Review of the 52nd International Art Exhibition

The 52nd International Art Exhibition, first and last stop of the Grand Tour 2007, closed yesterday, November 21st , with an outstanding result in terms of visitors: 319,322 people attended this year’s exhibition within its 165 days. This has been the most attended Biennale of the past twenty-five years and one of the most visited in the whole history of the exhibition.

The 52nd International Art Exhibition has been set up within 25,000 squared-meters spread between the Giardini and the Arsenale and included the extraordinary number of 76 National Participations and 34 Collateral Events. Since its opening, last June, the 52nd Biennale has been the most visited art show in Italy.

The 42 free entrance National Pavilions spread around the city of Venice , hosted in historical buildings and churches, have been visited by more than 827,000 people.

The 34 free entrance Collateral Events set up around Venice and the lagoon islands attracted 650,000 visitors, ca.

As “mother of all the Biennials”, the exhibition interested a large number of art professionals who participated to the preview which took place last June from 6th to 9th. More than 34,000 guests – artists, museum directors, gallerists, collectors and authorities, both Italian and international - attended the event and among them 3,311 were journalists from all over the world.

The accredited press to this year’s Biennale reached the record number of 5,691 journalists (4,661 in 2005), 3,927 of which from 60 foreign countries (particularly from Germany, United Kingdom, USA and Eastern Europe) and 1,764 from Italy.

Guided tours both for youngsters and adults (54,367 visitors divided into 3,625 groups) increased of 26% compared to 2005; students represent 32% of the total public of the 52. Venice Biennale. The Educational project, supported by Antonveneta ABN AMRO, registered a 50% increase in its participations compared to last edition: 22,328 adults and 3,200 children up to 13 years old have been involved in guided tours as well as historic, thematic and multidisciplinary itineraries.
 
Among the innovations, multisensory laboratories and guided tours in several different languages. A brand new Educational project has been launched together with the Education Department of Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art: between July and September it involved about 4.000 children and families in Venice, Jesolo, Cortina d’Ampezzo and Padua.

Finally, it has to be underlined the interest of the film industry in the exhibition venues of the Art Biennale. It has been thirty years since Alberto Sordi’s “Le Vacanze Intelligenti” with its episode set at the 1978 Venice Biennale; the exhibition, still today, enchants many filmmakers. Some of them reached the lagoon to use the Giardini as a set for their movies. 

Sergio Rubini chose the Biennale as background for his last work Colpo d’occhio, a thriller movie set in the art world and exploring a love triangle between Vittoria Puccini, Rubini himself and Riccardo Scamarcio. The last one to choose the Biennale was Citto Maselli who films some scenes of his Il fuoco e la cenere (working title) inside the Hungarian Pavilion, which has been awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Besides, the exhibition venues have been chosen for many other documentaries and videos by directors from all over the world.

Think with the senses – Feel with the mind. Art in the Ppresent Tense, curated by Robert Storr, has been organised with the support of Antonveneta ABN AMRO, illycaffè, ACI – Automobil Club d’Italia, Fantoni, Casamania, Matteograssi, Bisazza, Decima Italia. ETC, Flex, Link Italy.

The catalogue of the 52nd International Art Exhibition is published by Marsilio."

Source and further information:
Press Office Art and Architecture