Cecilia Alemani's Biennale Arte 2022 Embraces Emotional Over Intellectual Engagement

Giulio Ciavoliello reflects on the 2022 Venice Biennale, titled 'The Milk of Dreams' and curated by Cecilia Alemani, arguing it breaks from the modernist-antimodernist-postmodernist framework that has dominated art discourse since the 2013 edition of 'Art Since 1900' by Foster, Krauss, Bois, Buchloh, and Joselit. The exhibition, held at the Giardini and Arsenale, demands viewers abandon analytical habits and engage emotionally rather than rationally. Ciavoliello compares this shift to the early 1980s, when spectacular, painterly art prevailed without requiring intellectual mediation. He notes that Alemani's choices, made during the pandemic, emphasize physicality and direct perception, privileging works from outside Western centers. Key works include Simone Leigh's creole sculpture, Portia Zvavahera's paintings, Violeta Parra's artifacts, and Barbara Kruger's immersive installation, which he sees as a return to Western cultural norms. The title is borrowed from surrealist Leonora Carrington, and the exhibition's 'capsules' offer thematic deep dives. Ciavoliello concludes that the Biennale invites a surrender to alterity and basic elements like matter, form, and color, rather than relying on established art-historical schemas.