Venice Biennale 威尼斯双年展
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The Venice Biennale is one of the oldest art festivals active today. Since its foundation in 1895, it has exhibited and promoted avant-garde work from around the world.
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Founding
Headed by its mayor, Riccardo Selvatico, the Venetian City Council passed a resolution on 19th April 1893 to set up a biennial exhibition of Italian art, to be inaugurated on 22nd April 1894. The event took place in 1895, however, two years later than had been planned. On 30th April, the 1st International Art Exhibition was inaugurated.[1]
Governance
Foundation
The Foundation's venues, which hosts increasingly vast numbers (about 320,000 visitors in 2009), are not owned by the Biennale but are made available by the Venice City Council. The Giardini di Castello (visual arts and architecture), the Palazzo del Cinema, and the Palazzo del Casinò on the Lido (cinema), the Arsenale (visual arts and architecture), the Teatro alle Tese and the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale (dance, music, and theatre) are obtained through plurennial agreements with the Italian Navy and the Inland Revenue[1]
The legislative reform decree of January 2004 transformed the Biennale into a Foundation. The challenge of the new Foundation lies in reviving the potential of the Biennale and its unique nature as a center of attraction not only during the major exhibitions, but also for artistic production in every sector, throughout the year. For this, private partners are being sought to set up a permanent 'home', its own venue which reinforces and establishes the identity of the Biennale, and which can at the same time become a permanent exhibition center.[1]
The reform was backed by the Minister of Culture with the aim of achieving greater managerial efficiency, but above all a smoother integration and the ingress of private partners, with the intention of increasing the Foundation's assets. For this reason, the financial model to which the new Foundation aspires is that of the US cultural sector, in which 30% of the budget comes from private sponsorships and payments, 30% from its own earnings, 30% from public contributions and 10% from receipts from the increase in assets.[1]
Governance
The current president of the Biennale is Paolo Baratta. He works with his Director General, Andrea del Marcato, and along with the Biennale's Board and Auditor's Committee.[2]
Programming
From the beginnings until the Second World War
1895-1910
1910s
In 1910, futurist poet Marinetti arranged a drop of anti-Biennale leaflets in St Mark's Square. The first names of international repute appeared on show, with one room dedicated to Klimt, a one-man show for Renoir, and a retrospective dedicated to Courbet. Fradeletto, a member of the council that had engendered the idea of a permanent exhibition (the name Biennale was not employed until after the First World War), had a work by Picasso removed from the Spanish salon in the central Palazzo, fearing that its novelty might shock the public. The Spanish artist had his first work exhibited at the Biennale only in 1948. In 1914, with the inauguration of the Russian pavilion, the number of national pavilions in the Giardini other than the Italian Pavilion rose to seven: those of Belgium (1907), Hungary (1909), Germany (1909), Great Britain (1909), France (1912), and Russia (1914). Between 1916 and 1918, the Biennale was cancelled because of the First World War.
1920s
In 1920, for the first time, the post of mayor of Venice and president of the Biennale was split: the government commissioner, Nunzio Vitelli, appointed Giovanni Bordiga as president, and his new secretary general, Vittorio Pica. This marked the first presence of avant-garde art at the Biennale (Impressionists, Post-impressionists, Die Brücke), which were promoted by Pica, who had been interested in the Impressionists since 1908. In 1928, The Istituto Storico d'Arte Contemporanea (Historical Institute of Contemporary Art) opened its doors, constituting the first nucleus of archival collections of the Biennale.
1930s
1940s
Following the outbreak of hostilities during the Second World War, the activities of the Biennale were interrupted in September 1942. The last edition of the Art Exhibition took place in 1942 to resume only in 1948.
From the post-war period to the reforms of 1973
1948 return
In 1948, the International Art Exhibition reappeared--the first following the war and the fall of fascism--with a major exhibition of a recapitulatory nature. The Secretary general, art historian Rodolfo Pallucchini, started with the Impressionists, and many protagonists of contemporary art (Chagall, Klee, Braque, Delvaux, Ensor, Magritte). A retrospective of Picasso's work was presented by Guttuso. Pallucchini invited Peggy Guggenheim to exhibit her famous New York collection, which subsequently found a home at Ca' Venier dei Leoni and became one of the cultural treasures of modern Venice. The film festival presented the world premiere of Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. This conscientious drawing in of foreign culture soon rendered the biennale a meeting place not only for artists, but for international celebrities and socialites, as well.
1950s
Under Pallucchini in the early fifties, the Art Exhibitions became an observatory on contemporary art and avant-garde work. Awards were given to Braque (1948), Matisse (1950), Dufy (1952), Ernst and Arp (1954). In 1950, the US pavilion presented works by Pollock, Gorky and, for the first time, De Kooning (in 1954 he returned with 27 paintings). Alexander Calder, in 1952, became the first American artist to win the Grand Prize in Sculpture.
In 1951, at the Mostra del Cinema, the Golden Lion award was presented to Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, which revealed Japanese cinema to the West for the first time. At the International Festival of Contemporary Music of the same year, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress was given its world premiere.
Also in the 1950s, the island of San Giorgio provided the venue for the first Japanese Nô theatre shows in Europe. In competition with the Japanese in this field were international celebrities like Fellini, Visconti, and Beckett. In 1957, the Golden Lion award went to Satyait Ray's Aparajito which introduced Indian cinema to the West.
1960s
Early 1970s
In 1972, the International Art Exhibition had its first theme (themes became a trend adopted regularly in following years): "Opera o comportamento" (Work or Behaviour).
The Statute of 1973 ordered the creation of a "democratic" Board consisting of 19 members, comprising representatives from the Government, the most important local organisations, major trade unions, and a representative of the staff. The Board was to elect the President and nominate the Sectorial Directors (Visual arts, Cinema, Music, Theatre).
From the 70s to the reforms of 1998
Late 1970s
The reforms allowed for greater attention to sector-specific detail, and by the late 1970s, the Biennale began to see more direct involvement from artists. In 1978, for example, a quotation by Kandinsky, "great abstraction, great realism" provided the starting point for the Art Exhibition, divided into six "stations", with the title "From nature to art, from art to nature". Programming was further refined in 1979 under the presidency of Giuseppe Galasso (1979-1982), when the principle was laid down whereby each of the artistic sectors was to have a permanent director to organize its activity.
1980s
1990s
5th International Architecture Exhibition, featuring Massimo Scolari's l'Aliente (the Glider), 1991.
Recent Years
2000s
In 2001, a festival entitled Shakespeare & Shakespeare took place: all the Biennale sectors were involved in this homage to the Shakespearian world.
Format
The formal Biennale is based at a park the Giardini that houses 30 permanent national pavilions. The assignment of the permanent pavilions was largely dictated by the international politics of the 1930s and the Cold War. There is no single format to how each country manages their pavilion. The pavilion for Great Britain is always managed by the British Council while the United States assigns the responsibility to a public gallery chosen by the Department of State. The Giardini includes a large exhibition hall that houses a themed exhibition curated by the Biennale's director.
The Aperto began as a fringe event for younger artists and artists of a national origin not represented by the permanent national pavilions. This is usually staged in the Arsenale and has become part of the formal biennale programme. In 1995 there was no Aperto so a number of participating countries hired venues to show exhibitions of emerging artists.[3]
Chinese Involvement
It has been ten years since the late Harald Szeemann’s 1999 Venice exhibition APERTO Over All paved the way for the West’s understanding of Asian contemporary art, aptly nicknamed the “China Biennale” due to its inclusion of nearly twenty Chinese artists. Despite the success of this show, an official Chinese pavillion did not make its debut at the Venice Biennale until 2005. This exposition, curated by artist and Golden Lion winner Cai Guoqiang, was praised for its use of the awkward pavilion venue and cohesive presentation of fresh art from China.[4]
