Displaying items by tag: arsenale

This year’s 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, which closed yesterday, was the most controversial architecture iteration of the festival in recent memory — and the most popular, according to statistics released by the Biennale over the weekend. A record number of visitors made their way through the Giardini and Arsenale from June 7 through November 23: 228,000 according to a statement released by the exhibition.

The expanded audience comes in response both to director Rem Koolhaas’s monumental presence in contemporary architectural discourse, but also to this year’s expanded length. In previous years, the Architecture Biennale only ran for three months; Koolhaas doubled that to six months, making 2014 the first year that the architecture display and art display have had equal run times.

The Venice Biennale, a major contemporary art fair that takes place every two years, has welcomed its 400,000^th visitor, marking a major attendance milestone for the event, which is in its 55^th year. The fair’s turnout was up 18% from its last iteration in 2011. The Biennale still has until November 24 to rack up new attendance.

In addition to the particularly high visitor numbers, this year’s Venice Biennale set a single-day attendance record on November 2 when 7,331 people made their rounds at Venice’s Giardini and Arsenale, where the fair is held.

Since 2009, there has been chatter that the Vatican would have its own pavilion at the Venice Biennale. It has finally been confirmed that they will take part in the contemporary art fair’s 55^th year. A vice president of the Vatican’s Holy See promoting committee attended a Biennale press conference on October 26.

The Biennale, which will take place from June 1 to November 24, 2013, welcomes eight new countries to the upcoming fair including the Bahamas, Kuwait, the Maldives, and Paraguay. While the Vatican has kept the works they plan to exhibit under wraps, an Italian newspaper reported that they will feature less than 10 men and women from around the world. They also said that a mix of established and emerging artists on view will explore the first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis.

Curated by Massimiliano Gioni, the Italian-born associate director of the New Museum in New York, the Biennale’s headline exhibitions will take place at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and the Arsenale. Gioni plans to incorporate older pieces from the late 19^th and 20^th century into the fair.