Ten years after his Venice Biennale debut, Lavar Munroe returns to represent The Bahamas with a posthumous collaboration with his mentor, John Beadle.
On the morning of New Year's Day, the streets of Bay Street in Nassau, The Bahamas, are strewn with discarded costumes - the remnants of the Junkanoo festival that took place the day before. Inscribed in 2023 on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the festival celebrates the cultural traditions and practices of enslaved Africans through a vibrant procession of elaborate costumes, dance and music rooted in liberation. For decades, Junkanoo has been a central source of inspiration for the late artist John Beadle. Now, years after Beadle's death, Lavar Munroe is reinterpreting his work at the Venice Biennale.
