Strangers Everywhere:
Artists from the Deutsche Bank Collection
at the Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is arguably the world’s most important art event. This year’s edition, titled “Foreigners Everywhere,” focuses on migration, exile, and experiences of foreignness. In this article, we explore contributions from artists represented in the Deutsche Bank Collection, as well as two pavilions that delve deeply into themes such as war, foreignness, and uprooting.
Since Argentinian artist La Chola Poblete was named Deutsche Bank's “Artist of the Year” for 2023, her career has taken off. Her inclusion in the Biennale’s main exhibition, titled “Foreigners Everywhere” and curated by Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa, has further elevated her profile. Pedrosa, the first South American curator of the Biennale, provides an eagerly anticipated exploration of foreignness, featuring numerous artists who are little known in Europe, alongside contemporary and historical works. This exhibition particularly highlights the South American art scene, indigenous art, queer artists, and positions often categorized under the controversial term “Outsider Art.”
On the façade of the central pavilion in the Giardini, the pristine white of the neoclassical building has been transformed with a vibrant, iridescent pattern depicting the flora and fauna of the Amazon. This work by the artist collective MAHKU, rooted in the indigenous culture of the Huni Kuin people from the Brazil-Peru border, is a programmatic change. The exhibition critiques the repression and suppression of non-Western art and culture while at the same time showcasing the creativity and resistance that arise from such marginalization.
La Chola Poblete, whose major solo show will move from Berlin’s Palais Populaire to Milan’s Museo delle Culture in September, wonderfully aligns with this theme. Her works investigate the consequences of colonialism, the erasure and stereotyping of indigenous cultures, and the historical roles of women and trans people. She addresses forms of femininity that have been persecuted, worshipped, or sacrificed by religious and patriarchal ideologies. The watercolors on view in Venice are layered with abstract, religious, mythological, and pop-cultural motifs, centering on the ambivalent figure of the holy virgin, who forms hybrid relationships with the deity Pachamama. Poblete received a Special Mention for her contribution, marking the first time in the Biennale’s history that a transgender and non-white artist has been so honored. “I hope that I can open more doors so that other people like me can free themselves from categories and restrictions,” she said at the award ceremony.
La Chola Poblete
Installation View, Foreigners Everywhere, Arsenale
Courtesy:La Biennale di Venezia
British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, born in 1962, is closely associated with Deutsche Bank’s commitment to art and its partnership with Frieze. One of the prominent artists featured in the main exhibition, he is recognized as a pioneer of postcolonial discourse. Shonibare often uses Dutch wax fabrics, which became popular in Africa through the Netherlands in the nineteenth century during colonization. His works interrogate the relationship between “African” aesthetics and Western modernism. One such piece is his sculpture from the “Refugee Astronaut” series, which examines the idea of outer space as a final refuge and landfill, serving as a warning against environmental destruction.
As clear as this message is, many critics found the context of the exhibition to be vague. While there was consensus that Pedrosa had created a stage for absolutely important art and had embraced productive confusion, the lack of background explanations and the conventional museological arrangements were frequently criticized. “The principal shortcoming of ‘Foreigners Everywhere’ is that it aims to unite a set of unique experiences under the rubric of ‘outsider,’ as though artists who are queer, indigenous, self-taught and/or from the Global South are somehow all the same,” wrote Frieze magazine. “That said, the show features some fascinating works.”
Yinka Shonibare
Refugee Astronaut VIII, 2024
Foreigners Everywhere, Arsenale
Courtesy:La Biennale di Venezia
It’s worth having a look around the national pavilions, such as the Nigerian Pavilion, where the show Nigeria Imaginary aims to “explore different perspectives and constructed ideas, memories of and nostalgia for Nigeria, with a scope that is cross-generational and inter-geographic." Yinka Shonibare is represented here with a new work. Many national pavilions closely align with the themes of the main exhibition, including contributions by artists from the Deutsche Bank Collection. London-based artist John Akomfrah is renowned for his film and video installations that narrate postcolonial history in innovative, associative ways. In the British Pavilion, his installation “Listening All Night to the Rain” captivates viewers with an abundance of monitors and sound images. “The artist’s nightmare of colonial exile, ecology and globalisation—recurring endlessly over six interconnected video installations—leaves you unsettled, unhinged and gasping for air,” wrote Adrian Searle, a critic for The Guardian, who advised repeated visits.
John Akomfrah
Listening all Night to the Rain, British Pavillion
Courtesy:La Biennale di Venezia
The installation created by Eva Koťátková and curator Hana Janečková for the Czech Republic looks like a monumental cemetery of cuddly animals. However, Koťátková tells the story of Lenka the giraffe, captured in Kenya in 1954 and brought to Prague Zoo as the first “Czechoslovakian” giraffe. Lenka survived only two years in captivity, after which her body was donated to the Prague National Museum, where it was exhibited until 2000. Koťátková uses this narrative to unfold a poignant and bitter commentary on colonial history and the exploitation and subjugation of non-human creatures.
Eva Kotátková
The heart of a giraffe in captivity is twelve kilos lighter
Czech and Slovak Republic Pavilion
Courtesy:La Biennale di Venezia
In the Canadian Pavilion, Kapwani Kiwanga’s installation “Trinket” explores the motif of tiny glass beads made in Murano, which have shaped the history of Venice and colonial rule as objects exchanged for spices, ivory, palm oil, and even slaves. For “Trinket,” seven million beads were strung together to form a massive network of curtains, creating a large-scale architectural intervention that turns the pavilion into a single, dynamic sculpture. The presentation appears to rotate, transform, and change before the viewer’s eyes.
Kapwani Kiwanga
Trinket, Canadian Pavillon
Courtesy:La Biennale di Venezia
The Egyptian pavilion, devoted to Wael Shawky, contains a dramatic parable through the artist’s film installation “Drama 1882.” This work investigates historical details and ideas of sovereignty, depicting the Urabi uprising from 1879 to 1882 against British colonial rulers in Egypt. This is the first time Shawky has used actors instead of puppets to portray historical events, a departure from his previous films, which depicted the looting and massacres of the medieval crusades.
Finally, we spoke with Britta Färber, Global Head of Art & Culture at Deutsche Bank, about which country pavilions she found particularly compelling. “Two artistic positions really resonated with me because they delve deeply into experiences of war, flight, exile, and loss: Anna Jermolaewa, presented in the Austrian Pavilion, and the Ukrainian collective Open Group, representing Poland as guests. In both cases, Russia is depicted as the epitome of an authoritarian, repressive system. Both presentations convey a sense of urgency get under your skin; they are deeply personal and unpretentious, and, in my opinion, artistically outstanding.”
The Open Group’s contribution, however, was preceded by a cultural controversy. The artists were invited at the last minute to replace the nationalist painter Ignacy Czwartos, who had been selected under Poland's previous right-wing government—only to be removed again in December by the new, more liberal government. “Repeat After Me,” the Open Group's video project, presents a touching but challenging scenario. Ukrainian civilians mimic the sounds of war solely with their voices, reproducing air raid sirens, tanks, airstrikes, and mortar fire with astonishing precision. The installation is like a karaoke bar where visitors imitate these sounds.
Open Group
Repeat after Me, 2024
Polish Pavillon
Courtesy:La Biennale di Venez
Anna Jermolaewa masterfully embodies the theme of “Strangers Everywhere” in the Biennale’s Austrian Pavilion. Her work evokes the alienation and displacement she experienced as a dissident arriving in Austria in 1989. On display are relics from her homeland in the former USSR, a poignant reminder of what she had to leave behind. A video captures her attempts to find a place to sleep at Vienna’s Westbahnhof train station, mirroring her initial arrival experience. Additionally, a video and dance performance, in collaboration with Ukrainian choreographer Oksana Serheieva, center around rehearsals of “Swan Lake,” a ballet historically broadcast on Soviet television whenever a regime change was imminent. The underlying message is clear: they are also rehearsing for the end of war and the Putin regime.
Both pavilions illustrate that this biennial is taking place in extraordinary times, emphasizing that democracy must also be fought for in art. They remind us that we, too, can experience feelings of foreignness and displacement.
Anna Jermolaewa
Installation View, Austrian Pavillon
Courtesy:La Biennale di Venezia
Stage images:
Impressions1; Impressions Venice Biennale; Courtesy:La Biennale di Venezia
Impressions2; Impression, Foreigners Everywhere, Main Pavillon; Courtesy:La Biennale di Venezia