The Venice Art Biennale 2022 touches a record never achieved, the first curated by an Italian woman, Cecilia Alemani, with a theme, 'The milk of dreams', which was inspired by Leonora Carrington's book of fairy tales.
The 59th International Art Exhibition, which closes on Sunday 27 November, exceeded 800,000 tickets sold, in addition to the 22,498 presences during the pre-opening - with a 35% increase in visitors in 197 days of opening, compared to 173 in the 2019 edition (pre-Covid).
Even considering the longer duration of the Exhibition, especially in view of the travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic, this is the highest public turnout in the 127-year history of the Venice Biennale.
The presence of young people and students was extraordinary, numbering 239,276,
equal to 30% of total visitors.
"The 800,000 people who came to visit The Milk of Dreams demonstrate that art has the power to create participation and that, after so many months of isolation, we want to celebrate and see art in person, in a joyful and community experience shared with so many friends, families, colleagues and art lovers. In times like these, as the history of the Venice Biennale clearly demonstrates, art and artists can help us imagine new ways of coexisting and infinite possibilities for transformation." commented Alemani.
59% of the audience came from abroad and 41% from Italy.
The artists invited to the exhibition were 213 from 58 countries, with 180 first participations in the Biennale and more than 1500 works of art
art exhibited.
Ten thousand accredited journalists.
Satisfied the president of the Biennale, Roberto Cicutto who underlines in particular the fact that "in this edition of great public success - despite the low presence of visitors from Asia - and of very high attention from the Italian and international press, La The Biennale strongly wanted to guarantee the presence of Ukrainian artists, supporting the creation of the Ukraine Pavilion and making available a free space in the Gardens - 'Piazza Ukraine' - for the presentation of works in any format (digitally transmitted), coming from artists who remained in the their country and often directly involved in resisting Russian aggression".
And he adds: "
I want to recall the great determination and ability of the curator in having created such an important and rich exhibition despite the limitations imposed by the two worst years of the pandemic". Organized in the years of the Covid emergency, the exhibition, as Alemani explains, was in fact " a great adventure, not without obstacles and complications.
I conceived this exhibition remotely, with hundreds of studio visits made on zoom with artists from all over the world.
Very few artists were able to come and see the exhibition spaces.
No one knew if the works would arrive in Venice in time.
While things appear to be back to some sort of normal now, we all know it has been an amazing time and it has taken more than two years to get to this point.
Gold for lifetime achievement was awarded on a proposal from Alemani to the German artist Katharina Fritsch and the Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña.
And for the first time, "Biennale College Arte 2021/22" was organized with young and emerging artists under 30.
Gold for lifetime achievement was awarded on a proposal from Alemani to the German artist Katharina Fritsch and the Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña.
And for the first time, "Biennale College Arte 2021/22" was organized with young and emerging artists under 30.
