I have been visiting the Venice Biennale regularly since 1999, with unfailing regularity and following the curatorial visions of curators from Harald Szeemann's pioneering dApertutto (everywhere) in 1999 and 2001, setting a high standard for experimentation to Francesco Bonami's 2003 theme, Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer, that delved into the complexities of viewer interaction with art. In 2005, the Biennale saw dual curations by two women for the first time, María de Corral's introspective The Experience of Art and Rosa Martínez's more outward facing Always a Little Further. Robert Storr in 2007 urged me to Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind, while Daniel Birnbaum in 2009 focused on creative processes with Making Worlds. Bice Curiger's 2011 ILLUMInations brought light to art as a source of intellectual and spiritual energy. Massimiliano Gioni in 2013 built The Encyclopedic Palace, exploring the human desire to accumulate knowledge. The Nigerian curator, Okwui Enwezor's powerful 2015 edition, All the World's Futures, addressed socio-political upheavals, followed by Christine Macel's 2017 life-affirming Viva Arte Viva, a tribute to the essence of creation. Ralph Rugoff's 2019 edition, May You Live in Interesting Times, prompted reflection on uncertainty in the modern world. Most recently, Cecilia Alemani's 2022 The Milk of Dreams based on a book by British-born Mexican surrealist painter Leonora Carrington took me on a fantastical journey, focusing on transformation, imagination, and the body. With Pedrosa's latest concept of 2024 Foreigners Everywhere, which examined themes of migration and identity, I witnessed another boundary-pushing exploration of art's role in the world.

Francis Newton Souza

New Ways of Seeing

Home Is Everywhere

Master Class