Listening All Night To The Rain: John Akomfrah Represents Britain at the 60th Venice Biennale

Aita Ighodaro visits the British Pavilion in Venice to experience Sir John Akomfrah's spectacular installation.

Sir John Akomfrah British artist, author, film director, screenwriter, theorist and curator at the British Pavilion, Venice. Photo: Manfred Segerer/Imago/Alamy

This month has ushered in the 60^th Venice Biennale, the so called ‘Olympics of the artworld’. The Biennale, which alternates annually between art and architecture, is open to the public for six months every year and attracts up to 600 000 international visitors to the historic, floating city of Venice. Visitors come during the art event to experience the most groundbreaking works by leading contemporary artists representing their nations.

This year, the British Council-commissioned British Pavilion presents Listening All Night To The Rain, the work of acclaimed filmmaker Sir John Akomfrah, which is open to the public from 20^th April until 24^th November 2024.

Akomfrah, who was honoured with a knighthood in the 2023 UK honours list, was born in Ghana in 1957 and came to the UK as a child. He has been making notable work since the 1980s, when he founded the Black Audio Film Collective to examine issues of Black British identity through film.

Handsworth Songs (1986), the Collective’s first Akomfrah-directed documentary addressed racial tensions in 1980s Britain, employing his now signature practice of interweaving archival footage with new material and an inventive use of sound. The film was a critical success, ultimately winning seven international awards. Since then, his video works have grown in scale and reach in the form of challenging, multi-screen installations shown in leading museums and galleries worldwide.