Lavar Munroe Represents Bahamas at Venice Biennale with Junkanoo Wake

Lavar Munroe returns to the Venice Biennale a decade after his 2015 debut, this time representing The Bahamas through a posthumous collaboration with his mentor, the late John Beadle. The exhibition centers on the Junkanoo wake, a communal celebration for deceased Junkanooers, reimagined as a ten-panel work. Munroe drew from Beadle's unrealized sketches and used materials like cardboard, yarn, and jewelry inherited from educator Sadie Curtis and his grandmother. The project was developed with curator Dr. Krista Thompson, a fellow Guggenheim Fellow, and incorporates research from Munroe's time in Zimbabwe studying Shona spiritual traditions. The pavilion also includes Beadle's work 'Another Man's Yard' (2006), installed per his instructions. Junkanoo, inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2023, is a festival rooted in the liberation traditions of enslaved Africans. Munroe's practice explores materiality, cultural history, and rites of passage, influenced by Joseph Campbell's monomyth.