The Venice Biennale is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy, by the Biennale Foundation. It focuses on contemporary art, and includes events for art, contemporary dance, architecture, cinema, and theatre. Two main components of the festival are known as the Art Biennale and the Architecture Biennale, which are held in alternating years. The others – Biennale Musica, Biennale Teatro, Venice Film Festival, and Venice Dance Biennale – are held annually. The main exhibition held in Castello alternates between art and architecture, and there are around 30 permanent pavilions built by different countries.
Hashim A. Sarkis is a Lebanese educator and architect. Since 2015, Sarkis has been Professor and Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also been the founding principal of Hashim Sarkis Studios since 1998.
Jun'ya Ishigami is a Japanese architect.
Countess Adelina von Fürstenberg-Herdringen is a Swiss curator specialized in contemporary art. Von Fürstenberg was one of the first curators to show an interest in non-European artists, thus opening the way for a multicultural approach in art. She also took a more global and flexible approach to contemporary art exhibitions, in bringing art into spaces such as monasteries, madrasas, large public buildings, squares, islands, and parks. Her objective is to give a larger context for visual art in making it a more vigorous part of our lives, in creating a more vivid dialogue for it with other arts, and relating it more to worldwide social issues.
Alejandro Gastón Aravena Mori is a Chilean architect and executive director of the firm Elemental S.A. He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2016, and was the director and curator of the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Paula Nascimento is an Angolan architect and curator who along with Stefano Rabolli Pansera curated the Angolan pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia which won the Golden Lion for "best national participation".
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".
Paolo De Grandis is an Italian contemporary art curator and president of PDG Arte Communications. He lives currently in Venice.
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.
Ar. Sarly Adre Sarkum is an architecture futurist, sustainability proponent and design activist. Currently he helms the hybrid architectural design firm SA or Sarly Adre Sarkum Architecture Sdn. Bhd. He is the Immediate Past President of the Malaysia Green Building Confederation which is Malaysia's Green Building Council under the auspices of the World Green Building Council. He is also currently an elected council member of Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia. He was one of the five directors of the GBI Green Rating Tool and served as GBI Accreditation Panel as well.
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 47th Venice Biennale, held in 1997, was an exhibition of international contemporary art, with 59 participating nations. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Prizewinners of the 47th Biennale included: Agnes Martin and Emilio Vedova, the French pavilion, Marina Abramović and Gerhard Richter, and Douglas Gordon, Pipilotti Rist, and Rachel Whiteread.
The 49th Venice Biennale, held in 2001, was an exhibition of international contemporary art, with 65 participating nations. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Prizewinners of the 49th Biennale included: Richard Serra and Cy Twombly, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Marisa Merz, Pierre Huyghe, and Germany.
The 45th Venice Biennale, held from June 13 to October 13, 1993, was an exhibition of international contemporary art, with 45 participating nations. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Prizewinners of the 45th Biennale included: ex aequo Richard Hamilton and Antoni Tàpies, Robert Willson, the German pavilion with Hans Haacke and Nam June Paik, and Matthew Barney.
Flores & Prats is an architectural practice based in Barcelona, Spain, founded by Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores in 1998.
The Australian pavilion is a structure that houses Australia's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts and architecture festivals. Although Australia has been represented at the arts festival since 1954, the first pavilion was only built in 1987, and replaced by a permanent structure in 2015.
The Japanese pavilion houses Japan's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
The 59th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between April and November 2022, having been delayed a year due to the COVID pandemic. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Cecilia Alemani curated its central exhibition.
The 17th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, is an upcoming international architecture exhibition. The Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition will take place in 2021 instead of 2020.
Malkit Shoshan is a designer, author, lecturer and founder of FAST, an architectural think tank that addresses "the relationships between architecture, urban planning, and human rights."
