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A Comparative Dialogue Act, a project by the Luxembourgish artist Andrea Mancini and the multidisciplinary collective Every Island will represent the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.

The project of the Luxembourg pavilion challenges the entrenched notion of individual artistic authorship by presenting a collection of works where artists relinquish ego in favour of a profound exploration of collective creativity through the medium of sound.

A Comparative Dialogue Act uses sound as a tool to explore different perspectives on identity and artistic research. An unprecedented collaboration by four emerging artists from diverse backgrounds, it brings together Spanish musician and performer Bella Báguena, French transdisciplinary artist Célin Jiang, Ankara-born performance Artist Selin Davasse and Swedish artist Stina Fors to offer four intersecting approaches to the multiple ways identity, performance and sound can meet. Navigating the realms of gender identity, Báguena weaves sounds inspired by intuition, motivation and a tableau of influences from pop culture to personal experiences. Jiang adopts a decolonial cyberfeminist approach, intertwining arts, technologies and digital humanities to provoke contemplation of identity within the context of transcultural aesthetics. Repurposing literary and performative techniques, Davasse embodies various feminine beasts with distinct syntactical, vocal and gestural characteristics to intimately traverse a speculative ethics of hospitality. And finally, Fors uses choreography, performance, drumming and vocals to explore the depths of a ‘sounding body’, unleashing a powerful voice that alternates between lethal force and seductive allure and showcasing the complexities of the self. A Comparative Dialogue Act offers a rich composition of singular voices brought together in a blurred sound artwork that pushes the boundaries of contemporary art production.

This exhibition investigates the transformative potential of sound as a medium for cultivating connection and understanding. It aims to transcend the limits set by singular perspectives of what sound can lend to the acts of interpreting, distorting and appropriating.

Performing artists

Selin Davasse
Residency: April 08–21
Selin Davasse (b. 1992, Ankara) lives and works in Berlin. Her performances repurpose disparate literary and performative techniques to enact and enforce a speculative ethics of hospitality between a bestial feminine stranger and a heterogeneous public. Embodying various narrative selves with distinct syntactical, vocal and gestural characteristics, she transmutes systems of thought into intimate and playful utterances oscillating between speech and song, in a permeable and unpredictable relationship to the viewer. Recent presentation settings include steirischer herbst, Graz (2023); Institute for Contemporary Arts, London (2023); Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2023); Art Encounters Biennial, Timișoara (2023); Kunsthalle Bratislava (2022); Wiener Festwochen, Vienna (2022); BJCEM – Biennale des Jeunes Créateurs de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Procida (2022); School of Waters, MEDITERRANEA19 Young Artists Biennale, San Marino (2021); Volksbühne, Berlin (2021); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, (2021).
Instagram: @radicalized_faghag

Célin Jiang
Residency: June 24–30
Célin Jiang is a French artist-researcher. Her work is transdisciplinary, political, and infiltrated: it aims to explore the relationship between art, technology, and digital humanities. The decolonial approach of her work is rooted in cyberfeminism. By questioning our perception of identities in a globalised context of transcultural aesthetics, Célin Jiang advocates interoperability and considers hybridisation as a sensitive vector of metamorphosis: how does the dissident potential of artistic expressions operate in the phygital era of social networks? Célin’s works have recently been shown at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2023); Bourse de commerce | Pinault Collection, Paris (2023); Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris (2023); Biennale Internazionale Donna, Trieste (2023); Château de Montjuïc, Barcelona (2023); Villa Arson, Nice (2023); VSRL, New York (2023) and Fondation Fiminco, Romainville (2022).
Instagram: @bis0u.magiqu3

Stina Fors
Residency: July 18–28
With a taste for the absurd and strange, Stina Fors (b. 1989, SE), a choreographer and performance artist, crafts unpredictable, once-in-a-lifetime performances. As a self-taught drummer and shocking vocalist, Fors tours with her one-woman-punk-band, Stina Force, claiming no two performances are ever the same. Extended ventriloquism and screams can be witnessed in her recent work, “A Mouthful of Tongues” – a magic show where the voice seems detached from the performer’s body. Fors’s work is filled with tension, wit, and raw power. She also teaches how to access extreme voices. Stina studied choreography at SNDO in Amsterdam, currently in Vienna, Austria. Her recent appearances include CA2M Móstoles (2023), Centrale Fies Dro (2023), MDT Stockholm (2023), Nobody’s Indiscipline Milano (2023), Secuencia#2/Fabra i Coats Barcelona (2023), Steinsland & Berliner Stockholm (2023), TQW Vienna (2023) Wiener Festwochen Vienna (2023), Brut Wien Vienna (2022), Campo Gent (2022), Inkonst Malmö (2022).
Instagram: @stinaforce

Bella Báguena
Residency: September 9–15
Bella Báguena (b. 1994, Valencia) is a Spanish trans non-binary woman who works with different disciplines such as music, performance, jewelry and other media. Bella centers her artistic production in a gender self-examination and an intuitive, emotional process, using her voice, body movement and identity, as well as objects, spaces and technologies, to create sound, video, sculptural or performative pieces in which the emotional charge and thought load of the trans woman’s identity becomes the key. Some of her recent performance contexts include Trauma Bar, Berlin (2023); Teatro Academico Gil Vicente, Coimbra (2023); A10 Exhibition x Injuve, Valencia (2023); Rokolectiv, Bucharest (2023); Ex Aterriza. Las Cigarreras, Alicante (2023); Construction Festival, Dresden (2023); Systema, Marseille (2023); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); Dakota By Night. Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam (2022); Shape+ Platform. Meet Factory, Prague (2022).
Instagram: @xbellaxbaguenax

For the 60th Venice Biennale, the Luxembourg ministry of Culture has appointed Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg commissioner, and Mudam Luxembourg—Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, organiser of the Luxembourg Pavilion.

Commissionner appointed by the Ministry of Culture Luxembourg: Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg
Organiser: Mudam Luxembourg—Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
Curator: Joel Valabrega (assisted by Nathalie Lessure)
Exhibitors: Andrea Mancini & Every Island
Performing artists:
Selin Davasse | Residency: 08 – 21 April | Performances: 17 – 21 April
Célin Jiang | Residency: 24 – 30 June | Performances: 29 – 30 June
Stina Fors | Residency: 18 – 28 July | Performances: 27 – 28 July
Bella Báguena | Residency: 09 – 15 September | Performances: 13 – 14 September

The exhibition is accessible for the public during the Residency periods according to Arsenale’s opening hours.