Venice Biennale 2024: politics, queues, FOMO and why I am going back
- The Post’s arts editor Enid Tsui reports back from a particularly crowded and cacophonous opening week at the Venice Biennale 2024
- Her ‘must-sees’ include the Australian, Egyptian and German pavilions, a Ukrainian group’s unforgettable karaoke, and presentations from Hong Kong and Macau
It is an irritating acronym but FOMO – fear of missing out – is precisely the feeling that sweeps over you at this year’s Venice Biennale.
With just a few days to play with, preview-week visitors speed-walk through alleys and town squares with Google Maps in hand and still find themselves falling behind carefully researched itineraries, and missing out on new “must-sees” that fellow attendees report back on.
Which is why, having moved on to Rome, I am gnawed by remorse after missing out on the shows by Pierre Huyghe, at the Pinault Collection’s Punta della Dogana venue, and Christoph Büchel, at the Prada Foundation Venice HQ. Despite this being the fifth time I have visited the event, I still haven’t figured out the best strategy.
Competition for eyeballs is intense in Venice.
There are 88 official national pavilions, eight more than the previous edition. The international exhibition at the Central Pavilion and the Arsenale, called “Foreigners Everywhere”, curated by Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa – the first openly queer curator in the history of the Biennale Arte – features a mind-boggling 331 artists and collectives.
Most will be unfamiliar to visitors as the purpose of the selection is to redress the marginalisation of minority voices and art forms (for example, it deliberately includes many textile works).
