Guided tour to the Biennale: "The Disquieted Muses"

Peggy Guggenheim seated in front of the Greek Pavilion at the 24th Venice Biennale, where she exhibited her collection; 1948. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Photo Archivio CameraphotoEpoche. Gift, Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia, 2005.

The Disquieted Muses. When La Biennale di Venezia Meets History

Led by one of the Biennale educators, guided tour of the exhibition curated by all the artistic directors of the six departments of La Biennale. Working together, Cecilia Alemani (Art), Alberto Barbera (Cinema), Marie Chouinard (Dance), Ivan Fedele (Music), Antonio Latella (Theatre), and Hashim Sarkis (Architecture) have used the one-of-a-kind sources of the Historical Archive of La Biennale and other Italian and international archives to retrace key moments during the 20th century when the Biennale crossed paths with history in Venice. The directors have selected rare footage, first-hand accounts, and a range of artworks, following various lines of research to examine the many times when the history of La Biennale has overlapped with the history of the world—revealing or generating institutional rifts and political and ethical crises, but also new creative languages.

The exhibition is laid out in the rooms of the Central Pavilion and weaves its way through all six disciplines: from Fascism (1928–1945) to the Cold War and new world order (1948–1964), to the unrest of ’68 and the Biennales chaired by Carlo Ripa di Meana (1974–78), then from the postmodernism to the first Architecture Biennale and until the 1990s, and the beginning of globalization.