Venice Biennale : The rebirth of the art world
After a 3-year hiatus, the long-awaited Biennale returns to Venice with an emphasis on female artists and gender roles. The Biennale, one of the art world’s major international events, aims to draw in a large crowd of collectors and art lovers from around the globe, but also to re-energise the city which suffered so dramatically during the pandemic.
MARLENE DUMAS, (from left to right) iPhone (2018); Alien (2017); Spring (2017); Amazon (2016)
Photo : Courtesy of Palazzo Grassi
To celebrate its return, the curator and artistic director of Biennale Arte 2022, Cecilia Alemani, alongside the President of La Biennale di Venezia, Roberto Cicutto, have declared the title of the 59th Edition as “The Milk of Dreams”. A title inspired by the illustrated children’s book by Leonora Carrington, in which the Surrealist artist describes a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination.
The exhibition ‘The Milk of Dreams’ takes Leonora Carrington’s ethereal creatures, along with other figures of transformation, as companions on an imaginary journey through the metamorphoses of bodies and definitions of the human being.
For this edition, the Biennale focuses on three thematic areas: the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses; the relationship between individuals and technologies; the connection between bodies and the Earth.
Amongst the 200 artists displaying their works, we have selected 3 highlights not to be missed:
Marlene dumas at Palazzo Grassi
Marlene Dumas is taking over the Palazzo Grassi with a major monographic exhibition entitled “open-end”. The very first dedicated to a female artist. Curated by Caroline Bourgeois, in collaboration with Marlene Dumas, the exhibition brings together over 100 works and focuses on Dumas’ entire pictorial production, with a selection of paintings and drawings created between 1984 and today, including unseen works completed in the last few years. Many of the pieces on show, which focus on the representation of human figures dealing with the most intense emotions and paradoxes, come from the Pinault Collection, as well as museums and private collections.
MARLENE DUMAS - Betrayal (1994)
Photo: Courtesy of Palazzo Grassi
Anselm Kiefer at Palazzo Ducale
“It sometimes happens that there is a convergence between past and present moments, and as they come together one experiences something of that stillness in the hollow of a wave about to break. Originating in the past but pertaining at bottom to something more than the past, such moments belong as much to the present as to the past, and what they generate is of the utmost importance.”
German artist, Anselm Kiefer was invited by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia in honour of the 1600th anniversary of the foundation of Venice (which coincides with the Biennale) to create an exhibition in the Sala dello Scrutinio at Palazzo Ducale. The exhibition named These writings, when burned, will finally give some light, taken from the writings of the Venetian philosopher Andrea Emo, will see Kiefer’s works interact with the thirty-three monumental canvases on the ceiling of the Palazzo. The purpose of the exhibition is to underline the role of contemporary art in reflecting on universal themes, which transcends Venice to open up to current philosophical visions.
peggy Guggenheim’s Surrealism and Magic exhibition
Leonora Carrington (1917–2011)
The Pleasures of Dagobert, 1945
Egg tempera on Masonite, 74.9 x 86.7 cm
Private collection
Enchanted Modernity, curated by Grazina Subelyte, is a must-see joint exhibition project between the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Museum Barberini . The exhibition held at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Dorsoduro features 60 works from over 40 international museums and private collections. It is the first large-scale exhibition to look at the surrealist movement’s interest in magic and the occult. Offering a rich overview, Enchanted Modernity highlights the works of Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernest, Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo amongst many others. A delightful ode to Peggy Guggenheim who was one of the most energetic collectors and patrons of Surrealism.