Venice Biennale | The Canadian pavilion covered with Kapwani Kiwanga beads

For the 60^e International art exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, which began last week, the Canada Pavilion is covered in pearls: a real tour de force signed by the guest artist, Kapwani Kiwanga, who presents the exhibition there Trinkets (Junk). Interview with the woman who transformed the Canadian pavilion.

From his artist residency at the Villa Medici of the French Academy in Rome, Kapwani Kiwanga can now say, a few days after the opening of the event, that his work is a success. “It was a great joy to know that people had good reactions when they entered the pavilion,” says the native of Hamilton, Ontario. “It’s very emotional because we work for quite a while on a project, collaboratively, and we hope that it will work well. A day or two before the opening, we managed to finalize everything and I said to myself “finally it works”,” she emphasizes.

For a week, the prestigious Venice Biennale opened its doors on the theme Strangers everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere), which asks questions related to geographic and gender shifts. A real reflection on the issues of migration, exodus and exile. The main exhibition was curated for the first time by a Brazilian curator, Adriano Pedrosa, director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand – MASP. Arts neglected by the West as well as artists from the diaspora and on the fringes of the main currents are in the spotlight in this exhibition.

In the Gardini, the Canada Pavilion was transformed into an immersive environment for the occasion: the entire building becomes a sculpture, as underlines Jonathan Shaughnessy, director of curatorial initiatives at the National Gallery of Canada and co-chair of the committee selection of artists for the Canadian representation at the Venice Biennale.

“Not many artists want to work with the building itself and (Kapwani Kiwanga) did that,” notes Mr. Shaughnessy, who underlines the ambition of the project, supported by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). , and the importance of using the space of the exhibition venue for this edition.

The selected artist took up the challenge of creating a work that dialogues with its host site. The Canada Pavilion, which, architecturally speaking, is quite complex in its shapes and materials, saw its wooden facade replaced by glass, the work of Kapwani Kiwanga playing on transparency and connecting the interior and exterior of the place.

Venetian pearls

If Trinkets (Pacotille) is a grandiose and majestic work, it also encourages visitors to pay attention to the small elements. When you examine it closely, “you realize that it’s made with Murano pearls,” describes the artist. This island located in Venice, in the lagoon, is known for these pearls called “conteries” or seed beads. In the 16th century^e century, such jewelry was used as currency, beyond their aesthetic appreciation. The Canada Pavilion is therefore lined with these small ornaments, from the wall to the ground, in addition to presenting four sculptures which reveal meticulous beadwork as you approach them.

In this case, it was a question of understanding the specificities of Venice, namely commercial exchanges.

“The idea came to me because I was wondering how this small island that has been so powerful in history has touched every corner of the world. I found it quite interesting. »

During the Biennale, “the world” comes to Venice, so it became relevant for Kapwani Kiwanga to reverse the question and understand how Venice went to meet the world as a mercantile state.

The artist, an anthropologist by training, who lived in Montreal before leaving for Paris, spends many hours delving into archives on the themes she loves. Nothing is left to chance and each project is new. “A large majority of my work time is really research. (…) read articles, meet experts. ” For Trinkets (Pacotille), Kapwani Kiwanga was first interested in the manufacture of pearls, then in their circulation, which led her to question the forms of power that commercial transactions create. How were these pearls used for barter and were they exchanged? How have they impacted social and economic relations? How are they absorbed by local cultures?

For someone who worked in collaboration with curator Gaëtane Verna, general director of the Wexner Center for the Arts, throughout the creative process, it is about taking the pulse of our societies through artistic projects: “What What interests me is power asymmetries and understanding structurally why certain things are the way they are: there is not always justice and beauty everywhere. »

Poetry above all

Trinkets (Pacotille) reveals several layers of meaning to reach both the general public and the more seasoned public. “In everything I propose, I want there to be complexity, several stories, for it to be open. » Visitors can thus be reassured to understand the work: the artist does not necessarily transpose his research in a hermetic, intellectual or conceptual manner. It is the shapes and colors that dominate. “After learning more about it, I’m starting to get started. I see how I will find forms to transmit this information. »

And what does the artist want us to remember from his presence in Venice? She hopes to “make visible all the little things that have shaped our world. Things that we don’t realize, but which are there in front of us and which have had a fairly significant impact.” Trinkets (Pacotille) shows in short that tiny pearls were capable of modifying, or even destabilizing, social and economic relations, creating power relations between the dominant and the dominated. The artist invites the public to be curious and to have their own reading of the project, because “this is what is beautiful in art”.

The 60^e International art exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia takes place until November 24, 2024.

Visit the official event website (in English)