From an alligator ride across Asia to an escape to outer space, the Venice Biennale’s ‘foreigners everywhere’ theme leaves our critic beguiled, tantalised – and frequently appalled
Venice. Terrible. Foreigners everywhere, and it is even worse during the biennale, where the exhibition opened to the public on Saturday. Marked by unrest and protests, the 60th Venice Biennale leaves us uncertain of art’s ability to draw us together in a world in crisis. It is filled with the clamour of conflicting voices and doubtful purpose.
On posters and on the sides of the water buses, written in neon and hung in the entrances to the central pavilion in the Giardini and to the Arsenale, the phrase Foreigners Everywhere, written in languages living, endangered and dead, is ubiquitous. Dangling in a roofed-over section of the medieval dock, the words multiply, reflecting brightly in the sullen waters below with a cheer that belies a general unease. Often muttered in under-the-breath complaint, Foreigners Everywhere also celebrates difference, and the multiplicity of voices that fill the city. It also provides the title to curator and artistic director Adriano Pedrosa’s keynote exhibition.
