10 THINGS TO SEE AT THE VENICE BIENNALE 2022:

The new edition of the International Art Exhibition in Venice entitled “The Milk of Dreams” is underway from April 23 to November 27.

• The current edition of the Art Biennale was intended for 2021 but was called off to allow for the Architecture Biennale canceled in 2020 due to Covid. This is the second time in history this has happened, the first time due to the outbreak of World War II.
• Its title “The Milk of Dreams” is borrowed from the collection of fairy tales by Leonora Carrington: the Surrealist writer and painter who invented a magical world where life is all about imagination and change is essential to living in a free universe composed of infinite possibilities.
• This edition is devoted to major reflections, “How is the definition of humankind changing? What are our responsibilities to our fellow human beings, to other life forms, to the planet? What would life be like without us?” declares curator Cecilia Alemani. “The relationship between individuals and technologies – including the specter of a total takeover by machines through automation and artificial intelligence – the intertwining ties between bodies and the Earth, the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses.”
• In 127 years, Cecilia Alemani, is the first Italian woman to curate the Venice Art Biennale.
• There are various new countries represented: Cameroon, Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Uganda, Kasakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan.
• The Russian pavilion is closed to the public: in fact, artists and curators chose not to represent the country by defecting in protest against the conflict.
• Some numbers: 213 artists involved / for 180 of them it is the first time at the Biennale / 80 percent are women / from 58 nations. This is the first edition with a high number of female, trans and non-binary artists, as well as the first time a British black artist, Sonia Boyce, won the Golden Lion for Best National Pavilion.
• “Storia della notte e destino delle comete ” is the title of the project occupying the Italian pavilion, entrusted for the first time to a solo artist Gianmaria Tosatti, curated by Eugenio Viola, scenic set design by Margherita Palli, with Valentino as a main sponsor. A scene divided between everyday 1950s life and post-industrial society, an experience that sensitizes the visitor to the theme of progress between dream and time: past and future.

Just to name a few art/fashion initiatives:

• Louis Vuitton as always organizes several initiatives in support of art. In particular, among the most interesting for visitors to the 2022 Art Biennale is the restoration of historic Venetian newsstands transformed into temporary stores where they can buy not only newspapers and periodicals, but also the complete collection of Louis Vuitton Travel Book, Fashion Eye and City Guide editions.

• Aspesi instead engages in the exhibition “Could you bare your torso?”, a solo show by Kayode Ojo at Magazzino 6 and Magazzino 7 (Magazzini Ligabue) spaces in Venice until July 10, 2022. Curated by Gea Politi and Cristiano Seganfreddo, it is produced by Flash Art Studios and promoted by the FLAIR (Fashion Lab Archive Industry Research) center at the Dipartimento di Culture del Progetto of Iuav University of Venice. An unmissable opportunity to meet one of the greatest American artists.