The Milk of Dreams: title and theme announced for the Venice Biennale 2022
Today, June 9, 2021 the President of La Biennale di Venezia, Roberto Cicutto, and the Curator of the 59th International Art Exhibition, Cecilia Alemani, announced the title and theme of the Biennale Arte 2022
Titled “The Milk of Dreams”, the exhibition’s title is inspired by a book by Leonora Carrington, in which, as Cecilia Alemani says, “the Surrealist artist describes a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination, and where everyone can change, be transformed, become something and someone else. The exhibition takes us on an imaginary journey through metamorphoses of the body and definitions of humanity.”
Cecilia Alemani explains her choice:
“The Exhibition takes its name from a book by Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). In the 1950s, while living in Mexico, Carrington dreamed up and illustrated mysterious tales, first directly on the walls of her home, then in a small notebook called The Milk of Dreams. Told in a dreamlike style that seemed to terrify young and old alike, Carrington’s stories describe a world set free, brimming with possibilities. But it is also the allegory of a century that imposed intolerable pressure on the individual, forcing Carrington into a life of exile: locked up in mental hospitals, an eternal object of fascination and desire, yet also a figure of startling power and mystery, always fleeing the strictures of a fixed, coherent identity.”
«This Exhibition is grounded in many conversations with artists which took place over the past months. The questions that kept emerging seem to capture this moment in history, when the very survival of the species is threatened, but also to sum up doubts that pervade the sciences, arts, and myths of our time. How is the definition of the human changing? What constitutes life, and what differentiates animals, plants, humans, and non-humans? What are our responsibilities towards the planet, other people, and the other organisms we live with? And what would life and the Earth look like without us? »
«The exhibition focuses on three themes in particular: the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses; the relationship between individuals and technologies; the connection between bodies and the Earth. »
President Roberto Cicutto also stated:
«Cecilia Alemani focuses her “imaginary journey through metamorphoses of the body and definitions of humanity” on a series of questions about the “doubts that pervade the sciences, arts, and myths of our time […]Today the starting point for the next Biennale Arte seems to be the reinvention of new and more sustainable relations between individuals and the universe we live in. What better way could there be for Cecilia Alemani, than through these two experiences, to open new doors for the future Biennales?»
