the layout of the Biennale

Sorry, I’d totally forgotten that most readers of this blog have never been to the Venice Biennale, and have no idea what the physical layout of the thing is like.

There are two very large areas of exhibits and then probably a few dozen off-site shows.

The Giardini, a public park, is where all the old national pavilions are. Egypt is there, and so are the USA, Israel, Serbia, Poland, Brazil, France, Britain, Germany, Austria, Japan, Korea, Belgium, and I’m forgetting some others.

Then there’s the Arsenale, where you can find Croatia, Turkey, the Saudis, India, the gigantic space of the UAE, and others. Sorry for those I’m leaving out.

In both the Giardini and the Arsenale, there’s also a special curated show of younger artists from around the world. That is curated this time by the Swiss curator BICE CURIGER.

And then there are all kinds of national pavilions scattered around the rest of Venice, and you need a map to find them. Ireland and Zimbabwe are in the same building. There’s Mexico, Wales, San Marino, and many others.

Numerous parties are grafted onto all the shows, some hosted by countries and others by art journals and still others by billionaires such as Roman Abramovich, whose gigantic 377-foot yacht was parked right outside the Giardini two days ago and may still be there for all I know.

Plenty of celebrities are in the vicinity. Shimon Peres is the only one I saw, but friends of mine have seen both Courtney Love and Leonardo di Caprio (not together, though) in the past couple of days.

The weather has been a bit humid, but this is a very perfect Sunday morning, with low humidity and a cool breeze at 9:45 AM.