THE MILK OF DREAMS

VENICE, 23.04 – 27.11 2022

We are pleased to have three of our artists represented in the 59th International Art Exhibition: Roger Ballen, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra & Jaider Esbell will be shown in La Biennale Arte in Venice, from April 23rd to November 27th, 2022 (pre-opening on 20, 21 and 22 April), curated by Cecilia Alemani.

“As the first Italian woman to hold this position, I intend to give voice to artists to create unique projects that reflect their visions and our society”, Alemani has declared.

“The Milk of Dreams takes its title from a book by Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) – Cecilia Alemani stated – in which the Surrealist artist describes a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination. It is a world where everyone can change, be transformed, become something or someone else. The Exhibition The Milk of Dreams takes Leonora Carrington’s otherworldly creatures, along with other figures of transformation, as companions on an imaginary journey through the metamorphoses of bodies and definitions of the human.

Roger Ballen is one of the featured artists that is currently representing South Africa at the Venice Biennale Arte 2022. The South African stand was conceptualised around the sub-theme of “Into the Light.” Thus, instead of showing photographic prints from his series, “The Theatre of Apparitions”, he will alternatively showcase these carefully selected works on lightboxes to accentuate the metaphoric relationship between light and dark.

Chilean artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra has been invited to participate too in this edition of the famous Venice Biennale, currently on show. Her particular intimate imagery, in which controversial issues such as religion, sex, mythology or the afterlife predominate, becomes the perfect setting for this 59th edition of the festival.

The artist, recognized for her ability to evoke foreign worlds with the mere stroke of charcoal on paper, later dipped in wax, invites the viewer to enter her universe of fantastic and enchanted creatures and carnal and psychological concerns.

We remember the recent loss of the artist Jaider Esbell while continuing his fight for the recognition and appreciation of indigenous peoples, their knowledge, technologies, and arts. Esbell‘s participation will include the presentation of a set of paintings that will carry to La Biennale di Venezia the presence of his great grandfather Makunaimî, ancestor of the Makuxi people and of the native peoples of the Monte Roraima region.