58th Venice Biennale Announces Main Exhibition Artists with Unprecedented Gender Parity

The 58th Venice Biennale has revealed the 79 artists participating in its main exhibition, titled 'May You Live in Interesting Times,' curated by American Ralph Rugoff, director of London's Hayward Gallery. Running from May 11 to November 24, 2019, in Venice, Italy, the show marks a significant reduction from previous editions—120 artists in 2017 and 138 in 2015—and achieves near gender parity, with almost half being women. Notably, over a third of the artists were born in the 1980s. The exhibition will be uniquely split between the Arsenale and the Giardini, with all artists presenting different works in both sections, aiming to create a 'multivalent and richly ambiguous' show addressing a 'divided social reality.' Rugoff stated the broad theme accommodates the complex nature of the works, which are open to multiple readings and embrace paradoxes. The title references an ancient Chinese curse wishing for uncertain and turbulent times, reflecting the Biennale's engagement with global crisis, precarity, and distrust, while also exploring alternatives, encounters, pleasure, and the creative learning art enables. Alongside the main exhibition, 90 national pavilions and parallel shows will be presented across the city. Brazil's national pavilion will feature the work of Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, though no Brazilian artists are included in the main exhibition.