Upon recommendation by the jury, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has commissioned Swiss-Brazilian artist Guerreiro do Divino Amor to take over the Swiss Pavilion for the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
His monumental project «Super Superior Civilizations» explores the imageries of political mythologies and their usage.
Following the jury’s invitation, five artists submitted their project ideas for the 2024 edition of the Swiss Pavilion. The jury assigned by Pro Helvetia unanimously selected Guerreiro do Divino Amor with his project «Super Superior Civilizations», and issued their recommendation to Philippe Bischof, director of Pro Helvetia, who finalized the vote.
«Super Superior Civilizations» poses a critical view of the visual language presented in national political myths, and explores their cultural charge, their hierarchization, and their use. In his compelling approach, Guerreiro do Divino Amor ties together different narratives with virtuosity, irony, and humor. Through these layers of connectivity, he effectively carves out the diverse entanglements of our globalized existence that have been impacted by aspects such as postcolonial distortion.
With his work at the Swiss Pavilion, Guerreiro do Divino Amor writes another chapter in his monumental saga «Superfictional World Atlas», which he has been working on since 2005. He chose Andrea Bellini, who currently oversees the Centre d’Art Contemporain and the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement in Geneva, to curate the project’s gestation. In the summer of 2022, Andrea Bellini curated Guerreiro do Divino Amor’s exhibition «Superfictional Sanctuaries» at the Centre d’Art Contemporain.
The 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia takes place from April 20 to November 27, 2024.
The exhibition «Super Superior Civilizations» is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva. A special thanks goes to the Embassy of Foreign Artists and the Istituto Svizzero di Roma.
The artist
Swiss-Brazilian artist Guerreiro do Divino Amor was born in Geneva in 1983 and lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He did a master’s in architecture at the Ecole Superieure d’architecture de Grenoble, before graduating also from La Cambre in Brussels, the Cimdata Medienakademie in Berlin, and the EAV Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro.
His work is featured on national and international platforms in Brazil, Germany, Lithuania, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA. He currently exhibits at the Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He has received multiple international awards. In 2021, he was chosen for the renowned DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program. He was the recipient of the PIPA award in 2019 and was among the finalists of the Swiss Art Awards in 2008 and 2017.
Swiss Pavilion Jury for the Venice Biennale Arte 2024
- Ursula Biemann, artist, Zurich
- Riccardo Lisi, curator und art critic, Locarno
- Federica Martini, jury president, art historian, Head of the Master Program CCC – Critical Curatorial Cybermedia at HEAD Haute école d’art et de design Genève
- Yvette Mutumba, art historian, editor-in-chief of «Contemporary And» (C&), curator, Berlin
More information about the Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale