One of the reasons we wanted to return to Venice was the Art Biennale. This year's theme is Foreigners Everywhere. The exhibition focuses on artists who are themselves foreigners, immigrants, expatriates, diasporic, émigrés, exiled, and refugees.
We took a Vaporetto (water bus) to one of the two major Biennale sites at the Arsenale--the old ship building yards. It was a beautiful ride.
The floating barriers near Piazza San Marco were not there when we came last year.
There were thousands of pieces of art on display. Here are a few favorites. This photo is by River Claure, a Bolivian photographer.
This next work, titled Migration, was painted by Aydee Rodriguez Lopez. He is committed to making visible the history and voices of Black communities in Mexico.
The most powerful exhibit for me was a room filled with a number of video screens and refugees telling the stories of their journeys (including incarcerations, being sent back, etc.) while marking the routes they took on maps. These stories were both heartbreaking and inspiring.
The Saudi Arabian pavilion was really surprising. It displayed the work of a Saudi woman artist, Manal AlDowayan who led workshops across Saudi Arabia where the women created pieces of this exhibit and participated in singing sessions. They were focused on the idea of women's visibility and invisibility. The music and art together was wonderful.
This is just a small sampling of an overwhelming amount of provocative art. As we headed back to our hotel, the vaporetto ride was pretty rocky.
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