The Venice Biennale was created in 1895 as an international art exhibition and after a year’s delay due to Covid, it’s just re-opened. Artists from across the globe have descended on the enchanting Italian city of canals and churches. There are over 1400 works on display, as well as the Pavilions from 80 countries, which will become part of the landscape of Venice over the next seven months.

Finnish performance artist Pilvi Takala has impersonated a wellness consultant, a trainee at a global accountancy firm and even Snow White for her documentary style videos. For her Venice Biennale commission, Close Watch, Pilvi worked undercover for several months as a guard at one of Finland’s largest shopping malls and she explained the thinking behind her project to Lucy Ash.

There are 5 countries participating for the first time at the Venice art Biennale - Cameroon, Namibia, Oman, Uganda and Nepal and one of the artists who’s representing Cameroon is photographer Angèle Etoundi Essamba. Angèle tells Anu Anand how she challenges the stereotypes of African women in her work and why it’s important for Cameroonian artists to be part of this Biennale.

In the Patagonian region which covers Chile and Argentina are peatlands, a specific type of wetland that’s shaped one of the most remote landscapes in the world. Architect Alfredo Thiermann and filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor are two of the artists who’ve been collaborating on the Chilean Pavilion and working with the descendants of the Selk’nam people, the ancient indigenous group that inhabited that land many years ago. Their immersive video and sound installation “Turba Tol Hol-Hol Tol,” reflects the relationship between this ancestral culture and the landscapes that surrounds it, as they told reporter Constanza Hola.

Like Cameroon, Nepal also has its first ever pavilion this year and the artist representing that country is Tsherin Sherpa. The title of the Pavilion is Tales of Muted Spirits – Dispersed Threads – Twisted Shangri-La, created to help dispel misconceptions about the country and to give Nepali artists and the entire country, a new voice in the world. Paul Waters went to meet Tsherin to hear more about his own work as well as the Nepali art scene. Producer: Andrea Kidd

Photo: Dominga Sotomayor and Alfredo Thiermann finalising their immersive instillation. Credit: Dominga Sotomayor and Alfredo Thiermann)