British Pavilion Venice Biennale
Just two hours away by plane from London (give or take a little) puts you into the heart of Venice: from the 17-19th April 2024 the who’s who of the art world, art buyers, media, gallerist, artists, celebrities and more took over the water taxis routes and the streets of Venice. Long queues formed outside galleries, and the crowd for the British Pavilion Press Opening of Listening All Night To The Rain at the La Biennale di Venezia was big and proud.
Listening All Night To The Rain continues artist and filmmaker Akomfrah’s investigation into themes of memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change with a renewed focus on the act of listening and the sonic. On the title he says. “I have stolen it from the 11th century Chinese poet Su Dongpo”. It is a fitting title for those well versed on Dongpo would know how the multi-talented artist was often at odds with a political faction headed by Prime Minister Wang Anshi of the time.
Listening All Night To The Rain pulls together newly filmed material, archive video footage and still images, with audio and text from international archives and libraries.
The films each have a running time of approximately 15 to 30 mins.
Global stories are told through the ‘memories’ of people who represent Britain’s migrant communities. and examines how multiple geopolitical narratives are reflected in the experiences of diasporic people more broadly.
Portrait of John Akomfrah. Photographer: Christian Cassiel © John Akomfrah; Courtesy Lisson Gallery
Marking a special moment for one of the UK’s celebrated talent John Akomfrah as his “monumental” exhibition “Listening All Night To The Rain” majestically took over The British Pavilion. On the theme, Akomfrah said: ‘the project is about listening. It’s about the ethics, the aesthetics, the problematics, the memories, the histories of listening.’
He continues “when you are listening you are also listening to yourself”. Above the entrance to one room there is a quote from American composer (1932) and pioneer of Deep Listening Pauline Oliveros (1932 which says: “Listen to everything until it all belongs together and you are part of it.”
Akomfrah’s message speaks profoundly to the past and the present and the future. Honing in on the Windrush story, colonisation and the Black British experience is what Akomfrah speaks on always, loudly but this exhibition is a call to action to everyone, everywhere, at a time when there is major global unrest with #Ukraine and Russia at war, and the current threat of famine and war in the Middle East, one can’t help but wonder if these things would be happening if someone somewhere had just listened.
The reimagining of the neoclassical space of the British Pavilion with eight interlocking multi-screen sound and time-based installations, was helped by Curator Tarini Malik and Shane Akeroyd Associate Curator of the British Pavilion, Malik said.
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“John Akomfrah’s landmark commission for this year’s British Pavilion is true to his long standing motivations as an artist in platforming voices from the global south and the experiences of diasporic people in Britain. Addressing vast and complex historical narratives that reveal and reposition our shared humanity, Listening All Night To The Rain is a testament to art’s potential in challenging and enriching our perceptions of contemporary life.”
Malik further explains. “Evoking a sense of contemplation and reverie, Listening All Night To The Rain houses a series of sculptural installations with embedded screens that are inspired by the structure and form of altarpieces from religious architectures. Each gallery space layers a specific colour field influenced by the paintings of American artist Mark Rothko (1903-1970) in order to point to the ways in which abstraction can represent the fundamental nature of human drama”.
Akomfrah, who was recently honoured with a knighthood in the 2023 UK Honours list, is known for his art films and multi-screen video installations, which explore major issues including racial injustice, colonial legacies, diasporic identities, migration and climate change.
Akomfrah had participated previously in La Biennale di Venezia with his piece Four Nocturnes, commissioned for the inaugural Ghana Pavilion in 2019. In the 1980s he was Founder of Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC) kick starting his artist career.
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The BAFC’s output has been variously described as “an extraordinary body of poetic, allusive, and intensely personal films, videos, and ‘slide-tape texts’ that chronicled England’s multicultural past and present and pushed the boundaries of the documentary form”.
In recent years, Akomfrah’s multichannel video works have evolved into ambitious, multi-screen installations shown in galleries and museums worldwide. In 2017, he won the Artes Mundi prize, the UK’s biggest award for international art. Akomfrah was born in Ghana’s capital, #Accra, in 1957.
The sponsors for Listening All Night To The Rain include returning headline partner
#Burberry, Richard Mille, Frieze and returning sponsor Christie’s. Art Fund is generously supporting the commission.
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A must see, Akomfrah’s British Council Commission for the British Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia will run from 20 April – 24 November 2024. All images courtesy of the British Council unless otherwise stated.
For a digital guide to La Biennale de Venezia Arte 2024 get Bloomberg Connect app that offers access to exhibitions, collections and renowned artists at over 400 museums and other cultural organizations. Is free to download and use with no limits on how many digital guides you can explore.
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