To Karnika Bai, Shanthi Muniswamy, and Joythi H., the unveiling of their eye-catching, monumental mural Diaspore (2024) at the Arsenale was more than just a celebration of their Venice debut. It was also an occasion to commemorate India’s 10th anniversary of acknowledging transgender people, which gave these transgender artists and their nation a unique way of feeling less alien.
“If this edition’s theme, ‘Foreigners Everywhere,’ means being in different cultures and territories where you do not belong, this applies to us too,” Bai, one of the lead artists from the Bangalore-based art collective Aravani Art Project, said in an interview during the early hours of Tuesday’s pre-opening of the main exhibition of the 60th Venice Biennale curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
“We did not feel belonging to the bodies that we were born into. People in our own state see us coming from another state, another culture. We are immigrants.”
While “Foreigners Outside” puts captivity, exclusion, and immigration at the focal point of the exhibition featuring more than 330 artists and collectives, the work by Aravani Art Project pointed to another level of understanding of the concept of “foreigner.”
The designers made the observation that India’s transgender community was systematically disregarded by its citizens. Their rights and needs were not recognized, and transgender individuals were viewed by the populace as sex workers and outcasts, they added. This only began to change exactly ten years ago this week when the Supreme Court of India formally recognized transgender people as a “third gender” in a landmark decision in response to concerns about discrimination and harassment against them.
Xiyadie, Don’t Worry, Mom is Spinning Thread in the Next Room (A Love Scene When High School Student is at Home Writing Homework) (2019), featured at the Arsenale, Venice Biennale 2024. Photo: Vivienne Chow.The shared struggle within the transgender community has been home to the artists for eight years. They wanted to let people know that they are human beings who have the same rights as everyone else. The artists’ work Diaspore explores gender dysphoria and the transition process.
It is also a self-portrait. Joythi H, for instance, is depicted holding an open animal box releasing the imprisoned dog. The themes in the artwork address how transgender people can find peace in their bodies once they’ve transitioned. “We are no longer caged. We are free as a parrot,” said Muniswamy.
Victor Brecheret, Virgin and Chile, featured in “Nucleo Storico Italians Everywhere,” Venice Biennale 2024. Photo: Vivienne Chow.
However, they must also face the difficulties and pain of everyday life. The artists claimed that authorities regularly interrogated them when they applied for their visas to visit Venice for the show. “Why are you going to Venice? They asked why, why, why, just because of our identity,” Bai said. “But here we are. We are extremely proud to represent the transgender community in India.”
While the exhibition highlights the work of queer, indigenous, and diasporic artists, many of whom were originally underrepresented in the Venice event, some of the works on display also underscore the historical and political reasons for such migration and repression, as well as the cultural influences they developed along the way.
Several works by European artists from the 20th century who traveled abroad and established their work in the countries where they resided, from Asia to Africa and the Americas, are displayed in the section entitled “Nucleo Storico.” They all left their countries for various reasons. They included those who fled totalitarian regimes, antisemitism, and the economic hardships of World War II, as well as those who were fascinated by the exoticism of Asia and Africa, fleets of the Roman imperial forces, and other groups. The works are displayed on glass panels, known as cavaletes de vidro, designed by Lina Bo Bardi, an Italian architect, engineer, and exhibition designer who moved to Brazil in 1946.
The 60th Venice Biennale will open on April 20 and continue through November 24, 2024.
