The celebratory mood at the Venice Biennale 2024 was muted by the pressing reality of current wars in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The agenda is evangelical, forcing a revision of values and of histories. Even the sponsors seemed less bent on display; just one super yacht was moored alongside a super catamaran, ArtExplorer, the project of the businessman, philanthropist, mountaineer, and grand patron of the Louvre, Frédéric Joussett. He sees his boat museum as a campaigning Greenpeace project bringing the experience of museum quality art to new audiences ‘everything we do for the audience is free’. For the Biennale punter this Biennale offers few quick pickings of ‘emergent’ artists for the market. There is a strong focus on the ‘indigenous’ artist who may be part of collectives or families of artists; the work is culturally specific, and unfamiliar, demanding time and knowledge.
There are eighty-eight national pavilions this year and thirty collateral events across the two main sites of the Giardini and Arsenale and the palaces of the City of Venice. Asia and the Middle East have a stronger presence. Africa has thirteen countries represented, up from eight in 2022, New entrants are the Republic of Benin, Ethiopia, United Republic of Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Timor Leste. Morocco was due to debut this year, but canceled; Nicaragua, the Republic of Panama, and Senegal have their own pavilions for the first time. The Holy See has a project in an active women’s prison on the island of Guidecca, but without Vatican pre-registration many preview visitors were turned away. Israel’s pavilion remained shut, under guard by the Italian army. After a petition signed by 23,000, the artist and curators refused to open their show until hostilities cease. For less privileged artists, with few opportunities to show in their own countries, dissidence may not be an option. Russia’s pavilion, closed at the last Biennale, is given to its longstanding partner in Latin America, impoverished Bolivia. The commissioners state ‘the project brings together artists from Bolivia and friendly countries in Latin America… an opportunity to share and demonstrate the brotherhood and joy that unites us …the common ground of our indigenous origins and the vocation to “live well” in harmony and equity among ourselves and with our “Mother Earth”’. In 2023, Bolivia signed a $450 million lithium deal with Russia.
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