Venice reviews the history of art (also) in the feminine

A year late due to the pandemic, the 59th Venice Biennale, which in its 127-year history was only interrupted by two world wars, brings devastating news. For the first time, the major exhibition is curated by an Italian, Cecília Alemão; Let us remember that the first exception to the masculine norm occurred with the joint curation of María de Corral and Rosa Martínez, in 2005.

After gender parity in the participation of artists achieved in 2019, Alemani, who last year coordinated The restless muses. The Venice Biennale in its history (art, architecture, cinema, dance, music and theater), with firm courage raised an exhibition in which 90% are female artists and the rest can be considered non-binary. And they are not just figures: it is a contemporary panorama of women based on the genealogy of an art history reviewed from a feminist perspective.

The exhibition takes its name from a book by Leonora Carrington and is inspired by writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin

Under the motto The Milk of Dreams, title of the children's book by the British painter Leonora Carrington, and inspired by some of the main thinkers of feminism today, Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, Silvia Federici and the novelist Ursula K. Le Guin were decisive in determining three thematic axes: the representation of the body and its metamorphoses; the relationship between individuals and technologies and the connection between bodies and the earth.

Together, the exhibition imagines a post-human world with pieces by young artists in dialogue with their predecessorsgrouped into five “time capsules” that Alemani considers the “beating heart” of this mega-exhibition composed of 213 artists –180 for the first time in this Biennale– from 58 nations and with 80 projects carried out for this exhibition.

It is a contemporary panorama of the feminine based on the genealogy of a revised art history.

Developed, as usual, in the Central Pavilion of the Giardini and in the Corderie and other facilities of the Arsenale, the result is uneven. Due to the complexity and ambition of the project, we had never witnessed such an atomized sample in such an irregular mosaic in the Central Pavilion, where we are welcomed under the entrance vault by a Elephant monumental that alludes to a matriarchal society, as well as the elephant Toni that lived in the Castello park at the end of the 19th century. It is the work of the German artist Katharina Fritsch, awarded for her career alongside Chilean Cecilia Vicuñawho made the wonderful vertical dryer castaway with found materials.

Other outstanding teachers are the painters Paula Rego and Miriam Cahn, with own rooms; It is Rosemarie Trockel, with an unprecedented series of textile paintings created in the 80s by his collaborator Helga Szentpétery, and which serves as a perimeter for several of Andra Arsuta's cyborgs. The quality of these paintings contrasts with the weak large-format canvases of young female painters.

Meanwhile, we navigate between the future and the first three time capsules: the witch's cradlewith works by the surrealists Carrington, Leonor Fini, Carol Rama, Dorothea Tanning and Remedios Varowith a mount that overprotects them in insufficient lighting; materialization of language, which was the first feminist exhibition organized by the Biennale in 1978, curated by Mirella Bentivoglio; It is spell technologieswhich corrects exposure in female Programmed art. kinetic art curated by Bruno Munari in 1962.

The painters Paula Rego and Miriam Cahn stand out, with their own rooms, and Rosemarie Trockel, with an unprecedented series

In total, there have never been so many Spanish artists at the Biennale's Padiglione: in addition to Varo, the cartoonist Josefa Tolra (1880-1959), and the British born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884); to which we must add the young frizzy June. And already at the Arsenale, Maruja Mallo and Teresa Solar.

Alemani's project wins at Corderie and Artiglierie, where it begins with the large bust of a black woman by this year's Golden Lion winner Simone Leighcarried out in 2019 for the New York public art program High Line, curated by Alemany herself.

In addition to interesting videos, there are monumental pieces and installations such as the gwendolyn pregnant with Niki de Saint PhalleKenyan ships Madalena Odundothe great block of Colombian smoky earth Delcy Morelosdrawing installations Sandra Vásquez de la Horra and Solange Pessoathe environmental transparencies and elegant sculptures of the Canadian kapwani kiwanga and large facilities Barbara Kruger and Giulia Cenci.

Although the other two “time capsules” where an important research contribution was made are more suitable: A sheet, … a net, … a containerwith pieces ranging from botanical watercolors to Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) to wire sculptures Ruth Asawa in the fifties and ceramics in the seventies tofano key; It is The seduction of the cyborgwith costumes for the expressionist theater of the 1920s lavinia schulz and the absolutely current sculptures of Liliane Lijn between the 70s and 80s, for example.

The result is uneven. Due to the complexity of the project, we had never served such a fragmented sample

Sections that better highlight the dialogues between history and the present in defending the land and shared life against the predatory and necrophilic culture of patriarchy.

In addition to the milk of dreams, in Venice you must visit essential exhibitions, most of them until the end of the Biennale, on November 27th. If you don't have time, I suggest this order: Marlene Dumas at Palazzo Grassi, supreme example of excellence; the tribute to Louise Nevelson at Procuratie Vecchie; Anish Kapoor at the Accademia, with fiery paintings that are almost the best of his career; and Anselm Kiefer's total intervention in the Sala dello Scrutinio of the Palazzo Ducale.

And as a patriot, don't forget the Catalonia Pavilion with Lara Fluxá; It is With your hands the signs growat the Signum Fondation Palazzo Donna, with Ruth Gómez and Nuria Mora, among others.

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