This famous art exposition overflowing along the canals of the most beautiful city of Venice, is often called "the Olympics of the art world." Countries have built permanent pavilions since 1907 which give a retro world's fair vibe, but the art installations are the cutting-edge of international contemporary art.
In two days we saw a fraction of the works in the two main areas. The Giardini has been the main venue since 1895 and holds many of the national pavilions; and the Arsenale, the Armoury, has 50,000 square metres of exhibition space, half of it indoors. In addition there are sculptures and installations and fascinating surprises scattered all over the city, most of it free for the looking.
Instead of making this too much like work trying to see everything, we basically wandered and enjoyed. Our timing couldn't have been better, no line-ups, except at the prize-winning German pavilion which had a two hour wait (we gave it a pass, and read about it later in the guidebook). It helps that the Biennale is held for 6 months so crowds are spread out over time.
It was easy to get tickets to the main venues when we arrived, and very accessible for regular tourists like us. I'm sure there's lots of exclusive events and fancy cocktail parties for the international art elite, but we felt right at home exploring the grounds with families, students and art-lovers of all ages from around the world.
Phyllida Barlow's installation called "Folly" at the British Pavillion was "a theatre of ruins and flamboyant buffoonery" with lots of big, lumpy potato shapes spilling out of the building. The viewer becomes "an explorer in a sculptural labyrinth."
So this art is not about pretty pictures. It's more an open-ended language to express ideas. As the President of the Biennale notes "as people are increasingly familiar with contemporary art there is a growing desire to discover first-hand the vitality of art, compared to the world's daily onslaught of images whose goal is to induce certain behavior" (meaning I think, consumerism).
No gift shops, no shopping, no-one trying to part you from your euros. A refreshing change and a different kind of tourism.
Anyone with an interest in contemporary art would love the Venice Biennale, either a digital version or the luxury of the real thing if a trip to Italy is in your future.
The Canadian Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale in another post. That's pronounced Bee-en-allay!
