BIENNALE GUIDE 2011 - The Art Newspaper

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