The sixtieth edition of the Venice Biennale (April – November 2024) is curated by Adriano Pedrosa — artistic director of the São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand Museum of Art (MASP) and first Latin American commissioner —, and the curatorial concept for this edition has been presented as “Foreigners Everywhere”.
This title leads us to question the presence of “other” in what we declare as being our territory or our identity, when we are outside the country that appears as our place of birth in our passport. What does this idea of foreigners everywhere mean? Are we all foreigners? There are foreigners wherever you go, and deep down you are always a foreigner.
Contemporary artist and video director Iván Argote of Colombian origin but based in Paris presents a provocative work at the biennale gardens that leads us to reflect on this curatorial line proposed for the most recognized biennale in the art world. Argote’s multidisciplinary work is influenced by resistance, civil disobedience, and it is combined with humor and intelligence. In his projects — sculptures, installations, moving images, and interventions — Argote examines the construction of power and the production of history. He is interested in intervening in the public sphere, creating large-scale sculptures and installations that attempt to reinterpret the status quo.
Installed in the Giardini, Descanso shows a new possibility where native and migrant wild plants grow from the horizontal repose of the statue of Christopher Columbus; this statue is a replica of the one standing tall in Madrid. New life and meaning arise from this historical figure, different perspectives are presented to the public. Argote opens a new possible discourse.

VERÓNICA DE MELLO: Is art a mean of political activism? What message are you interested in communicating?
IVÁN ARGOTE: Art is a place of political, poetic, and emotional expression. Art is at the core of human thinking and development; it has to do with this capacity to hallucinate and create new worlds and futures. It’s sensible thinking. I come from a family of activists; it’s a different work than I do, very concrete and anchored in a place, a time, and a group of people. I work in a more vague sphere, proposing ideas into a large conversation that crosses times and geographies. You can do militant art or artistic militancy. I don’t feel I’m in any of those cases; I feel closer to an essay writer who uses poetry to generate sensible critical thinking.
It’s not necessarily about a message, it’s probably more about a feeling. How does it feel to be surrounded by injustice? How does it feel? “Kasia” world ruled by a spirit of domination? We are more like novel writers, I feel. We create stories, angles from which to look at existence. I do pose questions about how we relate to each other, how we relate to our histories and cities, and how we can propose new perspectives on that, using our own means — taking action.