The most “political” Biennial ever in Venice. “Foreigners everywhere”
The artistic gesture is always and inevitably a political gesture. This is a fact (which, unfortunately, almost never corresponds to the opposite) which becomes even more evident in times of great geopolitical tensions like the current ones. This year's Venice Art Biennale is a dive into contemporary geopolitics.
Works, installations, paintings, slogans, words that pass from the conceptual (at times incomprehensible) typical of contemporary art to a universe of references and quotes that speak of conflicts and tensions, of peoples forced to migrate and of suffering.
An example of this is the Israeli pavilion, escorted by army soldiers and closed as a sign of protest, as explained by a poster put up by the artists themselves, until a real ceasefire or an agreement for the release of the hostages is reached. But so is the Russian pavilion, handed over to Bolivian artists as a sign of protest for the invasion suffered by Ukraine. Without forgetting the setting up of an unlikely Consulate of all African peoples, complete with flag and overlooking the Grand Canal.
And finally (but actually starting from that) without forgetting the theme itself of the 60th edition of the Biennale Arte: “Foreigners everywhere“. A title-manifesto in the dual meaning of “finding foreigners everywhere” but also of “finding oneself foreigners everywhere”.
“The city that created the first International Art Biennial 129 years ago, renews its promises of curiosity and love of knowledge – explained the president of the Biennale Pietrangelo Buttafuoco – the same ones that pushed Marco Polo, whose seven hundredth anniversary of his death will be celebrated in 2024, to visit and meet cultures perceived as distant and threatening . Integrating himself, a foreigner in those lands, by virtue of a sincerely human and equal exchange. Those were the times when the Rialto market resounded with languages, ethnic groups, styles and vitality. And many towns had the Fondeghi (of the Turks, the Syrians, the Germans) in Venice, repositories of their manufacturing and their ingenuity. The Biennale with its National Pavilions, works, visitors and artists from all over the world was already there, in the destiny of the city. In fact, for Venice diversity has been an essential condition of normality from the beginning. In a process of reflection and comparison with the other, never perceived in terms of negation
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