WTI Magazine #5 2013 Nov, 15
Author : Enrico De Iulis Translation by: Alessandra Bitetti
The 55th International Venice Biennial Art Exhibition, entitled "The Encyclopedic Palace", will close in two weeks. Differently from the Venice Biennial Film Festival, which despite its name is held every year, the Venice Art Biennial has a strong attractive that always exceeds the more optimistic expectations. It's a moment of pure immersion in the global art world and one comes out from this moment with a lot of incentives, not always pleasant, visions, experiences and interpretations.
Since this is a prize, there is a competition where winners receive the famous "Golden Lion", assigned by a jury of international experts. The most important prizes are those to the winning nation and to the individual artist, hosted with the other participants in the Biennial pavillion (ex Italian pavillion) where the heart of the event is on exhibition. Beyond winners and losers, the debatable choices of the judges and those of the individual users of the event, the Biennial has the beauty power of the artistic fact that overtakes the languages of the world, and has the capacity to communicate directly with a clear language that everybody can interpret.
The event takes place in two large areas designated to host the event: the first one is the Biennial gardens - which were conceived as a large urban park – with the beautiful permanent pavillions belonging to the first participant nations are integrated into the gorgeous wooded panorama that surrounds them. The second one is the Arsenal, a wonderful place where the ships of the Venetian fleet were built, turning Venice in a powerful Republic, over the centuries, the ruler of the Mediterranean with its trade and its conquest wars. Those are long pavilions dating back to the sixteenth century, placed one after the other with evocative and poetic names such as "Le tese delle vergini", where the sails of the ships were created, "Le corderie" where hawsers and stays were plaited, "Le nappe" where damaged boats were stored waiting to be repaired. All those pavilions are around the dock that was and still is the dry dock. The preindustrial archaeology hosts here the art of the future. A winning union, even only for the scenic design and the magic of the place.
Besides the national pavillions there are also all the representatives of the countries that have not a place in the gardens, and they are hosted in the several historical or artistic spaces of the city, actively participating to the competition (the winner of this year, Angola, is hosted in Palazzo Cini, in Dorsoduro).
Finally there are the numerous Biennial side events, which are extremely interesting and involve museums, historic houses of the Venetian noble families and the fields and exterior areas of the city, reinterpreting them every time.
Venice is a clear example of how many cities in Italy could be supported by the culture and could take more and more profit by exploiting their beauty. And it's a pleasure to live that experience as a tourist, a user and an Italian.
