The upcoming 2024 edition of the Venice Biennale, renowned as one of the world’s most significant recurring art festivals, will have a distinctive focus on outsiders, foreigners, and artists who have traveled throughout their careers. The curator of the biennial, Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, unveiled the theme of the exhibition, titled “Foreigners Everywhere,” during a press conference. With less than 10 months remaining until the opening on April 20, 2024, the anticipation for the Venice Biennale continues to grow.
Pedrosa’s chosen theme draws inspiration from a 2004 artwork by Claire Fontaine, which features the phrase “Foreigners Everywhere” spelled out in various colors and languages. This artwork alludes to an Italian anarchist collective called Stranieri Ovunque (Foreigners Everywhere) based in Turin. Known for his game-changing exhibitions at MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo), Pedrosa has earned a reputation for innovative approaches to art history, often focusing on race, gender, and sexuality. One of his most notable exhibition series, “Histórias,” delved into Afro-Atlantic histories and made a significant impact when it traveled to the United States in an abridged form.
As the first Latin American curator to organize the Venice Biennale, Pedrosa’s “Foreigners Everywhere” builds upon his previous work at MASP, emphasizing diversity in terms of race, gender, nationality, and celebrating those who are considered foreign, queer, indigenous, and outsiders. Pedrosa highlights the historical and contemporary significance of artists who have traveled under diverse circumstances, moving across cities, countries, and continents. Interestingly, this phenomenon has grown despite increasing restrictions on people’s mobility in the late 20th century.
The 2024 edition of the Venice Biennale aims to focus on artists who are foreigners, immigrants, expatriates, diasporic, émigrés, exiles, and refugees, particularly those who have traversed between the Global South and the Global North. This theme aligns with the direction set by the previous edition curated by Cecilia Alemani, titled “The Milk of Dreams,” which centered around female and nonbinary artists, with men representing a small fraction of the included artists. Alemani’s exhibition also included “capsule” shows featuring historical art, providing a contextual grounding for the reemergence of Surrealism.
The upcoming biennial will comprise two sections: “Nucleo Contemporaneo” and “Nucleo Storico,” dedicated to new and old works, respectively. The “Nucleo Storico” section aims to expand the history of modernism beyond Europe and North America, shedding light on the modernisms in the Global South that remain largely unknown but hold contemporary relevance. Pedrosa emphasizes the need to learn from and about these modernisms, as European modernism extended far beyond Europe during the 20th century, often intertwined with colonialism. Artists from the Global South traveled to Europe to be exposed to modernism, yet they appropriated, transformed, and shaped it in dialogue with local and indigenous references.
Within the “Nucleo Storico,” a significant portion will be dedicated to the worldwide Italian artistic diaspora of the 20th century. It will showcase the works of Italian artists who traveled and settled in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other regions. While Pedrosa’s theme applies to the main exhibition of the Biennale, numerous national pavilions facilitated by their respective host countries will also be part of the event.
Several countries have already announced their representatives for the national pavilions, including Julien Creuzet for the French Pavilion, John Akomfrah for the British Pavilion, Kapwani Kiwanga for the Canadian Pavilion, among others. Robert Cicutto, president of the Venice Biennale, commended Pedrosa’s concept, expressing confidence in the exhibition’s ability to fill gaps in art history by showcasing neglected artists, as articulated by Lesley Lokko, the curator of the 18th Biennale Architettura.
As the countdown continues, anticipation and expectations grow for the 60th International Art Exhibition, where Pedrosa’s curatorship promises to captivate and challenge visitors with its innovative and inclusive approach.