The Venice Biennale: A Textile Recap

Every two years, crowds of art lovers converge on the canals of Venice, Italy, to witness the collection of contemporary and historical artworks that make up the latest edition of the Venice Biennale. This year, for the Biennale’s 60th edition, Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa has chosen the theme Stranieri Ovunque — Foreigners Everywhere. The exhibition features work from 331 artists, with a strong emphasis on textiles. 

An impressive selection of artworks using textile techniques and materials grace the walls, floors, and ceilings of the Biennale’s exhibition spaces. These pieces are displayed inside the two central pavilions, Giardini and Arsenale, as well as across national pavilions and auxiliary showcases throughout the Floating City. 

According to Pedrosa, “These works, the textile-based works, which are one of the motifs in the exhibition, revealed an interest in craft, tradition, and the handmade and techniques that were at times considered other or foreign, outsider or strange, in the vast larger field of visual arts…”

Textile art won big at last month’s awards ceremony as well. The jury, chaired by Julia Bryan-Wilson (author of Fray: Art and Textile Politics), awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist in the International Exhibition to the Maori Mataaho Collective, who crafted “Takapau”, a monumental textile installation made of interwoven traditional Maori woven birthing mats. The work references matrilinear textile traditions and creates “both a cosmology and a shelter”.

Here, the Textile Society of America takes a look at some of the textile art pieces at this year’s Biennale, featuring works by historical and contemporary artists and artisans from around the world.

Giardini

First, we’ll head to the Central Pavilion at Giardini, the home of the Biennale art exhibition since the very first showing in 1895…

Liz Collins (b. Alexandria, United States, 1968– Lives in New York City, United States)

Left to right:

Each of the two large scale tapestries by Liz Collins (pictured above) measures more than 10 x 16 ft. The artist commissioned the TextielLab in Tilburg, the Netherlands, to craft these jacquard woven tapestries on a mechanized loom the size of a van!

Arsenale

Next, let’s take a look at the works on display in the Arsenale, the second central exhibition space of Stranieri Ovunque — Foreigners Everywhere, where even more textile artworks await, starting with the award-winning “Takapau” installation.

Mataaho Collective (Te Atiawa Ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangātira, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Rangitāne Ki Wairarapa, Founded in Aotearoa, New Zealand, 2012—  Based in Aotearoa, New Zealand)

On awarding this work the Golden Lion, the judges announced that “Mataaho Collective has created a luminous woven structure of straps that poetically crisscross the gallery space.The dazzling pattern of shadows cast on the walls and floor harks back to ancestral techniques and gestures to future uses of such techniques.”

Claudia Alarcón (b. Comunidad La Puntana, Santa Victoria Este, Argentina, 1989– Lives in Comunidad La Puntana)

“Claudia Alarcón is a textile artist from the La Puntana community of the Wichí people of northern Salta, Argentina. She worked with other members of Silät to process, spin, and dye fibres from the native chaguar plant and to weave them into the textiles exhibited at the Biennale Arte.”

Jaouda references the botanical elements of trees “by deconstructing cloth, dyeing it in earthen tones, and then resewing it into sculptural tapestries. She draws from the personification of olive trees by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish…” to tell textile stories of war and healing.

Dana Awartani (b. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1987– Lives in Jeddah and New York City, United States)

Installation view, ‘Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere’, 2024. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia; photograph: Marco Zorzanello 

“The fabric is dipped in herb and spice-based natural dyes that carry medicinal value, using the sacred healing properties embedded in the traditional textile dyeing practices of Kerala, which Awartani spent time learning.”

“The works selected here represent [Wenger’s] experimentation in àdìrẹ ẹlẹ́kọ, a Yoruba technique of resist-dyeing, in which a design is applied with a cassava-starch paste before the textile is immersed in indigo dye.”

“Named after the Spanish term for the burlap sacks that serve as their backing substrate, arpilleras are the embroidered textile artefacts created in Chile during Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship (1973–1989). The group of arpilleras shown at the Biennale Arte is part of a vast collection of over two hundred works donated to New York’s El Museo del Barrio.”

Antonio Jose Guzman (Panama City, Panama, 1971
– Lives In Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Panama City) and Iva Jankovic (Ruma, Serbia, 1979– 
Lives In Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Orbitan Mechanics, 2024

“Guzman and Jankovic reinterpret the history of sacred indigo textiles, which are deeply connected with colonial histories and the trade of enslaved Africans who carried the expertise of cultivating indigo with them to the Americas. The textiles in the installation feature an abstract pattern of intercultural DNA sequences that embody a global connection between the Black Atlantic. The textiles are printed at the Ajrakh workshop of Sufiyan Khatri in Ajrakhpur, India.”

National Pavilions

Now to the National Pavilions, where each country presents a representative artist or selection of artists. Let’s take a look at the textile works present here: 

French Pavilion—At Giardini

Curated by Céline Kopp and Cindy Sissokho, French Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2024, Giardini, Image: Jacopo La Forgia, French Pavilion

French-Caribbean artist Julien Creuzet crafted an installation of hanging textile mobiles in the French Pavilion, addressing oceanic voyages, colonial histories, and cultural blends.

Senegalese Pavilion—At Arsenale

Senegal Pavilion, Arsenale, Image: Ugo Carmeni

For its first inclusion in the Venice Biennale, the Senegalese Pavilion presents the work of Alioune Diagne.

The installation, “Bokk – Bounds,” displays a canoe wrapped in traditional Senegalese textiles.  

United States Pavilion—At Giardini

US Pavilion, Giardini, Venice Biennale 2024, Image: Courtesy of US Pavilion

This year, the US has chosen multimedia artist Jeffrey Gibson to represent the United States. Gibson’s installations combine traditional craftwork using beads and textiles with bold, vibrant contemporary patterns.