Art with a capital A is in Venice from April 19 to 23. With the Biennale Arte preview, there are many openings of major exhibitions and events in Venice
Major exhibitions and world-class events from April 19 to 23, 2022 in Venice: exhibitions dedicated to the great masters of the twentieth century such as Louise Nevelson, Lucio Fontana, Antony Gormley and the Korean Ha Chong-Hyun; performances such as the one at the Alberta Pane Gallery by Marcos Lutyens and in the atrium of Palazzo Grassi with Dancing Studies: Sonatas and Interludes by Lenio Kaklea; the opening of new contemporary art foundations such as the new Anish Kapoor Foundation and the Foundation at Palazzo Diedo, which hosts the site-specific project by artist Sterling Ruby. Furthermore, there are 31 collateral events, national participations of The Biennale Arte 2022, and much more.
Participations from all over the world and creative ideas will enrich the pluralism of the most anticipated exhibition of the Venetian Spring: the 59th International Art Exhibition, led by one of the most influential women in the world of contemporary art curation, Cecilia Alemani.
At the Biennale
The Milk of Dreams is the title of the Biennale Arte, taken from the book of the same name by Leonora Carrington, a surrealist artist to whom an entire room (with bright red walls) is dedicated at the exhibition Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, curated by Gražina Subelytė, Associate Curator at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, until September 26, 2022.
An artist who describes a dreamlike world in which life is constantly reimagined through the prism of imagination. A world where everything can change, transform, and become something or someone else: free and full of possibilities. A thought in reaction to an era of pressures and uncertainties similar to today’s.
«In these moments, as the history of the Venice Biennale teaches us, art and artists help us imagine new forms of coexistence and new, infinite possibilities for transformation».
Among the national participations, the most beautiful of titles is History of Night and Destiny of Comets, the Italian Pavilion curated by Eugenio Viola, which features a single artist: Gian Maria Tosatti.
A large-scale installation occupying the entire surface of the Tese delle Vergini at the Arsenale in Venice, structured as a journey through the history and modernity of the Bel Paese: a theatrical set that articulates the narrative into a prologue and two acts, coinciding with the History of Night—the symbolic tale of the rise and decline of the Italian industrial dream—and the Destiny of Comets: a message of hope regarding the destiny of humanity, crossed by a great trail of light.
Among the Collateral Events
Among the 31 collateral events admitted by the curator of the Biennale Arte 2022, the exhibition at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia is noteworthy; it was realized in collaboration with White Cube and curated by the artist Danh Vo together with Chiara Bertola. An exhibition in dialogue between the curator’s artistic practice and the work of great artists of the last century: Park Seo-Bo, Dansaekhwa, and Isamu Noguchi, an important Japanese sculptor, architect, designer, and set designer, whose granite work Two is One can be seen at the Peggy Guggenheim house-museum in Venice.
In Calle della Regina is the headquarters of the Fondazione Prada, which during the Venice Biennale preview presents the exhibition Human Brains: a multidisciplinary journey dedicated to brain studies and the result of complex research developed in collaboration with a scientific committee, chaired by Giancarlo Comi and composed of researchers, scholars, popularizers, and curators such as Jubin Abutalebi, Massimo Cacciari, Viviana Kasam, Udo Kittelmann, Letizia Leocani, Andrea Moro and Daniela Perani.
In the same street, in the new space of the Salone Verde, Take your Time by artist Francesca Leone opens, curated by Danilo Eccher, one of the most important Italian art critics and curators who conceived Love, Dream, Enjoy and the currently ongoing Crazy, the spectacular as well as Instagrammable exhibitions at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome.
Wim Wenders is in Venice on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 April 2022 thanks to Palazzo Grassi – which hosts the exhibition Open-end curated by the artist Marlene Dumas herself with Caroline Bourgeois. At the Cinema Multisala Rossini in Venice, the world premiere of the new video installation Présence is signed by the great master of contemporary cinema, Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1982 for The State of Things.
Wim Wenders, a director no stranger to speaking about art, creates a 38-minute film on the expressive universe of the French artist Claudine Drai, whose production is simultaneously visible in Venice at ACP – Palazzo Franchetti with a solo exhibition of the same name.
A collateral event of the Biennale, promoted and realized by Ass. Arte Continua, in collaboration with Fondazione Lucio Fontana and FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano and with the support of Galleria Continua, two great masters of sculpture: Lucio Fontana and Antony Gormley will meet for the first time inside the iconic Olivetti Shop designed by Carlo Scarpa in Piazza San Marco and owned by Generali, which will simultaneously inaugurate the solo exhibition of Louise Nevelson at the Procuratie Vecchie, curated by Julia Bryan-Wilson.
Special visits
During the Biennale openings, it is an opportunity to find time and book special visits:
- Tuesday, April 19 from 9 AM to 12 PM at Palazzo Ducale for the exhibition Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce by Anselm Kiefer, open to the public until October 29, 2022.
- On April 20, 21, and 22, the following are added to the museum body of the Foundation of Civic Museums of Venice MUVE: the International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro with the exhibition AFRO 1950-1970. From Italy to America and Back, the Study Center for the History of Textiles, Costume and Perfume at Palazzo Mocenigo with ES-SENZE, and the Correr Museum with Huong Dodinh for Ascension.
- From April 20 to 22, LA FIABA. A Dress for Venice, the exhibition (open to the public until April 29, 2022) by eco-designer Tiziano Guardini at Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua, curated by the Tessitura itself and Venezia da Vivere, and part of the official program of Homo Faber In Città.
- Homo Faber is an absolute must-see event on the island of San Giorgio, paying tribute to artisanal excellence, set up in the 4,000 square meters of space of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, including some areas opened specifically for the occasion such as the former Nautical School, the Sala Messina, and the Teatro Verde (pictured).
- During the Biennale preview, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini inaugurates On Fire, an exhibition promoted by Tornabuoni Art and curated by Bruno Corà, dedicated to fire and its use in artworks by artists: Yves Klein, Alberto Burri, Arman, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Jannis Kounellis and Claudio Parmiggiani. Additionally, Luca Massimo Barbero, modern and contemporary art historian and critic, and Director of the Foundation’s Institute of Art History, presents Joseph Beuys. Finamente Articolato at Palazzo Cini, an extraordinary exhibition entirely dedicated to Joseph Beuys, one of the most emblematic artists of the second half of the twentieth century.
- For the first time in Italy, from April 21 to July 30, the immersive virtual reality installation Last Whispers: Immersive Oratorio for Vanishing Voices, Collapsing Universes and a Falling Tree by American photographer and artist Lena Herzog is visible in the courtyard of Ca’ Foscari University: a project focused on the theme of the mass extinction of languages.
Article by Lucia Pecoraro.
Photos by Lucia Pecoraro, Lenio-Kaklea, Marta Formentello, and Settimo Cannatella.
Photo by Andrea Avezzù courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.
Portrait of Eugenio Viola, curator of the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2022, and of Gian Maria Tosatti, photo by Elena Andreato; and of the artist of the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2022 at work, ph. Maddalena Tartaro.
Work by Isamu Noguchi, Akari Rain Cloud, White Cube Bermondsey ©INFGM/ARS. Photo © White Cube (Ollie Hammick).
Work by Francesca Leone, Space 2 (detail), 2015. Photo by Massimiliano Ruta.
Portrait of Louise Nevelson – source louisenevelsonvenice.com
Work by Joseph Beuys, Ohne Titel (Untitled), ca. 1960. Photo by Ulrich Ghezzi.
