Inspiring and overwhelming in its scale and brilliance, the 2015 Venice Biennale is nearing its end. Take a look at why it was, and always will be one of the best and most prestigious art festivals in the world.
Every two years, visitors flock to this giant celebration of art and everything creative, to see new trends and ground-breaking work by some of the greatest names in art today. The Biennale has always been known to attract the “who’s who” of the art world, and also showcases obscure local talent from a number of countries in fields of visual art, architecture, cinema, music and drama. This year, the Biennale began on May 9, and is scheduled to end on November 22. If you plan to see it, you should probably start packing your bags right about now.
Only an art festival that’s over a hundred years old can be this amazing. Established in 1895, artists like Picasso, Ernst, Dali, Kandinsky, Klee, Miro and Mondrian have been a part of this festival and displayed work here. While the festival began with a more classical display, by the end of the 1950s it began focusing on pop art and the avant-garde. Some of the art has even been extremely political, like when the 1974 edition was dedicated entirely to the country of Chile as a protest against the dictator Augusto Pinochet. Some of the highlights this year were Syria’s Global Warming Pavilion, Camille Norment’s haunting symphonies, Tetsumi Kudo’s biology and bionics and Sundaram Tagore’s “World Art”. There were guided tours and creative workshops, with brilliant creative exchange and artistic discourse.
In shows scattered all through the city of Venice, the Biennale is staggering in its scale. The two main venues are usually extravagant, filled with seminal works of painting, sculpture, experimental media, photography and the latest forms of artistic expression. The main exhibit is located in the Giardini, a sprawling park featuring a Central Pavilion with works curated by the festival’s director, along with 29 smaller pavilions. This is easily the most elite of all the venues, and it’s not something anyone attending the festival should miss.
Each time the Biennale opens, it’s bigger and better than its last edition, and is on its way to taking the title of best art exhibition in the world. This year, the number of attendees have already surpassed last time’s 475,000 mark! The perfection of the festival lies in the way the venues combine with the art displayed. Visitors absorb the diverse, carefully curated selection of amazing art, journeying through the canals and going to venues like galleries, grand palaces, churches and smaller museums. This results in the “enthralling and heady mix of art” that the Biennale is known for.
(All images via: fest300.com & artsy.net)