59th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia
The Milk of Dreams
The 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, titled
The Milk of Dreams, will open to the public - April 23-November 27 -
at the Giardini and the Arsenale; it will be curated by Cecilia Alemani and organised by La
Biennale di Venezia chaired by Roberto Cicutto.
Cecilia Vicuna
Leoparda de Ojitos -1977
Martiillo y Repollo - 1973
"The travelling companions - the artists - who accompany the Curator all come from very different
worlds. Cecilia tells us that there is a majority of female artists and non-binary subjects, a choice I
endorse because it reflects the richness of the creative force of our time. My wish for the
59th International Art Exhibition
is that we can all immerse ourselves in the - re-
enchantment of the world - that Cecilia evokes in her introduction. Perhaps this is a dream,
which
is another of the constituent elements of this Exhibition.
Many works are new productions created specifically for this edition."
Roberto Ciucutto
President - La Biennale di Venezia - Roberto Cicutto
Cecilia Alemani - Curator
The Milk of Dreams takes its title from a book by Leonora Carrington - 1917–2011 in which the Surrealist artist describes a magical world where life is constantly
re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination. It is a world where everyone can change, be
transformed, become something or someone else. The exhibition The Milk of Dreams takes Leonora
Carrington’s otherworldly creatures, along with other figures of transformation, as companions on
an imaginary journey through the metamorphoses of bodies and definitions of the human.
Baya Mahiedddine
Femme robe jaune cheveux bleus - Femme au panier et coq rouge
Femme robe a chevrons - all 1947
The Milk of Dreams will includes over two hundred artists from 58 countries. More than 180 of these
artists have never been in the International Art Exhibition until now. For the first time in its 127-
year history, La Biennale will include a majority of women and gender non-conforming artists, a
choice that reflects an international art scene full of creative ferment and a deliberate rethinking of
man’s centrality in the history of art and contemporary culture.
Dorothea Tanning
Deirdre - 1940
Deirdre - 1940
Gertrud Arndt
all 1930
all 1930
The exhibition features contemporary works and new projects conceived specifically for the
Biennale Arte, presented in dialogue with historic works from the 19th century on.
Andra Ursuta
Predators 'R Us - 2020
"How is the definition of the human changing? What constitutes life, and what differentiates plant and animal, human and non-human? What are our responsibilities towards the planet, other people, and other life forms? And what would life look like without us?
These are some of the guiding questions for this edition of the Biennale Arte, which focuses on three thematic areas in particular: the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses; the relationship between individuals and technologies; the connection between bodies and the Earth.”
Cecilia Alemani
Cecilia Alemani is an Italian Curator based in New York who has organized many exhibitions of contemporary artists. She is currently Director and Chief Curator of High Line Art, the programme of public art in New York, and is the past curator of the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2017.
Laura Grisi
Sunset Light - all 1967
Ulla Wiggen
Iris XVIII Line - 2021
Lenora de Barros
POEMA - POEM - 1979/2014
Minnie Evans
Untitled - 1967
Sable Elyse Smith
Landscape III - 2017
Vera Molnar
Transformation de carre concentriques - both 1976
Zheng Bo
Pteridophilia 4 - 2019
Jalder Esbell
Amamentacao - 2021
Bridget Tichenor
La Espera - The Wait - 1961
Fa. Auzoux - Womb Models - 1844
Aletta Jacob
Magdalene Odundo
Untitled Vessel - Symmetrical Series - 2017
Untitled Vessel - Symmetrical Series - 2009
Marianne Brandt
Stilleben mit Bauhausstoff - Kugein und Wellpappe - Selbstportrait
Bauhaus Dessau - c. 1928-1929
Das Atelier in der Kugel II - Selbstportrait - c. 1928-1929
Alexandra Exter
Costume design for a female character in Aelita - Queen of Mars - both 1924
Kiki Kogelnik
Artificial Man in Four Parts 1-4 - 1967
Geumhyung Jeong
Toy Prototype - 2021
"During these endless months, I have pondered the question of what role the
International Art Exhibition should play at this historical juncture, and the simplest, most sincere
answer I could find is that the Biennale sums up all the things we have so sorely missed in the last
two years: the freedom to meet people from all over the world, the possibility of travel, the joy of
spending time together, the practice of difference, translation, incomprehension, and communion.
The Milk of Dreams
is not an exhibition about the pandemic, but it inevitably registers the
upheavals of our era. In times like this, as the history of La Biennale di Venezia clearly shows, art
and artists can help us imagine new modes of coexistence and infinite new possibilities of
transformation".
Cecilia Alemani
Barbara Kruger
FOREVER
installation view - Spruth Mager - Berlin - 2017
Please Note
All photographs are screenshots taken during the La Biennale press conference
The 59th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia
The Milk of Dreams
