'Bestiary' by Carlos Casas, the Catalonia in Venice project at the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia

The inauguration of Catalonia in Venice will take place on April 20 Bestiary | Carlos Casas, the project curated by Filipa Ramos and produced by the Ramon Llull Institute can be seen, from April to November, at the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia, within the Eventi Collaterali program, which can be visit until November 24, 2024. Filipa Ramos' curatorial proposal speaks of the present, addressing the ecology and intelligence of nature, and imagining ways to live in harmony with the world around us from multiple perspectives.

Humanity in question

Carlos Casas' project for the Catalan pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale takes as its starting point the text Disputa de l'ase, written in 1417 by Anselm Turmeda, considered, along with Ramon Llull, one of the founders of Catalan literature. The text tells the story of a man who, after falling asleep in an idyllic forest, wakes up with the ability to understand the language of animals. At this point, the animals begin a trial questioning humanity's superiority over other beings. The process evolves through nineteen arguments in which the animal spokesperson, a long-tailed donkey, challenges anthropocentrism. With sounds and images of bats, bees, dolphins, donkeys, elephants and other creatures, Bestiary pays tribute to the talking animals of the text, who demand interspecies justice.

A large projection derived from the vision of each species creates hypnagogic encounters, dissolving the relationship between reality and dream. Carlos Casas also presents frequencies beyond the human sensory realm, offering poetic, political and sensory experiences about becoming someone else, taking into account the transformations that this process can generate in our body, in our mind and in our cognitive, emotional and perceptive system.

Conciliatory commitment

Bestiary goes beyond an anthropocentric view to include the natural world. The project speaks of the present, addressing the ecology and intelligence of nature: imagining ways to live in harmony with the world around us and enhancing the importance of multiple perspectives. The project proposes Catalonia as a territory where a conciliatory, non-anthropocentric commitment to the world is possible, allowing us to imagine a different future for relationships with other species through sound and image.

Carlos Casas. 'Bestiari'. 60ª Exposició Internacional d’Art de la Biennale di Venezia

Expand perception

For more than twenty years, Carlos Casas has been making films that fall within the artistic tradition of documentary cinema, creating multilayered sound pieces and sound environments that trigger new auditory experiences while generating intercultural encounters. With recordings made in different natural parks in Catalonia, from the Ebro delta to Cap de Creus, it celebrates the natural landscapes of Catalonia and brings them to Venice, while raising questions about life and memory, interspecies relations, conservation and creation, within a space of immersion and discovery that aims to be both positive and transformative. Bestiari will also carry out a public research program, curated by Pol Capdevila, professor in the humanities department at Pompeu Fabra University.

'Foreigners everywhere'

Filipa Ramos' curatorial proposal connects with the theme of the 60th Venice Biennale 2024, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Under the title Stranieri Ovunque-Foreigners Everywhere, Pedrosa raises a double reflection: "First of all, wherever you go and wherever you are, you will always meet foreigners: they/we are everywhere. Secondly, that no matter where you are, you are always, truly and deep down, a foreigner.”