The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

del Cinemà on Lungomare G. Marconi and the neighbouring PalaGalileo.
(There are plans to replace these with a new and far larger Palazzo del Cinemà.)
Tickets are made available to the general public, on the day before the performance,
at the PalaGalileo and ACTV offices (see p.283). Any remaining tickets are
sold off at PalaGalileo one hour before the screening, but nearly all shows are sold
out well before then.
The Casinò
Only one aspect of Venice’s nightlife attracts the affluent youth from the mainland,
and that’s the Casinò (wwww.casinovenezia.it), which occupies the magnificent
Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi (Cannaregio) on the Canal Grande, operating from 4pm
until 2.30am (3.30am on Saturday). The Saturday-night migration is a strange sight
– the vaporetto pulls in at the dismal Tronchetto stop, and on board step the wellgroomed
young gamblers, having parked their Alfa Romeos in the Tronchetto’s
multistorey. Minimum age is 18, and the dress code is not as strict as you’d think
– even jeans are acceptable in the rooms given over to slot machines, though jacket
and tie are obligatory for the “French” games such as roulette and chemin de fer.
The Biennale and special exhibitions
The Venice Biennale, Europe’s most glamorous international forum for contemporary
art, was first held in 1895 as the city’s contribution to the celebrations
for the silver wedding anniversary of King Umberto I and Margherita of
Savoy. In the early years the exhibits were dominated by standard salon painting,
despite the presence of such artists as Ensor, Klimt and Whistler. Since World
War II, however, the Biennale has become a self-consciously avant-garde event, a
transformation symbolized by the award of the major Biennale prize in 1964 to
Robert Rauschenberg, the enfant terrible of the American art scene. The French
contingent campaigned vigorously against the nomination of this New World
upstart, and virtually every Biennale since then has been characterized by the sort
of controversy that is now endemic in the publicity-addicted art circuit.
After decades of occurring in even-numbered years, the Biennale shifted back
to being held every odd-numbered year from June to November, so that the
centenary show could be held in 1995. The main site is in the Giardini Pubblici,
where there are permanent pavilions for about forty countries plus space for a thematic
international exhibition. This central part of the Biennale is supplemented
by exhibitions in venues such as the salt warehouses on the Záttere and parts of the
Arsenale that are otherwise closed to the public, such as the colossal Corderie (the
former rope-factory) and the Artiglierie (gun foundry). In addition, various sites
throughout the city (including the streets) host fringe exhibitions, installations and
performances, particularly in the opening weeks. Some of the Biennale pavilions
and various other venues (usually the Corderie) are used in even-numbered years
for an independent Biennale for architecture, a smaller-scale event which runs
from the second week of September to mid-November.
Exhibits from earlier years, plus a vast collection of magazines and catalogues
from all over the world, are kept in the Biennale archive at Via delle Industrie 17a,
in Marghera. Access at the moment is limited to bona fide scholars, but that may
change – when the archive was lodged in the Palazzo Corner della Regina much of
it was open to members of the public. Information on the Biennale (and the Film
Festival) is available at wwww.labiennale.org.
nightlife and the arts The Casinò • The Biennale
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