BIENNALE GUIDE 2011 - The Art Newspaper

FOR UMBERTO ALLEMANDI PUBLISHING 

VENICE 

BIENNALE GUIDE 2011 

SUPPORTED BY

Mainland p46 

Dorsoduro p24 

Cannaregio p14 

Santa Croce p42 

San Polo p42 

Giudecca p30 

San Marco p36 

Castello p18 

San Giorgio 

Maggiore p31 

Islands p34 

Arsenale p8 

Giardini p2 

San Servolo p23 Lido p35 

Certosa p21

At the 2009 Venice Biennale, we at The Art Newspaper very 

much liked this neat and really useful guide, produced by 

Art World magazine, so when we had a sponsor this year in 

the form of the London gallery Haunch of Venison, we leapt 

at the chance to take it on. 

The way in which the guide is organised, by main biennale venues, but 

also by the neighbourhoods of Venice, makes finding even the most remote 

collateral event easy. It shows that it has understood Venice by being 

divided into sestieri, the six administrative units of the city under the old 

Venetian Republic. These are symbolised on every gondola by the six teeth 

beneath the curving metal prow, and they are the reason for an apparently 

bizarre house numbering system, which only becomes comprehensible 

when you realise that the numbers start anew with 1 in each sestiere and go 

on rising until they reach the last house in that sestiere. 

This guide is exceptional also in that it integrates the biennale with the 

city. It pays you, the reader, the complement of assuming that, although 

you are here for the contemporary art, you might also want to know, for 

example, that one of the most beautiful paintings by Titian is in the Frari. 

As part of the Venice in Peril Fund, I long for this and future 

biennales—and the elite of the art world who come to them—to engage 

more with the city. I beg you to notice where the water is in relationship to 

the buildings: 23 cm (9 inches) higher than in 1897 when scientific 

measuring began and due to rise by a minimum of 

another 50cm by the end of the century. 

Please take the message back to your countries 

that Venice has no long-term future unless the world 

begins to take a serious, informed interest in it now. 

Anna Somers Cocks 

Founder editor, The Art Newspaper 

Gondola prows 

and Chairman, Venice in Peril Fund 

KEY TO THE LISTINGS 

● National Participations: Countries exhibited in their own pavilions at the Venice Biennale 

● Collateral Events: Additional exhibitions that are officially associated with the Venice Biennale 

● Other Events: Exhibitions that coincide with the Venice Biennale but are not an official part of it 

● Classics: Museums, galleries and churches of year-round interest, plus a few quirkier locations 

● Food & Drink: Refreshment stops recommended by artists and curators involved in the biennale 

★ Highlights: A selection of exhibitions recommended by the contributors to this guide 

RANKEELAW 

1 

THE ART NEWSPAPER VENICE GUIDE 2011 

Contents 

02 GIARDINI 

04 Christian Boltanski 

05 Biennale for beginners 

07 ILLUMInazioni 

08 ARSENALE 

09 Paolo Ventura 

11 The Italian Pavilion 

12 Christian Marclay 

14 CANNAREGIO 

17 Tintoretto in Venice 

18 CASTELLO 

20 Monica Bonvicini 

21 Certosa 

23 San Servolo 

24 DORSODURO 

27 Mark Wallinger 

28 Iwan Wirth 

30 GIUDECCA & 

SAN GIORGIO 

31 San Giorgio Maggiore 

34 LIDO & ISLANDS 

36 SAN MARCO 

39 Maxwell Anderson 

41 Daniel Birnbaum 

42 SAN POLO & 

SANTA CROCE 

45 Anne Ellegood 

46 MISCELLANEOUS 

46 Mainland 

46 Multiple sites 

47 Stop press

GIARDINI 

● NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS ● COLLATERAL EVENTS ● OTHER EVENTS ● CLASSICS ● FOOD & DRINK ★HIGHLIGHTS 

Giardini: nature and nationalism 

The original seat of the biennale, the Giardini are still at its core; the question of whether national 

pavilions are appropriate in a globalised world is often a source of inspiration for the artists within 

Giardini: Palazzo delle Esposizioni 

Venue information 

Giardini & Arsenale 

Previews: 1-3 Jun 2011 

Open to public: 4 Jun-27 Nov 2011 

Opening times: 10.00-18.00 

Closures: Both venues closed Mondays 

(except 6 Jun and 21 Nov) 

Tickets: Available at all entrances to Giardini and 

Arsenale plus Ca’Giustinian (San Marco 1364/A) 

Price: Adult €20, valid for one entry to Giardini and 

Arsenale (concessions available); pass €70 

Facilities: Bar, restaurant, toilets and bookshop 

Website: www.labiennale.org 

Other venues 

Check listings and individual venues for details 

Viale Giuseppe Garibaldi 

Arsenale 

Riva dei Sette Martiri 

ROB BOYNES 

Entrance 

The Giardini’s pavilions are the unique and most controversial element 

of the Venice Biennale: to many, dividing artists by nationality is an 

anachronism, a lingering vestige of proud, colonial nations. But 

equally, the 30 national pavilions play into contemporary artists’ hands: 

they are architect-designed and explore nationhood, echoing two of 

the most prevalent themes in recent art, namely architecture and 

identity. Artists love awkward contradictions and historical complexity, 

and the pavilions provide those in spades. Much of the resulting work, 

then, directly challenges the buildings and the past and present of the 

countries they supposedly evoke. At the centre of it all, meanwhile, is 

the imposing Palazzo delle Esposizioni (previously the Italian Pavilion, 

which in 2009 was rehoused in the Arsenale) containing one half of 

Bice Curiger’s signature ILLUMInazioni exhibition. 

WC 

18 

WC 

4 

23 

Giardini ACTV stop 

2 


1 

25 

14 

WC 

22 

9 

5 

19 

20 

10 15 

28 

8 

27 

30 21 

Austria 

17 12 

26 

Serbia 

ILLUMInazione 

Egypt 

Netherlands Cafe / bar 

Brazil 

Belgium 

Finland 

Hungary 

Spain 

Israel 

Poland 

USA Romania 

Uruguay 

Denmark 

Australia 

Sweden 

Thailand 

Switzerland 

Czech & Slovak 

Venezuala Republics 

France 

Russia 

Japan 

Korea UK 

Germany 

Canada 

Books 

3 

Snacks 

24 

16 

Viale dei Giardini Pubblici 

Viale 4 Novembre 

29 Greece 13 

2 

7 

11 

6 

VICI MACDONALD 

1 54th International Art 

Exhibition: ILLUMInazioni 

—ILLUMInations ★ 

Palazzo delle Esposizioni 

(also at Arsenale, p9) 

Artists: Group show of over 

80 artists across two sites 

● Bice Curiger sets the bar 

high for contemporary artists 

by opening this part of her 

82-artist show with three late 

works by Renaissance master 

Tintoretto (see panel, p17), 

chosen for their ecstatic 

light. Where the Arsenale 

offers the industrial context 

appropriate for certain 

artists’ work, the Palazzo 

delle Esposizioni provides 

more conventional, “white 

cube” gallery spaces. Among 

the works is Chinese artist 

Song Dong’s “parapavilion”, 

one of four artist-curated 

spaces commissioned by 

Curiger to break up the flow 

of the main exhibition. 

2 Australia 

National pavilion, Giardini 

Exhibition: Golden Thread 

Artist: Hany Armanious 

● Armanious casts all 

manner of found objects in 

resin and places them in 

enigmatic tableaux which 

often include references to 

other art, from Picasso to 

ancient totems. Here, he 

shows 11 works, most created 

especially for the pavilion. 

http://venicebiennale. 

australiacouncil.gov.au 

3 Austria ★ 


Artist: Markus Schinwald 

● An installation that 

promises to turn the viewer 

into a performer. Schinwald 

splits the pavilion space 

along vertical axes, and has 

spoken of the division of the 

space in psychoanalytic 

terms, musing that he places 

“the mind in neurosis, the 

crotch in psychosis”. 

www.labiennale.at/2011 

4 Belgium ★ 


Exhibition: Feuilleton 

Artist: Angel Vergara 

● Vergara’s work sits between 

painting and performance. 

Most recently, he has begun 

painting over video images, 

responding quickly to the 

movement within the film 

sequences. This show, with 

the august Luc Tuymans as 

curator, focuses on the seven 

cardinal sins. 

5 Brazil 


Exhibition: Registros + 

(Ex) Tensões y Pontos 

Artist: Artur Barrio 

● Barrio’s selection is an 

attempt to present a broader 

picture than that offered by 

the dominant Brazilian 

academies of neoconcretism 

and modernist 

architecture. The veteran 

maverick presents a “dirtier” 

alternative, curators say: his 

performances feature blood, 

meat and other foodstuffs. 

6 Canada 


Exhibition: Exhume 

to Consume 

Artist: Steven Shearer 

● One of the Giardini’s 

most dramatic moments, a 

giant mural, inspired by the 

language of death 

metal music, sits in 

front of the 

pavilion. Shearer’s 

work varies but he 

is best known for 

channelling popular 

imagery from fanzines and 

online communities via the 

fauves and the symbolists. 

7 Czech Republic and 

Slovak Republic 


Exhibition: The Sleeping City 

Artist: Dominik Lang 

● The source of much 

controversy in the Czech art 

world, Dominik Lang’s 

Sleeping City project draws 

on personal and cultural 

memory. He takes sculptures 

made by his father in the 

1950s and 60s, ignored 

during his father’s lifetime 

due to strict communist-era 

aesthetic policies, and 

creates contemporary 

environments for them. 

www.54venicebiennial.cz 

8 Denmark ★ 


Exhibition: Speech Matters 

Artists: Agency, Ayreen 

Anastas and Rene Gabri, 

Robert Crumb, Zhang Dali, 

Stelios Faitakis, FOS, Sharon 

Hayes, Han Hoogerbrugge, 

Mikhail Karikis, Thomas 

Kilpper, Runo Lagomarsino, 

Tala Madani, Wendelien van 

3 


GIARDINI 


Austria: Markus Schinwald 

© THE ARTIST 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 

27 Nov 2011 

unless stated 

otherwise 

Oldenborgh, Lilibeth Cuenca 

Rasmussen, Taryn Simon, 

Jan Svankmajer, Johannes af 

Tavasheden, Tilman Wendland 

● A group show about 

freedom of speech, notable 

for featuring only two Danish 

artists: architecturally- 

minded FOS and video 

and performance 

artist Lilibeth 

Cuenca 

Rasmussen. The 

honorary Danes 

veer from surreal 

Czech animator Jan 

Svankmeyer to satirical 

Iranian painter Tala Madani. 

www.danish-pavilion.org 

9 Egypt ★ 


Exhibition: 30 Days of 

Running in the Space 

Artist: Ahmed Basiony 

● Ahmed Basiony was shot 

dead in January amid the 

protests against the Egyptian 

government. This tribute 

includes footage of a 2010 

performance where he 

jogged for an hour each day 

for 30 days in a suit 

measuring sweat levels and 

distance travelled, and 

converted them into a 

digital display. It is shown 

alongside footage he shot 

amid the revolution, just 

before his death. 

www.ahmedbasiony.com 

Egypt: Ahmed Basiony 

© THE ARTIST

GIARDINI 


10 Finland 


Exhibition: And All Structures 

Are Unstable 2011 

Artist: Vesa-Pekka Rannikko 

● Taking as a starting point 

the tiny wooden Finnish 

pavilion, designed by Alvar 

Aalto and intended to be 

temporary, Rannikko creates 

an “imaginary exhibition” 

including paintings, sculpture 

and architectonic elements 

that explore Aalto’s 

structure and question the 

notion of a national 

presentation of Finnishness. 

www.frame-fund.fi 

11 France ★ 


Exhibition: Chance 

Artist: Christian Boltanski 

● A sombre amusement 

arcade, with many 

interactive elements. A 

journey through 

Boltanski’s familiar 

territory of 

memory, history 

and fate includes 

gliding on moving 

sidewalks past portraits of 

children; a chaotic blur of 

images which can be paused 

to form a composite portrait; 

and relentless electronic 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

counters computing births 

and deaths across the world. 

www.boltanski-chance.com 

12 Germany 


Artist: Christoph Schlingensief 

● A posthumous survey of 

the work of the film-maker 

and director of opera and 

theatre. Schlingensief had 

made plans for the pavilion 

before his death from lung 

cancer in 2010, but they are 

not carried out here; rather, 

a selection of works gives an 

overview of the career of this 

polemical polymath. 

www.deutscher-pavillon.org 

13 Greece 


Artist: Diohandi 

● A total revision of the 

pavilion’s exterior and 

interior: a new outer 

shell gives glimpses 

of the faux- 

Byzantine building, 

while the interior is 

remodelled with 

water and sound 

elements. Diohandi 

actively addresses the 

ILLUMInations theme: a 

walkway transports viewers 

from darkness to light. 

ESSENTIAL VENICE 

Christian Boltanski 

Artist, French Pavilion 

● A Bellini at Harry’s Bar (p41). 

● The Locanda Montin (p29). 

● The Lido beach (p35). 

● Il Nuovo Galeon, in via Garibaldi (p23). 

● Baccalà mantecato, the Venetian salt cod recipe. 

Hungary: Hajnal Németh 

14 Hungary 


Exhibition: Crash—Passive 

Interview 

Artist: Hajnal Németh 

● An installation focusing 

on car crashes: a video of an 

experimental opera based 

on car crash testimonies; the 

opera’s libretto, recounting 

the stories of those involved 

in the crashes; and the 

mangled car that resulted 

from one of the incidents. 

www.velenceibiennale.com 

www.crash-passive interview.c3.hu 

15 Israel 


Exhibition: One Man’s Floor 

Is Another Man’s Feelings 

Artist: Sigalit Landau 

● After years of research 

into the Dead Sea, Landau 

creates a meditation on this 

natural phenomenon and 

deep divisions within the 

region. In a redesign of the 

pavilion, the once-hidden 

courtyard becomes the 

entrance into an installation 

whose constituents are 

water, soil and salt. 

16 Japan 


Exhibition: Teleco-soup 

Artist: Tabaimo 

A return to Venice for this 

artist, whose installations of 

4 


© THE ARTIST 

video animations, evocative 

of traditional Japanese ukiyoe 

wood block prints, featured 

in the 2007 international 

exhibition. This time around 

her characteristic mix of the 

everyday and the surreal are 

based on a theme she terms 

“Trans-Galapagos Syndrome”. 

www.jpf.go.jp/venezia-biennale 

17 Korea, Republic of 


Exhibition: The Love Is Gone 

But the Scar Will Heal 

Artist: Lee Yong-baek 

● Lee promises to grapple 

with the glass-walled Korean 

pavilion—no easy task when 

you are a video artist. New 

works are shown alongside 

revisions of two previous 

videos, including Angel 

Soldier, in which soldiers in 

flower-patterned fatigues 

march in slow motion. 

18 Netherlands 


Exhibition: Opera Aperta / 

Loose Work 

Artists: EventArchitectuur 

(Herman Verkerk and Paul 

Kuipers), Yannis Kyriakides, 

Maureen Mooren, Joke 

Robaard, Johannes 

Schwartz, Barbara Visser, 

Sanneke van Hassel 

● A dense piece using “the 

methodology of the opera”, 

in which the Netherlands’ 

infrastructure for visual art is 

the blueprint for a work by 

photographers Robaard and 

Schwartz, conceptualist Visser, 

author Van Hassel, graphic 

designer Mooren, composer 

Kyriakides and exhibition 

designers EventArchitectuur. 

www.venicebiennale.nl 


19 Poland ★ 


Exhibition: …And Europe 

Will Be Stunned 

Artist: Yael Bartana 

● Israeli-born Bartana shows 

three films based on her 

invented group, the Jewish 

Renaissance Movement in 

Poland, which calls for the 

return of millions of Jews to 

their Polish homeland. The 

latest in her weighty trilogy, 

imagining the assassination 

of the movement’s leader, is 

premiered here. 

20 Romania 


(also at Istituto Romeno di 

Cultura e Ricerca Umanistica, 

Cannaregio 2214, p15) 

Exhibition: Performing History 

Artists: Ion Grigorescu, Anetta 

Mona Chisa, Lucia Tkacova 

● Ambitious project aiming 

to redefine western views 

about the art of the former 

communist bloc, through a 

“dynamic visual assemblage” 

created by Grigorescu, who 

pioneered conceptual and 

performance art even during 

the austere communist years, 

and younger Prague-based 

duo Chisa and Tkacova, 

collaborators since 2000. 

21 Russia 


Exhibition: Empty Zones 

Artists: Andrei Monastyrski 

and the ‘Collective Actions’ 

Group (Nikita Alexeev, Elena 

Elagina, Georgy Kizevalter, 

Igor Makarevich, Andrei 

Monastyrski, Nikolai 

Panitkov, Sergei Romashko, 

Sabine Hänsgen) 

● Monastyrski, a leading 

● If you arrive into Piazzale Roma 

or the train station, vaporetto stop 

Ferrovia, it is often quicker to get to 

San Marco by taking vaporetti 

numbers 41, 51 or 2 travelling to the 

right, along the Giudecca Canal, than 

it is to go down the Grand Canal. 

Save that for the evening, without 

your bags or the massive crowds. 

● Vaporetto stops are mostly in 

pairs. To work out the correct one: 

face the water, put out your hands to 

point to the stops, then cross your 

arms for the direction of travel. 

● Make sure you pack the following: 

a detailed, plastic-coated, folding 

map; a fold-up umbrella; antimosquito 

pills and repellent (if you 

are very allergic to bites, see your 

doctor before you travel); trainers; 

a sunhat and suncream. If you are 

travelling in late October / November, 

which is a great time to see the 

biennale, bring wellies if flooding is 

predicted. There can be sudden heavy 

downpours even in the summer. 

● Venice is tiny but it takes a long 

time to get around, and it is incredibly 

easy to get lost (hence the map. You 

will be counting off the sidestreets 

and turnings). Good planning will 

mean you get much more out of your 

trip, however unromantic this sounds. 

● A compass is surprisingly useful 

for orientation in confusing corners. 

● Use this guide to work out what to 

see area by area; visit media sites 

5 


GIARDINI 

Biennale for beginners 

Practical tips for first-time Venice visitors from old 

hand Jane Morris (left), editor of The Art Newspaper 

such as www.theartnewspaper.com, 

www.artforum.com, African / Asian / 

Latin American art specialists 

www.universes-in-universe.org or try 

the new Christie’s Biennale App for 

iPhones (www.christies.com) to work 

out what everyone’s talking about. 

● Allow three full days if you want to 

cover most of the Biennale. Allow 

a week if you want to fit in the main 

historic cultural sites. 

● However much you like recent art, 

try not to neglect the historic version. 

The list of “must-sees” is long, but try 

at least to visit the Accademia gallery 

and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. 

● There are many wonderful churches, 

some in the Chorus Pass scheme 

(available in churches, €10 for 16 

venues, www.chorusvenezia.org). 

My current favourites include San 

Giacomo dell’Orio, San Giovanni 

Elemosinario and Sa n Stae. 

● If the crowds, narrow streets and 

tall buildings are getting to you, go to 

the cemetery island, San Michele; or 

the Lido (for a proper Death in Venice 

experience, visit the Hotel des Bains); 

or make the trip to Sant’ Erasmo, where 

Venetian fruit and veg are still grown. 

● Consider renting a flat for a week, 

especially if you like cooking. Even 

the more expensive ones (such as at 

www.venice-rentals.com) compare 

well with hotels once you avoid the 

cost of eating out, which is often 

overpriced and underwhelming.

GIARDINI 


Russia: Collective Actions 

Moscow conceptualist in the 

Soviet Union in the 1970s, 

brings with him Collective 

Actions, with whom he has 

regularly collaborated over 

the past 35 years. The group’s 

performances, which they 

call Trips to the Countryside, 

are usually absurd, like 

pulling a seven-kilometre 

length of rope through a 

forest to no apparent end. 

www.ruspavilion.ru 

22 Serbia 


Exhibition: Light and 

Darkness of the Symbols 

Artist: Todosijevic 

Dragoljub Rasa 

● A tripartite installation 

from the Belgrade-based 

conceptualist. One part 

features his “journal”: objects 

produced over a long period 

as experiments with ideas or 

materials. The second shows 

installations he has created 

in recent years, including 50 

teapots filled with cement, 

while the third is a potted 

history of his career. 

www.pavilionserbia.org 

23 Spain 


Exhibition: The Inadequate 

Artist: Dora García 

● Uneasy at being the 

official Spanish artist, García 

presents The Inadequate, a 

© THE ARTISTS 

biennale-long performance 

piece. A “backstage” area 

contains vitrines and tables 

with props relating to writers 

such as James Joyce and 

Robert Walser, which García 

and various collaborators 

will use in performances on 

a central stage. 

http://theinadequate.net 

24 Sweden ★ 


Exhibition: Borderless Bastards 

Artist: Fia Backström 

Exhibition: Windows, Trees 

and Inbetween 

Artist: Andreas Eriksson 

● Two explorations of the 

pavilion’s Giardini context. 

Backström looks at ideas of 

nationhood, working with 

other artists appearing for 

their countries to create 

representative figurative 

sculptures. Eriksson reflects 

on the parkland setting with 

paintings of trees and 

sculptures of birds that died 

by crashing into the Nordic 

pavilion’s glass walls. 

25 Switzerland ★ 


Exhibition: Crystal of Resistance 

Artist: Thomas Hirschhorn 

● In a long and eccentric 

outpouring describing this 

installation, Hirschhorn 

writes that he wants it to be 

“an indestructible and 

earthly dwelling of the gods” 

which recalls, among other 

things, a B-movie film set, a 

crystal meth lab and “a 

cheaply decorated provincial 

disco”. Love, philosophy, 

politics and aesthetics are 

the grand themes. 

www.crystalofresistance.com 

26 Thailand 

Paradiso Gallerie, Giardini 

della Biennale, Castello 1260 

Exhibition: Paradiso di Navin 

Artist: Navin Rawanchaikul 

● Though not usually a 

Giardini pavilion, this year 

the café at the Giardini’s 

entrance houses the latest in 

the Thai artist’s Navinland 

productions. With the artist 

always at the centre of the 

proceedings, Rawanchaikul’s 

colourful oeuvre takes a 

tongue-in-cheek approach to 

his personal history. 

27 United Kingdom ★ 


Artist: Mike Nelson 

● Nelson was holed 

up in the pavilion 

for three months in 

preparation for his 

latest installation. As 

he proved in a lauded 

2001 work on the Giudecca, 

Venice is the perfect location 

for his networks of fantastical 

rooms, creating atmospheric 

labyrinthine narratives from 

his quirky historical musings. 

http://venicebiennale. 

britishcouncil.org 

28 United States 

of America ★ 


Exhibition: Gloria 

Artists: Jennifer Allora and 

Guillermo Calzadilla 

USA: Allora & Calzadilla 

6 


All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 


● The Cuban-American duo 

reinforce their neo-surrealist 

credentials in a wry look at 

military, sporting and artistic 

glory. Gymnasts and athletes 

will perform routines on 

wooden versions of the latest 

in business-class airline seats, 

while an overturned tank 

becomes a treadmill outside. 

A satirical highlight. 

29 Uruguay 


Exhibition: Un Lugar Común/ 

A Common Ground 

Artists: Alejandro Cesarco, 

Magela Ferrero 

● Two Montevidean artists: 

Ferrero has painted 

and written over 

photographs she 

has taken, a process 

she likens to writing 

a map of what she 

sees. Cesarco’s very 

different oeuvre leaps 

between disparate media 

according to each individual 

concept, but much of his 

work is concerned with 

language and translation. 

www.labiennaleuruguay. gub.uy 

30 Venezuela 


Exhibition: Spaces 

Artists: Francisco Bassim, 

Clemencia Labin, Yoshi 

● Post-pop art dominates 

the Venezuelan pavilion: 

Bassim reworks devotional 

images and the old masters 

in a lurid cartoonish style 

and Labina creates soft 

sculptures from vividly 

coloured and patterned 

materials. Yoshi’s origami 

experiments offer a subtle 

and intricate counterpoint. 

7 


GIARDINI 


ILLUMInazioni: shedding a little light 

A look at Bice Curiger (left) and her central biennale show, ILLUMInazioni/ 

ILLUMInations, whose bilingual title plays on nationhood, light, and more 

ice Curiger was by no 

means an obvious choice B as artistic director of the 

Venice Biennale: she is a big 

player, but hardly the kind of 

“supercurator” more often tasked 

with the biennale’s central show. 

Importantly, this is her first 

biennial exhibition anywhere. 

● There have been two discrete 

strands to her career so far: her 

editing of the influential Parkett 

magazine, and subsequent role 

as editor-in-chief of Tate Etc, the 

in-house magazine of the Tate 

family of galleries; and her role as 

curator at the Kunsthaus Zurich. In 

both, she has developed a 

reputation for a serious approach 

with a dash of quirkiness. 

● In many ways, Curiger’s 

Kunsthaus Zurich exhibitions 

prefigure her Venice show: they 

display strong commitment to 

central European artists, like 

Sigmar Polke, Fischli and Weiss 

and Katharina Fritsch (all in 

ILLUMInazioni), and over half the 

artists she has selected for 

Venice are European. 

● She has also shown a talent 

for original, ambitious themed 

exhibitions, like “The Expanded 

Eye” (2006), looking at vision 

and perception in recent art, and 

“Hypermental” (2001), exploring 

the legacy of aspects of surrealism. 

● Eighty-three artists feature in 

the show, and more than threequarters 

come from Europe or the 

US. Alongside weighty lynchpins 

of the European scene such as 

Rosemarie Trockel and Franz 

West, there is a deliberate 

emphasis on relatively young 

artists, among them wry British 

conceptualist Ryan Gander and 

anarchic Swedish multimedia 

artist Klara Lidén. 

● A catchy and translatable title 

is an essential part of any Venice 

Biennale, and with ILLUMInazioni, 

Curiger provides a bilingual 

punning name for her exhibition, 

containing its two key themes: 

light and national identity. 

● Curiger conjures a wealth of 

associations and meanings in 

explaining her themes. On the 

one hand, she sees illumination 

as a key role of the Biennale—it 

spotlights new developments in 

contemporary art. It is also 

central to the role of art itself: its 

capacity to illuminate thought. 

● Then, there are a number of 

specific cultural references: the 

Age of Enlightenment; the poetic 

Illuminations of Rimbaud; the 

Profane Illuminations of 

surrealism as seen by Walter 

Benjamin; medieval illuminated 

manuscripts; and illuminationism, 

a school of Persian philosophy 

● Light is also key to the show’s 

most novel idea: the inclusion of 

three paintings by Venetian master 

Tintoretto, who Curiger admires 

for his “febrile, ecstatic lighting 

and a near reckless approach to 

composition that overturns the 

well-defined, classical order of the 

Renaissance”. He is thus an 

emblem for contemporary artists. 

● The nazioni part of the title is 

explored through artists’ interest 

in identity and heritage. Curiger 

sees them as migrants through 

culture, who use art to experiment 

with new forms of community. 

● To emphasise the art world’s 

elastic approach to identity, and 

subvert the national pavilions, 

Curiger has asked Oscar Tuazon, 

Franz West, Song Dong and 

Monika Sosnowska to create 

“parapavilions” which house 

work by artists from different 

nations. Chinese artist Song’s 

parapavilion features Parisian Yto 

Barrada, while Austrian West’s 

structure houses a slide projection 

by Indian Dayanita Singh. 

● Ever the art magazine editor, 

Curiger has sent five arch and 

tricky questions to each artist, 

including those in the national 

pavilions. These include: “Is the art 

community a nation?” and “How 

many nations are inside you?” The 

answers appear in the catalogue.

ARSENALE 


Arsenale: from galley to gallery 

The biennale offers a rare chance to visit this unique naval complex, which is off-limits for most 

of the year; its crumbling warehouses, towers and gardens make for atmospheric viewing 

The entrance to the Arsenale 

15 

17 18 

Entrance 

Corderie 

CHRISTOPHER SEDDON 

WC 

The ancient source of Venice’s seafaring majesty, the Arsenale was once 

able to produce a galley in a few hours; and now, every biennale, it 

becomes the city’s most enormous gallery. Owned by the Navy, it is 

inaccessible for most of the year, only opening its doors to the public for 

special events. This is reason enough to visit the biennale, because the 

Arsenale is an extraordinary space. The majority of the art can be found 

in the former rope factory, the Corderie, a seemingly never-ending 

procession of brick-built spaces with fat columns running its 316m 

length. In this sense, the Arsenale is the curator’s biggest challenge: a 

tough and ragged industrial aesthetic can illuminate art or swallow it up. 

16 20 

Nappa 

19 

Tese di San Cristoforo 

3 Spazio Thetis 

1 

Gaggiandre 

Snacks 

5 

WC 

Crane Teatro 

alla Tese 9 

Padiglione 

Italia 

Giardino 

Isolotto 8 

delle Vergini 

Artiglierie 

WC 

10 

2 

8 


6 

12 

4 

7 

9 

13 

Giardini 

11 Torre di Porta Nuova 

Entrance 

14 


1 54th International Art 

Exhibition: ILLUMInazioni 

—ILLUMInations ★ 

Arsenale, various locations 

(also at Giardini, p3) 


80 artists across two sites 

● The impact of this part of 

Bice Curiger’s exhibition is 

felt long before you cross the 

threshold into the immense 

warehouse spaces of the 

Arsenale. Outside at the 

canal entrance is French 

artist Loris Gréaud’s Gepetto 

Pavilion, 2011, a vast 

sculpture of Moby Dick with 

an “isolation room” in its 

belly. At the other end, 

Austrian collective Gelitin, 

having discovered an 

ancient melting oven, will 

pour a ton of molten 

glass over the garden. 

Among the works 

within are Oscar 

Tuazon’s 

“parapavilion” 

featuring a slide 

projection by Basque / 

Spanish artist Asier 

Mendizabal, a piece by 

James Turrell, and, in the 

final space, a new work 

created especially for the 

biennale by Venice-born 

artist Monica Bonvicini. 

2 Argentina 

Pavilion at Arsenale 

Exhibition: Ahora estaré 

con mi hijo 

Artist: Adrián Villar Rojas 

● Villar Rojas says he wanted 

to imagine work by “the last 

humans who make art 

before the extinction of the 

human race”. The 30-yearold 

often fashions his 

fantastical sculptures in clay, 

which he likes for its capacity 

for dehydration and, 

ultimately, decay. 

3 Belarus, Republic of 

Spazio Thetis, Arsenale 

Novissimo 

Exhibition: Kodex 

Artists: Yury Alisevich, Artur 

Klinau, Kanstantsin 

Kastsiuchenka, Viktar 

Piatrou, Dzianis 

Skvartsou 

● Curator Mikhail 

Barazna is key 

here: he set the 

theme of the modern 

interpretation of text 

and graphics, and chose five 

artists who best fulfilled his 

aims. But there is more than 

graphic design: sculpture 

and animation also feature. 

4 Chile 


Exhibition: Grand Sur 

Artist: Fernando Prats 

● Prats casts a fresh eye on 

land art. He often captures 

Chile’s natural extremes— 

its geysers, mountains and 

glaciers—by taking paper 

into the landscape and 

gathering nature’s imprint 

on it. His explorations of his 

homeland’s wide-ranging 

environment continue here. 

9 


ARSENALE 


Monica Bonvicini 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

© THE ARTIST 


Paolo Ventura 

Artist, Italian Pavilion 

● I love the Ospedale SS Giovanni e 

Paolo (p22), which is still a hospital, in 

the centre of Venice. It’s a beautiful old 

palace that was built in the 1400s—it’s so 

strange to see it as a hospital, and all the 

ambulance boats arriving. It’s really absurd. 

● The ghetto of Venice is one of my favourite 

parts of the city. It’s in Cannaregio, and it is 

unbelievable. At one point there were no Jewish 

people there any more, but in the past 20 years 

some have moved back to the ghetto. They have 

opened a lot of kosher shops and it is really 

animated and alive again. 

● To get away from it all, I go to the Jewish 

cemetery, which is at the Lido (p35). It is kind of 

abandoned, but very beautiful, and there is 

nobody there. 

● Alla Vedova in Cannaregio (p16) is the best 

restaurant in Venice. It’s been the same for years. 

It’s not fake or touristy; it’s real…A lot of Venetians 

eat there: a friend of mine from Venice took me 

there the first time. 

● Baccalà mantecato [cream of salt cod] is my 

favourite Venetian dish—it’s blended with milk until 

it becomes creamy and then you put it on bread. 

It’s great with a nice white wine from the Veneto. 

Gampo di Ghetto Nuovo, in the Venetian ghetto 

GIOVANNI DALL’ORTO

ARSENALE 


Croatia: BADco 

5 China, People’s 

Republic of 


Exhibition: Pervasion 

Artists: Yuan Gong, Pan 

Gongkai, Liang Yuanwei, 

Yang Maoyuan, Cai Zhisong 

● Five different approaches 

to smell, from Pan Gongkai’s 

lotus plant paintings 

accompanied by lotus 

blossom scent and Yuan 

Gong’s incense fog, to Cai 

Zhisong’s cotton-covered 

balloon clouds on the lawn 

outside, which accompany 

the tinkling of wind chimes 

with the fragrance of tea. 

6 Croatia 


Exhibition: One Needs to Live 

Self-Confidently...Watching 

Artists: Antonio G. Lauer aka 

Tomislav Gotovac and BADco 

● Lots of media hybridisation 

here. A posthumous 

presentation of Gotovac’s 

experimental films and 

photographs accompanies 

new work by the dance-cumperformance 

art collective 

BADco. It is all linked by a 

questioning of the roles of 

performer and observer. 

7 India 


Exhibition: Everyone Agrees: 

It’s About to Explode 

Artists: Zarina Hashmi, Gigi 

Scaria, Praneet Soi, The 

Desire Machine Collective 

(Sonal Jain, Mriganka 

Madhukaillya) 

● Given Indian art’s recent 

prominence, their first 

official presentation seems 

rather late. It is a diverse 

grouping: Hashmi’s subtly 

political monochrome 

prints are far removed from 

the grand, painted murals of 

Soi and the video 

installations of both Scaria 

and the collaborative Desire 

Machine Collective. 

8 Istituto Italo-Latino 

Americano ★ 


Exhibition: Between Forever 

and Never 

Artists: 

Argentina Leticia El Halli Obeid 

Bolivia Narda Alvarado 

Brazil Neville D’Almeida 

Chile Sebastián Preece 

Colombia Juan Fernando 

Herrán Costa Rica Sila Chanto 

Cuba Reynier Leyva Novo 

Ecuador María Rosa Jijón 

El Salvador Walterio Iraheta 

Guatemala Regina José 

Galindo Haiti Raoul Peck 

Honduras Adán Vallecillo 

Mexico Julieta Aranda 

Nicaragua Rolando Castellón 

Panama Humberto Vélez 

Paraguay Claudia Casarino 

Peru Fernando Gutiérrez 

Domenican Republic David 

Pérez Karmadavis 

Uruguay Martín Sastre 

Venezuela Alexander Apóstol 

Italy Alberto de Agostini 


Italy / Chile Gianfranco 

Foschino Germany / 

Venezuela Christine de la 

Garenne Germany, with the 

community Wichi, Argentina 

Olaf Holzapfel, Mirta, Dionisia, 

Noelia and Luisa Gutiérrez 

Norway / Mexico Björn Melhus 

● Entitled “Between 

Forever and Never”, a quote 

from a poem by the 

Uruguayan writer Mario 

Benedetti, this show is 

dedicated to the Latin 

American Bicentenary of 

Independence, and aptly all 

Latin American countries 

are represented for the first 

time. Among the throng, look 

out for Aranda’s temporal 

subversions, and the gutsy 

performances of Galindo. 

9 Italy 

Padiglione Italia and 

and Giardino delle 

Vergini, Arsenale; 

Tese di San Cristoforo, 

Arsenale Novissimo; plus 

further venues to be confirmed 

Exhibitions: Lo Stato dell’Arte 

nel 150° dell’Unità d’Italia; 

L’Arte non è Cosa Nostra 


200 artists (see panel p11) 

● Mired in controversy, as 

might have been expected 

following the appointment 

of the maverick, and some 

Torre di Porta Nuova 

10 


All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

say reactionary, Vittorio 

Sgarbi as curator, the Italian 

contribution to the biennale 

is sprawling (see right). 

Here in the Arsenale are 220 

artists, each selected by a 

writer, thinker or cultural 

figure. Sgarbi’s title, “Art Is 

Not a Mafia”, illustrates his 

perception that the art 

world is run by an elite club. 

10 Saudi Arabia, 

Kingdom of 


Exhibition: The Black Arch 

Artists: Shadia Alem and 

Raja Alem 

● Sisters Shadia, a visual 

artist, and Raja, a writer, 

present The Black Arch, an 

installation that weaves 

references to their 

home city of Mecca 

together with the 

travels of Marco 

Polo and the 

Moroccan Islamic 

scholar Ibn Battuta. 

11 South Africa ★ 

Torre di Porta Nuova, 

Arsenale Novissimo 

Exhibition: Desire: Ideal 

Narratives in Contemporary 

South African Art 

Artists: Siemon Allen, Lyndi 

Sales, Mary Sibande 

● South Africa’s first official 

presentation for decades 

features Allen’s political 

installations made from 

popular artefacts like 

records and military trading 

cards, Sales’s intricate 

collages and Sibande’s 

subversions of racial and 

gender stereotypes. Set in a 

newly restored tower with 

fantastic rooftop views. 

11 


ARSENALE 


The Italian Pavilion: a controversial vision 

Vittorio Sgarbi, left, was a shock selection as curator of the Italian Pavilion. This 

is what was being planned as we went to press, though some elements may change 

talian Pavilion curator Vittorio 

Sgarbi—critic, historian, I politician and TV presenter—is a 

polemical figure in Italy, acerbically 

critical of most contemporary art 

and of those who promote it. 

Charac teristically, his position 

at the helm of the Italian Pavilion 

has been beset by attacks from his 

detractors, artist refusals, and 

Sgarbi’s own threats to resign due 

to lack of governmental support. 

Rather than simply fill the 

Arsenale’s Italian Pavilion, he has 

conceived of an ambitious, 

sprawling plan to reflect the 

breadth of art being made in Italy 

today, in connection with the 150th 

anniversary of the unification of 

Italy. The project is not limited to 

Venice, but extends into the 

regions of Italy and the wider 

world. There are several elements 

involved, as explained below. 

● L’Arte non è Cosa Nostra: 

Sgarbi’s exhibition crams into 

several Arsenale spaces some 

220 Italian artists, chosen by 

200 intellectuals, thinkers and 

cultural figures: composer Ennio 

Morricone chose expressive 

portrait painter Francesca Leone, 

for example, and several artists 

were selected by photographic 

historian Italo Zannier. Sgarbi 

argues that in asking for such a 

wealth of views, he presents a true 

The Italian Pavilion at the Arsenale 

picture of the current state of 

Italian art, in contrast to what he 

perceives as the narrow selections 

of previous years. Hence his title: 

“Art Is Not a Mafia”. 

● Italian artists abroad: 

Italian Cultural Institutes across 

the world will exhibit works by 

local Italian artists. Each of these 

89 exhibitions will be shown on 

screens in the Arsenale, adding a 

further 229 artists to the mix. 

● Foreign artists in Italy: 

The only part of the Italian 

Pavilion specifically chosen by 

Sgarbi himself features 60 foreign 

artists living and working in Italy, 

including British painter Jenny 

Saville. Full details were 

unconfirmed at press time. 

● Fine Art Academies: 

Twenty art academies across Italy 

have selected 180 students of the 

past ten years, whose work will be 

shown in the Tese di San Cristoforo, 

part of the Arsenale Novissimo. 

● Associated shows: 

A number of further exhibitions 

come under the Italian Pavilion 

banner, including an exhibition of 

David Hockney’s iPad drawings 

and computer prints, a show of 

Elton John’s collection of 

contemporary art, and an 

exhibition pairing Lucian Freud 

with Italian painter Fausto 

Pirandello. Only one such event 

had a confirmed venue as this 

guide went to press: Real Venice 

(p31), a series of new, specially 

commissioned photographs of 

Venice and Venetian life by major 

artists, including Nan Goldin and 

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, shown at 

the Abbey of San Giorgio, that will 

go on sale in November to raise 

money for the Venice in Peril Fund. 

● Regional celebrations: 

Galleries across Italy will show 

the work of 1,400 artists chosen 

by committee to represent the 

breadth of art in the country. 

ROB BOYNES

ARSENALE 



Christian Marclay 

Artist, ILLUMInazioni 

● I first went to Venice with my parents as a child. I remember waking up 

one morning to find the lobby of the hotel submerged in water. Since then 

I’ve not only experienced the acqua alta, but the fog, snow and searing 

heat. My first biennale was in 1978, and I’ve been attending regularly since. 

● I like to snoop around in the old Olivetti store on the Piazza San Marco; it 

was designed by Carlo Scarpa in 1959. It has been a cheesy art gallery for 

years, but I am pleased to see that it has been restored, so that you can properly 

see his eccentric and sensuous use of materials and textures, like bronze and 

marble mashups: it’s minimalist baroque. Throughout Venice you can find 

traces of this Venetian-born architect / designer: the Sculpture Garden in the 

Italian Pavilion and the Venezuelan Pavilion are both from the 1950s. In the 

60s he landscaped the garden at the Querini Stampalia Museum (p22). The 

entrance to the Faculty of Philosophy [University of Venice, Campazzo dei 

Tolentini, Santa Croce 191] was designed in the 70s. He created some of the 

most unusual stairs, and ironically died falling down some—not his own, 

though. Watch your steps and look carefully; Scarpa is all in the details. 

● Venice is a time machine. It transports me to another era and makes me 

forget about the present. On my way to the fish market, I cross the canal on a 

traghetto, taking me back to the 16th century, when the fish and smell must 

have been the same. There is sense of continuity here, which is very comforting. 

● To get away from the crowds I recommend the Cannaregio neighbourhood 

(p14). It’s less touristy and it looks like paintings by De Chirico: open plazas 

with no one around. For an even quieter experience, I take the vaporetto to San 

Michele (p34), the island cemetery, and visit the tomb of Igor Stravinsky. 

● My favourite restaurant is Alle Testiere (p23), but it’s so small that during the 

biennale you need to reserve months in advance. For a quick lunch, I’ll go to Al 

Mascaron (p22). The cicchetti [snacks] are good: the baby octopus is delicious. 

Negozio Olivetti, the Carlo Scarpa-designed ex-Olivetti store just off Piazza San Marco 

12 


12 Turkey ★ 

Artiglierie, Arsenale 

Exhibition: Plan B 

Artist: Ayse Erkmen 

● The Arsenale’s romanticindustrial 

aesthetic is a 

prime site for Erkmen’s 

work—she brings very little 

to the spaces she exhibits in, 

choosing instead to work 

with physical properties to 

be found within the rooms, 

such as light fittings. Here 

she will make a sculptural 

water purification unit that 

pumps drinkable water back 

into the canal. 

www.iksv.org 

www.planb-venicebiennale.com 

13 United Arab Emirates 


Exhibition: Second Time 

Around 

Artists: Reem Al Ghaith, 

Abdullah Al Saadi, Lateefa 

Bint Maktoum 

● Vasif Kortun, the former 

director of the Istanbul 

Biennial, has selected three 

artists who reflect the 

maturing Emirati art scene. 

Maktoum’s manipulated 

photographs recall the 

Pre-Raphaelites, Al Saadi’s 

childlike watercolours 

explore the landscape of the 

UAE, while Al Ghaith’s 

installations document the 

upheaval of his fastchanging 

region. 

14 Cristiano Pintaldi: 

Lucid Dreams 

Ex Cantiere Navale, San 

Pietro di Castello, Castello 40 

Artist: Cristiano Pintaldi 

Organisation: Associazione 

Opera Rebis 

4 Jun-31 Oct 

● Pintaldi presents a 

number of paintings that 

evoke vastly enlarged and 

pixellated screen shots. 

Translating images using the 

RGB colour model of 

computer and video screens, 

Pintaldi questions the 

media’s ability to reflect a 

true picture of the world, 

suggesting that each of us 

construct our own “lucid 

dreams” that we take as 

reality. 

www.operarebis.com 

15 Days of Yi 

Spiazzi (nr Calle del Pestrin), 

Arsenale, Castello 3865 

Artist: Yi Zhou 

Organisation: Museum of 

Contemporary Art, Shanghai 

4 Jun-27 Nov 

● The Yi of the title is Yi 

Zhou, the young Chineseborn 

artist, who has enlisted 

Ennio Morricone to score 

some of her lush, often 

dreamlike multimedia 

projects. The exhibition 

takes a journey through Yi’s 

still relatively brief career, 

and includes The Ear, 2009, 

her surreal animation 

beginning with hip-hop star 

Pharrell Williams lopping 

his ear off. 

www.yizhouvenicebiennale.org 

16 Federico Díaz: 

Outside Itself 

Arsenale Novissimo, Nappa 90 

Artist: Federico Díaz 

Organisation: DOX Centre for 

Contemporary Art 

Until 31 Oct 

● Created by Prague-based 

artist Federico Díaz, this 

installation features a 

computer programme 

telling robots to create a 

sculptural form from 

individual black balls. 

The robots’ activities 

are informed by 

light levels in the 

space, which are 

affected by the time 

of day, but also by the 

volume of visitors and the 

colours of their clothes. 

www.dox.cz 

17 Frog-topia 

Hong-kornucopia 

Campo della Tana, Arsenale, 

Castello 2126 

Artist: Kwok Mang-Ho 

Organisation: Hong Kong 

Arts Development Council 

4 Jun-27 Nov 

● Kwok Mang-Ho, alias Frog 

King, purports to be China’s 

first performance artist. 

Based in Hong Kong, Kwok 

has adopted the frog as his 

symbol and alter ego, which 

he evokes in paintings, 

sculptures and installations 

set in Frog-topia. 

www.venicebiennale.hk 

18 Mobility & Memory 

Campo della Tana, Arsenale, 

Castello 2126/A 

Artists: James Chu 

Cheok Son, Alice Kok, 

João Magalhães and Ana 

Botelho, Edgar Martins 

Organisation: The Macao 

Museum of Art; Civic and 

Municipal Affairs Bureau 

of Macau 

3 Jun-4 Dec 

● The selection reflects 

Macau’s native and colonial 

history, with Portuguese 

photographer Edgar 

Martins and installationists 

Magalhães and Botelho, 

alongside Macau artists 

James Chu Cheok Son, who 

photographs 1970s 

and 80s buildings, 

and Alice Kok, 

whose video 

focuses on Macau’s 

Green Island. 

www.artmuseum.gov. mo 

19 One of a Thousand 

Ways to Defeat 

Entropy ★ 

Nappa 89, Arsenale Novissimo 

Artists: Adrian Ghenie, Hans 

Op de Beeck, Alexander 

Ponomarev, Ryoichi Kurokawa 

Organisations: AVC Charity 

Foundation; the Courtauld 

Institute of Art 

3 Jun-27 Nov 

● Four new commissions 

explore entropy in different 

ways. The Arsenale is a 

prime spot for the aquatic 

installations of the show’s 

curator Ponomarev, a 

13 


ARSENALE 


Frog-topia: Kwok Mang-Ho 

© THE ARTIST 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

Round the Clock: Eva Jospin 

former nautical engineer.. 

Adrian Ghenie’s dark, 

moody paintings offer a nice 

counterpoint to the latest in 

Hans Op de Beeck’s 

desolate “Location” series of 

installations featuring model 

landscapes, while Ryoichi 

Kurokawa creates a new 

digital audiovisual 

environment. 

www.courtauld.ac.uk 

20 Round the Clock ★ 

Spazio Thetis, Arsenale 

Novissimo 

Artists: Group show of 15 

artists including Francesco 

Bocchini, Eva Jospin, Chiara 

Lecca, Svetlana Ostapovici, 

David Rickard, Peter Welz 

Organisation: Di Segno 

in Segno 

1 Jun-30 Oct 

● Hints of arte povera 

abound in this ecologically 

themed show featuring 15 

artists from across Europe 

who use recycling, organic 

materials or starkly oppose 

natural and artificial 

characteristics. Eva Jospin 

creates detailed landscape 

reliefs from cardboard, for 

instance, while Chiara Lecca 

uses animal skins in often 

humorous installations. 

www.biennaleroundthe 

clock.com 

© THE ARTIST

CANNAREGIO 


Cannaregio: secrets worth discovering 

The real life of Venice goes on in this characterful and varied area, which has the city’s nearest 

equivalent to a normal shopping street, but also some of its most fascinating churches and palazzi 

Tintoretto’s house, Cannaregio 


14 

A favourite area of many Venetophiles due to its relative tranquillity and 

rich history, Cannaregio offers a real breadth of Venetian experiences. 

The second largest sestiere after Castello, it sits between the upper part 

of the Grand Canal and the northern lagoon. Some of the finest Grand 

Canal palaces can be found here, and some of the city’s best churches, 

but it is also home to a variety of authentic local areas, including the 

downbeat surrounds of Santa Lucia Station, the busy main “high street” 

Strada Nova and the atmospheric former Jewish ghetto. And the view 

across the lagoon from the Fondamenta Nuove to San Michele, the 

Cemetery Island, provides quintessential Venetian melancholy. 

14 


13 

4 

10 

12 

3 

19 

18 

11 

9 

6 

2 

8 

517 

15 

16 

7 1 

DOMINIC BELL 

1 Georgia 

Palazzo Pisani Santa 

Marina, Calle Delle Erbe, 

Cannaregio 6103/A 

Exhibition: Any-Medium- 

Whatever 

Artist: Tamara Kvesitadze 

● Second time around in 

Venice for Kvesitadze, who 

was also Georgia’s choice in 

2007. She shows a number 

of figurative sculptural mises - 

en-scene, including F=-F, a 

wall of mask-like faces; and 

Relationship, several frescolike 

panels in the late gothic 

Palazzo’s courtyard. 

http://tamarastudio.com/ 

2 Latvia 

Palazzo Albrizzi, 

Canareggio 4118 

Exhibition: 

Artificial Peace 

(Contemporary 

Landscape) 

Artist: Kristaps Gelzis 

● Both a series of paintings 

and an installation: vast fields 

of luminescent paint are lit 

in the darkness with blue 

fluorescent bulbs. For Gelzis, 

the shadows formed by the 

viewer are an integral part of 

the work, and “light becomes 

a kind of emotional binding 

substance between the visitor 

and the artwork”. 

www.biennale.lv 

3 Macedonia, Former 

Yugoslavian Republic of 

Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, 

Calle de la Rachetta, 

Cannaregio 3764 

Exhibition: Zero: the Trailer Files 

Artists: Art Collective Zero 

(Sinisha Cvetkovski, 

Mishko Desovski, Perica 

Georgiev, Gorancho 

Gjorgjievski, Bedi Ibahim, 

Aleksander Stankoski, Igor 

Toshevski, Zlatko Trajkovski) 

Exhibition: Leap 

Artist: Zarko Baseski 

● Two markedly different 

shows at this grand gothic 

palazzo: the experimental, 

arte povera-esque art of the 

Zero Collective, which 

existed between 1985 

and 1992, occupies 

one space; Baseski’s 

monumental grey 

Nietzsche-inspired 

figurative sculptures 

hog the other. 

baseskiatvenice.com 

4 Romania 

Istituto Romeno di Cultura 

e Ricerca Umanistica, 

Cannaregio 2214 (also 

at Giardini, p5) 

Exhibition: Romanian Cultural 

Resolution-documentary 

Artists: Club Electro Putere 

(Adrian Bojenoiu, Alexandru 

Niculescu) and various artists 

● Curators Bojenoiu and 

Niculescu founded cultural 

centre Club Electro Putere 

in Craiova in 2009, and here 

reflect its activities and 

explore developments in 

Romanian art in the postcommunist 

era. Various 

artists will create a new work, 

The Iron Curtain: a Memory 

Box, in September. 

5 Switzerland 

Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, 


Exhibition: Chewing the Scenery 

Artists: Pauline Boudry and 

Renate Lorenz, Tim Zulauf / 

KMUProduktionen 

● Curated by Andrea Thal, 

this multi-faceted project 

consists of two installations 

in the box-like theatre, and 

performances during the 

vernissage and occasionally 

thereafter. Boudry and 

Lorenz’s film installation No 

Future, 2011, riffs on the 

legacy of punk in analysing 

queer and gender politics. 

www.chewingthescenery.net 

6 Future Pass ★ 

Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana, 

Campo Santi Apostoli, 

Cannaregio 4392 (also at 

Abbazia di San Gregorio, 

Dorsoduro 172, p26) 


100 artists including Xu 

Bing, Wim Delvoye, Yayoi 

Kusama, Takashi Murakami 

Organisations: UNEEC 

Foundation for Culture and 

Education; Today Art Museum; 

Wereldmuseum; National 

Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; 

Fondazione Claudio Buziol 

4 Jun-6 Nov 

● Asian-oriented group 

show; see Dorsoduro (p26). 

www.fon dazioneclaudio buziol.org 

CANNAREGIO 


All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

Latvia: Kristaps Gelzis 

15 


© THE ARTIST 

7 Karla Black ★ 

Palazzo Pisani Santa 

Marina, Calle delle Erbe, 


Artist: Karla Black 

Organisation: Scotland + 

Venice 

4 Jun-27 Nov 

● The increasingly 

ambitious Scottish artist 

creates a sequence of all 

new sculptures for this 

rambling 15th-century 

palazzo. Using domestic 

make-up products 

including eye shadow, 

Vaseline and soap and 

unpromising everyday 

materials like cellophane 

and soil, the Turner Prize 

nominee creates an 

amalgam between colour 

field painting and arte 

povera sculpture. 

www.scotlandandvenice.com 

8 Passage 2011: 

an Actionistic, 

Transalpine Drama 

Scuola dell’ Angelo 

Custode,Campo Santi 

Apostoli, Cannaregio 4448 

Artists: GÆG Wolfgang 

Aichner / Thomas Huber 

Organisation: Pilotraum 

01 e. V. 

5 Jun-11 Sep 

● Two Munich-based artists 

will drag a specially 

constructed red boat from 

the Zillertal Alps, Austria, 

over the border into Italy, an 

Alpine reimagining of 

Werner Herzog’s Amazonbased 

“Fitzcarraldo”. After it 

arrives at Lago di Neves, the 

artists will bring the boat by 

road to Venice. Barring any 

catastrophes, that is. 

www.passage2011.org

CANNAREGIO 


9 Pino Pascali: Return 

to Venice / Apulian 

Contemporary Art ★ 

Palazzo Michiel dal Brusà, 

Strada Nova, Cannaregio 

4391/A 

Artist: Pino Pascali plus 

group show of Apulian artists 

Organisation: Fondazione 

Museo Pino Pascali 

1 Jun-1 Aug 

In 1968, Pino Pascali won 

the Venice Biennale 

Sculpture Prize only to die a 

few months later in a 

motorcycle accident. This 

show presents a selection of 

work by the increasingly 

influential arte povera artist, 

including some previously 

unseen works. Also shown is 

a selection of contemporary 

art from the Apulian region. 

www.museopinopascali.it 

10 Jan Fabre: Pietas 

Nuova Scuola Grande di 

Santa Maria della 

Misericordia, Fondamenta 

della Misericordia, 


Artist: Jan Fabre 

Organisations: GAMeC – 

Gallery of Modern and 

Contemporary Art, Bergamo; 

Kunsthistorisches Museum 

of Vienna; State Museum of 

Contemporary Art, 

Thessaloniki 

1 Jun-16 Oct 

● Five typically theatrical 

new marble sculptures by 

the Belgian artist, among 

them a reinterpretation of 

Michelangelo’s Pietà, titled 

Compassionate Dream (Pietà 

V). Fabre gives the figure of 

Christ his own face, while 

Mary’s head becomes a skull. 

To walk among Fabre’s over- 

PS 

“ Not more 

than 10 minutes 

from San Marco 

is a quiet campo 

with the incredibly 

beautiful church of 

Santa Maria dei 

Miracoli 

” 

RICHARD ARMSTRONG 

Director, Solomon 

R. Guggenheim Museum 

and Foundation 

the-top creations, set on a 

gilded podium, visitors must 

first change into slippers. 

www.janfabre.be 

11 Ca’ d’Oro 

(Galleria Franchetti) 

Calle Ca’ d’Oro, Cannaregio 

3933 

● One of the most stunning 

jewels of the many that line 

the Grand Canal, this ornate 

gothic masterpiece takes its 

name from the 24-carat gold 

which studded its exterior. 

Built in the 1420s, it was first 

restored by Baron Giorgio 

Franchetti more than a 

century ago, and houses the 

Baron’s painting collection, 

including Mantegna’s Saint 

Sebastian, 1506. 

www.polomuseale.venezia. 

beniculturali.it 

12 Campo dell’Abbazia 

● Among Venice’s most 

peaceful retreats, this quiet 

backwater is dominated by 

two notable buildings: Santa 

Maria dell’Abbazia della 

Misericordia, a baroque 

church with allegorical 

statues by Clemente Moli, 

and the gothic Scuola 

Vecchia della Misericordia. 

13 Chiesa della 

Madonna dell’Orto 

Campo Madonna dell’Orto, 

Cannaregio 

● A gothic masterpiece to 

rival the Frari, often called 

the Tintoretto church – it 

contains a number of major 

works by the Renaissance 

master. They include a 

fearsome Last Judgement in 

the chancel, close to which is 

Tintoretto’s tomb. 

14 Museo Ebraico 

Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, 

Cannaregio 2902B 

● The Jewish museum in 

the former Venice Ghetto, 

with artefacts from the 17th 

to 19th centuries. Daily tours 

include visits to several of 

the synagogues, elaborate 

chambers hidden within the 

area’s tall tenements. 

www.museoebraico.it 

15 San Giovanni 

Crisostomo 

Campo San Giovanni 

Crisostomo, Cannaregio 

● Small Renaissance church 

whose highlight is Giovanni 

Bellini’s painting of Saints 

Jerome, Christopher and Louis, 

1513, one of his last works. 

16 Santa Maria dei 

Miracoli 

Campo dei Miracoli, 

Cannaregio 

● Known as the “marble 

church”, this fine early 

Renaissance church, built by 

Pietro Lombardo, has a 

coffered ceiling painted with 

prophets’ faces. 

16 


17 Teatro Fondamenta 

Nuove 

Fondamenta Nuove, 


● A rare Venetian bastion of 

contemporary culture, even 

when the biennale isn’t on. 

www.teatrofondamenta 

nuove.it 

18 Alla Vedova 

(aka Ca’ D’Oro) 

Ramo Ca’ D’Oro, (nr Calle 

del Pistor), Cannaregio 3912 

● The best restaurant in 

Venice, according to Italian 

artist Paolo Ventura (see p9): 

a well preserved bacari 

(stand-up bar), serving 

classic “cicchetti” bar snacks, 

including particularly 

delicious meatballs. An 

excellent à la carte menu is 

also served at the tables. 

Tel: +39 041 528 5324 

19 Antica Adelaide 

Calle Larga Doge Priuli, 


● Top local cuisine, 

including superb lobster 

risotto, with some quirky, 

traditional Venetian dishes 

(such as heart and goose) 

and good Italian wines. 

Tel: +39 041 523 2629 

Santa Maria dei Miracoli 



Giardini: Palazzo delle 

Esposizioni (p3) 

Bice Curiger has brought three works 

by Tintoretto into ILLUMInazioni, 

including two of his greatest paintings, 

The Stealing of the Dead Body of St Mark, 

1562-66, from the Accademia, and The 

Last Supper, 1592-94, from San Giorgio 

Maggiore. The latter is awe-inspiring in 

its usual home: Tintoretto clearly 

meant it to be seen from the altar rails 

and adjusted the perspective to place 

the viewer within the work. 

Cannaregio: 

Madonna dell’ Orto (p16) 

Nicknamed the Tintoretto church, the 

artist’s tomb resides here, along with a 

host of paintings. Among the works is a 

remarkable Last Judgement (above), 

which stunned John Ruskin: “By 

Tintoret only has this unimaginable 

event been grappled with in its Verity.” 

T 

17 


CANNAREGIO 

Tintoretto in Venice : a spotter’s guide 

Born and buried in humble Cannaregio, and feted by art lovers from Bice Curiger to John 

Ruskin, ILLUMInazioni guest artist Tintoretto has left his astonishing mark all over Venice 

The Last Judgement, 1562 (detail) 

intoretto had a dramatic, expressive painterly style that earned him 

the nickname “Il furioso”, and he was hugely ambitious, aiming to fuse 

the drawing of Michelangelo with the colouring of Titian. But just as 

crucial was his mind: he matched technical gifts with a conceptual rigour, not 

just in his vivid readings of ancient texts, but in the staging of his paintings. 

Time and again, he created astonishing responses to the context in which 

his works were placed, and it is this feeling for space, a precursor for the 

installation art of today, that lends his work such a contemporary edge. 

It is now believed that he was born Jacopo Comin in 1518, though his 

family name has long been thought to be Robusti, but he was called 

Tintoretto due to his father’s profession—he was a dyer, or tintore. He spent 

his entire life in Venice, and his house in Cannaregio is marked with a 

plaque. Unlike Titian, many of whose greatest works left Venice for the courts 

of Spain and Austria, most of Tintoretto’s paintings remain in his native city. 

He covered vast acres of canvas over his lifetime, so wherever you are in 

Venice, a Tintoretto is never far away: below are some of the best. 

Castello: San Zaccaria (p22) 

Birth of St John the Baptist, late 1550s, is 

relatively restrained Tintoretto, but the 

tumbling angels and ecstatic light still 

reflect his fervent drama. The painting 

may depict the Birth of the Virgin— 

scholars are unsure. 

Dorsoduro: Accademia (p29) 

Several masterpieces here, including 

Miracle of the Slave (1548), a hugely 

dynamic multi-figure composition. It is 

one of a sequence of images in the life 

of Venice’s patron saint St Mark, 

originally painted for the Scuola Grande 

di San Marco, now the city’s hospital. 

Isola di San Giorgio: 

San Giorgio Maggiore (p31) 

Usually the home of Tintoretto’s late, 

great Last Supper, removed to the 

Giardini for the Biennale, this still 

features two important paintings: the 

Gathering of Manna, 1594, and his last 

ever work, The Entombment, 1594, 

finished by his son Domenico. 

San Marco: Doge’s Palace (p40) 

Several Tintorettos are found in the 

rooms of the Venetian state but one 

stands out: Paradise, 1588-92, an 

enormous canvas featuring hundreds 

of figures rising in circular tiers to 

Christ and the Virgin, framed by a 

radiant sky: “the most precious thing 

that Venice possesses,” said Ruskin. 

San Polo: Scuola Grande 

di San Rocco (p45) 

This extraordinary cycle of paintings, 

covering the ceilings and walls, was 

made between 1564 and 1587. Some of 

the artist’s greatest works are here, but it 

is the whole epic endeavour that makes 

it the crucial Tintoretto experience. You 

may need a strong spritz afterwards.

CASTELLO 


Castello: first stop for the biennale 

The biennale’s two main venues are in picturesque Castello, but the area has much more to offer: 

good-value restaurants, the chance to rest in laid-back squares, and some of Venice’s best churches 

Laundry strung over a Castello canal 

13 

30 

4 

9 

24 

15 

3519 

14 

29 

8 22 

26 

12 

21 

34 

27 

6 

10 

11 

31 

ZANA DARK 

7 

37 

28 

Castello is a contradictory area, but especially so during the biennale. 

Its western extremes border on the tourist-filled hubbub of San Marco, 

but it is mostly quiet and residential, especially at the eastern end 

around the Arsenale and Giardini, which suddenly come alive with the 

biennale. But within a short distance of the art venues, you can enter a 

labyrinth of sleepy alleys and laundry-strung canals, punctuated with 

some of Venice’s best—and most peaceful—churches and monuments. 

There is also an abundance of good, untouristy bars and restaurants. 

25 

18 

18 


3 

36 

33 

16 

1 5 17 

32 

20 

23 

2 

1 Bangladesh, 

People’s Republic of 

Gervasuti Fondation, 

Fondamenta Sant’ Anna, 

Castello 995 

Exhibition: Parables 

Artists: Tayeba Begum Lipi, 

Promotesh Das Pulak, 

Imran Hossain Piplu, Kabir 

Ahmed Masum Chisty, 

Mahbubur Rahman 

● Five Dhaka-based artists 

occupy this first official 

Bangladeshi pavilion at the 

Venice Biennale, including 

Lipi and Rahman, husband 

and wife and leading lights 

of the Bangladesh scene. 

Both fuse painting with 

newer disciplines like 

performance art 

and installation, 

often with clear 

references to the 

political, social and 

religious aspects of 

Bangladeshi culture. 

2 Costa Rica 

Sant’Elena, Campo della 

Chiesa 3 

Exhibition: Stupore 

Artists: Luis Chacón, 

Francisco Córdoba, Silvia 

Fossati and Raffaella Rosa 

Lorenzo, Gianfranco Meggiato, 

Gavin Rain, Jaime David 

Tischler, Patrizio Travagli, 

Horst Uhlemann, Alec Von 

Bargen, Luca Zampetti 

● Alongside a number of 

international artists are three 

Costa Ricans. Tischler shows 

a photographic triptych, 

Amidah, 2009, taken at a 

Jewish festival; Chacon shows 

a 20m long red carpet with 

the repeating word “Peace”; 

and Córdoba presents new 

mixed-media painting. 

3 Haiti 

Riva Sette Martiri, Castello 

Exhibition: Death and Fertility 

Artists: Jean Hérard Celeur, 

André Eugène, Claude Saintilus 

Until 28 Jul 

● Held in two shipping 

containers in the red and 

blue of the Haitian flag. It is 

inspired by Gede—the 

family of spirits in Vodou, 

embodying the death and 

fertility of the show’s title. 

4 Haiti ★ 

Fondazione Querini, Santa 

Maria Formosa, Castello 5252 

Exhibition: Haiti Kingdom of 

This World 

Artists: Serge André, 

Elodie Barthelemy, 

Mario Benjamin, 

Maxence Denis, 

Eduard Duval-Carrié, 

Frankétienne, Guyodo, 

Sébastien Jean, Killy,Tessa 

Mars, Pascale Monnin, 

Paskö, Barbara Prézeau, 

Roberto Stephenson, Hervé 

Télémaque, Patrick Vilaire 

Until 31 Jul 

● Survey of recent Haitian 

art: the beleaguered nation 

has a richly inventive visual 

tradition, melding West 

African and Catholic beliefs. 

5 Iraq ★ 

Gervasuti Foundation, 

Fondamenta S. Anna (Via 

Garibaldi), Castello 995 

Exhibition: Wounded Water 

Artists: Adel Abidin, Halim 

Al Karim, Ahmed Alsoudani, 

Ali Assaf, Azad Nanakeli, 

Walid Siti 

● Iraq’s return to the 

biennale reveals two 

generations of artists, all 

now based in the west, fusing 

western art strategies with 

profound responses to the 

turmoil in their country. 

Water is the overarching 

theme, prompting 

metaphors aplenty, 

alongside stark realities: 

the scarcity of water in 

Iraqis’ lives is a thoughtprovoking 

subject. 

www.pavilionofiraq.org 

6 Ireland 

Santa Maria della Pietà, 

Castello 

Artist: Corban Walker 

● Walker has long explored 

architectural space 

mathematically, particularly 

in relation to his own 

19 


CASTELLO 


All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

Iraq: Azad Nanakeli 

“ After a day on my 

PS 

feet I sit at the 

terrace of the 

patisserie Rosa Salva 

on the Campo SS 

Giovanni e Paolo 

(Castello, p23). My 

partner prefers a 

gelato, but I’ll have a 

macchiato and some 

biscotti, and watch 

people go by 

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY 


” 

© THE ARTIST 

dimensions: he is four feet 

tall. He responds to the neoclassical 

Pietà church with 

two vinyl drawings on the 

windows at opposite ends 

and a vast central sculpture 

made from more than 100 

stainless steel cubes. 

www.irelandvenice.ie 

7 Lithuania 

Scuola di San Pasquale 

(San Francesco della Vigna), 

Campo della Confraternita, 

Castello 2786 

Exhibition: Behind the 

White Curtain 

Artist: Darius Miksys 

● Lithuanian cultural policy 

examined. One work by 

each artist given a grant by 

the country’s Ministry of 

Culture sits behind a white 

curtain. From a catalogue, 

visitors choose one, which a 

“curator” then collects from 

behind the curtain. Miksys 

asks if this represents an 

authentic Lithuanian art. 

www.cac.lt 

8 Mexico ★ 

Palazzo Rota Ivancich, 

Castello 4421 

Exhibition: Red Square, 

Impossible Pink 

Artist: Melanie Smith 

● Remarkably, British-born 

Smith, who has lived in 

Mexico for over 20 years, was 

only selected in March of 

this year. Her work therefore 

draws on an ongoing project 

related to British eccentric 

Edward James’s surrealist 

house in Xilitla, Mexico. 

Despite her use of various 

media, Smith’s overarching 

concern is with painting. 

www.mexicobienalde venecia.org

CASTELLO 



Monica Bonvicini 


● Sometimes I like to go and see where I 

spent the first year of my life, before my 

family moved to the Lido. It is a small 

street in quartiere San Leonardo [Cannaregio], 

close to the station: the centre, so to speak, for 

Venetian people. The Communist party was next to 

the apartment where my parents lived; my father 

was not very pleased about it back then. 

● I adore the Scuola Grande di San Rocco (San 

Polo, p45). I have been there at least 15 times and 

I always enjoy it. I love the architecture and the 

way Tintoretto worked with it. There is absolutely 

nothing wrong, everything blends together: the 

marble stairs, the paintings. It is such an 

extraordinary experience to wander around the 

place holding a mirror to help you look at the 

paintings on the ceiling. There is something totally 

contemporary about it. 

● My favourite painting for more than 20 years 

now has been La Nascita by Tintoretto [Nativity or 

Adoration of the Shepherds, 1577-81, Scuola 

Grande di San Rocco]. The perspective; the 

horizontal “cut” of the first floor, brutal and so 

smart; the straw which looks like a carpet from a 

1970s Playboy commercial; the broken ceiling. 

The painting has something apocalyptic and at 

the same time trusting, nursing, calming. 

● To relax, I like to go to Lido (p35), which looks 

like almost any other suburb in Italy, or take a 

walk along the Zattere. 

Scuola Grande di San Rocco, San Polo 

Anton Ginzburg: At the Back of the North Wind 

9 Singapore 

Salone di Ss. Filippo e 

Giacomo del Museo 

Diocesano di Venezia, Castello 

Exhibition: The Cloud 

of Unknowing 

Artist: Ho Tzu Nyen 

● In a project fittingly 

premiered in Venice—the 

crucible of some of the 

greatest paintings of celestial 

skies and dramatic views of 

the heavens—film-maker Ho 

takes on the phenomenon 

of clouds, exploring their 

hallucinatory and 

transcendent capacities, 

informed by Baudelaire and 

Ruskin’s thoughts. 

10 Zimbabwe, 

Republic of 

Santa Maria della Pietà, Calle 

della Pietà, Castello 3701 

Exhibition: Seeing Ourselves 

Artists: Berry Bickle, Calvin 

Dondo, Tapfuma Gutsa, 

Misheck Masamvu 

● Produced with the British 

Council, this presentation 

promises to “lift the silence” 

on contemporary art from 

Zimbabwe. The country’s 

dominant tradition of 

carved sculpture features in 

the work of Gutsa, while 

Dondo is a photographer, 

and both Bickle and 

20 


Masamvu are predominantly 

painters, but experiment 

with other media. 

© THE ARTIST 

11 Anton Ginzburg: 

At the Back of the 

North Wind 

Palazzo Bollani, Castello 3647 

Artist: Anton Ginzburg 

Organisations: Blaffer Art 

Museum at the University of 

Houston; Artpace San Antonio 

1 Jun-27 Nov 

● A multimedia exhibition, 

which Ginzburg calls a 

“dreamscape”, relating to his 

search for the mythical land 

of Hyperborea. It includes 

sculptural installations, bas 

reliefs set in niches originally 

created for Venetian 

paintings, abstract works, 

and a video reflecting the 

artist’s journey from Oregon 

to his native St Petersburg 

and on to the White Sea. 

www.antonginzburg.com 

12 Call the Witness: 

Roma Pavilion 

UNESCO Regional Bureau 

for Science and Culture in 

Europe, Palazzo Zorzi, 

Castello 4930 


20 including: Ferdinant Koci, 

Kiba Lumberg, Aernout Mik, 

Salman Rushdie, George 

Soros, Zelimir Zilnik 

Organisation: Open Society 

Foundations 

1 Jun-9 Oct 

● Following an open call for 

content relating to Roma 

culture in Europe, this 

show’s curators, a group of 

Eastern European artists 

and art historians, have put 

together a “makeshift 

exhibition”. Developing 

across the biennale, the 

show mixes works of art, 

performances, and talks by 

philosophers, artists and 

politicians. 

www.callthewitness.net 

13 Lech 

Majewski / 

Bruegel Suite 

Chiesa di S. Lio, 

Castello 5661 (also at 

Campo San Pantalon, 

Dorsoduro 3711, p26). 

Artist: Lech Majewski 

Organisation: Angelus 

Silesius Society 

● After his earlier film based 

on Bosch, Polish director 

Majewski continues to 

animate the masterpieces of 

the Northern Renaissance in 

a series of works inspired by 

Bruegel’s Way to Calvary. As 

“the old master meets CG 

technology”, Majewski 

attempts to place the viewer 

amid the violence and rich 

atmosphere of Bruegel’s 

visionary epic. Also shown in 

Dorsoduro (p26). 

14 Menglong: Darkness 

Sala San Tommaso, Campo 

San Giovanni e Paolo, 

Castello 

Artists: Jia Aili, Qiu Anxiong, 

Qiu Xiaofei 

Organisation: 

Nanjing 4 Cube 

Museum of 


4 Jun-9 Sep 

● Apocalyptic moods 

dominate the work of the 

three artists here: Jia Aili 

creates grand, expressive 

canvases evoking anxiety at 

man’s technological 

creations, while Qiu 

Anxiong and Qiu Xiaofei 

produce work in varying 

media which explore history 

and memory. 

15 The Heard and 

the Unheard: 

Soundscape Taiwan 

Palazzo delle Prigioni, 

Castello 4209 (sited just at the 

back of San Marco Basilica) 

Artists: Wang Hong-Kai, 

Su Yu-Hsien 

Organisation: Taipei Fine Arts 

Museum of Taiwan 

4 Jun- 27 Nov 

● Two sound installations in 

a relaxed environment 

called Sound Library / Bar. 

In Music While We Work, 

Wang takes retired sugar 

factory workers back to their 

former workplace. Su 

samples the voices of street 

people, from a boatman to a 

homeless person, pointing 

up the individuality of the 

dispossessed. 

http://tfam.museum 

16 Tim Davies ★ 

Ludoteca Santa Maria 

Ausiliatrice, Castello 450 

Artist: Tim Davies 

Organisation: Arts Council 

of Wales 

● New work made following 

a week filming in La 

Serenissima dominates this 

Welsh pavilion. Responding 

to Venetian architecture, 

Davies draws out contrasts 

between light and dark, soft 

and loud, place and 

displacement. He also shows 

new works on paper which 

relate to his ongoing 

sequences of bridges 

isolated from the 

surrounding landscape. 

www.artscouncilofwales.org 

/artsinwales/venice 

17 Memory of Books ★ 

Gervasuti Foundation, 

Fondamenta S. Anna (Via 

Garibaldi), Castello 995 

Artist: Chiharu Shiota 

Organisation: Haunch of 

Venison / Gervasuti Foundation 

2 Jun-10 Sep 

● The Japanese artist weaves 

a web throughout the space 

from strands of black wool, 

evocatively connecting a 

reading table and chair with 

suspended books and pages 

from the library of the 

Gervasuti Foundation. 

www.haunchofvenison.com 

21 


CASTELLO 


PS 

“ I have only been 

there once, but the 

ruins on the island of 

Certosa, where John 

Gerrard did his 

project in summer 

2009, were a total 

surprise to me, and 

a magical place 

” 

ANNE ELLEGOOD 

Senior Curator, 

Hammer Museum; Curator, 

Australian Pavilion 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

Certosa 

Catch line 41/42 for 

a cult venue and film 

Giardini 

S Pietro 

S Elena 

Certosa 

42 

41 

This ex-firing range was a 

hit venue in 2009 for John 

Gerrard. It’s a mere hop 

from Castello: get line 42 

clockwise from S. Pietro or 

41 anti-clockwise from 

Giardini. It’s a request 

stop, so when boarding 

make it clear you want 

Certosa. The Certosa 

Hotel has food and loos. 

Rebel ★ 

Certosa Island 

Artists: James Franco with 

Douglas Gordon, Harmony 

Korine, Paul McCarthy, Ed 

Ruscha and others 

Organisation: MOCA, LA 

1 Jun-6 Nov 

● This site-specific film 

“went viral” in April when 

its co-creator, cult actor 

James Franco, posted a 

curious excerpt on Twitter, 

then removed it soon after. 

A filmic “ode to Hollywood 

iconography”, it was made 

in collaboration with arch 

provocateur Harmony 

Korine and an impressive 

clutch of big-name artists. 

www.moca.org

CASTELLO 


Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo 

18 What Women 

Want(?): Flavio Lucchini 

Riva S. Biagio, Castello 2145 

Artist: Flavio Lucchini 

Organisation: Arte 

Communications; 

Superstudio Group 

1 Jun-27 Nov 

● Creator of countless 

fashion magazines, and now 

predominantly an artist, 

Lucchini addresses the 

controversial theme of the 

burqa. Among the exhibits 

are a mock Vogue cover 

imagining burqas as the 

height of fashion and an 

interactive performance in 

which visitors don burqas 

and are converted into 

imaginary cover stars. 

www.flaviolucchiniart.com 

19 Basilica dei Santi 

Giovanni e Paolo 

Santi Giovanni e Paolo (aka 

S. Zanipolo), Castello 6363 

● This magnificent and vast 

Gothic pile, known as San 

Zanipolo to Venetians, is 

home to a polyptych by 

Giovanni Bellini, several 

Veroneses, a trompe l’oeil 

ceiling by Piazzetta, and the 

tombs of 25 Doges: 

Lombardo’s for Andrea 

Vendramin is the pick. 

20 Chiesa di San Pietro 

di Castello 

Campo San Pietro 70, 

Castello 

● A tranquil spot near the 

Giardini. Probably founded 

in the seventh century, it was 

Venice’s main cathedral until 

1807. Its leaning campanile 

and Baroque high altar by 

Longhena are its most 

notable elements today. 

21 Chiesa di San 

Zaccaria 

Campo San Zaccaria, Castello 

4693 

● Magnificent paintings 

abound in this Renaissance 

church, including a Van Dyck 

Crucifixion, 1622, an early 

Tintoretto and, best of all, 

Bellini’s serene and moving 

altarpiece Madonna and 

Child With Saints, 1505. 

22 Fondazione Querini 

Stampalia / Museo 

Querini Stampalia 

Santa Maria Formosa, 

Castello 5252 

● Numerous notable 

aspects to this Renaissance 

palazzo: Venetian architect 

Carlo Scarpa’s restoration 

downstairs, and upstairs, 

works by Bellini and Tiepolo 

RENAGRISA 

plus many views of 18thcentury 

Venetian life by 

Pietro Longhi. 

www.querinistampalia.it 

23 Giardini di Sant’Elena 

Sant’Elena, Castello 

● A rare calm spot not far 

from the Giardini, at 

Venice’s eastern extreme. 

24 Museo Diocesano di 

Arte Sacra 

Ponte della Canonica, 

Castello 4312 

● A collection of artefacts 

from Venetian churches, 

including carved wooden 

sculptures and charming, 

folkish Madonnas. The 

cloister is a rare burst of the 

Romanesque in Venice. 

www.veneziaubc.org 

25 Museo Storico 

Navale 

Castello 2148 

● Venice’s greatness was 

built on its seafaring 

prowess. Ironically, this 

fascinating old museum, 

right next to the Arsenale, 

was based on the remnants 

of the Republic’s navy found 

by the Austrians in the days 

soon after the end of the 

Republic. Models of various 

boats are highlights. 

26 Ospedale Civile 

SS Giovanni e Paolo 

Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo, 

Castello 6777 

● “I do not know of any 

other city that has such a 

beautiful building as an ER,” 

says artist Monica Bonvicini 

(p20). With a late 15thcentury 

façade, the former 

Scuola Grande di San Marco 

22 


is the city’s hospital. Look 

out for the trompe l’oeil 

panels along the front of the 

building, and watch for 

hospital boats at the back. 

27 Scuola di San 

Giorgio degli Schiavoni 

Calle dei Furlani, Castello 

3259/a 

● Carpaccio’s extraordinary 

early 16th-century cycle of 

paintings is one of Venice’s 

unmissable art experiences. 

The vast friezes include a 

remarkable St George Slaying 

the Dragon. 

28 Al Covo 

Campiello della Pescaria, 

Castello 3968 

● A little pricey, but hugely 

popular, especially for its 

superb fish dishes—and with 

real justification. 

Tel: +39 041 522 3812 

www.ristorantealcovo.com 

29 Al Mascaron 

Calle Larga Santa Maria 

Formosa, Castello 5225 

● Come here for the 

“cicchetti” (bar snacks): 

“The baby octopus is 

delicious”, says artist 

Christian Marclay (p12) 

Tel: +39 041 522 5995 

Ospedale Civile 

SEIER+SEIER 

30 Alle Testiere 

Calle del Mondo Nuovo, 

Castello 5801 

● Creative, popular and tiny 

restaurant. Booking very 

well ahead is essential. 

Tel: +39 041 522 7220 

www.osterialletestiere.it 

31 Da Remigio 

Calle Bosello, nr Scuola San 

Giorgio dei Greci, Castello 

3416 

Tricky to find, this reasonably 

priced Trattoria keeps things 

simple, but its tasty Adriatic 

classics are done well. 

Tel: +39 041 523 0089 

32 Hostaria da Franz 

Fondamenta San Giuseppe, 

Castello 754 

● Family-run restaurant 

with excellent antipasti and 

thrillingly fresh seafood. Try 

to get a place outside next to 

the canal in good weather. 

Tel: +39 041 522 0861 

www.hostariadafranz.com 

33 Il Nuovo Galeon 

Via Garibaldi, Castello 1308 

● A real locals’ haunt, with a 

nautical theme and seats 

outside overlooking the 

Garibaldi park. Crispy fried 

seafood is the speciality. 

Tel: +39 041 520 4656 

34 Metropole Hotel 

Riva degli Schiavoni, 

Castello 4149 

● Classic views over to San 

Giorgio from the eclectically 

decorated Oriental bar. 

Tel: +39 041 520 5044 

www.hotelmetropole.com 

35 Pasticceria 

Rosa Salva 

Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo, 

Castello 6401 

● A great place to stop in 

this lovely square; the ice 

cream is famously good. 

Tel: +39 041 5227949 

36 Ristorante 

Giorgione 

Via Garibaldi, Castello 1533 

● Friendly family restaurant, 

with grilled fish a speciality. 

A bit of a hot spot with 

visiting celebs and artists. 

Tel: +39 041 522 8727 

www.ristorantegiorgione.it 

37 Trattoria Corte 

Sconta 

Calle del Pestrin, Castello 3886 

● No wonder the art crowd 

loves it: smackingly fresh 

dishes presented with 

colourful arty flourishes. 

Tel: +39 041 522 7024 

23 


CASTELLO 


PS 

“ Campo San Pietro 

is one of the most 

peaceful places in 

Venice. People 

spending time there 

are mostly locals, 

playing with their 

children, reading 

newspapers or books, 

or simply sitting on 

the benches and 

enjoying the quiet 

” 

IWAN WIRTH 

President, Hauser & Wirth 

Campo S. Pietro, Castello 

DIDIER DESCOUENS 

San Servolo 

The home of Venice International University 

(VIU), this island is on line 20 from S. Zaccaria 

20 

S Servolo 

S Zaccaria 

Cuba 

Caserma Cornoldi, San Servolo 

Exhibition: Cuba mon amour 

Artists: Alexandre Arrechea, 

Alessandro Busci, Yoan 

Capote, Felipe Cardeña, 

Duvier Del Dago, Giorgio 

Ortona, Alessandro Papetti, 

Eduardo Ponjuàn, Desiderio 

● This fusion of Cuban 

artists and Italians overseen 

by Italian Marxist scholar 

Duccio Trombadori is, like 

so many of the group shows, 

a sprawling selection. Pick is 

Arrechea, a former member 

of the Cuban collective Los 

Carpinteros, who has a 

surreal take on industrial 

and urban architecture. 

Syrian Arab Republic 

Caserma Cornoldi, San Servolo 

Exhibition: Evolutions 

Artists: Sabhan Adam, Bernard 

Aubertin, Talal al Abballa, 

Nemat Badawi, Beppe Bonetti, 

Ivan Lardschneider, Renato 

Mambor, Piero Mottola, Salvo 

Pastorello, Nizar Sabour, 

San Servolo island 

S Servolo 

Rima Salamoun, Pg-Slis 

● As with the last biennale, 

Syria chooses to reflect its 

artists alongside European 

painters and sculptors. But 

while the media are tightly 

restricted, styles vary 

hugely between the 12 

artists: abstraction and 

figuration, monochrome 

and colour, minimalism and 

expressiveness all feature. 

OPEN 14. International 

Exhibition of Sculptures 

and Installations 

San Servolo Island (also at 

Venice Lido, p35) 

Artists: to be announced 

1 Sep-2 Oct 

● This large annual open 

art competition is timed to 

coincide with the Venice 

Film Festival, but overlaps 

with the biennale, taking 

place in various spots on the 

Lido and San Servolo. 

Details of artists were not 

confirmed at press time. 

www.artecommunications.com

DORSODURO 


Dorsoduro: where ancient meets modern 

The bohemian heart of Venice, Dorsoduro runs from car-parks in the east to the venerable Salute 

in the west, with a labyrinth of pretty byways in between—plus major galleries of art old and new 

Santa Maria della Salute, Dorsoduro 

24 

2 

22 

6 

5 

1 

16 

JAMES & VILIJA 

30 

3319 

If one sestiere can be said to encapsulate all that Venice offers, 

Dorsoduro is it. At its western end it is as unromantic as the city gets, 

with docks, modern buildings, and the last bastion of cars. Yet its 

eastern extreme is blessed with some of the ultimate Venetian 

attractions: from historic geniuses at the magnificent Accademia, to 

modern masters at the Guggenheim, and from the baroque splendour 

of the Salute church to François Pinault’s contemporary art spectacles 

in the Dogana. It also has some of the choicest Grand Canal palazzi. 

Elsewhere, in quiet, residential areas or amid the day and night throng 

of Campo Santa Margherita, are some of the city’s best restaurants. 

14 

33 

3 

24 


11 

7 

23 

36 

10 

31 

32 

26 25 

4 

13 20 27 

9 

12 

27 29 21 

8 

15 17 

36 

18 

DOMINIC BELL 

1 Armenia, Republic of 

Palazzo Zenobio, Fondamenta 

del Soccorso, Dorsoduro 2596 

Exhibition: Manuals: 

Subjects of New Universality 

Artists: Mher Azatyan, 

Grigor Khachatryan, 

Astghik Melkonyan 

● Three artists grounded in 

conceptual art explore the 

“social, economic, and 

political turmoil” of post- 

Soviet Armenia. Melkonyan 

has drawn a map of everyday 

Armenian concerns, while 

Azatyan’s photographs 

document small gestures for 

surviving the modern world 

and Khachatryan mockingly 

explores the machinations 

of power. 

www.biennale.am 

2 Iceland ★ 



Exhibition: Under 

Deconstruction 

Artists: Libia Castro, 

Ólafur Ólafsson 

● The witty, collaborative 

duo, she from Spain, he 

from Iceland, show videos of 

two performances in the 

pavilion, including a recent 

Venetian event in which a 

gondolier sang “Your 

Country Doesn’t Exist” while 

sailing the city’s canals. The 

song will also be broadcast in 

a public space throughout 

the biennale. 

www.icelandicartcenter.is 

3 Moldova, Republic of 

Antico Squero San Trovaso, 

Dorsoduro 1097 (also at 

Galleria d’Arte III Millennio, 

San Marco, p38) 

Exhibition: Transnistria 

Artists: Group Moë (Aliona 

Kosonova, Igor Avramenko, 

Mark Verlan) 

● A collaboration between 

fashion designer Kosonova 

and artists Avramenko and 

Verlan in the picturesque 

gondola boatyard. 

4 New Zealand 

Palazzo Loredan dell’ 

Ambasciatore, Calle dei 

Cerchieri, Dorsoduro 

Exhibition: On First Looking 

into Chapman’s Homer 

Artist: Michael Parekowhai 

● First biennale appearance 

for this grand 15th-century 

palazzo. It houses 

Parekowhai’s sculptural 

mise-en-scene inspired by a 

Keats poem, and featuring 

two bulls on grand pianos, 

all cast in bronze. Another, 

intricately carved piano will 

be played throughout—its 

music is the key to the piece, 

Parekowhai says. 

www.nzatvenice.com 

5 Anastasia 

Khoroshilova: Starie 

Novosti (Old News) ★ 

Biblioteca Zenobiana del 

Temanza, Centro Studi e 

Documentazione della Cultura 

Armena, Corte Zappa, 

Dorsoduro 1602 

Artist: Anastasia Khoroshilova 

Organisation: Moscow 

Museum of Modern Art 

2 Jun-17 Nov 

● Nine almost-lifesize 

photographic lightboxes 

each feature portraits of 

mothers who lost their 

children in the 2004 

massacre at Beslan, 

North Ossetia. 

Khoroshilova shows 

the portraits alongside 

news footage, contrasting 

the rawness of the women’s 

memory of the event with 

the mass media’s speedy 

movement on to other news. 

www.mmoma.ru 

6 ArtSway’s New 

Forest Pavilion ★ 



Artists: Gayle Chong Kwan, 

Dave Lewis, Hew Locke, 

Mike Marshall, Christopher 

Orr, Sophy Rickett 

Organisation: ArtSway 

4-26 Jun 

25 


DORSODURO 


Iceland: Castro & Ólafsson 


PS 

“ The best way 

to relax in Venice is 

to get up very early 

in the morning. 

I like to go to Caffè 

Rosso in Campo 

Santa Margherita 

(Dorsoduro, p29). 

It’s a very low-key 

cafe where you can 

sit with a coffee and 

prepare yourself for 

the day to come 

IWAN WIRTH” 


All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

ArtSway: Dave Lewis 

● Following a successful 

formula from the last 

biennale, ArtSway has 

commissioned new work by 

six contrasting artists, 

through which consistent 

themes of landscape, 

ecology and nationhood 

emerge. Hew Locke creates 

a plywood palace with a 

pattern of cut-out stars, 

while Christopher Orr shows 

new, typically intense 

paintings. 

www.artsway.org.uk 

7 Barry X Ball: Portraits 

and Masterpieces 

Ca' Rezzonico— 

Museo del Settecento 

veneziano, 

Fondamenta 

Rezzonico 3136 

Artist: Barry X Ball 


Musei Civici di Venezia 

4 Jun-11 Sep 

● Around 20 installations by 

the American sculptor who 

uses unusually patterned, 

computer-lathed marble. In 

his “Masterpiece” series he 

reworks and subtly enhances 

two baroque sculptural busts 

from the Ca’Rezzonico 

collection, while in 

“Portraits” he applies the 

technique to sculptures of 

art world luminaries such as 

Matthew Barney. 

www.museiciviciveneziani.it 

© THE ARTIST

DORSODURO 


8 Catalonia and 

the Balearic Islands 

at Venice: Mabel 

Palacin: 180º 

S.a.L.E. Docks, Magazzino del 

Sale n.2, Zattere, Dorsoduro 265 

Artist: Mabel Palacin 

Organisation: Institut 

Ramon Llull 

4 Jun-30 Oct 

● Palacin has created films 

and photographs at specific 

Venetian locations that 

explore the relationship 

between the camera, the 

subject of the image and the 

viewer. The film is based on 

the “180° rule” in filmmaking, 

dictating where 

characters should appear in 

shots so as to aid the viewer’s 

reading of a narrative. 

www.llull.cat 

www.mabelpalacin180.cat 

9, 10 Cracked Culture? 

/ The Quest for Identity 

in Contemporary 

Chinese Art ★ 

9 Convento del Santo Spirito, 

Rio Terà S. Vio, Dorsoduro 460 

10 Palazzo Giustinian 

Recanati, Dorsoduro 1012 

Artists: Group show, artists 

to be announced 

Organisation: Guangdong 

Museum of Art 

1 Jun-15 Sep 

● An attempt to restore a 

balance in current western 

perceptions of Chinese art, 

presented across two venues. 

Organised by Guangdong 

Museum of Art, its aim is to 

present an “authentic face” 

of the Chinese scene, one 

which is less skewed by the 

particular tastes of western 

collectors and curators. 

www.gdmoa.org 

Catelonia: Mabel Palacin 

11 Dmitri Prigov 

Università Ca’ Foscari, Calle 

Foscari, Dorsoduro 3246 

Artist: Dmitri Prigov 

Organisation: The State 

Hermitage Museum; 

Hermitage 20/21 Project for 


1 Jun-15 Oct 

● Posthumous survey of the 

Moscow poet and artist, who 

died in 2007, based on the 

archive donated to the 

Hermitage, St Petersburg, 

last year. A leading Moscow 

conceptualist, Prigov created 

graphic, often text-based 

drawings and installations. 

Previously unexhibited 

environments, realised 

according to Prigov’s 

sketches, are included here. 

www.hermitage-prigov.com 

12 Future Pass ★ 

Abbazia di San Gregorio, 


Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana, 

Campo Santi Apostoli, 

Cannaregio 4392, p15) 


100 artists including Xu 

Bing, Wim Delvoye, Yayoi 

Kusama, Takashi Murakami, 

Yoshitomo Nara, Phunk 

Studio, Shahzia Sikander 

Organisations: UNEEC 

Foundation for Culture and 

© THE ARTIST 

Education; Today Art Museum; 

Wereldmuseum; National 

Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; 

Fondazione Claudio Buziol 

4 Jun-6 Nov 

● Dominated by Asian art 

plus a sprinkling from the 

wider world, this two-venue 

show analyses dominant 

strains in Asian art, with an 

emphasis on digital technology 

and the cross-pollination of 

artistic disciplines. 

www.fon dazioneclaudio buziol.org 

13 Glasstress 2011 

Wake Forest University 

(garden), Dorsoduro 699 

(also at Istituto Veneto di 

Scienze Lettere ed Arti, San 

Marco, p39; and Berengo 

Centre for Contemporary Art 

and Glass, Murano, p35) 


50 artists across three sites 

including Barbara Bloom, 

Tony Cragg, Kendell Geers, 

Zaha Hadid, Vik Muniz, Tony 

Oursler, Thomas Schütte, 

Pharrell Williams, Erwin 

Wurm, Huan Zhang 


Arts and Design (MAD) 

4 Jun-27 Nov 

● Installation in the garden 

of the US university’s 

Venetian outpost, housed in 

a 19th-century ex-US 

consulate. See San Marco 

entry (p39) for full details. 

www.glasstress.org 

14 Lech Majewski / 

Bruegel Suite 

Campo San Pantalon, 


Chiesa di San Lio, Castello 

5661, p21) 

Artist: Lech Majewski 

Organisation: Angelus 

26 


Silesius Society 

4 Jun-27 Nov 

● Polish film director 

animates Bruegel; see 

Castello (p21) for details. 

15 The Future of 

a Promise ★ 

Magazzino del Sale n. 5 , 

Zattere, Dorsoduro 

2 Jun-20 Nov 

Artists: Group show of over 20 

artists including Kader Attia, 

Yto Barrada, Abdulnasser 

Gharem, Mona Hatoum, Emily 

Jacir, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, 

Ayman Yossri Daydban 

Organisation: Edge of Arabia 

Yto Barrada 

● The Saudi-based Edge of 

Arabia initiative, which has 

toured shows of Saudi art 

across the world, here joins 

forces with the Abraaj 

Capital Art Prize, the annual 

prize for Middle Eastern, 

North African and South 

Asian art. It focuses on 

artists’ responses to the Arab 

world’s speedily-evolving 

geopolitical issues, and 

includes some big names in 

its diverse international mix. 

www.thefutureofapromise.com 

16 Venice in Venice: 

Glow and Reflection— 

Venice California Art 

from 1960 to the Present 

Palazzo Contarini dagli 

Scrigni, Dorsoduro 1057/C 

© THE ARTIST 


40 artists including John 

Baldessari, Vija Celmins, 

Judy Chicago, Joseph 

Cornell, Mary Corse, David 

Hockney, Dennis Hopper, 

John McCracken, Ed 

Ruscha, James Turrell 

Organisation: Foundation 20 21 

4 Jun-31 Jul 

● After a ten-year 

restoration, this palazzo is 

unveiled with an exhibition 

of Californian art and artists, 

including some emblematic 

depictions of the Golden 

State, including a Hockney 

swimming pool and 

Ruscha’s Standard gas 

station. New 

commissions by LA 

artists Doug 

Wheeler and Ron 

Cooper also feature 

in this well-installed 

Palazzo Fortuny-style 

extravaganza. 

www.2021.org 

www.nyehaus.com/ veniceinvenice 

17 Anselm Kiefer: 

Salt of the Earth ★ 

Magazzini del Sale, 

Dorsoduro 266 

Artist: Anselm Kiefer 


Emilio e Annabianca Vedova 

1 Jun-30 Nov 

● The former salt stores for 

the Venetian Republic are 

the ideal venue for Kiefer’s 

brooding work—they even 

resemble his early paintings 

of brick-built halls. The 

German presents all new 

work, curated by Germano 

Celant, and is ever-sensitive 

to his site: the centrepiece is 

a metal structure from which 

hang landscape photographs 

on lead treated with salt. 

www.fondazionevedova.org 

18 Emilio Vedova: 

…In Continuum ★ 

Studio Vedova, Dorsoduro 50 

Artist: Emilio Vedova 


Emilio and 

Annabianca Vedova 

1 Jun-30 Nov 

● A monumental 

suite of 116 black 

and white paintings 

by the late Venetian 

abstract artist, shown here in 

the extraordinary 16thcentury 

boatyard in which 

Vedova painted them. He 

fused an expressive response 

to his emotions with a 

sensitivity to the ebb and 

flow of the lagoon, and its 

reflections of the decaying, 

melancholy city. Curated by 

Germano Celant in tandem 

with the Anselm Kiefer 

show, above. 

www.fondazionevedova.org 

19 Enrico David: 

Repertorio Ornamentale 

Palazzetto Tito, Dorsoduro 

2826 

Artist: Enrico David 

Organisation: Bevilacqua La 

Masa Foundation 

1 Jun-25 Sep 

● A new body of work by 

David, amazingly his first 

solo show in his native Italy. 

Based on a recent residency 

in the Stiftung Laurenz 

Haus, Basel, David’s latest 

work takes full advantage of 

Venice as a space of opulent 

interior decoration, but his 

often macabre paintings and 

sculptures also fit snugly with 

the city’s crumbling glory. 

www.bevilacqualamasa.it 

27 


DORSODURO 


Magazzini del Sale 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

ALICE 

Enrico David 

© THE ARTIST 

20 Ileana Sonnabend: 

an Italian Portrait ★ 

Peggy Guggenheim Collection, 

Dorsoduro 704 

Artists: Group show including 

Bernd & Hilla Becher, Lucio 

Fontana, Candida Höfer, 

Robert Morris, Mario Merz, 

Michelangelo Pistoletto, 

Mimmo Rotella, Cy Twombly 

Organisation: The Solomon 

R. Guggenheim Foundation 

29 May-2 Nov 

● Despite being a Paris and 

New York gallerist, Ileana 

Sonnabend had a strong 

connection with Italy and a 

great passion for the 

country’s art. She discovered 

Michelangelo Pistoletto very 

early in his career, for 


Mark Wallinger 

Artist 

● Nothing touches the sight of a 

flooded St Mark’s at dusk. You feel 

suspended in a different medium. 

● My favourite works of art in Venice are the 

Carpaccios in the Dalmation School [Scuola 

di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni] (p22). 

● My favourite restaurant is Corte Sconta (p23). 

● What is strangely relaxing is to get away from 

the pedestrians and go to the Lido (p35) to smell 

the petrol and sun cream. 

Piazza San Marco when flooded 

BEA2.0

DORSODURO 


instance. He and other arte 

povera artists are leading 

figures here, alongside 

Italian modern masters and 

a smattering of international 

greats. 

www.guggenheim-venice.it 

21 In Praise of Doubt ★ 

Punta della Dogana, 

Fondamenta della Dogana 

alla Salute, Dorsoduro 2 


artists including Adel 

Abdessemed, Maurizio 

Cattelan, Roni Horn, Donald 

Judd, Jeff Koons, Paul 

McCarthy, Julie Mehretu, 

Bruce Nauman, Sigmar 

Polke, Elaine Sturtevant, 

Tatiana Trouvé, Chen Zhen 

Organisation: The François 

Pinault Foundation 

Until 31 Dec 2012 

● The second biennale 

showcase for François 


Iwan Wirth 


● Whenever I’m in Venice, I always go to 

the Gallerie dell’Accademia (p29) to see 

Giorgione’s masterpiece, La Tempesta. 

● One of my favourite places is the Scala del 

Bovolo, an open stairway behind the Palazzo 

Contarini del Bovolo [Calle delle Scale, San 

Marco 4737]. It reminds me of a Monika 

Sosnowska sculpture! Although you can’t go 

inside (it’s currently closed for restoration), it’s an 

incredible sight to see. 

● My favourite place to eat in the city is the Antica 

Locanda Montin (p29), close to Accademia. It’s an 

authentic trattoria with a great courtyard, far 

removed from the centre of town. I don’t think 

anything about it has changed since it first 

opened, and the food is unbelievable. 

The Scala del Bovolo, San Marco 

ADRIANO 

Pinault’s collection in Tadao 

Ando’s remarkable 

converted customs house 

contains a similar balance of 

bombastic bling and more 

subtle works, with plenty of 

showstopping moments, 

from Paul McCarthy and 

Maurizio Cattelan among 

others, and new commissions 

from Julie Mehretu and 

Tatiana Trouvé. 

www.palazzograssi.it 

22 The Mediterranean 

Approach 

Palazzo Zenobio, Dorsoduro 

2598 


artists including Ghada 

Amer, Marie Bovo, Isaac 

Julien, Huseyin Karabey, 

Ange Leccia, Adrian Paci, Gel 

Weinstein, Peter Wuethrich 

Organisation: Art for the World 

1 Jun-31 Jul 

Ghada Amer 

● Artists from across the 

Mediterranean and beyond 

address the particular 

geopolitical and cultural 

issues of this “crossroads of 

peoples and languages… 

and gateway to the east”. 

Venice, so often a link 

between east and west, is the 

ideal location. 

www.artfortheworld.net 

28 


© THE ARTIST 

Chiesa di San Sebastiano 

23 Ca’Rezzonico, 

Museo del Settecento 

Veneziano 

Fondamenta Rezzonico, 


● Vast baroque palace that is 

now a museum of 18thcentury 

Venice. All the great 

painters of the era are here: 

Tiepolo, Guardi, Longhi and 

Canaletto. The ballroom, 

which runs the length of the 

building, is the highlight of 

the opulent interiors. 



Sebastiano 

Campo San Sebastiano, 

Dorsoduro 

● Some of Veronese’s 

greatest paintings decorate 

this Renaissance church, 

most notably his altarpiece, 

ceiling paintings and organ 

panels. Veronese was also 

buried here: his tomb is next 

to the organ. 

25 Galleria Cini 

Piscina del Forner, 

Dorsoduro 864 

● Gallery based on the 

collection of Vittorio Cini, 

which features decorative 

objects from across the world 

DIDIER DESCOUENS 


and a stunning collection of 

Tuscan Renaissance paintings, 

by Botticelli and Piero di 

Cosimo among others. 

www.cini.it 

26 Gallerie 

dell’Accademia 

Campo della Carità, 


● The main historical gallery, 

featuring many of Venice’s 

greatest paintings: several 

Bellini works, Carpaccio’s 

Cycle of Saint Ursula, 1490- 

96, Giorgione’s Tempest, 

1507, Titian’s Presentation of 

the Virgin, 1538, and Pietà, 

1576, and Veronese’s Feast in 

the House of Levi, 1573, are 

just the tip of the iceberg. 

www.gallerieaccademia.org 

27 Peggy Guggenheim 

Collection 

Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, 

Dorsoduro 701 

● Excellent collection of 

European and US modernist 

painting and sculpture 

formed by the American 

collector. Includes major 

works by Braque, Brancusi, 

De Chirico, Mondrian and 

Pollock, among many others. 

Fantastic views from the 

terrace over the Grand Canal 

and down to the Bacino of 

San Marco. (See p27 for the 

biennale season show.) 

www.guggenheim-venice.it 

28 San Nicolò dei 

Mendicoli 

Campo San Nicolò, 


● This church at the city’s 

relatively remote western 

extreme is much loved by 

Venetophiles. Unlike other 

Peggy Guggenheim Collection 

churches, it has kept its 13thcentury 

Veneto-Byzantine 

form, and represents a 

fascinating glimpse of the 

medieval city. Inside, among 

the most notable elements is 

a 15th-century wooden 

sculpture of San Nicolò. 

29 Santa Maria 

della Salute 

Campo della Salute, 

Dorsoduro 

● Aka the Salute—shining 

beacon of many of Turner’s 

most atmospheric Venetian 

views. This baroque bastion 

was commissioned in thanks 

for deliverance from the 

plague in 1630, but not 

completed until 1687. Some 

much earlier paintings are 

inside, including several 

San Nicolò dei Mendicoli 

ALEXANDRE GACON 

Titians: look for dramatically 

foreshortened depictions of 

Cain and Abel and David and 

Goliath, both 1540s. 

30 Caffè Rosso 

Campo Santa Margherita, 


● Unassuming, even shabby 

little café. Recommended by 

gallerist Iwan Wirth as a 

place to charge yourself up 

with coffee ready for a 

demanding biennale day. 

Tel: +39 041 528 7998 

31 Cantinone del Vino 

“Già Schiavi” 

Fondamenta Nani, 

Dorsoduro 992 

● A popular and authentic 

bacaro where you stand at 

the counter to sample cheap 

and tasty cicchetti with a 

before-dinner drink. In fact, 

the snacks are so good, you 

may want to linger. 

Tel: +39 041 523 0034 

32 La Rivista 

Rio Terà Antonio Foscarini, 

Dorsoduro 979 

● In the Hotel Ca’Pisani, 

between the Grand and 

Giudecca canals. Strange 

modern interior, especially 

29 


DORSODURO 

JOHNRIV 

in the basement: like being 

on an art deco liner. 

Tel: +39 041 240 1425 

www.restaurantlarivista.com 

33 Locanda Montin 

Fondamenta delle Eremite, 


● Has a lovely courtyard in 

which to enjoy traditional 

Venetian fare. 

Tel: +39 041 522 7151 

www.locandamontin.com 

34 Ristorante La Bitta 

Calle Lunga de San Barnaba, 

Dorsoduro 2753a 

Tired of cuttlefish in ink and 

baccalà mantecato? La Bitta 

takes a rare carnivorous 

approach in seafood-centric 

Venice. Specialities include 

that other Venetian classic, 

calf’s liver and polenta. 

Tel: +39 41 523 0531 

35 Ristorante 

Lineadombra 

Ponte dell’Umilta, 

Dorsoduro 19 

● Richard Armstrong of the 

Guggenheim recommends 

this restaurant tucked away 

behind the Salute (p32). 

Spectacular views, and 

modernised versions of 

Venetian classics, such as 

tuna tartare. 

Tel: +39 041 241 1881 

www.ristorantelinea dombra.com 

36 Taverna San Trovaso 

Fondamenta Priuli, 


● Old-fashioned local 

restaurant, with lovely 

seafood pastas. Gets very 

busy, so book ahead. 

Tel: +39 041 520 3703 

www.tavernasantrovaso.it

GIUDECCA & SAN GIORGIO 


Giudecca & San Giorgio: postcard views 

Bookended by a pair of extrordinary towers built several centuries apart, home to both prisoners 

and celebrities, and graced with not one but two Palladian gems, these quiet islands are unmissable 

San Giorgio Maggiore 

12 

1 Albania 

Spazio Rolak, Giudecca 211/b 

Exhibition: Geopathies 

Artists: Anila Rubiku, Orion 

Shima, Gentian Shkurti, 

Eltjon Valle, Driant Zeneli 

● A real mixed bag in this 

new space among the old 

industrial buildings on the 

Giudecca: Shima is a 

figurative painter, Rubiku is 

best known for fantastical 

and phallic embroidery and 

drawings, while Shkurti, 

Zeneli and Valle are new 

media dabblers. 

SHEM2007 

2 I Miss My Enemies 

Sala del Camino, Campo San 

Cosmo, Giudecca 621 

Artists: Group show including 

Babi Badalov, Jota Castro, 

Roberto Cuoghi, Marc Vincent 

Kalinka, Adrian Paci 

Organisation: The Palaces of 

the Russian Museum 

Restoration Fund 

4 Jun-3 Jul 

● A quirky 

premise: artists 

have been asked to 

focus on imaginary 

enemies of their childhood, 

Two of Palladio’s greatest achievements sit on these neighbouring 

islands. San Giorgio Maggiore is picture postcard Venice, set directly 

opposite Piazza San Marco, while the Redentore on Giudecca is a 

gleaming white beacon looking over the wide Giudecca canal to central 

Venice. Long and narrow Giudecca has plenty of other attractions, 

including a prison and one of Elton John’s abodes, plus a smattering of 

restaurants, but its western tip was formerly an industrial area, only 

recently emerging from dereliction. Each island offers stunning views 

of central Venice from a lofty tower: the panorama from the top of San 

Giorgio’s campanile has been enjoyed for centuries, but the vista from 

atop ex-factory Molino Stucky is one of Venice’s newer spectacles. 

11 

14 14 

9 

2 

14 

13 

or objects, real or imagined, 

of their enmity today, partly 

to demonstrate that 

acknowledging hatred can 

be the first step towards 

reconciliation. Two leading 

artists on the Italian scene, 

Adrian Paci and Roberto 

Cuoghi, feature. 

http://palaces-fund.ru 

/en_index.php 

3 Modernikon: 

Contemporary 

Art from Russia ★ 

Casa dei Tre Oci, Giudecca 43 

30 


1 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

10 

3 

4 5 6 

7 

8 

DOMINIC BELL 


artists including Viktor 

Alimpiev, Dmitri Gutov, Iced 

Architects, Anna Parkina, 

Pavel Pepperstein 

Organisations: Fondazione 

Sandretto Re Rebaudengo; 

Victoria—The Art of Being 

Contemporary 

31 May-25 Sep 

● A survey of recent Russian 

art in this strange and 

recently-restored neo-gothiccum-art 

nouveau palazzo 

with three “eyes” (actually 

windows). With Francesco 



San Giorgio Maggiore 

The vista from San Marco to this island is one of the definitive Venetian views, immortalised by 

artists including Canaletto, Turner and Monet. Home to a Benedictine monastery and Palladio’s 

Renaissance basilica with its elegant campanile, it is also hosting three important biennale shows 

4 Real Venice ★ 

Officina dell’Arte Spirituale, 

Abbey of San Giorgio (next to 

the Cini Foundation) 

Artists: Lynne Cohen, Philip- 

Lorca diCorcia, Antonio 

Girbés, Nan Goldin, Pierre 

Gonnord, Dionisio Gonzalez, 

Candida Höfer, Tiina Itkonen, 

Mimmo Jodice, Tim Parchikov, 

Matthias Schaller, Jules 

Spinatsch, Robert Walker, 

Hiroshi Watanabe 

Organisation: The Venice 

in Peril Fund 

4 Jun-30 Sep 

● The Venice in Peril Fund 

has invited numerous top 

photographers, curated by 

Elena Foster, to immortalise 

the city—the first time that 

contemporary artists have 

been commissioned to 

create an exhibition about 

Venice for the biennale. The 

results, shown under the 

umbrella of Vittorio Sgarbi’s 

wide-ranging Italian 

Pavilion (p11), are 

Real Venice 

© HIROSHI WATANABE 

impressively diverse: from 

Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s 

Turner-esque views of the 

Lagoon, through Robert 

Walker’s lurid Venetian Apron 

Suite featuring comedy 

tourist aprons, to Candida 

Höfer’s sumptuous, precise 

images of interiors of the 

Fenice theatre, and Hiroshi 

Watanabe’s inkily brooding 

Commedia dell’Arte figures 

(pictured). The artists have 

donated their photographs 

to Venice in Peril, so in 

November the works will 

travel to Phillips de Pury, 

London, where some will be 

auctioned and the rest sold 

privately so that the charity 

can go on working to ensure 

that La Serenissima not only 

survives, but improves, for 

future generations. 

www.veniceinperil.com 

5 Ascension: 

Anish Kapoor ★ 

Basilica di San Giorgio 

Artist: Anish Kapoor 

Organisation: Arte Continua- 

Associazione Culturale 

1 Jun-27 Nov 

● San Giorgio Maggiore 

hosts Kapoor’s attempt to 

give form to the immaterial; 

an honour, as it is the first 

time the Basilica has been 

used for a contemporary 

installation. Rising to the 

challenge, Kapoor will 

Ascension, Anish Kapoor 

create a vortex of smoke 

between the transept and 

nave, a reference, among 

other things, to the Exodus 

story of Moses following a 

pillar of cloud. 

www.arteallarte.org 

6 Penelope’s Labour: 

Weaving Words 

and Images 

Centro Espositivo “Le Sale del 

Convitto”, Cini Foundation 


ten artists including Alighiero 

Boetti, Maurizio Cattelan, 

Grayson Perry, Marc Quinn 

Organisation: Giorgio 

Cini Foundation 

4 Jun-18 Sep 

● A show based on the Cini 

Foundation’s collections of 

historic tapestries—many 

of which hang in the grand 

hall of this ex-Benedictine 

monastery—shown along 

with experiments with the 

medium by contemporary 

artists. Among the varied 

highlights are Grayson 

31 


© ANISH KAPOOR 

Perry’s teeming Walthamstow 

Tapestry, 2009, a work by 

Maurizio Cattelan, and a 

project by Azra Aksamija on 

ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. 

www.cini.it 

7 Basilica di San 

Giorgio Maggiore 

Isola San Giorgio Maggiore 

● Ruskin reserved some of 

his most fervent criticism for 

Palladio’s first solo church. 

But in its pure white grandeur 

it is a masterpiece of the 

classical Renaissance style, 

and contains some superb 

paintings. Tintoretto’s 

Last Supper has gone to the 

Giardini for ILLUMInazioni 

(p3), but his Gathering of 

Manna and very last painting, 

The Entombment, both 1594, 

remain in situ. The church’s 

campanile can be climbed, 

and offers wonderful views. 

8 San Giorgio Monastery 

Giorgio Cini Foundation, 

Isola San Giorgio Maggiore 

● Open for guided tours at 

weekends, this holds some of 

San Giorgio’s most thrilling 

elements, including cloisters 

and a refectory by Palladio, 

and the grand staircase and 

library by baroque architect 

Longhena. A small number 

of Benedictine monks still 

live in the monastery. 

www.cini.it



Casa dei Tre Oci 

Bonami as co-curator, 

Modernikon premiered at 

Fondazione Sandretto Re 

Rebaudengo in Turin last 

year, and reflects a shift to a 

more contemplative art after 

the aggression of the 

immediate post-Soviet era. 

www.fsrr.org 

www.v-a-c.ru/#21 

9 Open Studios: 

Atelier BLM 2011 

SS. Cosma e Damiano exconvent, 

Giudecca (also at 

Palazzo Carminati, Santa 

Croce 1882/a, p44) 


artists including Lia Cecchin, 

Nina Fiocco, Luca Pucci, 

Serena Vestrucci 



31 May-5 Jun. 16.00-20.00 

● Brief studio opening in 

historic building: for details 

see San Polo (p44). 


GIOVANNI DALL’ORTO 

10 Chiesa del Redentore 

Campo Redentore, Giudecca 

● Another Palladio tour de 

force, marking the city’s 

deliverance from the plague 

of 1575-77, which claimed a 

third of the city, including 

Titian. Sparse and airy inside, 

it emphasises the purity and 

grandeur of Palladio’s vision. 

The best paintings, including 

a Veronese admired by 

Ruskin, are in the sacristy, but 

you need to ask for access. 

11 Molino Stucky 

Fondameta San Biagio, 

Giudecca 810 

● Intriguing former flour 

mill, a neo-gothic red-brick 

pile that’s more Brooklyn 

than Veneto. The largest 

building on the lagoon, it 

now houses a Hilton hotel, 

pricey flats and a bar with 

dramatic views of the city. 

12 Parrocchia San 

Gerardo Sagredo 

Campo San Gerardo, Sacca 

Fisola, Giudecca 

● Not at all distinguished, 

but a curiosity: the newest 

church in Venice is a 1960s 

building that is the closest 

Venice gets to brutalism. Set 

in the modern residential 

area of Sacca Fisola, a world 

away from the historical city. 

13 Altanella 

Calle delle Erbe, Giudecca 270 

● The restaurant’s name 

means covered terrace, and 

that is the chief highlight 

here. Solid, unspectacular 

Venetian classics. 

Tel: +39 041 522 7780 

14 Cipriani 

Hotel Cipriani Venice, 

Giudecca 10 

● Celebs and top collectors 

and gallerists stay here for 

the biennale: mingle among 

them at the Gabbiano bar, 

with views over the pool to 

St Mark’s Square. 

Tel: +39 041 520 7744 

www.hotelcipriani.com 

15 Skyline Bar 

Hilton Molino Stucky, 

Giudecca 810 

● Eight floors up, atop the 

Hilton Molino Stucky. 

Unrivalled views across the 

Giudecca Canal to the city, so 

unsurprisingly pricey. Good 

Bellinis, and a great spot for 

an aperitif or a nightcap. 

Tel: +39 041 272 3310 

www. molinostuckyhilton.com 

32 


16 Trattoria Do Mori 

Fondamenta Sant’Eufemia, 

Giudecca 588 

● Simple stuff: pizzas and 

old-fashioned lagoon dishes 

served in a charming spot on 

the Giudecca Canal facing 

the Zattere. Colourful works 

by quirky Austrian painter 

Hundertwasser, who lived on 

the island, fill the walls. 

Tel: +39 041 522 5452 


Richard Armstrong 

Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim 

Museum and Foundation 

● My favourite painting? Jackson 

Pollock’s Moon Woman, from 1942, at 

the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (p29), 

is an eccentric choice, but one of my favourite 

paintings in the collection, and I always look 

forward to seeing it. 

● My favourite building is anything by Carlo 

Scarpa, such as his Fondazione Querini 

Stampalia (p22) from the early 1960s. I am 

also awed by Palladio’s Redentore (see 10, left) 

on the Giudecca. 

● To relax, I go to the terrace at the Bauer (p41). 

● Behind the Salute is the restaurant 

Lineadombra (p29), with a spectacular view of the 

Giudecca Canal. Great for lunch or dinner. 

Il Redentore, Giudecca 

ARCHER10

LIDO & ISLANDS 


Lido & islands: far from the gadding crowd 

A trip across the lagoon, seeking out its various islands, reaffirms Venice’s miraculous emergence 

from muddy islets and sandbanks, as well as offering some airy escape from the tourist hordes 

1 Burano 

● A short vaporetto trip 

from Torcello, and livelier. 

Famous for its brightly hued 

houses (supposedly beacons 

for the fishermen who lived 

here, and still do), but also 

for its lace, sold in countless 

souvenir shops. Has a 

decent restaurant, Al Gatto 

2 Certosa 

● An ex-firing range now 

redeveloped as a marina. 

For the 2011 biennale it 

hosts the James Franco film 

“Rebel”(see p21 for details). 

5 

3 

7 

6 

4 

2 

3 Pellestrina 

● Set between the Lido and 

Chioggia, this narrow strip 

of land has a villagey feel 

and some of the lagoon’s 

more rustic beaches. 

4 San Lazzaro 

degli Armeni 

● Lord Byron was a famous 

student at this Armenian 

monastery, and may even 

have swum here. Only one 

boat a day, the number 20, 

comes to the island, and it is 

met by an Armenian priest 

who leads a detailed tour. 

8 

34 


1 

9 

5 San Michele 

Cemetery 

● The “island of the dead”: 

last resting place of 

Diaghilev, Stravinsky and 

countless gondoliers. San 

Michele in Isola, Venice’s 

first Renaissance church, is a 

gleaming white beacon, 

while David Chipperfield’s 

extension, still in progress, is 

beautifully brooding, with 

dark basalt-clad walls. 

San Michele, the cemetery island 

1 

9 

6 San Servolo 

● The attractive campus of 

Venice International 

University (VIU), this small 

island can be reached on 

line 20 from San Zaccaria. 

For the 2011 biennale it 

hosts the official shows of 

Cuba and the Syrian Arab 

Republic plus the nonbiennale 

sculpture show 

Open 14 (see p35 for 

exhibition details). 

DOMINIC BELL 

KEVIN McCOWN 

8 The Lido 

A site of illness and longing 

in Thomas Mann’s Death in 

Venice, The Lido is a 

sanctuary for the biennale 

art crowd, who come here 

for the beaches, the faded 

glamour of the Excelsior 

hotel, the tranquil Jewish 

cemetery, and, as Mark 

Wallinger puts it, the smell 

of “petrol and sun cream”. 

OPEN 14: International 

Exhibition of Sculptures 

and Installations 

Venice Lido: Piazzale S. Mary 

Elizabeth; Lungomare G. 

Marconi; Blue Moon; Hotel 

Excelsior (also at San Servolo 

Island, p23) 

Artists: to be announced 

1 Sep-2 Oct 

● The annual open 

competition for sculpture, 

installation and performance 

art is timed to coincide with 

the Venice Film Festival, but 

overlaps with the biennale, 

and takes place in various 

locations on the Lido and 

San Servolo island. Details of 

artists for 2011 were not 

confirmed when the guide 

went to press. 

www.artecommunications.com 

35 


LIDO & ISLANDS 


SS Maria e Donato, Murano 

7 Murano 

The centre for Venetian glass isn’t all tacky souvenirs: there’s 

a superb Veneto-Byzantine church and a decent restaurant too 

Glasstress 2011 

Berengo Centre for 

Contemporary Art and Glass, 

Campiello della Pescheria, 

Murano (also at Istituto 

Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed 

Arti, San Marco, p39; and 

Wake Forest University 

garden, Dorsoduro 699, p26) 

4 Jun-27 Nov 







Pharrell Williams, Erwin 

Wurm, Huan Zhang 



● Art glass comes home to 

Murano, the place where it’s 

all made. See the San Marco 

entry (p39) for full details. 


Museo dell’Arte Vetrario 

Fondamenta Giustinian 8 

● Beautiful historical glass 

objects that only enhance 

the vulgarity of the items in 

the surrounding souvenir 

shops. Housed in a gorgeous 

17th-century palazzo. 


SS Maria e Donato 

Campo San Donato 11 

● Wonderful example of 

the Veneto-Byzantine style, 

with 12th-century mosaic 

floor, featuring charming 

animal and floral images. 

Busa Alla Torre Da Lele 

Campo San Stefano 3 

● Simple but superb food in 

a great location, next to the 

early 16th-century San 

Pietro Martire church. 

Tel: +39 041 739 662 

GIOVANNI NOVARA 

9 Torcello 

Venice’s history began on 

this small island, once the 

home of 20,000 Venetians. 

Now one of its most tranquil 

and deserted spots, only the 

extraordinary medieval 

basilica remains as testament 

to its former glories. 

Santa Maria Assunta 

● The lagoon’s oldest 

building. Highlights are the 

epic mosaics created 

between the ninth and 11th 

centuries, featuring a Last 

Judgement, with terrific 

demons, and a serene 

Madonna and Child. The 

campanile, recently under 

restoration, gives expansive 

views over the lagoon. 

Ristoranti Locanda 

Cipriani, Torcello 

Piazza Santa Fosca 29, 

Torcello 

● Founded by Giuseppe 

Cipriani of Harry’s Bar fame. 

More homely than other 

Cipriani ventures, and in a 

fine setting overlooking the 

Basilica. Also a hotel, with 

just a few rooms. 

Tel: +39 041 730 150 

www.locandacipriani.com 

12th-century Byzantine mosaics, S. Maria Assunta, Torcello

SAN MARCO 


San Marco: beyond the tourist hordes 

Not far away from the crazy tourist hub of Piazza San Marco are quiet backstreets brimming with 

atmospheric palazzi that are only open for biennale events—well worth negotiating the crush for 

Piazza San Marco 

19 

1 

4 10 

3 9 

5 

7 

6 

10 

24 

14 

12 

2 


One of the world’s most historically rich, visually dramatic quarters, San 

Marco is the tourist hub of Venice. Piazza San Marco, the “drawing room 

of Europe” as Napoleon famously called it, is nothing short of 

miraculous, with its Basilica and the Doge’s Palace essential parts of the 

Venetian experience. The square is the central orientation point, with 

major tourist paths throughout the city linking it to the Rialto and 

Accademia bridges. Countless extraordinary sites line the route, but 

even here, in Venice’s most densely-packed area, you are a stone’s throw 

away from quiet, peaceful canals and squares. The sestiere is dotted with 

interesting biennale events in some of the most atmospheric venues. 

20 

28 

36 


11 

16 

30 

29 

13 

34 

23 

15 

33 

32 

26 

25 

17 

18 21 

31 

22 

27 

DOMINIC BELL 

1 Andorra 

Chiesa di San Samuele, Campo 

San Samuele, San Marco 

Exhibition: Beyond vision 

Artists: Helena Guàrdia Ribó, 

Francisco Sánchez 

● Andorra’s first 

official Venice 

participation, set in 

one of Venice’s 

least impressive 

churches, features two 

artists who explore “the 

boundaries of perception”: 

Guàrdia’s Floating City views 

photographs of Andorra in a 

concave mirror, while 

Sanchez’s painted triptych 

The Ephemeral and the Eternal 

is a densely woven, 

fantastical landscape. 

www.artecommuni cations. com 

2 Azerbaijan, 

Republic of 

Palazzo Benzon, San Marco 

3927 

Exhibition: Relational, of Bakû 

Artists: Mikayil Abdurahmanov, 

Zeigam Azizov, Khanlar 

Gasimov, Aga Ousseinov, 

Altay Sadikhzade, Aidan 

Salakhova 

● Azerbaijani artists of two 

generations come together 

in this Grand Canal palazzo. 

From Azizov’s theory-laden 

multimedia installations to 

Ousseinov’s strange, clumpy 

plaster sculptures, the curators 

promise an engagement 

with relational aesthetics, 

and a strong post-Soviet 

socio-political 

undercurrent. 

www.azpavilion.com 

3 Central Asia 

Pavilion 

Palazzo Malipiero, San 

Marco 3199-3201 

Exhibition: Lingua Franca 

Artists: 

Kyrgyzstan Natalia 

Andrianova, Adis Seitaliev, 

Marat Raiymkulov 

Kazakhstan Said Atabekov, 

Galim Madanov, Zauresh 

Terekbay, Yerbossyn 

Meldibekov 

Tajikistan Alla Rumyantseva, 

Aleksey Rumyantsev 

Uzbekistan Artyom Ernst, 

Alexander Nikolaev 

● In a carefully structured 

show, curators have taken 

the term lingua franca as a 

launchpad for exploring the 

idiosyncrasies of Central 

Asian nations, their links 

with the rest of the world, 

and the growing universality 

in the language of art. 

www.cap2011.net 

4 Cyprus, Republic of 

Palazzo Malipiero, Second 

floor, Campo San Samuele, 

San Marco 3198 

Exhibition: Temporal Taxonomy 

Artists: Marianna Christofides, 

Elizabeth Hoak-Doering 

● One of five national 

presentations in Casanova’s 

old Palazzo on the Grand 

Canal. Two artists meditate 

on history and memory, with 

particular focus on Cyprus’s 

inner tensions. For Doering, 

furniture becomes a witness 

to human life – hanging 

chairs and tables have 

styluses fitted, so that they 

“draw”. Christofides 

repurposes fragments of 

historic maps of Nicosia, 

blurring reality and utopia. 

www.cyprusinvenice.org 

5 Estonia ★ 

Palazzo Malipiero, First floor, 

Campo San Samuele, San 

Marco 3079 

Exhibition: A Woman Takes 

Little Space 

Artist: Liina Siib 

● Six linked installations, all 

exploring representations of 

women in the work place, 

exposing Estonian gender 

37 


SAN MARCO 


Azerbaijan: Khanlar Gasimov 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

© THE ARTIST 

Estonia: Liina Siib 

© THE ARTIST 

PS 

“ Walking at night is 

the best way to see 

the city, because 

people mostly live in 

Mestre, which costs 

less. So at night, 

Venice is a desert, 

and it is incredible. 

Leave the hotel 

around nine, go to 

one of the old bars 

behind the Bridge of 

Sighs, have an 

aperitivo Spritz, and 

just start to walk 

PAULO VENTURA ” 

Artist, Italian Pavilion 

inequality. The centrepiece 

is a photographic piece 

featuring simple shots of 

women in varying jobs, from 

baker to clerk to sex worker. 

Siib’s homogenous, deadpan 

style emphasises her 

protagonists’ individuality. 

6 Iran 


Marco 3198 

Artists: Morteza Darebaghi, 

Mohammad Mehdi Qanbeigi, 

Mohsen Rastani 

● Three very distinct artists: 

Darebaghi makes abstract 

paintings and sculptures with 

underlying hints of Persian 

miniatures and Islamic 

architecture; Qanbeigi is a 

figurative ceramicist; and 

Rastani has spent 20 years 

photographing, against a 

uniform white background, 

the Iranian families he meets 

on his travels.

SAN MARCO 


7 Luxembourg, 

Grand Duchy of 

Ca’ del Duca, Corte del Duca 

Sforza, San Marco 3052 

Exhibition: Le Cercle Fermé 

Artists: Martine Feipel and 

Jean Bechameil 

● Collaborative duo present 

an installation which takes a 

decidedly cerebral view of 

space, informed by 

Bechameil’s background as a 

set designer for Chabrol and 

Von Trier, among others. 

Expect a deconstructed, 

distorted domestic interior, 

with skewed columns and 

disjointed mirrors and doors. 

www.casino-luxembourg.lu 

8 Moldova, Republic of 

Galleria III Millennio, San 

Marco 1047 (also at Antico 

Squero San Trovaso, 

Dorsoduro 1097, p25) 

Exhibition: The World 

Around Me 

Artist: Valeria Duca 

Exhibition: 

Cognition 

Artist: Nicoleta Stati 

● Two choices that 

have clearly irked the 

Moldovan contemporary art 

scene: much feted by the 

media in her homeland, 15year-old 

Duca paints naive 

portraits, still lifes and 

landscapes. In contrast, 

Stati—who similarly paints 

in traditional genres—is the 

daughter of the oil tycoon 

Anatol Stati. 

9 Montenegro 


Marco 3079 

Exhibition: The Fridge 

Factory and Clear Waters 

Artists: Ilija Soskic, 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

Natalija Vujosevic 

Exhibition: MACCO Cetinje – 

Marina Abramovic Community 

Center Obod Cetinje 

Artist: Marina Abramovic 

● A concise Montenegrin 

show: veteran performance 

artist Soskic, and video artist 

Vujosevic, who is 40 years 

younger, present new work 

alongside a presentation on 

the ambitious new arts 

centre set up by Marina 

Abramovic in Cetinje, the 

old capital of her homeland. 

10 Portugal 

Fondaco Marcello, Calle del 

Traghetto o Cá Garzoni, San 

Marco 3415 

Exhibition: Scenario 

Artist: Francisco Tropa 

● An enigmatic installation 

with magic lantern-like 

projections onto plaster 

screens placed around 

this atmospheric 

former merchants’ 

warehouse on the 

Grand Canal. Each 

projected image 

relates to a metaphorladen 

sculpture nearby: 

a dead fly, a light bulb 

filament, an hourglass. 

www.dgartes.pt 

Portugal: Francisco Tropa 

© THE ARTIST & PEDRO TROPA 

X Slovenia, Republic of 

Galleria A+A, Centro Espositivo 

Sloveno, San Marco 3073 

Exhibition: Heaters for 

Hot Emotions 

Artist: Mirko Bratusa 

● Bratusa’s novel title refers 

to his fantastical figurative 

sculptures, which literally 

emit heat. Set in a mirrored 

installation, the fired clay 

statues aim to carry us to a 

“realm of lost sensitivity”. 

Smaller, cold figures occupy 

the space upstairs. 

11 Ukraine 

Chiesa di San Fantin, San 

Marco (also at Campo San 

Stae, Santa Croce, p43) 

Exhibition: Post-vs-Proto- 

Renaissance 

Artist: Oksana Mas 

● A recreation of excerpts 

from Van Eyck’s Ghent 

Altarpiece, composed from 

thousands of eggs featuring 

images representing the sins 

of the volunteers who have 

painted them, and arranged 

in vast mosaics inspired by 

the masterpiece. Shown 

both inside San Fantin and 

in the Campo San Stae, 20 

minutes away (p43). 

ghent-altarpiece.com 

12 Born in Venice: 

Open University 

of Diversity 

Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere 

ed Arti, Palazzo Loredan, 

Campo Santo Stefano 2945 

Artist: Koen Vanmechelen 

Organisation: MAK Museum 

To Nov 27 

● An extension of Koen 

Vanmechelen’s Cosmopolitan 

Chicken Project, in which he 

cross breeds chickens that 

38 


Stefano Cagol 

represent nations across the 

world, in an experiment to 

find an ultimate hybrid. 

Vanmechelen sees chickens 

as a metaphor for humans, 

and through them addresses 

genetics, geopolitics and 

multicultural society. 

www.MAK.at 

www.koenvanmechelen.be 

13 Concilio: 

Stefano Cagol 

Chiesa di San Gallo, Campo 

San Gallo, San Marco 1103 

Artist: Stefano Cagol 

Organisations: Mart – 

Museum of Modern and 

Contemporary Art of Trento 

and Rovereto; Fondazione 

Galleria Civica – Center of 

Research on Contemporaneity 

of Trento 

31 May-27 Nov 

● An installation from the 

Italian artist, who hails from 

Trento, the meeting place 

for the Council of Trent, 

historic hub of the Counter- 

Reformation—hence the 

exhibition’s title, “Concilio”. 

Cagol explores borders 

natural, mental and political 

with a pyramidal sculpture 

and a video filmed at the 

Arctic interface of Norway, 

Finland and Russia. 

www.concilio-venice 

biennale.org 

14 Glasstress 2011 

Istituto Veneto di Scienze 

Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Cavalli 

Franchetti, Campo Santo 

Stefano 2847 (also at Wake 

Forest University garden, 

Dorsoduro, p26; and Berengo 

Centre for Contemporary Art 

and Glass, Murano, p35) 







Erwin Wurm, Huan Zhang 



4 Jun -27 Nov 

● Looking at the links 

between architecture, art 

and design after modernism, 

Glasstress—a popular show in 

2009—once again brings 

together a variety of new 

commissions by well-known 

contemporary artists tasked 

with working in Murano 

glass. This is the main venue 

of a three-site show, whose 

participants tackle a tough 

medium in modes ranging 

from figurative to conceptual. 

www.madmuseum.org 


15 Montebello- 

Megachromia 

Alliance Française de Venise, 

Casino Venier, Ponte dei 

Bareterei, San Marco 4939 

Artist: Roger de Montebello 

Organisation: Alliance 

Française de Venise 

1-30 Jun and 3-30 Sep 

● Two-part showcase for 

French artist Roger de 

Montebello’s new concept, 

Megachromia – an attempt to 

combine the capabilities of 

painting and of photography 

by presenting photographic 

details, enlarged from smallscale 

splashy oil paintings, 

upon a bevy of light-boxes. 

www.montebellopaintings.com 

/venicebiennale2011 

16 Personal 

Structures ★ 

Palazzo Bembo, Riva del 

Carbon, San Marco 4785 


artists including Marina 

Abramovic, Carl Andre, Peter 

Halley, Joseph Kosuth, Judy 

Millar, Tatsuo Miyajima, 

Hermann Nitsch, Lee Ufan 

Organisation: Global Art 

Affairs Foundation 

4 Jun-27 Nov 

● A big show with leading 

minimalist, conceptual and 

performance artists, as well 

as some relatively unknown 

names. Featuring many 

works commissioned or fresh 

from the studio, the show’s 

open-ended themes are 

time, space and existence. 

www.globalartaffairs.org 

www.venice-exhibitions.org 

17 Permanently 

Becoming: Julian 

Schnabel and the 

Architecture of Seeing 

Museo Correr, San Marco 52 

Artist: Julian Schnabel 

Organisations: Arthemisia 

Group; Fondazione Musei 

Civici di Venezia 

4 Jun-27 Nov 

● A survey of the US artist 

and film-maker, curated by 

Norman Rosenthal, who 

helped launch Schnabel to 

world fame with “The New 

Spirit in Painting” at the 

Royal Academy in 1981. It 

includes the infamous plate 

paintings, and other epic 

works with which Schnabel 

addressed great painters of 

the past, not least Tintoretto. 

www.arthemisia.it 


39 


SAN MARCO 


Julian Schnabel 

© THE ARTIST 

18 Terrarium For 

Two Publishers 

St. Mark’s Square Gallery, 

San Marco 71/c 

Artist: Rirkrit Tiravanija 



2 Jun-1 Jul 

● Creative window dressing 

for art publishers Three Star 

Books and Thea Westreich / 

Ethan Wagner Publications: 

Tiravanija has designed a 

terrarium to house their 

high-concept tomes, a 

typically witty reference to 

the vitrine in art. 



Maxwell Anderson 

Director, Indianapolis Institute of Art 

● From my days as the Roman curator at 

the Met, I can’t resist the porphyry relief 

sculpture of the Tetrarchs affixed to [the 

Basilica of] San Marco (p40) 

● To relax, the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido is far 

from the madding crowd and hasn’t changed in 

decades – faded but authentic glamour. 

● Da Fiore in San Polo (p45) is well worth the wait 

for a spectacular dinner. 

● Bellini’s Sacra Conversazione in San Zaccaria 

[Castello] is a favourite pilgrimage stop (p22). 

Bellini: Sacra Conversazione , San Zaccaria 

ROMANCEOR

SAN MARCO 


19 The World Belongs 

to You ★ 

Palazzo Grassi, Campo San 

Samuele 3231, San Marco 


35 artists including Marlene 

Dumas, El Anatsui, Urs 

Fischer, Cyprien Gaillard, Loris 

Gréaud, David Hammons, 

Boris Mikhailov, Charles Ray, 

Rudolf Stingel, Francesco 

Vezzoli, Zeng Fanzhi 

Organisation: The François 

Pinault Foundation 

2 Jun-31 Dec 

● A dramatic presentation 

of the Pinault collection, 

which combines major 

players like Sigmar Polke 

and Giuseppe Penone with 

an impressive array of young 

pretenders such as Adrian 

Ghenie and Cyprien Gaillard. 

Attempting to address 

nothing less than “the major 

themes of contemporary 

history”, it is another 

unmissable Grassi show. 

www.palazzograssi.it 

20 TRA: Edge of 

Becoming ★ 

Palazzo Fortuny, Campo san 

Beneto, San Marco 3780 


300 items including works 

by Marie Bytebier, Vincenzo 

Castella, Ana Mendieta, 

Ettore Spalletti, Hiroshi 

Sugimoto, James Turrell 

Organisations: Axel 

Vervoordt Foundation; 

Museum Palazzo Fortuny 

4 Jun-27 Nov 

● The latest in Axel 

Vervoordt’s series of richly 

complex exhibitions in the 

Palazzo Fortuny, this is 

another wunderkammer of 

more than 300 archeological 

objects, paintings, decorative 

items, and contemporary 

commissions. Ana Mendieta 

and James Turrell are among 

the protagonists of his lofty 

ambition to “enhance 

revelation and knowledge”. 

www.axel-vervoordt.com 


21 Xijing 

St Mark’s Square Gallery, San 

Marco 71/c 

Artists: Xijing Men 

(Gimhongsok, Tsuyoshi 

Ozawa, Chen Shaoxiong) 

Organisations: Arthub Asia; 

Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation 

2 Jun-25 Sep 

● A first institutional 

exhibition for the pan-Asian 

collective Xijing Men, 

featuring Chen Shaoxiong 

(China), Tsuyoshi Ozawa 

(Japan) and Gimhongsok 

(South Korea). This 

immersive environment 

reflects their fictional 

universe Xijing, and includes 

video and sound installations 

as well as footage of the trio’s 

performances. 

www.arthubasia.org 


Xijing Men 


Basilica di San Marco and Palazzo Ducale 

22 Basilica di San Marco 

Piazza San Marco 

● One of the great buildings 

of the world, this astonishing 

Byzantine basilica at the 

centre of the city contains 

innumerable treasures both 

outside and inside, the pick 

of which are the medieval 

gold and jewel-encrusted 

screen, the Pala d’Oro, and 

the shimmering mosaics. 

23 Ca’Giustinian 

Ca’ Giustinian, San Marco 

1364/A 

● The biennale’s HQ has a 

relatively recently opened 

gallery and a cafe, L’Ombra 

del Leone, whose terrace 

looks over to the Salute, the 

Dogana and San Giorgio. 

“The best place to get a view 

of the city,” according to 

Daniel Birnbaum (p41). 

24 Campo Santo 

Stefano 

San Marco 

● Popular square, and a 

great spot to kick back and 

watch the world pass by. The 

Santo Stefano church has a 

pair of late Tintorettos. 

25 Museo Civico 

Correr 

Ala Napoleonica, Piazza San 

Marco, San Marco 52 

40 


● The illustrious history of 

the Venetian Republic is told 

here, and it also boasts a 

perennially interesting 

exhibition programme. 

Julian Schnabel is the 

Correr’s biennale choice 

(see p39 for details). 


26 Negozio Olivetti 

Procuratie Vecchie, Piazza 

San Marco, San Marco 101 

● After years as a “cheesy 

gallery”, as Christian 

Marclay puts it (p12), cult 

architect Carlo Scarpa’s 

flagship store for Olivetti 

typewriters in Piazza San 

Marco is restored to its 

original glory, exposing his 

elegant “bronze and marble 

mashups”, as Marclay 

describes them. Entry is €5, 

with a 30-minute guided tour. 

www.negoziolivetti.it 

27 Palazzo Ducale 

(Doge’s Palace) 

Piazzetta San Marco, San 

Marco 1 

● One of the great Gothic 

masterpieces of Venice, with 

a delicate pink exterior that 

glows at sunset. The building 

is an unmissable part of the 

city, as long as you can cope 

with the tourist hordes. 



28 Palazzo Fortuny 

Campo San Beneto, San 

Marco 3780 

● Permanent collection and 

changing exhibitions in the 

atmospheric ex-abode of 

Spanish-born textile master 

Mariano Fortuny, famed for 

his silk pleats. To coincide 

with each biennale, it hosts a 

superb themed show (p 40). 


29 Bar Canale, 

Hotel Bauer 

Campo San Moisè, San 

Marco 1459 

● Summer drinks on the 

terrace offer fantastic views 

of the Grand Canal and the 

Salute. Recommended by 

Richard Armstrong of the 

Guggenheim, and a favourite 

late-night biennale haunt. 

Tel: +39 041 520 7022 

www.bauervenezia.com 

30 Bar Longhi, Hotel 

Gritti Palace 

Campo Santa Maria del 

Giglio, San Marco 2467 

● High-toned hangout with 

great views over to the 

Salute. Called Bar Longhi 

due to its collection of six 

works by the 18th-century 

Venetian painter. 

Tel: +39 041 794 611 

www.hotelgrittipalace 

venice.com 

31 Caffè Florian 

Piazza San Marco, San 

Marco 56 

● Italy’s oldest café. Yes, it’s 

a cliché, but it is a beautiful 

place, and an essential part 

of the Venetian experience. 

Tel: +39 041 520 5641 

www.caffeflorian.com 

32 Harry’s Bar 

Calle Vallaresso, San Marco 1323 

● A Venetian institution: 

you have to try the Bellinis at 

least once. Decent food also 

served, though a bit pricey. 

Tel: +39 041 528 5777 

www.cipriani.com 

33 Hotel Monaco & 

Grand Canal 

Calle Vallaresso, San Marco 1332 

● Another great terrace on 

the Grand Canal, with 

Bellinis to rival Harry’s Bar. 

Tel: +39 041 520 0211 

www.hotelmonaco.it 

34 Osteria Enoteca 

San Marco 

Frezzeria, San Marco 1610 

● Pick of the restaurants in 

the touristy area around 

Piazza San Marco. It has a 

great wine selection and 

deliciously fresh ingredients, 

for both bar snacks and in 

the sit-down restaurant. 

Tel: +39 041 528 5242 

www.osteriasanmarco.it 

41 


SAN MARCO 


Campo Santo Stefano 

GIOVANNI DALL’ORTO 


Daniel Birnbaum 

Director, Moderna Museet; 

artistic director, 53rd Venice Biennale 

● I think the terrace of the biennale’s 

headquarters (Ca’ Giustinian, p40) is 

unbelievable. It’s the best place to get a 

view of the city. Paolo Baratta [Venice Biennale 

President] has done a number of great things for 

Venice, but this might be the most important. Now 

the biennale has a great place at the centre of the city. 

● The Maria Callas Bridge [over the Rio delle 

Veste, near La Fenice, San Marco] is very central 

yet hidden. Francesco Bonami [curator] showed it 

to me: it’s a great secret. 

● To relax, I go to have a swim on the Lido early 

in the morning. 

● Favourite restaurants? I’ve always liked a little 

place called La Bitta (p29). 

● This year, I’m so happy about looking at things 

without being responsible for the entire thing. 

The Nordic Pavilion is a more privileged task: 

Andreas Eriksson and Fia Backström will make 

great works, and so will the other Swedish artists, 

Klara Lidén and Karl Holmqvist. I’m very curious 

about the international show, and happy with the 

Golden Lions to Franz West and Sturtevant! 

Ponte Maria Callas, San Marco 

SAILKO

SAN POLO & SANTA CROCE 


San Polo & Santa Croce: a heart with soul 

There’s nourishment for both body and spirit in the ancient heart of Venice: fresh local food in the 

Rialto markets, and sublime devotional art by Bellini, Donatello and Titian in the great Frari church 

Rialto Bridge 

18 

6 


19 

These two central sestieres occupy the bustling heart of central Venice. 

The area around the Rialto bridge is generally agreed to be the most 

ancient part of the city, and contains the famed and extraordinary 

markets, largely unchanged for centuries, and an essential stop-off 

point for any Venice visit. Around them are some of the city’s most 

atmospheric bars and restaurants, and plenty of shops. San Polo also 

offers some crucial encounters with Venetian art: the Scuola Grande 

di San Rocco is Tintoretto’s magnum opus, while the vast gothic Frari 

church features two of Titian’s most daring and revolutionary 

paintings, as well as the great man’s tomb. 

13 

15 

42 


21 

3 

5 

8 

14 

9 1 11 

12 

7 10 

25 

4 

2 

16 

20 

23 

24 

21 

17 

DOMINIC BELL 


1 Bulgaria 

Palazzo Carminati, Campo 

San Stae, Santa Croce 1882 

Exhibition: Bond of Generation 

Artists: Greddy Assa, Pavel 

Koichev, Houben Tcherkalov 

● An open letter on 

Facebook questioned the 

apparently mystifying process 

that led to these three artists 

being selected. Assa is an 

expressive, figurative 

painter, Koichev a creator of 

theatrical sculptures, while 

Tcherkalov (aka R.T. 

Houben) is a once-avant 

garde artist who now 

paints images from 

world currencies in 

a naive style. 

2 San Marino, 

Republic of 

Palazzo Riva del Vin, San 

Silvestro, San Polo 1097 

Exhibition: Luce In-azione 

Artists: Marco Bravura, 

Daniela Comani, Ottavio 

Fabbri, Verdiano Manzi, 

Patrizia Merendi, Omar 

Paolucci, Lars Teichmann, 

Thea Tini, Daniela Tonelli 

● Playing on the biennale 

theme of ILLUMInazioni, 

the title “Luce In-azione” 

translates as “Light in 

Action”. It includes Italians 

and Germans alongside 

native San Marinians, and 

Campo San Stae 

All 

exhibitions 

run 4 Jun - 


unless stated 

otherwise 

PATRICE 

Le Festin de Chun-te: Hsieh Chun-te 

plurality rules: Daniela 

Comani’s conceptualism 

stands out of an otherwise 

largely conventional group. 

3 Ukraine 

Campo San Stae, 

Santa Croce (also at 

Chiesa di San 

Fantin, San Marco, 

p38) 

Exhibition: Post-vs- 

Proto-Renaissance 

Artist: Oksana Mas 

● In a square dominated by 

various Biennale projects, 

Mas recreates Van Eyck 

masterpieces in mosaics of 

coloured eggs. Let’s hope 

they don’t get trampled. 

Also at San Marco (p38). 

ghent-altarpiece.com 

4 Future Generation 

Art Prize @ Venice 

Palazzo Papadopoli, San Polo 

1364 


artists including Keren Cytter, 

Nathalie Djurberg, Cao Fei, 

Mircea Nicolai, Katerina Seda, 

Emily Wardill, Hector Zamora 

Organisations: 

PinchukArtCentre; Victor 

Pinchuk Foundation 

3 Jun-7 Aug 

● This Ukrainian billionairefunded 

prize offers longterm 

support to artists aged 


under 35 and features some 

well-known international 

contenders from 17 different 

countries. 

www.pinchukartcentre.org 

www.futuregeneration artprize.org 

5 Le Festin de Chun-te ★ 

Scoletta dei Battioro e 

Tiraoro, Campo San Stae, 

Santa Croce 1980 

Artist: Hsieh Chun-te 


Contemporary Art of Taipei 

1 Jun-10 Oct 

● Themes of lust and food 

underpin this Taiwanese exrestaurateur’s 

show: hence 

the title, “Chun-Te’s Feast”. 

Expect troubling images 

from his “Raw” series of 

staged photographs, shot on 

Taipei’s gritty outskirts, plus 

a “cooking theatre” and 

ritual cooking performance. 

www.mocataipei.org.tw 

6 Neoludica: Art is a 

Game 2011-1966 

Scuola dei Laneri, Sala 

Laneri, Salizada S. Pantalon, 

Santa Croce 131/131/A (also 

at Centro Culturale Candiani, 

Mestre, to 31 Oct, p46) 


30 artists across two venues, 

including Eva & Franco 

Mattes, Molleindustria, 

Gabriella Parisi, Tonylight, 

43 


© THE ARTIST 

Vjvisualoop, Jan Vormann 


culturale E-Ludo Lab 

1 Jun-27 Nov 

● Featuring a largely Italian 

selection, Neoludica takes 

Duchamp’s idea that “art is a 

game between all people and 

all periods” quite literally, 

and reflect the links between 

video games and visual art, as 

well as other cultural forms. 

(See also Mestre, p46.) 

www.neoludica.it 

7 Afternoon Tea 

The Quaffers Pavilion, Campo 

San Polo, San Polo 1960 


artists including Kate Davis, 

Jarik Jongman, Liane Lang, 

Suzanne Moxhay, Mimi 

Norrgren, Sardine & Tobleroni 

Organisation: W.W. Gallery 

30 May-12 Jun, 15.00-18.00 

by appointment only 

● Tea and cakes will be 

served in this appointmentonly 

pop-up gallery by W.W. 

of east London, featuring 

works on paper by 70 artists, 

and only present for the 

vernissage and the week 

after. The tea theme relates 

to the opening times and to 

the British Pavilion’s former 

use as a tea room. 

Booking: wwgallery@gmail.com 

+39 331 740 4189 (Venice) 

+44 753 134 2128 (London) 

www.wilsonwilliamsgallery.com 

PS 

“ Getting lost is 

its own reward 

in Venice 

” 

MARK WALLINGER 

Artist



8 Apiary: Destiny Drums 

Chiesa di San Stae, Campo 

San Stae, Santa Croce 

Artists: Mykola Zhuravel, 

Vitaliy Ocheretyanyy 

Organisation: A-House Gallery 

1 Jun-30 Nov 

● Zhuravel represented 

Ukraine in the 2007 

biennale, and returns with a 

related project this year. 

Hailing from a family of 

beekeepers, he creates 

sculptures from living 

beehives, as well as using 

beeswax in paintings which, 

appropriately for Venice, 

have a strongly Byzantine 

feel. Photographer 

Ocheretyanyy also features. 

www.artecommunications.com 

9 Open Studios: 

Atelier BLM 2011 

Palazzo Carminati, Santa Croce 

1882/a (also at SS. Cosma e 

Damiano, Giudecca, p32) 

Artists: 12 artists including 

Lia Cecchin, Nina Fiocco, 

Luca Pucci, Serena Vestrucci 



31 May-5 Jun, 16.00-20.00 

● For the vernissage only, 

the 12 studios run by the 

Venice-based Bevilacqua La 

Masa Foundation—five on 

the Giudecca and seven in 

Particolare 

PS 

“ Venice is full of 

secrets and only 

slowly reveals itself. 

After all these years 

I’ve only peeled the 

first layer 

” 

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY 


Palazzo Carminati—throw 

open their doors, revealing 

the work of young artists 

who have the opportunity to 

work in them for a year. 


10 Particolare 

Signum Foundation at Palazzo 

Dona, Campo San Polo 2177 


20 artists including Giovanni 

Anselmo, Goshka Macuga 

Organisation: Signum 

Foundation 

3 Jun-26 Nov 

● Part two of a duology of 

exhibitions by this Polishbased 

charitable outfit with a 

permanent space in Palazzo 

Dona. Exploring links 

between art and democracy, 

it includes works by key 

international figures along 

with a number of Poles. 

www.signum.art.pl 


11 Pier Paolo 

Calzolari ★ 

Ca’ Pesaro, International 

Gallery of Modern Art, Santa 

Croce 2070 

Artist: Pier Paolo Calzolari 


Musei Civici di Venezia; 

Fondazione Calzolari 

4 Jun-30 Oct 

● Twenty-five works from 

across the Arte Povera 

veteran’s career, reflecting 

that movement’s plurality of 

materials. Calzolari’s 

particular trademark was 

creating sculptures using 

ice; here, one example is 

placed outside, on the 

Grand Canal. 


12 Prada Foundation ★ 

Ca’ Corner della Regina, 

Santa Croce, 2214 

Artists: to be confirmed 

Organisation: Prada Foundation 

Dates to be confirmed 

● The Prada Foundation 

recently announced that it 

plans to use this neo-classical 

palace for the next six years, 

and to restore the building. 

For the biennale, it promises 

“a series of exceptional 

projects and installations” 

involving international 

artists and museums, and a 

display of Prada’s Rem 

Koolhaas-designed centre in 

Milan, opening in 2013. 

www.fondazioneprada.org 

13 Basilica di Santa 

Maria Gloriosa dei Frari 

Campo dei Frari, San Polo 

● The Frari is a vast church 

full of treasures, including a 

great Bellini and wonderful 

Donatello, but above all, this 

44 


is Titian’s domain. The 

master’s Assumption of the 

Virgin, 1516-18, over the 

high altar is among the alltime 

great paintings, and his 

Pesaro Madonna, 1519-26, 

was a radical approach to 

Madonna and Child imagery. 

14 Ca’Pesaro 

Fondamenta Ca’Pesaro, 

Santa Croce 2070 

● Museum of 19th- and 20thcentury 

art: works by modern 

masters such as Bonnard 

and Ernst along with Italian 

artists, from symbolists to 

minor moderns. 



Giacomo dell’Orio 

Campo di San Giacomo 

dell’Orio, Santa Croce 

San Giacomo dell’Orio 

● One of Venice’s oldest 

and most charmingly 

modest churches, with a real 

hotch-potch of architectural 

styles. It features a beautiful 

altarpiece by Lorenzo Lotto. 

16 Pescheria 

(fish market) 

Campo della Pescheria, 

San Polo 

● Arrive in the early 

morning for an authentic 

view of Venetian life and to 

find a space at one of the 

DVD BRAMHALL 

many nearby cafés, although 

the market is just as 

atmospheric when closed. 

17 Ponte di Rialto 

San Polo 125 

● Stretching over to San 

Marco, the Rialto has taken 

Venetians across the Grand 

Canal for many centuries. 

Its current incarnation is a 

16th-century creation, 

controversial when first built, 

but now among the most 

famous bridges in the world. 

18 Santa Lucia 

Railway Station 

● Angiolo Mazzoni’s station 

is in Cannaregio, but the 

best view of it is from Santa 

Croce. One of the few 

modernist buildings to face 

the Grand Canal. 

19 Scuola Grande 

di San Rocco 

Campo di San Rocco, San 

Polo 3052 

● Home to Tintoretto’s 

extraordinary, grand cycle of 

paintings (see panel, p17). 

The Chiesa di San Rocco 

next door has a group of 

Tintoretto canvases on the 

theme of St Roch, the saint 

Venetians hoped would save 

them from the plague. 

www.scuolagrande sanrocco.it 

20 Al Muro 

Campo Bella Vienna, San 

Polo 222 

● Trendy, reasonably priced 

bar and restaurant, the pick 

of three Al Muros in San 

Polo. Uses the best produce 

from nearby Rialto market. 

Tel: +39 041 520 5205 

www.murovinoecucina.it 

21 Caffè del Doge 

Calle dei Cinque, San Polo 608 

● They serve good coffee in 

this chain café close to the 

Rialto, even if it’s a little like 

a Venetian Starbucks. Handy 

for a quick pit-stop. 

Tel: +39 041 522 7787 

22 Da Fiore 

Calle del Scaleter, San Polo 2002 

● Michelin-starred, so at the 

top end of the price scale 

and often booked up, but 

well worth the wait. 

Tel: +39 041 721 308 

www.dafiore.net 

23 Naranzaria 

Campo San Giacometto, (nr 

fish market), San Polo 130 

● Former orange store for 

the market, serving a blend 

of Venetian and global 

cuisines, echoing Venice’s 

associations with the East. 

Tel: +39 041 72 41 035 

www.naranzaria.it 



The fish market when closed 


24 Rialto market 

Mercato di Rialto, Ponte di 

Rialto, Santa Croce 

● Self-caterers need look no 

further for wonderfully fresh 

produce, beautifully set out. 

25 Trattoria Antiche 

Carampane 

Rio Terà delle Carampane (by 

Pont delle Tette), San Polo 1911 

● A sign says “no pizza, no 

lasagne, no menù turistico”. 

Traditional Venetian 

restaurant recommended by 

Monica Bonvicini (p20), 

45 


with fantastic seafood. Try 

spaghetti del doge, with a 

sumptuous crab sauce. Hard 

to find; the website has a map. 

Tel: +39 041 524 0165 

www.antichecarampane.com 

Rialto market stall 


Anne Ellegood 

Senior curator, Hammer Museum; 

curator, Australian Pavilion 

● I could stare at Veronese’s The Feast 

in the House of Levi at the Accademia 

(p29) for hours. 

● My favourite buildings are the Palazzo Fortuny 

(p41) and the Ca’ d’Oro. 

● To relax, I just walk around. I love to walk and 

get lost in Venice. 

● I love Trattoria Corte Sconta (p23) for amazing 

seafood. Alle Testiere (p23) is also delicious. 

Caffè del Doge (left) near the Rialto Bridge has 

fantastic coffee: I like to go there every morning. 

And everyone should experience a Bellini at 

Harry’s (p41) at least once in their life. 

Veronese: The Feast in the House of Levi 

DAVID SIFRY

MISCELLANEOUS 


Mainland, multi-site and stop press 

The Venice Biennale is an expansive beast, including multi-venue and even mainland events. Then 

too there are the last-minute show anouncements, still coming thick and fast as we went to press… 

Mainland 

1 

1 Neoludica. Art is a 

Game 2011-1966 

Centro Culturale Candiani, 

Piazzale Candiani, 7, 30174 

Venezia Mestre (also at 

Scuola dei Laneri, Santa 

Croce, to 27 Nov, p43) 


30 artists across two venues, 

including Eva & Franco 

Mattes, Molleindustria, 

Centro Culturale Candiani, Mestre 

Gabriella Parisi, Tonylight, 

Vjvisualoop, Jan Vormann 


culturale E-Ludo Lab 

1 Jun-31 Oct 

● Exploring Duchampian 

games and virtual worlds; 

see Santa Croce entry for 

more details (p43). 

www.e-ludo.it 

www.neoludica.it 

DOMINIC BELL 

WIZARP 

Multiple sites 

Norway ★ 

Istituto Veneto di Scienze, 

Lettere ed Arti, Campo Santo 

Stefano, San Marco 2842, 

plus several other venues; see 

website for details 

Lecture series: The State 

of Things 

Speakers: Jacques Rancière, 

1 Jun; Leo Bersani, 2 Jun; 

Vandana Shiva, 3 Jun; Jan 

Egeland, 3 Jun; Fawaz A. 

Gerges, 4 Jun; Eyal 

Weizman, 30 Jun; Judith 

Butler, 7 Sep; Franco Berardi, 

8 Sep; Saskia Sassen, 20 

Oct; T.J. Clark, 25 Nov; plus 

others to be announced 

Faculty of Design and Arts, 

Università Iuav di Venezia, 

Dorsoduro 2206 and Palazzo 

Contarini Corfù, Dorsoduro 

Teaching programme: 

Beyond Death: Viral Dis - 

contents and Contemporary 

Notions about AIDS 

(course ran Feb-May 2011; 

publication and public 

project to be announced) 

Artist: Bjarne Melgaard 

● With Sweden occupying 

the Nordic Pavilion in a new 

rotating schedule, Norway’s 

contribution is decidedly 

academic – a series of lectures 

on the history and legacy of 

the Nansen passport, which 

allowed refugees to cross 

borders, with top speakers 

such as French philosopher 

Jacques Rancière. In tandem, 

Melgaard has instigated a 

46 


Iuav’s Tolentini site (note 

Carlo Scarpa entrance) 

course at Venice university on 

the history of the Aids crisis. 

www.oca.no/international/ 

venice_2011_tsot.shtml 

Dropstuff.eu: 

Urban Screen Network 

for the Digital and 

Interactive Arts 

Piazzale della Stazione Santa 

Lucia, Cannaregio; Riva 

Ca’ di Dio, Castello; Campo 

San Anzolo (aka Campo 

Sant’Angelo), San Marco; 

Campo San Vio, Dorsoduro 

Artists: Various 

Organisations: Dropstuff.nl; 

Pleinmuseum Foundation 

1 Jun-31 Jul 

● A return to Venice for the 

“urban screen network” who 

will position screens in 

various prominent locations, 

where visitors to Venice can 

use their smartphones to play 

artist-created games against 

users of other Dropstuff 

screens in the Hague, 

Eindhoven and Utrecht. 

www.dropstuff.eu 

SEIER+SEIER 

47 


MISCELLANEOUS 


Stop press 

Congo, Democratic 

Republic of 

Venue to be confirmed 

Exhibition: L’Art et la Femme 

dans le nouveau Congo 

Artists: Barly Baruti, Ange 

Bofenda, Fifi Panzu, Huguette 

Diwampovesa, Dieudonné 

Kumindike, Ilanga Moli 

Dates to be confirmed 

● As this guide went to press 

the Congolese were still 

struggling with visa issues, so 

the venue was not confirmed; 

look out for them on Certosa 

island (p21) if they make it. 

Big Bambú 

Casa Artom, Wake Forest 

University, Dorsoduro 699 

(see p26, no 13) 

Artists: Doug & Mike Starn 

Organisation: Glasstress 

28 May-15 Jun 

● A 50-foot tower of 

bamboo which the Starns 

and a team of rock climbers 

will continue building for 

the show’s duration. 

100 Billion Suns ★ 

Various city locations, 

venues to be confirmed 

Artist: Katie Paterson 

Organisations: Haunch of 

Venison / AnOther Magazine 

1-5 Jun 12.00–24.00 

● Scientifically-minded 

Paterson, who has previously 

made work with signals sent 

from the Arctic and the moon, 

recreates gamma ray bursts – 

the universe’s brightest 

explosions – by shooting 

thousands of confetti pieces, 

matching their colours, 

from canons around the city. 

www.haunchofvenison.com 

Marisa Merz 

Fondazione Querini Stampalia, 

Campo Santa Maria Formosa, 

Castello 5252 (see p22, no 22) 

Artist: Marisa Merz 

Organisations: Fondazione Merz; 

Fondazione Hangar Bicocca 

1 Jun-18 Sep 

● The veteran Arte Povera 

stalwart engages with this 

historic collection, riffing 

lightly on a 2006 residency 

with a drawing-based show 

on the theme of faces. 

Palermo in Venice 

Venue to be confirmed 

Artist: Alessandro Librio 

Organisation: EB&Flow 

4 Jun from 05.00 for 24 hrs 

● Librio brings the alien 

sound of traffic to Venice. 

Sampled from Palermo, the 

city with the worst sound 

pollution in Italy, this unholy 

din will be broadcast for 24 

hours, and relayed back to 

Palermo mixed with the 

sounds from Venice. 

www.ebandflowgallery.com 

Roman Opalka ★ 

Galleria Michela Rizzo, 

Fondamenta della Malvasia 

Vecchia, San Marco 2597 

Artist: Roman Opalka 

Organisation: Galleria 

Michela Rizzo 

1 Jun-10 Oct 

● This Polish octagenerian 

has been counting to infinity 

since 1965, with a series of 

painted numbers in an 

evolving monochrome 

scheme. Process painting 

taken to its ultimate, and a 

potent comment on the 

finite nature of human life. 

The Art Newspaper Venice Biennale Guide 2011 

is produced together with the June 2011 issue of 

THE ART NEWSPAPER (founded 1990) and is 

an Umberto Allemandi publication. 

With THE ART NEWSPAPER you get hard news 

and commentary about the art world compiled by its 

journalists and a network of newspapers that includes 

Il Giornale dell'Arte, Il Giornale dell'Architettura, 

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This guide was produced for The Art Newspaper by: 

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Deputy editor / writer: Ben Luke 

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BIENNALE GUIDE 2011 - The Art Newspaper

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