Listening All Night to the Rain

Listening All Night to the Rain continues artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah’s investigation into themes of memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change with a renewed focus on the act of listening and the sonic. The exhibition, conceived as a single installation with eight interlocking and overlapping multi-screen sound and time-based works, is seen as a manifesto that encourages the idea of listening as activism and positions various progressive theories of acoustemology: how new ways of becoming are rooted in different forms of listening. Encouraging visitors to experience the British Pavilion’s 19th century neoclassical building in a different way, Akomfrah’s commission interprets and transforms the fabric of the space in order to interrogate relics and monuments of colonial histories. Open-ended in structure, the alliterative nature of the exhibition is reflective of the artist’s abiding interest in non-linear forms of storytelling and collage. Listening All Night To The Rain repositions the role of art in its ability to write history in unexpected ways, forming both critical and poetic connections between different geographies and time periods. John Akomfrah said: “Listening All Night to the Rain alludes to the performative power that the sonic will hold in the Pavilion. The final ensemble of installations – iterations of acoustemology – detours back to questions of memory and of memorial but from a different vantage point, questioning the architectonics of the present and the spectres of the past, with the idea of listening as activism in mind. I sense that one can know the world – that you can find a name, an identity and a sense of belonging – via the sonic.” Tarini Malik, Shane Akeroyd Associate Curator of the British Pavilion said: “John Akomfrah’s landmark commission for this year’s British Pavilion is true to his long-standing motivations as an artist in platforming voices from the global south and the experiences of diasporic people in Britain. Addressing vast and complex historical narratives that reveal and reposition our shared humanity, Listening All Night to the Rain is a testament to art’s potential in challenging and enriching our perceptions of contemporary life.” Skinder Hundal, Global Director of Arts at the British Council and Commissioner of the British Pavilion said: “Listening All Night to the Rain promises to be aesthetically brilliant, contextually rich and provocative. Akomfrah’s immersive style has a mesmerising quality, reaching and touching the hearts and consciousness of audiences often unseen or unheard, which is fitting for this body of work that encourages the idea of listening as activism. I look forward to April when John’s work is presented on the world art stage in Venice and beyond, thereafter”. For the first time, the British Council will work with partners on an expanded public programme of events and artistic responses to bring the themes of the British Pavilion to global audiences. This cross-disciplinary programme recognises Akomfrah’s impact and influence on younger generations of artists and filmmakers to platform new voices and narratives. Throughout the run of the La Biennale di Venezia, it will connect audiences in the UK and beyond with stimulating and diverse international practice, encouraging a global dialogue around the most pressing issues of our time. John Akomfrah RA (b. 1957) lives and works in London. He is known for his immersive multi-channel film installations, which explore major issues including racial injustice, colonial legacies, diasporic identities, migration and climate change. The London-based artist initially came to prominence in the early 1980s as part of the Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC), a collective founded in 1982. An early film by BAFC, titled Handsworth Songs (1986), explored the events around the 1985 riots in Birmingham and London. In recent years, Akomfrah’s work has evolved into ambitious, multi-channel installations presented in galleries and museums worldwide. In 2017, he won the Artes Mundi prize, the UK’s biggest award for international art. He has previously participated in the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with Four Nocturnes, commissioned for the inaugural Ghana Pavilion in 2019, and Vertigo Sea (2015) as part of the 56th International Art Exhibition, curated by Okwui Enwezor (‘All the World’s Futures’). Commissioner: Skinder Hundal MBE Global Director of Arts at the British Council Curator: Tarini Malik

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Giardini

Venice, NY