Cecilia Alemani to Curate Italian Pavilion at 2017 Venice Biennale

She's previously noted that Italy "isn't very welcoming" to curators.

Cecilia Alemani. Photo courtesy of Patrick McMullan.

Curator Cecilia Alemani is making the ultimate homecoming next year. She will curate the Italian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale, which runs from May 13–November 26, 2017.

She is the first woman since 2009 to curate the Italian Pavilion, ArtNews, which broke the story in English, notes from Artribune‘s original reporting. Alemani, who currently serves as the chief curator of New York City’s High Line Art public art initiative, has previously had a hand in curating Frieze Projects, served as curatorial director for temporary nonprofit space X Initiative, and organized No Soul for Sale—A Festival of Independents at the Tate Modern in London.

Alemani’s husband, Massimiliano Gioni, the current artistic director at the New Museum, was the Venice Biennale’s artistic director for its 55th edition in 2013—a position that Christine Marcel will fill for the upcoming iteration.

Who Alemani will bring to the table is still anybody’s guess. In her time as curator for the High Line, Alemani has worked with a number of notable artists, including Olafur Eliasson, who in 2015 staged a Lego installation for visitors to build the ideal city; and Elmgreen & Dragaset, who installed an unusable bronze telescope that perplexed visitors.

When asked about her success abroad during a 2015 interview with Phaidon, Alemani was resigned, but optimistic, saying that the “contemporary art landscape in Italy isn’t very welcoming for a new generation of curators… Maybe in 10 years it will get better!”


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