Repost from @followriversinstitute • There are cities, which by necessity, have learned to distinguish between higher and lower ground. We have names for the ridges and the slivers that don’t take on water as easily. Like floating spines, they help support our illusion of stability, of hard ground. Of our control over nature and the rising seas. The Dorsoduro, one of the six sestieri of Venice, has performed this function for centuries. Perhaps it’s why we have built our contemporary monuments to art on this ground. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection and more recently, the Pinault Foundation (at the Punta Della Dogana), rest on this relatively higher land. In 2017 the artist Cecilia Vicuña spent time in New Orleans, collecting sticks on the low-land of the Mississippi River batture for her making of an anti-monument. The batture is alluvial ground between the low-tide of the Mississippi and the man-made levee, rising up to defend against the river. The word “batture” comes from the French word “to beat.” This is land “beaten” by the river. This week in Venice, Cecilia Vicuña will be honored with the Golden Lion, the award for lifetime achievement on the occasion of the 59th International Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani, which celebrates “a new communion with the non-human, with the animal world, and with the Earth.” Across the city, the Biennale’s posters for the ‘Milk of Dreams’ figure Cecilia’s painting of her mother. Her eyes float just above the height of the canals, as though peering above the water’s surface only long enough to see what all the fuss is about. It is about Cecilia Vicuña and all of the artists participating in ‘The Milk of Dreams’ in a city where the water rises up to wake us from our sleep-walk through environmental & social crises of our own-making. Rivers honors you. IMAGE: Reposted from @ceciliavicuna, reposted from @labiennale @ceciliavicuna @labiennale @ceciliaalemani #milkofdreams #ceciliavicuna #labiennale2022 #followriversinstitute #ceciliaalemani