Cecilia Alemani on the Future of Art and the High Line

Cecilia Alemani, artistic director of the 59th Venice Biennale and chief curator of High Line Art in New York, discusses her curatorial approach, inspirations, and vision for the future. She emphasizes learning from each project, the importance of site-specificity, and the role of art in public spaces. Alemani cites literature, poetry, Surrealism, Land Art, and art and craft as influences but prioritizes discovering new ideas. She considers the High Line project, which attracts 8 million visitors annually, as her most defining work, highlighting its transformation of an abandoned railway into a public park with contemporary art, native gardens by Piet Oudolf, and architecture by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. For the future, she identifies social justice, climate change, and identity rights as key guiding ideas. Alemani advises young curators to visit exhibitions, study art history, read magazines, meet artists, and write critically. She notes a pandemic-driven turn toward introspection and the irrational in contemporary art, viewing it as a tool to reinterpret reality rather than escape it.