Re-narrating the Biennale: Curatorial Strategies and the Politics of Spectatorship in Cecilia Alemani’s "The Milk of Dreams" (Venice Biennale 2022)

This thesis explores the politics of spectatorship in contemporary visual culture by analysing Cecilia Alemani’s The Milk of Dreams, the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale (2022), as a large-scale exhibitionary apparatus. Drawing on Tony Bennett’s conception of exhibitions as sites of governance and self-regulation, and on Claire Bishop’s critique of the social turn in art, the Biennale is viewed as a space where curatorial decisions organise visibility and modes of spectatorship. Laura Mulvey’s framework of structured looking, alongside debates in feminist and visual culture studies, supports the discussion of how Alemani’s edition navigates historically developed regimes of the gaze and suggests an alternative regime of spectatorship. In dialogue with Nicholas Mirzoeff’s analysis of visuality and counter-visibility, and with Jacques Rancière’s concept of the emancipated spectator, the thesis investigates how curatorial strategies shape the conditions of seeing and their interconnection with power, narrative, and institutional history. Alemani’s Biennale has been widely described as a significant shift in the Venice Biennale's narrative. By emphasising time-capsules and including overlooked women and non-Western artists, it encourages viewers to rethink the institution's canons. Approaching The Milk of Dreams as both a continuation and a re-narration of the Biennale’s exhibitionary complex, this thesis argues that Cecilia Alemani’s curatorial strategies help reshape the traditional hierarchies of visibility and redefine the connections between representation, spectatorship, and institutional power within one of the central events in the global art scene.