The most current technologies and immersive experiences are left on the sidelines, and the cyborg aesthetic becomes another way to talk about the body, however pushing it towards stereotypical boundaries, an imaginary of technological puppets such as the organic installation of Mire Lee Endless House: Holes and Drips (2022) which reminds viewers of the intensities of our bodies and the vulnerabilities of our flesh. Finally, the body is also political, and it speaks of the long wave of colonialism, of racial prejudices and of a present constantly on the verge of cracking, evoked by the works of Noah Davis and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra.

Endless House: Holes and Drips 2022, Mire Lee, Photo: Roberto Marossi

Between methodologies and tools typical of gender criticism, black studies and radical ecology, the entire exhibition, however well constructed, remains in my opinion very on the surface, becoming almost a sanctuary of theory, without delving enough into the thematics of which it is built.

French Pavilion, Les rêves n’ont pas de titre / Dreams have no titles, Zineb Sedira, Photo: Marco Cappelletti

This years, many interesting artists were presented in the national pavilions, but some have particularly stuck our attention for the contents and the curatorial choices. Francis Alÿs for the Belgian Pavilion, with the series of videos dedicated to children’s play and to their appropriation of public space. The French Pavilion with Zineb Sedira, which reproduces a film studio, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, between personal memory and collective memory. The Japan Pavilion, with Dumb Type, which reflects on the contemporary era as a period of post-truth and liminal spaces. The vibrant and touching exhibition in the Italian Pavilion of Gian Maria Tosatti, who traces the rise and decline of the Italian industrial miracle. And finally the winning Pavilion, Great Britain with Sonia Boyce, in her space made up of geometric structures and moving images immersed in the sound of black British vocalists.

The 59th Venice Biennale (La Biennale di Venezia)

Date: April 23rd – November 27th, 2022
Place: Venice

https://www.labiennale.org