Our Guide to the Venice Biennale 2024

Interior installation of ‘Listening All Night To The Rain’, within the British Pavilion

The British Pavilion has commissioned artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah RA to represent Great Britain at the 60th Edition of the Venice Biennale. Akomfrah has focused the Pavilion on urgent issues of contemporary life all around the world, through the central theme of listening. Visitors can expect an interlocking, multi-media installation that builds as they journey through the pavilion space.

Curated by Walter Vanhaerents, one of Belgium’s most significant art collectors, with the assistance of Dominique Moulon, Boundaries is a digital animation accompanied by a unique soundscape, crafted using generative artificial intelligence and custom coding. Evident from its title, the show delves into the concept of boundaries, viewing them not merely as barriers but as porous intersections that facilitate connection.

Installation view from inside the Santa Maria della Vititazione

Xirómero, Greece’s Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024

Xirómero/Dryland, Greece’s showcase at the 2024 Venice Biennale has been curated by Panos Giannikopoulos. The installation merges agricultural irrigation equipment with synchronized sound, video, and lighting, exploring local folk festivals, political and cultural dimensions. Rooted in the panighíria of Thessaly and Xirómero, it reflects on rural life, community, and the impact of technology. The Pavilion of Greece’s architecture evokes agricultural settings, while water symbolism prompts reflections on scarcity and abundance.

Coinciding with the opening of the Venice Biennale, is artist/architect Vincenzo de Cotiis’ hard launch of his new foundation. The foundation is dedicated to advancing the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and design, through exhibitions, public art installations and publications.

Now available to view at the Foundation is De Cotiis’ own work, “Archaeology Of Consciousness” which brings together Venice’s heritage with modern art.

Installation of Archaeology of Consciousness by Vincenzo de Cotiis

‘Soon Will Summer Be Over’, series 2023, by Inuuteq Storch

With over 200 works, this photography exhibition by Inuuteq Storch aims “to tell the Greenlanders’ visual history, not seen through the visitors’ eyes, but through the Greenlanders’ own,” explains the artist. Curated by Louise Wolthers, this is the first time the Danish Pavilion has showcased a major exhibition by an artist from Greenland.

Invited especially by the Venice Biennale curator of ‘Foreigner’s Everywhere’, Sol Calero has designed an outdoor pavilion in the Giardini, situated among the 30 permanent national pavilions. The construction itself has been built using materials from Pavilions at past Biennales, bringing attention to sustainability and the idea of international dialogue and collaboration.

Sol Calero’s Casa Anacaona, Folkestone, 2017