Venice Biennale: what you need to know about 'the Olympics' of the art world
For the art world this is the most exciting and important week of the year. Some 25,000 curators, artists, journalists, critics, directors and gallerists from around the world fly into Italy’s floating city to spend a week frantically running from pavilion to exhibition, exhibition to pavilion – crossing canals and palazzos – to see the work of artists legendary and new. It’s a week of meeting old friends, exchanging ideas, discovering new talent and plotting for the future.
Their reviews dictate the zig-zagged routes of the some 800,000 visitors who subsequently turn up to see the sprawling, city-wide exhibition over its seven month run; the artists who will be picked up by big galleries, the shows everyone will queue round blocks, squeeze through arched corridors and down tiny backstreets to see.
“It's a shared journey of discovery, a little bit like an Olympic marathon,” says , of the UK’s , the national in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.” It begins with “the vernissage, the opening” she says, and “it is a bit crazy”, with back-to-back parties and events and of course, exhibition openings: “There's a lot of rushing around,” adds Waldman, who recommends wearing sturdy shoes.
