The world's oldest art exhibition, the 60th Biennale in Venice, presents the works of more than 20 artists at the central exhibition "Foreigners Everywhere", along with exhibitions in 330 national pavilions, which again include all countries from the former Yugoslavia.
As in 2022, this time too, Russia is voluntarily absent, which gave the pavilion to Bolivia, while Israel's participation is a sign of protest by the world art community due to the war in the Gaza Strip.
According to the concept of the artistic director of the 60th Art Biennale in Venice, Adriano Pedrosa from Brazil, the title of the central exhibition is "Strangers everywhere", and the term itself originates from the name of the Turin collective that fought against racism and xenophobia in Italy at the beginning of this century - Stranieri Ovunque.
The focus of Pedrose's concept is on artists who are foreigners, immigrants, expatriates, exiles and refugees - especially those who moved between the global south and the global north, but remained under the radar of global professionals and the wider public.
This is the first Biennale in Venice designed by a curator who openly declares himself as queer, and the first one from Latin America at the venue. The jubilee edition of the Biennale in Venice will be marked by the biggest presentation of indigenous and queer art so far, and according to Pedrosa, it represents a provocation.
Among the 88 national pavilions in the Arsenale and Giardini, as well as in various locations in Venice, four countries are participating for the first time - Benin, Ethiopia, Tanzania and East Timor, while Nicaragua, Panama and Senegal are for the first time in their own pavilions and not away.
Serbia is represented by Aleksandar Denić with the project Colonial Exposition, organized by the Museum of the City of Belgrade, whose director is Jelena Medaković and curator of the exhibition, and the curator is Ksenija Samardžija.
The exhibition of Aleksandar Denić opens tomorrow.
Exhibition curator Ksenia Samardzija explains that "Colonial Exposition points to the consequences of the colonial era", and that this "historical context represents the starting point for Denic's research of his achievements and lasting impact on cultural divisions and social stratification."
Photo: TanjugDetail from Denić's exhibition
Exhibition commissioner Jelena Medaković believes that "Denić's objects respond in the best way to the central theme of the Adrian Pedrosa Biennale. Denic's personal experience, i.e. the years he spent in Germany working as a scenographer, contributed to mastering the assigned theme in eight visually well-connected objects. Through irony, Denić speaks critically about today's age of consumerism and the situation with displaced people around the world."
Sketch of one of the objects
The installation consists of eight segments, or modules, which represent certain elements of the architecture of urban areas, such as a hotel room, a telephone booth, a public bathroom and a cafe. Denić's "Exposition Coloniale" thus speaks through an advertisement of a tourist agency or through an unconditional Polish toilet plastered with Louis Vuitton wallpaper.
Curator Hans Ulrich visited the Serbian pavilion on Tuesday, which Denić described to the media as "a precedent because he had never entered the Serbian pavilion before." He gave sincere compliments. And the night before last, we entered the list of must-see pavilions."
