The restless Muses, the Biennale between art and history

VENICE - Arts and History. In its 125 years of existence, since the first art exhibition in 1895, La Biennale di Venezia has not been able to escape from this combination. A comparison, following the path of the exhibition "The restless Muses. The Biennale in front of history", at the central Pavilion of the Giardini, until 8 December, which becomes tight, as today, in that "very short century" that goes from the 1920s, when the hand and the will of fascism stretched over the institution, to the great moments of the post-war rebirth, with the memorable art exhibition of '48 (Picasso for the first time or the "discovery" of 'American art thanks to Peggy Guggenheim), to the protests of '68, the breakout of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin Wall, up to the 90s with the dawn of globalization and the change of statute and the passage of the institution to the Foundation. Driven by one of those great events that change history, the Covid19 pandemic - as it happened before with the wars, social conflicts, generational clashes and the profound transformations of the 20th century that "pressed against the borders of the Venetian institution "in the words of Cecilia Alemani, coordinator of the project and director of the art exhibition postponed to 2022 - the Biennale wanted to deal with its events in relation to society, politics, the great events of the world. The directors of the six "muses" - Art, Architecture, Cinema, Theater, Music and Dance - have unearthed documents in the vast material kept at the Asac, the historical archive of the Biennale - soon transferred and expanded in the spaces and in the - accesses - letters, newspaper clippings, paintings, recordings, videos which, together with very rare films made available by the Istituto Luce, gave life to the exhibition, divided into 12 rooms. An exhibition of the Biennials, of the work to create them, of the people who guided them, of the censorship of totalitarianism and freedoms, of her knowing how to have been, in the postwar period, according to the curator, "beacon of hope in the civil rebirth of 'Italy and many other nations ". More than a thousand documents give life to "a very dense exhibition", explains Cecilia Alemani, which traces step by step, under "key" titles, "the moments of crisis, of transformations, of revolutions, of the introduction of new artistic languages ​​that, in one discipline or another, they have marked the history of the Biennale ". To accompany the visitor, along the path set up by Formafantasma, a useful publication that makes up for the almost absence of captions near the material on display in order to avoid "aggregation of people" around a bulletin board or a table. Each element, each collection of acts around a single event, a "censorship" or a "scandal", even in the media, is a reason to open a glimpse into the confrontation-clash between arts and history, to understand that proceeding by tears and connections : from the Cinema exhibition which from '38 became an instrument of fascist propaganda, to the cause of De Chirico against the Biennale, to the painting shot by Gastone Novelli and the clashes in the square of '68, to the protest for the coup in Chile in '74 or the '77 Biennial of Dissent by Carlo Ripa di Meana; or, on different fronts, the scandal for the 1895 painting by Giacomo Grosso awarded and censored by the church or the 'risqué' works by Jeff Koons with Ilona Staller. Among the curiosities, but a dramatic sign of the times, the visit to Hitler's art exhibition in '34, with his rejection of a work by Seibezzi that is offered to him because it does not seem to represent Venice well, and the sudden change with another painting depicting boats. The restlessness that crosses the arts in the face of history, "the restless muses" of the title, transpires from everything. because, as the president of the Biennale Roberto Cicutto says, "anxiety is the engine of research that needs comparison to verify hypotheses and needs history to absorb knowledge".