Since 1988, I have never missed a visit to the Biennale of Venice. I have literally seen every type of edition, each one reflecting the vision of its curator. I have gone from Achille Bonito Oliva’s vitalistic and highly erotic vision to the somewhat gloomy and pessimistic vision of Jean Claus. I witnessed the discovery of contemporary Chinese art in the one by Harald Szeemann and the boring, good-guy who studied anthroposophy, of Massimiliano Gioni, husband of the current curator, Cecilia Alemani. She organized ‘The Milk of Dreams’, borrowing the title from Leonora Carrington’s childrens book. What can I say? As I have already written in a post of mine it is extremely underwelming. The 191 female and 22 male appereances demonstrate the excesses of a feminist pseudo-sisterhood taken to the extremes. An imbalance that ends up harming those one would like to promote. The 2022 event will be remembered, with all due respect to Alemani who does not like judgement, as the bienniale of women. Which means there will be further ghettoisation. It is as if she had introduced pink quotas, that are already annoying in parliament, into art. Not satisfied and with an attitude of retaliation which is perceived as prevarication, she has disproportionately inverted the proportions. Like a charitable lady of high society she takes care of the needy and brings to Venice those who have never had a voice, or those who have rarely had one. Noble aspiration if it weren't for the adherence to political correctness that is reminiscent of the staged parties of the American upper class (the curator lives in the US). It is all declined in the form of the most irritating conformism to the idea of what a fashionable intellectual must be like. Exactly how? Disturbing and problematic, starting with the relationship with his body. Strolling through the Giardini and the Arsenale, the atmosphere is dark and terrifying. We wander among an endless parade of frightening hybrid creatures and mutants, taking on shapes of nature, animals, or cyborg and avatars. It is a nightmare. We can all become something else, explains the curator in regards to what is before our eyes. Thank you for the warning, but let’s hope not.
