GREENHOUSE, the collective project by Mónica de Miranda, Sónia Vaz
Borges and Vânia Gala, will represent Portugal at the 60th International
Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, an edition which has the
theme "Foreigners Everywhere" and will be on public display between April
20 and November 24, 2024 at Palazzo Franchetti, in Venice.
This project, developed by three artist-curators, Mónica de
Miranda (artist, researcher, curator and artistic director), Sónia Vaz
Borges (militant interdisciplinary historian) e Vânia Gala (choreographer and
researcher), challenges the established logics of artistic production and
representation, which very often reproduce abysmal relations between
curators/artists, creators/critics, art/academia. The project also challenges
monolithic notions of identity, culture, nation and belonging, by
conceiving an alternative way of constructing identity that places the
intersections between ecology, art, and politics at its center, bringing
international debates to a national pavilion. GREENHOUSE is grounded in the strategic complementarity between practice, theory, and pedagogy, defining the exhibition space between experimentation and reflection, based on four actions: Garden (Installation,
Space and Time); Living Archive (Movement, Sound and Performance);
School (Education, History and Revolution); Assemblies (Public and Communities). The project aims to create a "Creole garden" inside Palazzo
Franchetti, taking the form of a sculpture, school, stage and installation,
contemplating discursive and performative actions, and standing as a space
of resistance and freedom, a transdisciplinary living archive. The curatorial
and artistic team proposes a collective action that reflects on the
relationships between nature, ecology and politics, the emergence of
various choreographies from meetings and collaborations between the
public, communities, and artists. It includes a wide range of artistic and
scientific, speculative, and imaginary expressions, bringing multiple voices
from artists and immigrant communities around the theme "we are all
foreigners", thus responding directly to the call from the Biennale's curator,
Adriano Pedrosa.
The Portuguese Official Representation, commissioned by the General
Directorate of the Arts, will be exhibited once again at Palazzo Franchetti,
located on the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice, between April 20 and
November 24, 2024.
More information will be announced soon.