Find Yourself: Carnival and Resistance
The 58th International Art Exhibition
Antigua and Barbuda pavillion
Don Orione Artigianelli
Dorsoduro 919, Venice, 30123
11 May - 24 November 2019
Tuesday - Sunday: 10am - 6pm
Free entry
Exhibitors: Timothy Payne | Sir Gerald Price | Joseph Seton | Frank Walter | Intangible Cultural | Heritage Artisans | Mas Troup.
Commissioners: Daryll Matthew, Minister of Sports, Culture, National Festivals and the Arts.
Curators: Barbara Paca with Nina Khrushcheva
Find Yourself: Carnival and Resistance explores Carnival in Antigua and Barbuda and its defiance, from religious traditions to opposing slavery to the present-day celebrations. Against the backdrop of photographs of beautiful people going about their everyday life, political will and the sovereignty of a soul is contrasted by towering mannequins clad in modern-day Carnival dress as a contemporary personification of strength. A carnivalesque world is flexible and accommodates shifting identities, which leads to introspection. Woven into the exhibition’s contemporary reworking of intangible cultural heritage and its stance against human exploitation is a message to challenge modern-day slavery and environmental inequality.
Across the globe, Carnival often stands as a microcosm of societal vulnerabilities. Visitors are invited to contemplate their respective societies and to find meaning in their own national forms of cultural expression.
