The Milk of Dreams by Cecilia Alemani chooses Leonora Carrington’s fantastic creatures, along with many other figures of transformation, as companions in an imaginary journey through metamorphoses of the body and definitions of humanity.
“The exhibition The Milk of Dreams takes its title from a fairy tales book by Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) – explains Cecilia Alemani, curator of the 59. International Art Exhibition – in which the surrealist artist describes a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of imagination and where everyone can change, be transformed, become something or someone different than himself». The Milk of Dreams by Cecilia Alemani chooses Carrington’s fantastic creatures, along with many other figures of transformation, as companions in an imaginary journey through metamorphoses of the body and definitions of humanity.
A ‘monster’ exhibition – 213 artists – inclusive and politically correct, perhaps even too much, which frees the works and perhaps even the artists from any labels or genres (neo-feminism, neo-dandyism, neo …), what remains is a story in real time of our present. A journey starting from a series of questions that artists try to answer: How is the definition of human changing? What are the differences which set apart a vegetable from an animal, a human and non-human? What are our responsibilities to our fellow human beings, to other forms of life and to the planet we live in? And what would life be like without us?
Our journey in The Milk of Dreams starts from the artists themselves by offering a key to understanding their works linked to their experiences, their inspirations and to their creating roots, in order to make the message of the works on display at the Central Pavilion and at the Corderie more evident.
Interview with Cecilia Alemani, curator of The Milk of Dreams - Venice Art Biennale 2022