A Room of One's Own by Cecilia Alemani.
With the closing ceremony on November 27th now a few months behind us, it seems as great a time as any to revisit the already historic 59th Venice Biennale, the most important collective and international exhibition of contemporary art.
The New York-based Italian Cecilia Alemani was appointed curator of the exhibition in January 2020, and the Biennale was to take place in 2021, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its opening was postponed for a year. In the 127-year history of the Biennale, there have only been two other occasions that altered its usual running schedule: World War I and World War II.
Given these unique circumstances, the modus operandi for curating an exhibition of such magnitude was severely compromised. The direct, face-to-face dialogue between curator and artist, vital during the structuring process, could not take place. Alemani sorely missed visiting artists' studios, as she was
