The Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, for the first time in the hundred-year
history of the most famous contemporary art exhibition in the world, dedicates a
special presentation to the National Participations and to the Collateral
Events, attended by the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Ugo Intini and the
Director General for Cultural Promotion and Cooperation of the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs, Gherardo La Francesca, with the President of the Fondazione La
Biennale di Venezia Davide Croff.
The National Participations and the Collateral Events have grown to such a
number in the most recent editions of the Art Biennale that they have become
truly structural exposition components that highlight the central international
exhibition: a wide range of expositions and events that stretch beyond the
borders of the Arsenale and the Giardini throughout Venice and characterize the
“Biennale archipelago” today in a unique and original manner. Confirming the
international vocation of the Biennale di Venezia, the Foreign countries are
taking part in the 52nd Exhibition in the record number of 76 Participations: 34
in the exhibition venues with their own Pavilions (31 in the Giardini and 3 in
the Arsenale) and 42 Countries in the historic center of Venice.
The national participations in this edition include a number of debuts such
as Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Mexico, the Republic of Moldova, Tadjikistan and
several returns such as Bulgaria and Arab Syrian Republic. The Countries come
from the five continents and in particular from 35 European nations, 20 Latin
American countries, 17 Asian, 2 North American, 1 from Oceania, and 1 from
Africa, Egypt. The National Participations have always represented a distinctive
essential component, an extraordinary wealth for the Art Biennale, and create
the opportunity for a better understanding of the artistic production of each
Country, representing a veritable global “snapshot” of the contemporary in the
world.
In this edition, though working independently, they reveal a spontaneous
coherence with the themes of the main show of the 52nd Exhibition entitled Think
with the Senses Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, and several of
the artists presented in the pavilions as in the case of France, the United
States and Argentina have been invited by Artistic Director Robert Storr to
participate in the main exhibition. The National Participations offer an
extraordinary contribution which the Biennale di Venezia wishes to underline
because the Exhibition has been the first and continues to be the only
exhibition to institute permanent national Pavilions, some of which are
celebrating their centennial this year, like Belgium (which built the first
pavilion in the Giardini), or next year, when it will be Hungary’s turn.
The presence of the People’s Republic of China has been consolidated since
2005 in the Arsenale the area designated for the central future development of
the Biennale exhibition spaces which represented the first sign of a decisive
opening towards new areas of the world. A specific venue has also been
dedicated, after years of absence, to Italian art: this edition of the Art
Biennale marks the debut of the new Italian Pavilion, created in collaboration
with DARC and the Fondazione la Biennale di Venezia, in the suggestive space of
the Tese delle Vergini at the Arsenale. Again in the area of Italian art, by
initiative of the Regione Veneto, the City and the Province of Venice, this
edition will celebrate the return of the Venetian Pavilion to its city, with the
objective of promoting the artistic creativity of the region.
