New Zealand 2022

Title: Paradise Camp
Commissioner: Caren Rangi, Creative New Zealand
Curator: Natalie King
Exhibitor: Yuki Kihara

Small island ecologies, queer rights, intersectionality and decolonisation are all explored by artist Yuki Kihara in her Biennale Arte 2022 project “Paradise Camp“, curated by Professor Natalie King.The pavilion will be located at a central space in the Arsenale. 

Yuki Kihara is renowned for delving into the complexities of postcolonial histories in the Pacific and interrogating Western misinterpretations from the perspective of the Fa’afafine (Sāmoan for ‘in the manner of a woman’, Sāmoa’s third gender) community, to which she belongs. Kihara’s exhibition for Venice will be told through this unique lens, drawing attention to often untold, marginalised histories and issues facing her community. 

As the first artist from New Zealand to present at the Biennale Arte who is Pasifika, Asian and Fa’afafine, Kihara explores Sāmoa-New Zealand relations from a Fa’afafine perspective, highlighting key issues around New Zealand’s ongoing social, political and cultural engagement with the Pacific. Incorporating archival research, photography, video and socially engaged methods, “Paradise Camp” eloquently and provocatively investigates a range of critical issues that impact Fa’afafine people’s lives, including the intertwinements of colonisation, intersectionality and climate catastrophe.

“Paradise Camp” will be shown for the first time in Venice and comprises photographs, video and archive material featuring a local cast and crew of over 80 people. The filming and photography took place on Upolu Island, Sāmoa.