Venice Biennale 2022 | Highlights

59th International Art Exhibition | The Milk of Dreams

Venice Biennale 2022

The 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale is finally open: this edition was delayed by one year due to the world health emergency. The last time the Biennale was postponed due to exceptional circumstances was in 1944, during the second world war, which makes this Biennale particularly momentous.

The Venice Biennale 2022, titled The Milk of Dreams after Leonora Carrington’s book, is curated by Cecilia Alemani (the first Italian woman to hold this position) and will be open until November 27.

Venice Biennale 2022: The Milk of Dreams

 
It feels as though this additional time has allowed the curatorial team to find the time to pause, reflect and search deeper, thus producing a project of magnitude with a strong critical narrative and enhanced attention to detail.

In addition, what is immediately apparent this year is the influence of the current social movements, brought to global attention by the new feminist wave, Black Lives Matter, and efforts to recontextualize the history and consequences of colonialism.

These social waves have pushed certain themes and artists to the foreground, which were previously underrepresented. The result is a far richer outlook on artistic research, as well as on the human condition.
One will notice that, in certain cases, the pressure to conform to these themes has given an incentive to national participants and artists to push themselves to conform to this wave, with mixed results. Hence, some presentations appear somewhat forced, which is disappointing, and risks undermining the strength and importance of these themes in contemporary art. In a few cases, the operation appears as a counterproductive redress, almost resulting in cultural exploitation and/or appropriation.

These crucial themes are instead very well portrayed by artists such as Simone Leigh, deserving winner of this edition’s Golden Lion for the works she presented and that can be viewed in the United States Pavilion, at the Arsenale’s main exhibition, and at the Giardino delle Vergini. Another fascinating research is the one presented by the two female artists (Ingūna Skuja from Latvia and Melissa Braden from California) who form the artistic collaboration Skuja Braden, representing Latvia in its Pavilion at the Arsenale with their overflowing installation-universe.

Simone Leigh – Golden Lion for the Best Participant in the Venice Biennale 2022 – at the United States Pavilion

Skuja Braden (Ingūna Skuja and Melissa Braden) at the Latvian Pavilion

 
Of course, another theme that pervaded this opening weekend was the war in Ukraine, mentioned in multiple presentation speeches by curators and politicians alike, and silently embodied at the Giardini della Biennale by a closed Russian Pavilion – following the curator and artists’ decision to resign from their positions, thereby cancelling the country’s participation in this year’s edition – and by the installation Piazza Ucraina, realized by the curators of the Ukrainian Pavilion Borys Filonenko, Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko in collaboration with the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

Piazza Ucraina, an installation realized by the curators of the Ukrainian Pavilion Borys Filonenko, Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko in collaboration with the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation

 
One of the exceptions to this pervasive sentiment of inclusivity and social activism is the Italian Pavilion, showing a nation mainly focused on itself, disconnected from the international scene, despite the participants’ stated intentions.

After all this, a question lingers: are we forced to look at parallel narratives by these trying times (are we virtue signaling?), or do we really believe in a change of perspective?
 

VENICE BIENNALE 2022: PHOTO GALLERY/HIGHLIGHTS

 
BIENNALE ARTE 2022: OFFICIAL AWARDS

Golden Lion for the Best Participant to:
Simone Leigh (1967, Chicago, USA. Lives in New York City, USA)

 
Golden Lion for Best National Participation to:
GREAT BRITAIN
Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way

 
Silver Lion for a Promising Young Participant to:
Ali Cherri (1976, Beirut, Lebanon. Lives in Paris, France)

 
Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement to:
Katharina Fritsch (Germany)
Cecilia Vicuña (Chile)

 
NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS: GIARDINI DELLA BIENNALE

 
This year, the Nordic Pavilion celebrates the art and sovereignty of the Indigenous Sámi people by renaming itself the Sámi Pavilion:

 
NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS: ARSENALE

 
THE MILK OF DREAMS | CENTRAL PAVILION: GIARDINI DELLA BIENNALE

 
THE MILK OF DREAMS | CENTRAL PAVILION: ARSENALE

 
VENICE BIENNALE 2022 | MISCELLANEOUS