Venice Biennale Goes from Heavens to Slammer

On Thursday I wrote about Foreigners Everywhere, the Venice Biennale’s mammoth, anchor international exhibition. It’s the show in the Biennale’s main pavilion that, thematically and in theory, guides the hundred or so national pavilions. Foreigners Everywhere focuses on migration, xenophobia, and art by outsiders, exiles, and immigrants. Most of the artists are — or were, since many are dead — from the so-called Global South, more or less places south of the equator.

Today, I’ll write about the national pavilions, where I saw lots of bustling predictability, some bravado but little bravery, lots of clichés and cant, though no preachiness or subversiveness. Not a lot of heart or hope, but some beauty, if not in abundance.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

On Thursday I wrote about Foreigners Everywhere, the Venice Biennale’s mammoth, anchor international exhibition. It’s the show in the Biennale’s main pavilion that, thematically and in theory, guides the hundred or so national pavilions. Foreigners Everywhere focuses on migration, xenophobia, and art by outsiders, exiles, and immigrants. Most of the artists are — or were, since many are dead — from the so-called Global South, more or less places south of the equator.

Today, I’ll write about the national pavilions, where I saw lots of bustling predictability, some bravado but little bravery, lots of clichés and cant, though no preachiness or subversiveness. Not a lot of heart or hope, but some beauty, if not in abundance.