Two years after its last edition, the
59th edition of the Venice International Art Biennale is back and will be held between
April 23 and November 27, 2022. This year's theme, "
Il latte dei sogni " ("
The Milk of Dreams ", in Portuguese translation), was based on the title of
Leonara Carrington 's book, in which the surrealist artist describes a magical world in which life is
constantly reinvented through the prism of imagination and in which it is allowed to change, to transform.
Curated by
Cecilia Alemani , the exhibition will feature 1,433 works by 213 artists from
58 different countries. The main emblem will be to question
the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses, the relationship between individuals and technologies, and the connection between bodies and the Earth. Brazil at the Venice Biennale 2022
The artist from Alagoas
Jonathas de Andrade , one of the most influential of his generation, brings a new installation to the 2022 Venice Biennale. Entitled "
With the heart coming out of the mouth ", the exhibition is inspired by
popular expressions in
Brazil that use parts of the human body to create metaphors such as “lump in the throat”, “cheek”, “eye of the hurricane”, “from the guts of the heart”, “with crossed arms”, “pushing with the belly”, among others .
“In his works, Jonathas seeks the idea of an
authentically popular culture , in every possible sense and with the intrinsic complexity of this term. He takes the body as a
guiding axis to address themes such as the world of work and the worker, together with the identity of the individual in contemporary times, through
metaphors that oscillate between nostalgia, eroticism and politics and historical criticism”, says
Jacopo Crivelli Visconti , curator of Brazil’s national representation at the Biennial.
The installation is composed of photographic prints, sculptures (some of them interactive) and a video, and has among its references the science fairs that Jonathas knew as a child, in particular the experience of visiting the Eva doll – a gigantic doll measuring 45 meters in length. fiber and foam that traveled the country in the 1980s. Five other Brazilian artists were also selected to participate in the
59th edition of the Venice Art Biennale : indigenous artist Jaider Esbell, Lenora de Barros, Luiz Roque, Rosana Paulino and Solange Pessoa. The participation of Brazilians in the Italian exhibition is the
largest in many years.
