The Archives of La Biennale di Venezia as the Seventh Muse: Revisiting (Art) History

Cristina Baldacci (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia) invites Cecilia Alemani (Director and Chief Curator of High Line Art, New York, and Artistic Director of the 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia) to converse about The Disquieted Muses: When La Biennale di Venezia Meets History. This collectively curated exhibition was organized in Autumn 2020 (29 August–08 December) to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the Venice Biennale (1895). As a major event based on the archival material provided by the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts (ASAC), the exhibition looked at the history of La Biennale di Venezia focusing on the points of crisis that have been transforming its political views together with its curatorial visions. Alemani and Baldacci highlight the strong relationship of the Venice Biennale with an interdisciplinary spectrum of arts, as well as with the city of Venice and its residents. They further address The Disquieted Muses’ goal to revisit and reenact in the present both the history of the institution and its past exhibition formats as a specific curatorial practice.