Beyond the Screen: Rethinking the Politics of Artistic Belonging through the Kitawuluzi Pavilion
By Carol Kagezi For many years, the Venice Biennale has functioned as the symbolic centre of the contemporary art world. Every two years, artists, curators, critics and collectors converge in Venice, reaffirming its position as a site where artistic legitimacy is produced, circulated and consumed. The Kitawuluzi Pavilion, conceived and curated by Vodo Arts Society […]
Second Nature | Manyonga: A Conversation with Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa on Zimbabwe’s eighth Pavilion in Venice
By Barnabas Muvhuti and Lifang Zhang Since its debut in 2011, Zimbabwe’s presence at the Venice Biennale has evolved from a quest for visibility into a sophisticated exercise in positioning. While several African nations continue to grapple with the logistical and political fragilities of national representation, Zimbabwe has maintained a remarkable eight-edition streak, driven by the […]
Arjan Martins’ Impossible Maps. In Milan, the Sea Becomes Political Memory
By Arianna Leva In his new exhibition, the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea. Through cartographies, suspended figures, and incandescent colours, the history of migration is transformed into an emotional geography of the present. Standing before the paintings of Arjan Martins (Rio de Janeiro, 1960), one has the impression that history does not unfold in a […]
Mapplethorpe. The Black Body and the Architecture of Desire
By Arianna Maria Leva There are exhibitions that scandalize, and then there are exhibitions that leave behind a more difficult kind of unease. It does not arise from provocation, which by now has become almost predictable, but from something in the image that remains unresolved, the feeling that the photographs themselves contain a knot that […]