Silver Skeleton Deities and Political Mind Games: What’s Happening at the Venice Biennale?

The sports world may be on the edge of their seats as we draw close to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. But the “Olympics of the art world” is already well underway in Italy: Hundreds of thousands of art lovers are flocking to the Venice Biennale, which runs through November 24. This massive exhibition has been held every two years with very few exceptions since 1895, when it was inaugurated as the world’s first art biennial. Visitors who devote a whole week of their time will still only be able to take in a sliver of the art on display, whether it’s at the central exhibition, the collateral events, or the dozens of storied national pavilions in the Giardini and around the city. 

But that’s not all the exhibition has in store. The politics of the art world are also on full display, whether in the form of protests or the curators’ decisions about how their countries — with all their past and present controversies — will be represented. This year's included Russia offering its pavilion up to Indigenous artists from Bolivia, Brazil renaming its pavilion “Hãhãwpuá” after the Indigenous Patxohã term for the land, Poland welcoming an art collective from Ukraine, the United States featuring Jeffrey Gibson as the first Native American artist to have a solo exhibition at the pavilion, and Israel canceling its exhibition … which perhaps wasn't really canceled after all. 

Hyperallergic Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian and longtime contributor AX Mina sat down to reflect on the aesthetic successes, political failures, and long-awaited representation they saw displayed at the world’s biggest contemporary art show. 

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• (00:00) - Intro
• (04:24) - First Impressions of the Biennale and the Main Exhibition
• (06:33) - India: Aravani Art Project
• (07:48) - Singapore: Charmaine Poh
• (08:58) - Lebanon: Omar Mismar
• (09:42) - “Italians Everywhere”
• (11:06) - Morocco: Bouchra Khalili
• (13:16) - The National Pavilions
• (14:21) - Benin Pavilion
• (16:12) - Lebanon Pavilion
• (18:19) - Italy Pavilion
• (20:14) - UK Pavilion
• (22:44) - US Pavilion
• (25:29) - Israel Pavilion
• (28:51) - Saudi Arabia Pavilion
• (30:07) - Nigeria Pavilion
• (32:11) - Egypt Pavilion
• (34:07) - Taiwan Pavilion
• (35:57) - Australia Pavilion
• (38:16) - Mongolia Pavilion
• (40:06) - “South West Bank,” collateral event
• (42:23) - Outro

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