The Re-enchanting the World project by the Polish-Roma artist for the Polish Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition is an attempt to expand the Polish and European iconosphere and art history with representations of Roma culture. Adhering to the title of this year’s edition of the Biennale Arte (The Milk of Dreams), the artist will create a magical world, constantly subjected to re-enchantment, proposing a kind of temporary and adventurous asylum to give viewers hope and respite. The exhibition is curated by Wojciech Szymański and Joanna Warsza.

The artist draws from images of key importance for European art history and visual culture, ‘appropriating’ them and inscribing in them a Polish-Roma identity and vernacular historical experience. The project for the Polish Pavilion is based on the ideas of transnationality, cyclicity, and changing oft-appropriated meanings, proposing a new narrative to describe the unending cultural migration of images and mutual influences between Roma, Polish and European cultures.

The title is inspired by Silvia Federici’s book, Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons (2018), which proposes re-enchanting as a way of recovering the idea of community and rebuilding relationships with others, including non-human actors: animals, plants, water or mountains. As such, re-enchanting – a non-violent process in which women play an important role – reverses the unfortunate fate of the world, shaking off its evil spell and charm. Małgorzata Mirga-Tas will design and make a series of twelve large-format textiles to cover the walls of the Polish Pavilion in Venice. The layout, form and motifs of the fabrics draw from the famous ‘calendar’ fresco cycle of the Renaissance Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara.

More about the exhibition.

59th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia
23 April – 27 November 2022
curator and artistic director: Cecilia Alemani
title: Milk of Dreams
more about the Biennale Arte 2022