Cecilia Alemani on Her 2022 Venice Biennale: Posthumanism, Gender, and Pandemic

Cecilia Alemani, curator of the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), discusses the challenges of organizing the exhibition remotely due to the pandemic and the impact of the war in Ukraine. She emphasizes a posthumanist framework inspired by Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti, aiming to overturn Renaissance anthropocentrism. Alemani highlights her focus on gender inclusivity, featuring many women artists and historical capsules that address past exclusions. She describes the artists as 'disobedient' for rejecting clichés about identity and the body. The exhibition, titled 'The Milk of Dreams,' runs from April 23 to November 27, 2022, at the Giardini and Arsenale. Alemani notes that the pandemic fostered introspective, dreamlike works, while the war raises concerns about cultural isolation, especially of Russian and Ukrainian art. She hopes the Biennale will create opportunities for discussion beyond boycott. The exhibition design by Formafantasma contributes to the physicality of the show, with compressed and dilated spaces at the Arsenale. Alemani calls the Italian cultural climate 'medieval' regarding gender, stating that her Biennale is a manifesto against such attitudes.