The 59th edition, The Milk of Dreams, took over Venice with a one-year delay. Chief curator of the main exhibition, Cecilia Alemani chose the title from a children’s book full of mythological creatures and stories written by Leonora Carrington. The woman artist and surrealist Carrington had to escape Europe to the US back in the day and is only now getting well-deserved recognition for her work. Alemani, of Italian origin, the first woman Italian curator of the biennale, is remembered for curating the Italian pavilion in 2017 with the exhibition Il Mondo Magico. There she included visually striking and, for representing such a traditionally thinking country, quite shocking piece imitating Christ by Roberto Cuoghi. The show was a big success, and Alemani had already proved back then her capability of delivering such vital topics to the audience in an aesthetically appealing way.
The Milk of Dreams includes more women artists than men for the first time in biennale history. The main topics of the exhibition touched on the idea of transformation, the body, the relationship of humans and nature, other species and Earth and our coexistence with technology. It was not divided into sections but flowed freely throughout the exhibition spaces. If we compare it with the last edition, the videos were almost absent, and painting and sculpture took over. We could travel and explore indigenous cultures and societies worldwide through artworks – from Nordic countries and the Sámi community in the works of Britta Marakatt-Labba to the Caribbean Amazon with Jaider Esbell and with Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement awarded Cecilia Vicuňa, who brought the Chilean tradition to Venice, only to mention a few.
And travelling back in time too, there were five capsules, time machine-like cabinets showing significant older pieces correlated to contemporary artworks in the exhibition. This interesting curatorial concept stood out even more thanks to the beautiful design of these cabinets made by studio Formafantasma. One of the most appealing was The Witch’s cradle, a room full of strong women and their works, mainly from the first half of the 20th century, whose art was usually underappreciated and often shrouded in rejection during their lifetime -including Carrington. In Witch’s cradle, situated in one of the central rooms in the Giardini pavilion, the lowered space was covered with the carpet in rose gold colour, rising over the floor’s edges and hugging the visitors between the exceptional artworks installed in glass vitrines as in some history museum.
Is it a coincidence that entering the exhibition, either in the Central Pavilion of the Giardini or in Arsenale, felt like entering the ancient temples? This feeling came to mind due to the installation of Katharina Fritsch‘s Elephant in the first room of the Central Pavilion in Giardini and Simone Leigh‘s Brick House at the beginning of Corderie in Arsenale. Both important sculptures appeared even more monumental because of their central placement, and they majestically welcomed visitors to these temples of art. Could art become our new religion? And has it the power to change the world’s thinking? Ideally, imagine it as a vision to aim for kind coexistence and survival where society acts accordingly. Not to necessarily criticise the bad but rather to point out the good in the world and use this power of thought because what we focus on will become our reality.
The Milk of Dreams by Cecilia Alemani will be remembered as a transitioning biennale that placed women artists in the foreground for the first time in biennale history. It was not just showing the world’s problems in a non-aggressive way but looking for possible solutions to deal with them and escape from them to different realities. The exhibition was a gentle reminder to stay hopeful about the future, offering possibilities for adapting to what is coming next while not forgetting to learn from the past.
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