Historical Archives – La Biennale di Venezia
Le Muse Inquiete – When La Biennale di Venezia Meets History
Art – Cinema – Dance – Music – Theatre - Architecture
Padiglione Centrale – Giardini
La Biennale di Venezia, to mark the 125th anniversary of its foundation, presents Le muse inquiete - The Disquieted Muses. When La Biennale di Venezia Meets History, an exhibition by the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts – ASAC - held in the Central Pavilion of the Giardini della Biennale until December 8. This is the first exhibition to be curated by all the Artistic Directors of La Biennale’s six departments. Working together, they have used the one-of-a-kind sources of the Historical Archives of La Biennale and other Italian and international archives to retrace key moments during the 20th century when La Biennale crossed paths with history in Venice.
“…for the generous support that the Directors and staff of the Historical Archives and the entire Biennale have given to this project, parallel to their work on the exhibitions and festivals. It is one that bolsters La Biennale’s role as a hub of research in the contemporary arts, a fundamental driving force for investigating the present and future, and a strategic tool for development, even in terms of economic growth.”
Roberto Cicutto
President of La Biennale di Venezia
For this exhibition, the directors have selected rare footage, first-hand accounts, and a range of artworks, following various lines of research to examine the many times when the history of La Biennale has overlapped with the history of the world—revealing or generating institutional rifts and political and ethical crises, but also new creative languages.
The exhibition is laid out in the rooms of the Central Pavilion and weaves its way through all six disciplines: from Fascism (1928-1945) to the Cold War and new world order (1948-1964), to the unrest of ’68 and the Biennales chaired by Carlo Ripa di Meana (1974-78), then from the postmodernism to the first Architecture Biennale and until the 1990s, and the beginning of globalization.
Roberto Cicutto - President – Alberto Barbera – Cinema – Cecilia Alemani – Art – Ivan Fedele – Music – Antonio Latella – Theatre – Hashim Sarkis – Architecture
Marie Chouinard – Dance - not present
Exhibition Design – Formafantasma
The Biennale During Fascism – 1928-1945
In a period of global instability that over the course of just a few months has brought a succession of environmental disasters, new pandemics, and social revolutions, La Biennale di Venezia serves as a wellspring and channel for the most innovative currents in the artistic disciplines of our era—but also continues to bear witness to the many shifts and crises that have supervened from the late nineteenth century to the present, like a seismometer recording the tremors of history.
Max Reinhardt – The Merchant of Venice – 1934
Russian Musicians at the Biennale Musica
Dimitri Shostakovich – Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk- 1947
The Guggenheim Collection
at the Greek Pavilion – 1948
Robert Rauschenberg’s Award – 1964
The Visconti Case
Bertolt Brecht – Ideological Censorship – 1951
1968 – A Year of Protests and New Ideals
Pier Paolo Pasolini
American Dance in Venice in 1968
Alvin Ailey – Alwin Nikolais – Merce Cunningham
Ambiente/Arte – Environment/Art
Curated by Germano Celant – 1976
Concepts for the Mulino Stucky
Curated by Vittorio Gregotti – 1975
Freedom for Chile – 1974
Aldo Rossi’s
Theatre of the World – 1979
La Strada Nuovissima
Curated by Paolo Portoghesi – 1980
Carmelo Bene
The Impossible Quest – 1988
James Lee Byars
Holy Ghost – 1975
Jeff Koons
Made in Heaven – 1990
The German Pavilion
The 1990s
From Nation States to a Global Biennale
The Central Pavilion Since - 1895