61st Venice Biennale: National Pavilions

Curated by Krista Thompson and titled In Another Man’s Yard, the Bahamian Pavilion brings together works by John Beadle (1964–2024) and Lavar Munroe (b. 1982), artists whose practices are shaped by the visual and social worlds of the Bahamas and the broader African diaspora.

The Brazilian Pavilion, Comigo ninguém pode, creates a dialogue between the artists Rosana Paulino and Adriana Varejão under the curatorship of Diane Lima. In the works on display, both artists address colonial wounds and trauma. The title alludes to the plant comigo-ninguém-pode, a symbol of protection in Brazil, as well as a popular expression of strength and resistance.

Hombres libres is the title of the Cuban Pavilion. Curated by Nelson Ramírez de Arellano Conde, the exhibition brings together sculptural works by Roberto Diago. The title pays homage to the Cimarrones (maroons) who chose death over slavery and to those who fought for freedom.

Bringing together the works of the anticolonial Indigenous collective Tawna and the artist Oscar Santillán, this is Ecuador’s first official pavilion at the Venice Biennale. With curatorship by Manuela Moscoso, the artworks portray distinct forms of human and non-human world-making, with emphasis on Andean and Amazonian narratives.

In the Mexican Pavilion, curator Jessica Berlanga Taylor presents the work of RojoNegro—a duo formed by María Sosa and Noé Martínez—under the title Actos invisibles para sostener el universo (Invisible Acts to Sustain the Universe). The space is conceived as an invocation of material, corporeal, and spiritual intelligence with the intention to repair fractures in the contemporary world.