La Biennale di Venezia

59th International Art Exhibition

The Milk of Dreams

Catalogue

The 59th International Art Exhibition is titled The Milk of Dreams. Named after a book by
Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington (1917–2011), the Exhibition takes the artist’s fanciful creatures
and many other figures of transformation as companions on an imaginary journey through
metamorphoses of the body and of humanity.

Volume I of the Catalogue is dedicated to the International Exhibition, curated by Cecilia

Alemani. This volume includes the Curator’s original contribution as well as a wide range of
illustrations and critical essays by some of today’s most cutting-edge thinkers and writers. Each
artist is introduced by a critical text as well as an iconographic apparatus. The five historical
presentations are contextualised by in-depth art historical and cultural essays by distinguished
international writers including Matthew Biro, Jennifer Higgie, Alyce Mahon, Azalea Seratoni, and
Christina Sharpe. Matthew Biro looks back at a group of female artists of the historical avant-garde
through the lens of the cyborg, while Jennifer Higgie analyses the relationship between the body,
textual production, and language. Meditating upon the iconology of the vessel, Christina Sharpe
asks how a “container” might be understood in our current times of escalating climatic, economic,
social, and migratory catastrophe.

This volume also includes a wide array of original writing, conversations, and reprinted texts that
capture many of the concerns set forth by the Exhibition while expanding to broader and equally
timely preoccupations. Rosi Braidotti introduces the posthuman feminist turn, Silvia Federici and
Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui engage in a conversation to discuss ideas of re-enchantment, and Marina
Warner presents seven stories of metamorphic shapeshifting and commentary inspired by the
pandemic. Writing about the “other” to the human, Mel Y. Chen, Jack Halberstam and Igiaba
Scego reflect upon forms of non-anthropocentric thinking in multispecies relations; Yuk Hui and
Achille Mbembe invite us to rethink our relationship with technologies and the Earth; and Chiara
Valerio sets out a personal glossary of terms inspired by the pandemic.

The artists participating in the Exhibition are each introduced by texts authored by Isabella
Achenbach, Liv Cuniberti, Manuela Hansen, Melanie Kress, Stefano Mudu, Ian Wallace, and
Madeline Weisburg. Each artist is illustrated with colour plates.

Contributors: Cecilia Alemani; Matthew Biro; Rosi Braidotti; Leonora Carrington; Mel Y. Chen;
Silvia Federici, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui and Manuela Hansen; Jack Halberstam; Donna Haraway;
N. Katherine Hayles; Jennifer Higgie; Yuk Hui and Anders Dunker; Ursula K. Le Guin; Alyce
Mahon; Achille Mbembe; Marta Papini; Igiaba Scego; Azalea Seratoni; Christina Sharpe; Chiara
Valerio; Marina Warner.

Volume II of the Catalogue presents the Participating Countries and the Collateral Events of the
59th International Art Exhibition. It includes lavishly illustrated texts exploring the various
projects that will be on display in Venice from 23 April to 27 November 2022.
The graphic identity of the Biennale Arte 2022 and the publications’ design are by A Practice for
Everyday Life, London. The graphic identity explores ideas of fluidity, identity, the human and
the non-human, re-enchantment, and fragmentation. The graphic identity positions artists’ works
at its forefront, featuring details from artworks by Belkis Ayón, Felipe Baeza, Tatsuo Ikeda, and
Cecilia Vicuña. These disparate artworks are united in their representation of eyes, which are
symbolic of important ideas running through the Exhibition: dreams, identity, the body, and
reflection. The eyes, applied in various ways throughout the graphic identity, look back at the
public, bringing to life inanimate walls, bridges, and boats. The typographic design of the title is
also metamorphic: classical lettering is transformed into something more hybrid, organic, and
dimensional.

The publications by La Biennale di Venezia can be purchased in the Exhibition bookshops and in
the main Italian and international bookstores.

The publications are available online at the official store.labiennale.org.

THE IMAGES of the Catalogue and of the Short Guide for the Biennale Arte 2022 may be
downloaded at:
http://ftp.labiennale.org | Account: biennalearte2022 | Password: biennalearte2022