Are you ethnic, indigenous, First Nations, Mesoamerican, from the Global South, queer or just a plain eccentric outsider? That’s the question posed by Foreigners Everywhere, the theme of the 2024 Biennale di Venezia. It proved impossible to encapsulate—the people-watching wasn’t as extreme as before. The world is too confused, too divided, too polarized. Here’s what we saw during the preview days.
Missing in action: Eva and Adèle, exhibition regulars from Austria, who weren’t sighted this edition, as in prior years. Maybe we just missed them.
The First Nations made effective use of the high-visibility event. Their signature style was ubiquitous, their colour joyous.
The long coat, a fixture of this year’s Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks, made many an appearance at the Biennale.
We observed a wave of fluorescent colour and graphic pattern.
You are what you carry. The tote bag has replaced the T-shirt as the prime identifier. The signature branded orange Biennale bag wasn’t yet a big seller, but bound to figure more over the course of the next two months. The red bag is from Banff, Canada. The Dada bag hails from a Marrakech gallery.
Theme dressing never goes out of fashion. The girl in the white shades and green Prada bag obviously loves her anime cosplay.
The man wearing the black bomber who learned nothing from Melania’s ‘I don’t care—do you?’ jacket fiasco.
Floral silk and trainers?
An aspiring Rajasthani.
The guy who thought he was a Tibetan lama, in trainers.
The indecisive guy wearing the military jacket and India cloth puttees with his trainers.
The man in the digital graffiti print suit.
The woman who blended denim and repurposed Biennale branding.
This gentleman may be a survivor traumatized by the effects of long COVID.
Attendees definitely living on the fringe.
Hey, a Goth Handmaiden’s gotta eat, too, even if it’s a €10 sandwich.
Stanley Moss is travel editor of Lucire.
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