Pope makes landmark visit to Venice Biennale and proclaims that 'the world needs artists'

Pope Francis waves to faithful during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Pope Francis went to a Rome hospital on Wednesday for some previously scheduled tests, slipping out of the Vatican after his general audience and before the busy start of Holy Week this Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Venice, Italy -

 Pope Francis has become the first pontiff to visit Venice’s contemporary art festival during a trip which saw him visit a female prison and rehabilitate the reputation of a pioneering American nun artist.

The 87-year-old Pope traveled to the northeastern Italian city by helicopter on April 28, touching down at the prison on Giudecca Island in the Venetian lagoon which has been taken over by the Holy See for the eight-month-long biennale.

Curated by Chiara Parisi and Bruno Racine, the pavilion — titled “Con i miei occhi” (which translates as “With my eyes”) — reflects the Pope’s concern for society’s outsiders, especially prisoners, and includes works from several female artists. Francis began his Venice trip by greeting each of the approximately 80 inmates in the prison courtyard, several of whom are involved in the exhibition.

Poetry from some inmates has been placed on the walls of the prison, while others act in a short film by Italian director Marco Perego and his wife, actor Zoe Saldaña, a star of the “Avatar” films. (Saldana plays a prisoner on the day of her release alongside other inmates.)

“Paradoxically, a stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new…as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting,” Francis told them. “Let us not forget that we all have mistakes to be forgiven for and wounds to be healed — me too.”

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Afterwards, in the prison chapel, the Pope met artists involved in the biennale and the Holy See pavilion, where he told them their work can help tackle racism, xenophobia, ecological “imbalance,” “fear of the poor” and inequality.

“The world needs artists,” he stressed.

His meeting with them also marked a rehabilitation for Corita Kent, known as the “pop art nun,” whose works are included in the Holy See pavilion but who in the past faced resistance from a powerful cardinal. During his speech, the pope singled out Kent – along with Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois — as female artists whose works have “something important to teach us.”

Kent, a religious sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary community in Los Angeles who later left the order, was renowned for her colorful screen-prints which raised awareness of racial injustice and championed civil rights. But in the late 1950s and 60s, her progressive religious order clashed with the then Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles, James McIntyre, who took a particular dislike to some of Kent’s art, calling it blasphemous.

Although he has struggled with bouts of ill health in recent months, Francis seemed animated and engaged while in Venice on a trip that lasted just five hours and was jam-packed with events. At one point, he joked with a local journalist about the weather and said that every time he goes to a prison he asks: “why them and not me?”

Francis traveled around Venice on a motorboat, an open-air golf buggy with the Holy See coat of arms emblazoned on it and his wheelchair, something which he is increasingly using due to mobility difficulties.

Along with the trip to the female prison, Francis also held a meeting with young people, presided at an open-air Mass in St. Mark’s Square, led the Sunday midday prayer, and prayed in front of the relics of Saint Mark in the basilica.

During his homily, he warned against the threats Venice faces including from climate change, saying that rising sea levels mean the city “may cease to exist” and talked about the need for “adequate tourism management.” His visit comes just days after Venice began charging day-trippers an entry fee.

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The Vatican first entered a pavilion for the biennale in 2013, but this is the first time it has shown at a prison. The 2024 pavilion was commissioned by its culture office, which is led by the Portuguese prelate, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, an award-winning poet. The cardinal explained that the pavilion is an attempt to involve visitors “directly in reality.”

As it is a working prison, those who visit the Holy See pavilion have to hand in their cell phones, while the façade of the building is covered with a mural of the soles of two dirty feet by Maurizio Cattelan, who is known for his sculpture of Pope John Paul II being hit by a meteorite.

The Venice Biennale was first held in 1895 and takes place every other year, with each country having their own pavilion (the Vatican is the world’s smallest sovereign territory). For 2024, it has taken the theme “Foreigners Everywhere” and seeks to highlight artists from marginalized backgrounds.