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Begin the Biennale 2019! (Art, this year)

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The opening of the sempre highly-anticipated bi-annual international contemporary art exhibition in Venice is less than a month away. The 58th edition will be curated by the current director of the Hayward Gallery in London, Ralph Rugoff. This year’s edition is entitled May You Live in Interesting Times, and no matter how you interpret this interesting phrase that, according to the Biennale web site, is “of English invention that has long been mistakenly cited as an ancient Chinese curse that invokes periods of uncertainty, crisis and turmoil”, certainly seems appropriate.

90 national participations (Ghana, Madagascar, Malaysia and Pakistan are here for the first time) are housed in original pavilions in the Giardini, with later nation additions ensconced along the corridors of the Arsenale and spilling out into a number of often spectacular venues throughout the city. These 90 national participations are accompanied by an additional 21 collateral exhibitions and a variety of independent exhibitions, here to take advantage of the arty ambience.

In short: from May 11 to November 24 you will have all the contemporary art you can physically, mentally, emotionally and otherwise absorb as you visit Venice. Magnifico!

BIENNALE ARTE 2019
58TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION
VENICE, 11.05 – 24.11
Open: 10-18, Tue-Sun, closed Mon.
TIckets:
€25 Regular are valid for one admission to each exhibition venue, Giardini & Arsenale.
€35 Plus (the best deal by far) entitles the holder to multiple visits for 3 consecutive days to each exhibition venue (Giardini and Arsenale; closing days excluded).
€85 Accreditation grants unrestricted admission to each exhibition venue.

There is no charge for any of the exhibitions in venues outside the Giardini and Arsenale. There are also discount tickets for students, over 65, and others, for complete information see the Biennale web site.

One last note: There are excellent maps provided with your ticket purchase and also by VENEWS, found at any new kiosk around town. They make it easy not to miss a nearby exhibition as you wander the city.

#BiennaleArte2019
#MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes

Biennale Bites – Preview Day 1

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A glorious day; even if it did threaten to be a bit drippy, it never quite followed though. Between the ground that must be covered to get your press pass, the many square kilometers of the Giardini, the expansive Arsenale, and seemingly endless number of exhibitions that take place there, composed of and constructed from every conceivable form of medium imaginable — a day is barely enough to get started. I love the corderie (where all the ropes for Venetian vessels were once hewn and wound), a soaring space, which as you walk it presents you with once concept after another: some massive, some grouped, some walk through, some painted, some constructed, some inscrutable, some in your face. “It’s a photograph,” comments one onlooker. “I did one of these at university. Everything old is new again.” Contrast the ancient Corderie with a bright, blooming Giardini, dotted with pavilions large and small, each devoted to a single country, each proudly hosting this year’s representative exhibition.

But expression will not be confined, and neither will the Biennale. It’s as if exhibitions have rained down over the city, searching for a suitable space — and if there was one, it now hosts some irrepressible form of contemporary expression: palaces like the Prada-restored Corner, the Scuola della Misericordia, the Palazzo Grassi, the Fortuny; others like the Punto della Dogana, and more, and more. Sure, some are renovated for hotels, some hold regular concerts for tourists. But it seems the Biennale knew that these spaces were also ideal for something a bit more — vibrant — and has managed to bring the point home.

Whether the works are new or revived, comprehensible or less so, it’s a joyous thing for lots of reasons, this Biennale, not the least of which is being a catalyst in bringing old structures back to life and filling them with enough contemporary expression and vitality to the degree that every journalist who had the mean, the commission and who could spell the word “art” is here to see just what emerging artists from almost every country in the world have to say.

The former queen of Cyprus would be quite proud, I’d imagine. Do you think she’s keeping an eye out?

 

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