The 2024 Venice Biennale, which opens in April of that year, will feature Canada’s Kapwani Kiwanga, a prominent artist on the world scene. She is only the second Black artist to take on the project after Stan Douglas, who was chosen for the 2022 edition, and the first Black woman to exhibit in the nation’s pavilion.
Born in Canada and now residing in Paris, Kiwanga is renowned for her research-based practices, which manifests itself in a range of mediums, including sculpture, installation, photography, video, and performance. She frequently focuses on the transatlantic slave trade, the Green Book, and the histories of those who have been forcibly marginalised, forgotten, or erased.
Numerous of the most prestigious artistic awards in the world have been received by Kiwanga, including the Sobey Art Award in 2018 (for Canadian artists), the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2020 (for artists headquartered in France), and the Zurich Art Prize in 2022 (for an exhibition at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv). The Power Plant in Toronto, the South London Gallery, the Haus der Kunst in Munich, the Witte de With in Rotterdam, the New Museum in New York, the Kunstinstituut Melly (previously the Witte de With), and the Jeu de Paume in Paris have all had solo exhibits of her work. She was featured in the Venice Biennale’s main display the previous year.
The curator of Kiwanga’s presentation is Gatane Verna, who was previously the director of the Power Plant and is now the executive director of the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. The National Gallery of Canada is the commissioner of the Canadian Pavilion.
“Kapwani Kiwanga delves into the archives of the world and conducts in-depth research that is woven elegantly throughout her artworks,” Verna said in a statement. “She is interested in the role of art as a catalyst for revealing and addressing alternative and often silenced, marginalized socio political narratives that are part of our shared histories.”
Daisy Desrosiers, director and chief curator of the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, Heather Igloliorte, co-director of the Indigenous Futures Research Centre at Concordia University, Michelle Jacques, chief curator of Remai Modern, Adelina Vlas, head of curatorial affairs at the Power Plant, and artist Tania Willard made up the selection committee that chose Kiwanga. Two curators from the National Gallery of Canada served as co-chairs of the committee: Jonathan Shaughnessy, director of curatorial projects, and Michelle LaVallee, director of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization.
In a statement, LaVallee and Shaughnessy said, “Kiwanga’s interdisciplinary approach to art making has received international attention for its eye-opening investigations into the structures, systems, and narratives underlying today’s power asymmetries. The treatment of space for Kiwanga is an artistic gesture. Working across sculpture, mixed-media installation and performance, her projects often pay close attention to the sites in and on which they are exhibited.”