A visit to the Venice Biennale 2019
A month ago, I left sunny Bangkok for the equally sunny (but much less warm) environs of the UK, Lyon and Venice, where we saw the world famous Biennale. Which was great. I see a fair amount of art as I enjoy it, Mrs Word of Ward is an art curator and an ex I was with for 5 years is a well-known artist in London. Having said all that, I am still a pleb when it comes to the whole art scene and the pretension and bollocks that seems to run through it, no matter what country or continent. That doesn’t include my wife or ex, obviously.
I had never been to the Venice Biennale before but had obviously heard of it. I enjoy big art things and went the Berlin Biennale in the 90s and more recently the Documenta in Kassel, Germany. I have been to Venice before, so if the Biennale sucked, I knew I would still have a nice time because it is a damned pleasant place; unless there was a huge cruise ship in and there too many tourists, or it was flooding, or too foggy, or it stank, or… well there are a ton of reasons why Venice can be less than awesome if you’re unlucky. Fortunately, we were fortunate and there were only a shitload of tourists (a small amount for Venice), it wasn’t flooding or foggy, and it only smelt a little. Game on.
There are two main sections to the event. One was at a place called the Arsenale and the other was in the Giardini. Additionally, there are a lot of other bits, galleries and events scattered all over Venice if you have time and legs of steel. At each of the main locations there are two types of exhibition – the Biennale curated art and then there a load of pavilions for all the attending countries and their artists.
We arrived early in the morning, dropped our bags off and went to the Arsenale. A ticket for three days costs 35 Euros so we got three of those bad boys and went in. I won’t go into too much detail about the actual art because, as previously mentioned, I am an oik and pleb. I will say there is a lot of art there and it is both incredibly awe inspiring and absolutely fucking knackering. The Arsenale is a kind of long L-shaped building with a couple of other big warehouse-like buildings and a few sculptures and installations dotted about. I felt a bit sorry for some of the exhibits near the end because by then we were all exhausted and found it hard to fully appreciate what we saw. It took the whole day, including coffee/beer/food breaks and it was about as much as we could comfortably handle without it being too exhausting. I walked over 20,000 steps and I am 6 foot 1 with long legs and powerful strides. Just to give you an idea.
Day two and we got a vaporetto (public boat thing) to Giardini. Very easy and cheap. Getting off the boat we spotted a garden that had some sculptures that were part of the biennale and were really cool. We then walked to the main bit. Unlike the Arsenale, which was a long building, this consisted of a rounder building in a big garden with lots of national pavilions. We thought it would be a slightly easier and more relaxing than the epic day before and it was – just. (18,000 steps.) The Giardini also has more coffee shops and a funky bar/cafe. Like the day before, we did the main biennale bit before checking out the country pavilions (definitely see the French and Russian ones). As a venue it does feel slightly more chilled out than the Arsenale but that may just be because of the garden setting.
Although we had tickets for three days, we managed to do the two main sections in two. The third day was spent, two of us anyway, wondering around Venice, drinking coffee, eating cakes and complaining about having sore feet. Mrs Word of Ward checked out a couple of more places because she is hard-core. This itinerary is pretty doable and enjoyable, although it is tiring and, speaking personally, I was ‘arted out’ by the end.
The Venice Biennale happens every two years (you should probably be able to guess that) and has been going since 1895. This one is on till 24th November but if you miss it – well you can work out when the next one is and it is likely to keep going for a while. I really enjoyed the whole the whole experience and if you are planning on visiting Venice anyway, it is a great excuse to go when it is on.
If you want more info check out the official website.
