2022.

The South African Pavilion is readying for the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (20 April- 24 November 2024), where the country will present an exhibition with a bold message for the world today. Titled Quiet Ground, the exhibition is curated by Portia Malatjie and will feature a newly commissioned sound installation, Dinokana (2024) by the art collective, MADEYOULOOK made up of Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho. Set against the backdrop of histories of forced migration and land dispossession in South Africa the exhibition, Quiet Ground, is focused on the possibilities of personal and communal repair in a context of being ‘foreign at home’. In this way, these themes link the pavilion and exhibition to the occasion of 30 Years of Democracy in South Africa; marking the nation’s continued journey towards correcting the historic disruptions of indigenous people’s connection to the land. The 2024 pavilion’s programming will accordingly unfold through 3 pillars: Art in South Africa; The Land as Classroom, and notions of Repair through Art. The exhibition, and its parallel public programs, will focus on the many ways that the dispossessed reconnect with the land through processes of rehoming and land rehabilitation, rooted in indigenous knowledge. Unfolding under the theme, “…because the land is ours” to assert ideas, practices of building belonging by listening to the land as a portal to reroute and re-root ourselves against violence and displacement. The South African Pavilion’s exhibition theme and campaign message are a compelling complement to the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia’s main exhibition theme by curator Adriano Pedrosa: Foreigners Everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque). 2024 marks the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, and the 7th year of the South African pavilion. Established in 1895, La Biennale di Venezia is one of the oldest art events in the world, with over 80 countries and artists represented at various individual pavilions. The South African Pavilion exhibition will be supported by public programs including digital content, events in Italy and South Africa and a school’s competition for young artists in South African secondary schools.

In the exhibition "Trumpett Yeung: Double Affiliated Hospitals, Hong Kong in Venice", Trevor Yeung explores the relationship between humans and aquatic ecosystems through his personal experience and keen observation. His works are inspired by his father's seafood restaurant, aquarium shop, Feng Shui decorations, and the few small fish he raised as a child. In Trevor Yeung's fishless aquarium landscape, desire, desire and power are fully revealed. His works use the concepts of absence and dependence to reflect on the social systems that construct our lives, and allude to the current climate crisis. The exhibition invites viewers to think about the emotional alienation and power relations that are unique to contemporary society.

This year’s pavilion by British artist John Akomfrah RA will be a multi-layered exhibition which encourages visitors to experience the British Pavilion’s 19th century neoclassical building in a new way. Through his work, Listening All Night To The Rain, Akomfrah will continue to explore the themes that have featured throughout his work of the past four decades and his investigation of issues of contemporary life, such as memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change - with a renewed focus on the act of listening and the sonic. Visitors can expect an interlocking, multi-media installation that builds as they journey through the pavilion space. Akomfrah, who was recently honoured with a knighthood in the 2023 UK Honours list, is known for his art films and multi-screen video installations, which explore major issues including racial injustice, colonial legacies, diasporic identities, migration and climate change. The London-based artist initially came to prominence in the early 1980s as part of the Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC), a group of seven artists founded in 1982. The BAFC's first film was Handsworth Songs (1986) which explored the events around the 1985 riots in Birmingham and London. In recent years, his multichannel video works have evolved into ambitious, multi-screen installations shown in galleries and museums worldwide. In 2017, he won the Artes Mundi prize, the UK’s biggest award for international art. He has previously participated in La Biennale di Venezia with his piece Four Nocturnes, commissioned for the inaugural Ghana Pavilion in 2019.

The Icelandic Art Center is delighted to announce that Reykjavik-based artist Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir will represent Iceland at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (20 April – 24 November 2024). She will collaborate with American curator Dan Byers to realise her presentation, which will be an exhibition of new sculptural and installation works. The Icelandic Pavilion will be located in the Artigliere in the Arsenale for the second time in 2024. Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir is renowned for her nuanced artistic practice, which explores concepts of beauty, utility, and value. The artist often uses and misuses the systems we have developed to produce our material world. Her work draws inspiration from the affective possibilities of items such as computer buttons, plastic clips, hang tags, labels, and stickers presented at distorted scales and through often unnerving methods of display. The artist’s interventions into globalized systems of production, distribution, and commerce and the pleasure taken in the least heroic products of these systems, result in projects that are deadpan and surreal, playful and subversive. Working with Dan Byers, her presentation for the Icelandic Pavilion will respond to the Pavilion space and the Venice Biennale itself. Dan Byers is a curator of contemporary art with a current focus on commissioning new work with living artists. Throughout his curatorial career, Byers has worked closely with artists to help conceptualize and produce new work for varying site and institutional contexts. In addition to his current post as the John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, he has held curatorial positions at the ICA/Boston, the Carnegie Museum of Art (where he was co-curator of the 2013 Carnegie International), and the Walker Art Center. Birgisdóttir and Byers share an interest in playing with the standard conventions of display and the exhibition format. They met through Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson and began conversations around Birgisdóttir’s Biennale presentation in 2022.

Since the 1960s and for decades before the emergence of “street art”, Pignon-Ernest was paving an adventurous path, combining technical mastery, existential integrity, and the ability to “poetically inhabit the world”, highlighting the notion of “the foreigner,” a foundational element in his works. Across every continent, Pignon-Ernest explores the destinies of those individuals who break the conventional way or are myths to be revived, creating life-size images in everyday environments in a meaningful way.

A Comparative Dialogue Act, a project by the Luxembourgish artist Andrea Mancini and the multidisciplinary collective Every Island will represent the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale. The project of the Luxembourg pavilion challenges the entrenched notion of individual artistic authorship by presenting a collection of works where artists relinquish ego in favour of a profound exploration of collective creativity through the medium of sound. A Comparative Dialogue Act uses sound as a tool to explore different perspectives on identity and artistic research. An unprecedented collaboration by four emerging artists from diverse backgrounds, it brings together Spanish musician and performer Bella Báguena, French transdisciplinary artist Célin Jiang, Ankara-born performance Artist Selin Davasse and Swedish artist Stina Fors to offer four intersecting approaches to the multiple ways identity, performance and sound can meet. Navigating the realms of gender identity, Báguena weaves sounds inspired by intuition, motivation and a tableau of influences from pop culture to personal experiences. Jiang adopts a decolonial cyberfeminist approach, intertwining arts, technologies and digital humanities to provoke contemplation of identity within the context of transcultural aesthetics. Repurposing literary and performative techniques, Davasse embodies various feminine beasts with distinct syntactical, vocal and gestural characteristics to intimately traverse a speculative ethics of hospitality. And finally, Fors uses choreography, performance, drumming and vocals to explore the depths of a ‘sounding body’, unleashing a powerful voice that alternates between lethal force and seductive allure and showcasing the complexities of the self. A Comparative Dialogue Act offers a rich composition of singular voices brought together in a blurred sound artwork that pushes the boundaries of contemporary art production. This exhibition investigates the transformative potential of sound as a medium for cultivating connection and understanding. It aims to transcend the limits set by singular perspectives of what sound can lend to the acts of interpreting, distorting and appropriating.

This year’s pavilion by British artist John Akomfrah RA will be a multi-layered exhibition which encourages visitors to experience the British Pavilion’s 19th century neoclassical building in a new way. Through his work, Listening All Night To The Rain, Akomfrah will continue to explore the themes that have featured throughout his work of the past four decades and his investigation of issues of contemporary life, such as memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change - with a renewed focus on the act of listening and the sonic. Visitors can expect an interlocking, multi-media installation that builds as they journey through the pavilion space. Akomfrah, who was recently honoured with a knighthood in the 2023 UK Honours list, is known for his art films and multi-screen video installations, which explore major issues including racial injustice, colonial legacies, diasporic identities, migration and climate change. The London-based artist initially came to prominence in the early 1980s as part of the Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC), a group of seven artists founded in 1982. The BAFC's first film was Handsworth Songs (1986) which explored the events around the 1985 riots in Birmingham and London. In recent years, his multichannel video works have evolved into ambitious, multi-screen installations shown in galleries and museums worldwide. In 2017, he won the Artes Mundi prize, the UK’s biggest award for international art. He has previously participated in La Biennale di Venezia with his piece Four Nocturnes, commissioned for the inaugural Ghana Pavilion in 2019.

The Philippines has chosen a representative for the 60th Venice Art Biennale! After careful and thoughtful deliberation, the jurors have officially selected Kabilang-tabing ng panahong ito (Behind the curtain of this age). The proposal, curated by Carlos Quijon Jr. and featuring the work of contemporary artist Mark Salvatus, “revolves around the ethno-ecologies of Mt. Banahaw and Lucban, the artist’s hometown.” It also draws inspiration from how the mountain “shaped the music and faith of the people.” The exhibition borrowed its title from the words of Apolinario de la Cruz or Hermano Pule, the lonestar of the people of Lucban who resisted the discrimination of the Spanish Catholic church. Concepts that it aims to explore include “currents of mysticism and modernity, the deep past and the looming future, as well as the coincidence of the cosmopolitan and the vernacular.”

Since the 1960s and for decades before the emergence of “street art”, Pignon-Ernest was paving an adventurous path, combining technical mastery, existential integrity, and the ability to “poetically inhabit the world”, highlighting the notion of “the foreigner,” a foundational element in his works. Across every continent, Pignon-Ernest explores the destinies of those individuals who break the conventional way or are myths to be revived, creating life-size images in everyday environments in a meaningful way.

In the exhibition "Trumpett Yeung: Double Affiliated Hospitals, Hong Kong in Venice", Trevor Yeung explores the relationship between humans and aquatic ecosystems through his personal experience and keen observation. His works are inspired by his father's seafood restaurant, aquarium shop, Feng Shui decorations, and the few small fish he raised as a child. In Trevor Yeung's fishless aquarium landscape, desire, desire and power are fully revealed. His works use the concepts of absence and dependence to reflect on the social systems that construct our lives, and allude to the current climate crisis. The exhibition invites viewers to think about the emotional alienation and power relations that are unique to contemporary society.

The Philippines has chosen a representative for the 60th Venice Art Biennale! After careful and thoughtful deliberation, the jurors have officially selected Kabilang-tabing ng panahong ito (Behind the curtain of this age). The proposal, curated by Carlos Quijon Jr. and featuring the work of contemporary artist Mark Salvatus, “revolves around the ethno-ecologies of Mt. Banahaw and Lucban, the artist’s hometown.” It also draws inspiration from how the mountain “shaped the music and faith of the people.” The exhibition borrowed its title from the words of Apolinario de la Cruz or Hermano Pule, the lonestar of the people of Lucban who resisted the discrimination of the Spanish Catholic church. Concepts that it aims to explore include “currents of mysticism and modernity, the deep past and the looming future, as well as the coincidence of the cosmopolitan and the vernacular.”

The South African Pavilion is readying for the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (20 April- 24 November 2024), where the country will present an exhibition with a bold message for the world today. Titled Quiet Ground, the exhibition is curated by Portia Malatjie and will feature a newly commissioned sound installation, Dinokana (2024) by the art collective, MADEYOULOOK made up of Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho. Set against the backdrop of histories of forced migration and land dispossession in South Africa the exhibition, Quiet Ground, is focused on the possibilities of personal and communal repair in a context of being ‘foreign at home’. In this way, these themes link the pavilion and exhibition to the occasion of 30 Years of Democracy in South Africa; marking the nation’s continued journey towards correcting the historic disruptions of indigenous people’s connection to the land. The 2024 pavilion’s programming will accordingly unfold through 3 pillars: Art in South Africa; The Land as Classroom, and notions of Repair through Art. The exhibition, and its parallel public programs, will focus on the many ways that the dispossessed reconnect with the land through processes of rehoming and land rehabilitation, rooted in indigenous knowledge. Unfolding under the theme, “…because the land is ours” to assert ideas, practices of building belonging by listening to the land as a portal to reroute and re-root ourselves against violence and displacement. The South African Pavilion’s exhibition theme and campaign message are a compelling complement to the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia’s main exhibition theme by curator Adriano Pedrosa: Foreigners Everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque). 2024 marks the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, and the 7th year of the South African pavilion. Established in 1895, La Biennale di Venezia is one of the oldest art events in the world, with over 80 countries and artists represented at various individual pavilions. The South African Pavilion exhibition will be supported by public programs including digital content, events in Italy and South Africa and a school’s competition for young artists in South African secondary schools.

In the exhibition "Trumpett Yeung: Double Affiliated Hospitals, Hong Kong in Venice", Trevor Yeung explores the relationship between humans and aquatic ecosystems through his personal experience and keen observation. His works are inspired by his father's seafood restaurant, aquarium shop, Feng Shui decorations, and the few small fish he raised as a child. In Trevor Yeung's fishless aquarium landscape, desire, desire and power are fully revealed. His works use the concepts of absence and dependence to reflect on the social systems that construct our lives, and allude to the current climate crisis. The exhibition invites viewers to think about the emotional alienation and power relations that are unique to contemporary society.