Venice Biennale: our picks of the shows to see in Venice from John Akomfrah to Ethiopia's first ever pavillion

The Venice Biennale begins today, thrilling art fans around the world. The seven-month-long, biannual, city-wide exhibition, will present astonishing and illuminating works of hundreds of artists from around the world.

For those planning to head to Italy’s glorious floating city, there’s more than a lot of material to get through: 331 artists will show work in the central exhibition, Foreigners Everywhere, which has been curated by Brazilian art director Adriano Pedrosa.

There are also 88 countries with National Pavilions, 30 official Collateral Events and many, many other concurrent exhibitions running throughout the city.

So with so much to do and so little time, here are some of