TCollection Highlights from the Venice Biennale Preview Week
An abridged selection of what we saw at “Foreigners Everywhere,” the 60th Biennale di Venezia.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, until 22nd September
10am-5.30pm
10am-5.30pm
Grand Canal, S. Polo, 2774, 30125 Venice
Our inaugural exhibition, “I’m Not Afraid of Ghosts,” curated by Sarah McCrory and Svetlana Marich, is officially open to the public with over 30 TCollection artists in various media. We couldn’t think of a better time and place to exhibit these works than on Venice’s Grand Canal during the Biennale di Venezia: one of the most significant global art events worldwide. We made the most of our stay in Venice, taking in the art in the Pavillions and around the city. Stay tuned next month for a roundup of our favorite exhibitions and popups outside the Biennale, and read on for more on our favorite works in the Pavilions.
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“Biennale curator Adriano Pedrosa explains that the meaning of the title “Foreigners Everywhere” is multifaceted: in our global world we can always expect to encounter “foreigners;” deep down we ourselves are foreigners no matter where we are; and in the touristy city of Venice, especially during the Biennale, foreigners indeed are everywhere. Many of the artists represented in the Bienalle are foreigners as well: ex-pats, immigrants, refugees, or members of the diaspora.” —
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Claire Fontaine
The title for the 60th Venice Biennale, “Foreigners Everywhere,” came directly from a neon work by artist collective Claire Fontaine. The artwork is exhibited in the Arsenale alongside a series of the collective’s neon sculptures written in more than 50 languages. Biennale curator Adriano Pedrosa explains that the meaning of the title “Foreigners Everywhere” is multifaceted: in our global world we can always expect to encounter “foreigners;” deep down we ourselves are foreigners no matter where we are; and in the touristy city of Venice, especially during the Biennale, foreigners indeed are everywhere. Many of the artists represented in the Bienalle are foreigners as well: ex-pats, immigrants, refugees, or members of the diaspora.
being alone
2022
2022
Archival inkjet prints on Hahnemühle photo rag paper.
Dean Sameshima
For his 2022 photography series, “being alone,” artist Dean Sameshima visited adult movie theaters in Berlin to capture theatergoers in silhouette. Taken covertly, the figures appear lonely, staring into an abyss of white screen as we observe from behind. The series takes as a point of departure the queer history of cruising; the search for anonymous sex. With “being alone,” Sameshima points to our experience as individuals, our search for connection in a group, and our ambivalent relationship to anonymity inside and outside the gallery.
Lipid Muse
2024
2024
Multi channel simulation
WangShiu
The wall text next to WangShiu’s multi-channel work “Lipid Muse” describes the artist’s desire to “dematerialize identity.” WangShiu is interested in the liminal as a tool of resistance, often highlighting the interstitial space between images to explore shifting states of consciousness. The artist works across painting, installation, and video, and with “Lipid Muse,” explores the migration of matter between Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Here, the organic curved forms appear to breathe with light, in an evocative installation of immersive color and sound.
Come, Let Me Heal Your Wounds. Let Me Mend Your Broken Bones
2024
2024
Darning on medicinally dyed silk
Dana Awartani
Palestinian-Saudi artist Dana Awartani uses the fragile medium of silk to point to the destruction of cultural and historic sites in the Arab world at the hands of war and terror. She begins with yards of herb and spice-dyed silk, ripping a hole in the fabric to mark each lost site. She then hand darns each hole, or “wound,” much as a mother would darn articles of clothing for her family within the household. For “Come, Let Me Heal Your Wounds. Let Me Mend Your Broken Bones,” Awartani’s tender act of empathy once relegated to the domicile is made public, in an evolving installation that has been expanded to include the devastation of sites in Gaza. The visible stitches Awartani leaves behind by her mending serve as a metaphor for the emotional scars that remain following acts of violence.
Shifting Sands: A Battle Song
2024
2024
Multimedia installation. Tussar silk, ink, acrylic paint. Dimensions variable. Sound, multichannel, 41’38
Manal AlDowayan
In her installation “Shifting Sands: A Battle Song,” Saudi Arabian artist Manal AlDowayan continues her career-long investigation of representations of Saudi women, troubling the concept of collective memory during periods of profound cultural transformation. The audio component of AlDowayan’s installation brings together the voices of Saudi women with the sonic landscape of the desert, while her large-scale sculptures made of silk take on the form of oversized petals, or perhaps flattened hills. The artist screens each petal with words about Saudi women found in local and international newspapers, resulting in a cacophonous installation that points to the limitations of representing Saudi women from an outside perspective.
The Geometric Ballad of Fear
2015
2015
Inkjet print on cotton paper
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Artist Kiluanji Kia Henda uses formal tropes, humor, and evocative images to offer unique insight into his home country of Angola’s colonial history. Kia Henda was born in Luanda, four years after Angola gained independence and amid a civil war. “The Geometric Ballad of Fear” consists of nine photographs that show white-painted protective metal railings typical of houses and buildings in Angola. The geometric patterns are mesmerizing, but point to a larger issue of economic disparity: who exactly is allowed within the gates, and who is being kept outside?
“Foreigners Everywhere:” Biennale Arte 2024 runs from April 20 — November 24,
2024 in Venice, IT.
Location: For the Giardini venue, enter from Viale Trento 1260 and from Sant’Elena (Viale IV Novembre). For the Arsenale venue, enter from Campo della Tana 2169/F and from Ponte dei Pensieri (Salizada Streta) .