The Venice Biennale is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of its kind. The main exhibition held in Castello, in the halls of the Arsenale and Biennale Gardens, alternates between art and architecture. The other events hosted by the Foundation—spanning theatre, music, and dance—are held annually in various parts of Venice, whereas the Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido.
Lewis "Duke" Baltz was an American visual artist, photographer, and educator. He was an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s. His best known work was monochrome photography of suburban landscapes and industrial parks which highlighted his commentary of void within the "American Dream".
The Grand Canal is a channel in Venice, Italy. It forms one of the major water-traffic corridors in the city.
Peter Schreier was a German tenor in opera, concert and lied, and a conductor. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century.
Juergen Teller is a German fine-art and fashion photographer. He was awarded the Citibank Prize for Photography in 2003 and received the Special Presentation International Center of Photography Infinity Award in 2018.
The bucentaur was the ceremonial barge of the doges of Venice. It was used every year on Ascension Day up to 1798 to take the doge out to the Adriatic Sea to perform the "Marriage of the Sea" – a ceremony that symbolically wedded Venice to the sea.
Joel Sternfeld is an American fine-art photographer. He is best known for his large-format color pictures of contemporary American life and identity. His work contributed to the establishment of color photography as a respected artistic medium. Furthering the tradition of roadside photography started by Walker Evans in the 1930s, Sternfeld documents people and places with unexpected excitement, despair, tenderness, and hope. Ever since the 1987 publication of his landmark “American Prospects,” Sternfeld’s work has interwoven the conceptual and political, while being steeped in history, landscape theory and his passion for the passage of the seasons. Sternfeld’s is a beautiful and sad portrait of America - ironic, lyrical, unfinished, seeing without judging.
Paul Graham is a British fine-art and documentary photographer. He has published three survey monographs, along with 17 other publications.
Ca' Pesaro is a Baroque marble palace turned art museum, facing the Grand Canal of Venice, Italy. Today it is one of the 11 museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia system.
Herbert Achternbusch was a German film director, writer and painter. He began as a writer of avant-garde prose, such as the novel Die Alexanderschlacht, before turning to low-budget films. He had a love-hate relationship with Bavaria which showed itself in his work. Some of his controversial films, such as Das Gespenst, were presented at the Berlinale festival.
Dayanita Singh is an Indian photographer whose primary format is the book. She has published fourteen books.
Gregor Schneider is a German artist. His projects have proven controversial and provoked intense discussions. In 2001, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for his infamous work Totes Haus u r exhibited at the German Pavilion.
Heribert Prantl is a German author, journalist and jurist. At the Süddeutsche Zeitung he was head of the department of domestic policy from 1995 to 2017, head of the department "opinion" from 2018 to 2019, member of the chief editors from 2011 to 2019 and is now columnist and author. Since 2002 he has been a lecturer at the faculty of law at Bielefeld University, where he was appointed honorary professor in 2010.
Artur Walther is a German-American art collector focused on exhibiting and publishing contemporary photography and video art. A graduate of Harvard Business School, Walther was a General Partner at Goldman Sachs until his retirement in 1994. He began collecting photography in the late 1990s and later established The Walther Collection, which is open to the public at its museum campus in Neu-Ulm, Germany and its Project Space in New York City.
Arte Laguna Prize is an international art and design competition which takes place in Venice (Italy) since 2006 and it is aimed at promoting and enhancing contemporary art. There are different contest sections: painting, sculpture and installation, photographic art, video art, performance, virtual art, digital graphics, land art, urban art and design. The competition is based in Venice, open to all, with free theme and no age restrictions. Its goal is to promote the artists and their careers through an array of opportunities.
Maurizio Pellegrin is an Italian and American visual artist. He works with installations, photography and video. He is married and has two sons.
Joachim Kaiser was a German musician, literature and theatre critic and senior editor in the feuilleton of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Starting 1977 to 1996 he held a seat as a professor of history of music at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart.
Ralph Hammerthaler is a German writer.
Wolfgang Scheppe is a German philosopher, author and curator who since 1996 has lived and taught in the US, Switzerland and Italy. His work as a theorist frequently includes the medium of exhibitions taking a form described as “theory installations”. Since 2009, he has directed the Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation in Venice, which emerged from the Università Iuav di Venezia and was founded with Lewis Baltz.
Giuseppe "Bepi" Santomaso was an Italian painter and educator. Santomaso was an important figure in 20th-century Italian painting, and he taught art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia for 20 years.
