Venice Biennale: America's 'Social' Themes Brought by Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Daniele Radini Tedeschi, Margarita Sanchez Prieto

Ottantasette sono i paesi partecipanti alla cinquantottesima Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte- La Biennale di Venezia, tra cui quattordici i paesi relativi all’America Meridionale, Centrale e Settentrionale.
United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Uruguay, Cuba, Grenada, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, down to Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile, these are the protagonists in Laguna of the American continent. Perhaps the most emblematic case that interprets and reflects on the exhibition May You Live In Interesting Times is that of Venezuela with its closed pavilion inside the Gardens entitled Metaphor of the three windows Venezuela: identity in time and space.
The political problems of Venezuela are bitterly known to all, with the repressive dictatorship of Maduro fought by the population in need of freedom and rights, supported in this fight by Juan Guaidò and Leopoldo López. A Venezuela in full civil war, with the exhausted people, without medicines and humanitarian support, which would have brought to Laguna an exhibition directed by Oscar Sottillo Meneses with works by Natalie Rocha Capiello, Ricardo García, Gabriel López and Nelson Rangelosky.
For Central America, certainly noteworthy are the Cuba Pavilion, at the Island of San Servolo, directed by Margarita Sanchez Prieto with the artists Alejandro Campins, Alex Hérnandez, Ariamna Contino and Eugenio Tibaldi where each of them reflects on the relationship between man and environment. Entorno aleccionador (A Cautionary Environment), this is the title of the exhibition, shares the idea that the actions of individuals are relevant to all of us and have repercussions on different places and environments. On the contrary, the scenographic Guatemala Pavilion, curated by Stefania Pieralice, entitled Interesting State, is dedicated to violence against women by comparing the refined homage to Frida Kahlo, victim and heroine, with the disfigured faces of Elsie Wunderlich up to the tattooed male and female hands of Marco Manzo captured in contrast with each other.
Also for Central America, a place of utmost importance is reserved for the work of curator Daniele Radini Tedeschi who brought Grenada, with the exhibition Epic Memory, to achieve considerable success with the public and critics. The Pavilion reflects on the cultural identity of Caribbean countries with implications regarding integration and immigration addressed by artists Dave Lewis, Billy Gerard Frank, Shervone Neckles, Amy Cannestra, Franco Rota Candiani, Roberto Miniati and the CRS avant-garde collective. Guatemala and Grenada are both at Palazzo Albrizzi Capello in Cannaregio together with the Dominican Republic which for the first time enters the Biennale with its own pavilion.
For North America, one cannot fail to appreciate the United States Pavilion at the Giardini with the Liberty/Libertà exhibition directed by Brooke Kamin Rapaport with works by Martin Puryear that reflects on the artist-citizen relationship through the democratic values ​​at the basis of civilization.