Pedrosa's Venice Biennale: A Neo-Modernist Manifesto

Adriano Pedrosa's 2024 Venice Biennale, titled 'Stranieri Ovunque' (Foreigners Everywhere), is a neo-modernist exhibition that rejects magic and interactivity in favor of flatness and abstraction. The show focuses on the Global South, arguing for a convergence of modernism across North and South. It is notably anti-magical, contrasting with the 1989 'Les Magiciens de la Terre,' and anti-Duchampian, minimizing installation art. The exhibition is dominated by two-dimensional paintings, with flat displays and sculptures confined to raised islands. Key artists include Dalton Paula (Brazil), Claudia Alárcon (Argentina), Shalom Kufakwatenzi (Zimbabwe), André Yaniki (Amazon), Marlene Gilson (Aboriginal), and Salman Toor (Pakistan), whose painterly works stand out as exceptions. Monochromes and seriality are prevalent, with works by Nour Jaouda (Libya), Dana Awartani (Palestinian-Saudi), Ana Segovia (Mexico), and Joshua Serafin (Philippines). Notable deviations include Brett Graham's (Māori New Zealand) sculpture of a cart with eels and La Chola Poblete's (Argentina) queer-religious watercolors. The Biennale is structured around two axes: a retrospective one at the Central Pavilion and a futuristic one at the Arsenale. Despite its passionate and conscientious approach, the exhibition lacks memorable highlights and may not leave a lasting mark.