While in Venice for the 59th Venice Biennale, make sure to save time to visit these pavilions, on view now through November 27.
Installation view of Zineb Sedira’s “Dreams have no titles,” courtesy of the artist.
Zineb Sedira: Dreams have no titles
France Pavilion
Artist Zineb Sedira represents the France Pavilion. Her cinematographic installation, built around the film Dreams have no titles (2022), engages viewers in French, Algerian, and Italian filmmaking of the 1960s and 70s—embracing the still very relevant themes of racism, decolonization, and family. Curated by Yasmina Reggad, Sam Bardaouil, and Till Fellrath, the artist merges personal experience with humanistic universality to blur the confines of fiction and reality.
Installation view of “Radiance – They Dream in Time,” photo by Francesco Allegretto, courtesy of Palazzo Palumbo Fossati, Venice.
Radiance – They Dream in Time
Uganda Pavilion
Artists Acaye Kerunen and Collin Sekajugo represent Uganda’s inaugural pavilion. The exhibition “Radiance – They Dream in Time” is curated by Shaheen Merali and commissioned by Juliana Akoryo Naumo. Kerunen, inspired by the important work of Uganda’s local craftswomen, deconstructs utilitarian materials and artisan crafts, giving new meaning to the power of women’s work in Africa. Sekajugo’s theatrical sensibility examines pop culture and the global mainstream, viewing the biases and entitlements of stock imagery through an African lens.
Installation view of Sonia Boyce’s, “Feeling Her Way,” photo by Cristiano Corte, courtesy of the British Council.
Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way
Great Britain Pavilion
Artist Sonia Boyce represents Great Britain with her exhibition “Feeling Her Way.” Curated by Emma Ridgway, Chief Curator at Modern Art Oxford, and associate curator Shane Akeroyd, the exhibition presents a spirited installation spotlighting the vocal performances of five Black female musicians: Errollyn Wallen, Jacqui Dankworth, Poppy Ajudha, Sofia Jernberg, and Tanita Tikaram. The primary video installation reveals the singers at Abbey Road Studios as they are introduced and guided by Boyce in an imaginative improvisation.
Installation view of “Cunning diplomacy,” courtesy of Arcangelo Sassolino, Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, and Brian Schembri.
Cunning diplomacy
Malta Pavilion
Artists Arcangelo Sassolino, Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, and Brian Schembri represent Malta in their group show, “Cunning diplomacy.” Co-curated by Keith Sciberras and Jeffrey Uslip, the kinetic installation reimagines Caravaggio’s seminal altarpiece, The Beheading of St.John the Baptist. The artists bring modern viewers face to face with the tragic biblical narrative through a multidimensional expression of technology, art, and music, allowing for the reconciliation of past abuse and the reformation of humanist principles.
Installation view of Maria Eichhorn’s “Relocating a Structure,” photo by Jens Ziehe, courtesy Maria Eichhorn / VG Bild-Kunst.
Maria Eichhorn: Relocating a Structure
Germany Pavilion
Artist Maria Eichhorn represents Germany in her solo show “Relocating a Structure.” The artist has relocated the German Pavilion in a spirit of action and reflection among the national pavilions. Eichhorn embarked on an analysis of the pavilion’s two structures; the main building was established in 1909 and its subsequent extensions were carried out by the Nazis in 1938. She then deconstructed remodeled spaces in order to reveal the original, hidden pavilion. As part of the exhibition, curated byYilmaz Dziewior, a comprehensive publication memorializes the anti-fascist resistance and the deportation and murder of the Jewish population during the German occupation from 1943 to 1945.
Installation view of Austrian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2022; © Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl, photo by Georg Petermichl, courtesy of the artists.
Invitation of the Soft Machine and Her Angry Body Parts
Austria Pavilion
Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl represent Austria with their exhibition, Invitation of the Soft Machine and Her Angry Body Parts. The exhibition, curated by Karola Kraus, is inspired by William Burroughs’ eponymous cut-up novel, in which he described the human body as a “soft machine” constantly besieged “by a vast, hungry host of parasites.” Knebl and Scheirl transform the Pavilion into an open stage for paintings, sculptures and photographs, textile works, writing, video, a fashion collection and a magazine to materialize in the form of an exhibition “soft machine” whose individual parts merge into an organic, living whole of art, performance, design, fashion and architecture.
Installation view of “Walking with Water,” Vladimir Nikolic, Venice, 2022; courtesy of the artist.
Vladimir Nikolic: Walking with Water
Serbia Pavilion
Vladimir Nikolic will represent the Serbia Pavilion. The show, curated by Biljana Ciric, will explore our own entanglements with the humans and non-humans who inhabit our environment, and their effect upon our own positions and practices in the world. Through two newly created works, 800m (2022) and A Document (2022), Nikolic explores water as an elemental part of our bodies, and a space of connection rather than separation of bodies. Nikolic’s explorations dialogue with technology and nature, reflecting worldviews which are mediated by technology, and those in which the eye remains a direct optical instrument.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Re-enchanting the World, exhibition view, Polish Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2022; photo by Daniel Rumiancew, courtesy of Zachęta — National Gallery of Art.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas: Re-enchanting the world
Poland Pavilion
For the first time in the over-120-year history of the Venice Biennale, a Roma artist, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, is representing a national pavilion. Her project, Re-enchanting the World (2022), is prepared specifically for the Poland Pavilion. The exhibition is curated by Wojciech Szymański and Joanna Warsza and consists of twelve large-format textile installations which allude to the “Hall of the Months” fresco series from the Renaissance Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara. In the artist’s large-format collages, fragments of skirts, scarves and shirts, become carriers of a charged history.
Na Chainkua Reindorf, “Lara,” 2021; courtesy of the artist.
Black Star — The Museum as Freedom
Ghana Pavilion
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Na Chainkua Reindorf, Afroscope, and Diego Araúja present installations for a new exhibition, “Black Star – The Museum as Freedom,” at the Ghana Pavilion. With the title serving as a multifaceted symbol of African freedom, the artworks push past the boundaries of time and technology. Reindorf uses mythology to create Mawu Nyonu (2022), a fictional secret society of women. Afroscope’s Ashe (2022) uses technology to examine water as a spirit that runs through all elements. Araúja’s A Congress of Salt (2022) uses the Atlantic Ocean, once a divider of West Africa and its diasporas, to unify the birthplace of a new language. The pavilion exhibition is curated by Nana Oforiatta Ayim and designed by architect DK Osseo Asare.
“Two Faʻafafine (After Gauguin)”, Yuki Kihara, 2020 detail from the Paradise Camp series, 2022; © Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries.
Yuki Kihara: Paradise Camp
New Zealand Pavilion
Artist Yuki Kihara presents a new project, “Paradise Camp,” on view at the New Zealand Pavilion. Curated by Professor Natalie King, the artist explores the intersection of colonization, queer rights, and climate catastrophe with the creation and collection of photographs, video and archival material. The artist brings to light crucial elements of New Zealand’s enduring social, political, and cultural engagement with the Pacific, while drawing attention to marginalized histories and the concerns of her community.
