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 every second year 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.
The 56th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2015. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Okwui Enwezor curated its central exhibition, "All The World's Futures".
The 57th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2017. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Christine Macel, the chief curator at the Centre Pompidou, curated its central exhibition, "Viva Arte Viva", as a series of interconnected pavilions designed to reflect art's capacity for expanding humanism. The curator also organized a project, "Unpacking My Library", based on a Walter Benjamin essay, to list artists' favorite books. Macel was the first French director since 1995 and the fourth woman to direct the Biennale. A trend of presenting overlooked, rediscovered, or "emerging dead artists" was a theme of the 57th Biennale.
The 55th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held in 2013. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Massimiliano Gioni curated its central exhibition, "The Encyclopedic Palace".
The Angolan pavilion, representing the nation of Angola, has participated in the Venice Biennale since 2013. As one of the biennial international art exhibition's national pavilions, Angola mounts a show in a Venetian palazzo outside Venice's Giardini. The first Angolan pavilion, which featured the photography of Edson Chagas, became the first African national pavilion to receive the biennial's top prize, the Golden Lion for best national pavilion. Chagas displayed poster-sized photographs of resituated, abandoned objects and weathered architecture in the Angolan capital of Luanda. Reviewers praised the interplay between the photographed subject matter and the Italian Renaissance artwork that adorned the hosting palazzo's walls. The 2015 Biennale hosted a group show of five Angolan artists on themes of intergenerational dialogue.
The 58th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2019. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Ralph Rugoff curated its central exhibition, May You Live in Interesting Times, and 90 countries contributed national pavilions.
The German pavilion houses Germany's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
The Polish pavilion houses Poland's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
The Finnish pavilion houses Finland's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
The Danish pavilion houses Denmark's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals. The building was designed by Carl Brummer and constructed between 1930 and 1932, and restored and expanded by Peter Koch in the 1950s.
The 59th Venice Biennale is an international contemporary art exhibition to be held between April and November 2022. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Cecilia Alemani will curate its central exhibition.
Cecilia Alemani is an Italian curator based in New York City. She is the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art and the Artistic Director of the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. She previously curated the 2017 Biennale's Italian pavilion and served as Artistic Director of the inaugural edition of the 2018 Art Basel Cities in Buenos Aires, held in 2018.
Zadie Xa is a Korean-Canadian visual artist who combines sculpture, painting, light, sound, and performance to create immersive multi-media experiences. Drawing inspiration from fields such as ecology, science fiction, and ancient religions, her work explores how beings imagine and inhabit their worlds. Her work is centered on otherness and is informed by personal experience within the Korean diaspora, as well as by environmental and cultural contexts of the Pacific Northwest.
Michael E. Smith is an American artist whose minimal sculptures often juxtapose appropriated, discarded everyday items found in urban decay and on eBay. His works have been shown in MoMA PS1, SculptureCenter, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum and the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Estonian pavilion houses Estonia's national representation during Venice Biennale arts festivals.
Andra Ursuța is a Romanian-American sculptor who has lived and worked in New York since 2000. Ursuța is known for her nihilistic portrayal of the human condition, confronting issues such as patriotism, violence against women, and the “expulsion of ethnic groups.” Ursuța's work is held in public collections worldwide.
The Sámi pavilion is an art exhibition in the Nordic pavilion of the 2022 Venice Biennale.
Dreams Have No Titles is an art exhibition by Zineb Sedira shown in the French pavilion of the 2022 Venice Biennale.
