biennaleit focuses on contemporary art,and also includes events for art, contemporary dance, architecture, cinema and theatre
Frequency
biennial, every two years
Italy s most important art fair the venice biennale part 1 3
The Venice Biennale (/ˌbiːɛˈnɑːleɪ, -li/; Italian: La biennale di Venezia[la bi.enˈnaːle di veˈnɛttsja]; in English also called the "VeniceBiennial") is an arts organization based in Venice, and also the original and principal exhibition it organizes. The organization changed its name to the Biennale Foundation in 2009, while the exhibition is also called the Art Biennale to distinguish it from the organisation and other exhibitions it organizes. The Art Biennale, a contemporary visual art exhibition, is so called as it is held biennially, in odd-numbered years; is the original biennale on which others elsewhere in the world are modeled. The Biennale Foundation has a continuous existence supporting the arts, as well as organizing the following separate events:
Venice biennale 2015 chiharu shiota japan pavilion
1895–1947
On April 19, 1893 the Venetian City Council passed a resolution to set up an biennial exhibition of Italian Art ("Esposizione biennale artistica nazionale") to celebrate the silver anniversary of King Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy.
A year later, the council decreed "to adopt a 'by invitation' system; to reserve a section of the Exhibition for foreign artists too; to admit works by uninvited Italian artists, as selected by a jury."
The first Biennale, "I Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della Città di Venezia (1st International Art Exhibition of the City of Venice)" (although originally scheduled for April 22, 1894) was opened on April 30, 1895 by the Italian King and Queen, Umberto I and Margherita di Savoia. The first exhibition was seen by 224,000 visitors.
The event became increasingly international in the first decades of the 20th century: from 1907 on, several countries installed national pavilions at the exhibition, with the first being from Belgium. In 1910 the first internationally well-known artists were displayed- a room dedicated to Gustav Klimt, a one-man show for Renoir, a retrospective of Courbet. A work by Picasso was removed from the Spanish salon in the central Palazzo because it was feared that its novelty might shock the public. By 1914 seven pavilions had been established: Belgium (1907), Hungary (1909), Germany (1909), Great Britain (1909), France (1912), and Russia (1914).
During World War I, the 1916 and 1918 events were cancelled. In 1920 the post of mayor of Venice and president of the Biennale was split. The new secretary general, Vittorio Pica brought about the first presence of avant-garde art, notably Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.
1922 saw an exhibition of sculpture by African artists. Between the two World Wars, many important modern artists had their work exhibited there. In 1928 the Istituto Storico d'Arte Contemporanea (Historical Institute of Contemporary Art) opened, which was the first nucleus of archival collections of the Biennale. In 1930 its name was changed into Historical Archive of Contemporary Art.
In 1930, the Biennale was transformed into an Ente Autonomo (Autonomous Board) by Royal Decree with law no. 33 of 13-1-1930, Subsequently, the control of the Biennale passed from the Venice city council to the national Fascist government under Benito Mussolini. As a result of this restructure and associated financial boost, as well as the president, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, several new sections of the event were established including the Biennale Musica in 1930, also referred to as International Festival of Contemporary Music, the Biennale Theatro in 1934, also referred to as International Theatre Festival, and in the same year the Venice Film Festival, also referred to as Venice International Film Festival.
In 1933 the Biennale organised an exhibition of Italian art abroad.
From 1938, Grand Prizes were awarded in the art exhibition section.
During World War II, the activities of the Biennale were interrupted: 1942 saw the last edition of the events. The Film Festival restarted in 1946, the Music and Theatre festivals were resumed in 1947, and the Art Exhibition in 1948.
1948–73
The Art Biennale was resumed in 1948 with a major exhibition of a recapitulatory nature. The Secretary General, art historian Rodolfo Pallucchini, started with the Impressionists and many protagonists of contemporary art including Chagall, Klee, Braque, Delvaux, Ensor, and Magritte ,as well as a retrospective of Picasso's work. Peggy Guggenheim was invited to exhibit her famous New York collection, a collection that subsequently found a home at Ca' Venier dei Leoni.
1949 saw the beginning of renewed attention to avant-garde movements in European—and later worldwide—movements in contemporary art. Abstract expressionism was introduced in the 1950s, and the Biennale is credited with importing Pop Art into the canon of art history by awarding the top prize to Robert Rauschenberg in 1964. From 1948 to 1972, Italian architect Carlo Scarpa did a series of remarkable interventions in the Biennales exhibition spaces.
In 1954 the island San Giorgio Maggiore provided the venue for the first Japanese Noh theatre shows in Europe. 1956 saw the selection of films following an artistic selection and no longer based upon the designation of the participating country. The 1957 Golden Lion went to Satyajit Ray's Aparajito which introduced Indian cinema to the West.
The student protests of 1968 also marked a crisis for the Biennale. Student protests hindered the opening of the Biennale. A resulting period of institutional changes opened and ending with a new Statute in 1973. In 1969, following the protests, the Grand Prizes were abandoned. These resumed in 1980 for the Mostra del Cinema and in 1986 for the Art Exhibition.
In 1972, for the first time a theme was adopted by the Biennale, called "Opera o comportamento" ("Work or Behaviour").
Starting from 1973 the Music Festival was no longer held annually. During the year in which the Mostra del Cinema was not held, there was a series of "Giornate del cinema italiano" (Days of Italian Cinema) promoted by sectorial bodies in campo Santa Margherita, in Venice.
1974–98
1974 saw the start of the four-year presidency of Carlo Ripa di Meana. The International Art Exhibition was not held (until it was resumed in 1976). Theatre and cinema events were held in October 1974 and 1975 under the title Libertà per il Cile (Freedom for Chile)- a major cultural protest against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
On 15 November 1977, the so-called 'Biennale of Dissent' (International and of the USSR) opened. Because of the ensuing controversies, president Ripa di Meana resigned.
In 1979 the new presidency of Giuseppe Galasso (1979-1982) began. The principle was laid down whereby each of the artistic sectors was to have a permanent director to organise its activity.
In 1980 the Architecture sector of the Biennale was set up. The director, Paolo Portoghesi, opened the Corderie dell'Arsenale to the public for the first time'. At the Mostra del Cinema, the awards were brought back into being (between 1969 and 1979, the editions were non-competitive). In 1980, Achille Bonito Oliva and Harald Szeemann introduced "Aperto", a section of the exhibition designed to explore emerging art. Italian art historian Giovanni Carandente directed the 1988 and 1990 editions. A three-year gap was left afterwards to make sure that the 1995 edition would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Biennale.
The 1993 edition was directed by Achille Bonito Oliva. In 1995, Jean Clair was appointed to be the Biennale's first non-Italian director of visual arts while Germano Celant served as director in 1997.
For the Centenary in 1995, the Biennale promoted events in every sector of its activity: the 34th Festival del Teatro, the 46th Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte, the 46th Festival di Musica, the 52nd Mostra del Cinema.
1999–present
In 1999 and 2001, Harald Szeemann directed two editions in a row (48th & 49th) bringing in a larger representation of artists from Asia and Eastern Europe and more young artist than usual and expanded the show into several newly restored spaces of the Arsenale.
In 1999 a new sector was created for live shows: DMT (Dance Music Theatre).
The 51st edition of the Biennale opened in June 2005, curated, for the first time by two women, Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez. De Corral organized "The Experience of Art" which included 41 artists, from past masters to younger figures. Rosa Martinez took over the Arsenale with "Always a Little Further." Drawing on "the myth of the romantic traveler" her exhibition involved 49 artists, ranging from the elegant to the profane. In 2007, Robert Storr became the first director from the United States to curate the Biennale (the 52nd), with a show entitled Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense. Swedish curator Daniel Birnbaum was artistic director of the 2009 edition, followed by the Swiss Bice Curiger in 2011.
The biennale in 2013 was curated by the Italian Massimiliano Gioni. His title and theme, Il Palazzo Enciclopedico / The Encyclopedic Palace, was adopted from an architectural model by the self-taught Italian-American artist Marino Auriti. Auriti's work, The Encyclopedic Palace of the World was lent by the American Folk Art Museum and exhibited in the first room of the Arsenale for the duration of the biennale. For Gioni, Auriti's work, "meant to house all worldly knowledge, bringing together the greatest discoveries of the human race, from the wheel to the satellite," provided an analogous figure for the "biennale model itself...based on the impossible desire to concentrate the infinite worlds of contemporary art in a single place: a task that now seems as dizzyingly absurd as Auriti's dream."
Curator Okwui Enwezor was responsible for the 2015 edition. He was the first African-born curator of the biennial. As a catalyst for imagining different ways of imagining multiple desires and futures Enwezor commissioned special projects and programs throughout the Biennale in the Giardini. This included a Creative Time Summit, e-flux journal's SUPERCOMMUNITY, Gulf Labor Coalition, The Invisible Borders Trans-African Project and Abounaddara.
The Biennale has an attendance today of over 500,000 visitors.
Artistic directors
1948 – Rodolfo Pallucchini
1950 – Rodolfo Pallucchini
1952 – Rodolfo Pallucchini
1954 – Rodolfo Pallucchini
1956 – Rodolfo Pallucchini
1958 – Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua
1960 – Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua
1962 – Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua
1964 – Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua
1966 – Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua
1968 – Maurizio Calvesi and Guido Ballo
1970 – Umbro Apollonio
1972 – Mario Penelope
1974 – Vittorio Gregotti
1976 – Vittorio Gregotti
1978 – Luigi Scarpa
1980 – Luigi Carluccio
1982 – Sisto Dalla Palma
1984 – Maurizio Calvesi
1986 – Maurizio Calvesi
1988 – Giovanni Carandente
1990 – Giovanni Carandente
1993 – Achille Bonito Oliva
1995 – Jean Clair
1997 – Germano Celant
1999 – Harald Szeemann
2001 – Harald Szeemann
2003 – Francesco Bonami
2005 – Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez
2007 – Robert Storr
2009 – Daniel Birnbaum
2011 – Bice Curiger
2013 – Massimiliano Gioni
2015 – Okwui Enwezor
2017 – Christine Macel
Role in the art market
When the Venice Biennale was founded in 1895, one of its main goals was to establish a new market for contemporary art. Between 1942 and 1968 a sales office assisted artists in finding clients and selling their work, a service for which it charged 10% commission. Sales remained an intrinsic part of the biennale until 1968, when a sales ban was enacted. An important practical reason why the focus on non-commodities has failed to decouple Venice from the market is that the biennale itself lacks the funds to produce, ship and install these large-scale works. Therefore, the financial involvement of dealers is widely regarded as indispensable. Furthermore, every other year the Venice Biennale coincides with nearby Art Basel, the world's prime commercial fair for modern and contemporary art. Numerous galleries with artists on show in Venice usually bring work by the same artists to Basel.
Central Pavilion and Arsenale
The formal Biennale is based at a park, the Giardini. The Giardini includes a large exhibition hall that houses a themed exhibition curated by the Biennale's director.
For the 2013 edition, the main exhibition's budget was about $2.3 million; in addition, more than $2 million were raised mostly from private individuals and foundations and philanthropists.
Initiated in 1980, the Aperto began as a fringe event for younger artists and artists of a national origin not represented by the permanent national pavilions. This is usually staged in the Arsenale and has become part of the formal biennale programme. In 1995 there was no Aperto so a number of participating countries hired venues to show exhibitions of emerging artists.
A special edition of the 54th Biennale was held at Padiglione Italia of Torino Esposizioni - Sala Nervi (December 2011 - February 2012) for the 150th Anniversary of Italian Unification. The event was directed by Vittorio Sgarbi.
National pavilions
The Giardini houses 30 permanent national pavilions. Alongside the Central Pavilion, built in 1894 and later restructured and extended several times, the Giardini are occupied by a further 29 pavilions built at different periods by the various countries participating in the Biennale. The Giardini are the property of the individual countries and are managed by their ministries of culture.
Countries not owning a pavilion in the Giardini are exhibited in other venues across Venice. The number of countries represented is still growing. In 2005, China was showing for the first time, followed by the African Pavilion and Mexico (2007), the United Arab Emirates (2009), and India (2011).
The assignment of the permanent pavilions was largely dictated by the international politics of the 1930s and the Cold War. There is no single format to how each country manages their pavilion, established and emerging countries represented at the biennial maintain and fund their pavilions in different ways. While pavilions are usually government-funded, private money plays an increasingly large role; in 2015, the pavilions of Iraq, Ukraine and Syria were completely privately funded. The pavilion for Great Britain is always managed by the British Council while the United States assigns the responsibility to a public gallery chosen by the Department of State which, since 1985, has been the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The countries at the Arsenale that request a temporary exhibition space pay a hire fee per square meter.
1999 — Alban Hajdinaj, Besnik & Flutura Haxhillari, Edi Hila, Lala Meredith-Vula, Gazmend Muka, Adrian Paci, Edi Rama, Anri Sala, Astrit Vatnikaj, Sislej Xhafa. (Curator: Edi Muka)
2005 — Sislej Xhafa. (Commissioner and Curator: Andi Tepelena and Cecilia Tirelli)
2007 — Helidon Gjergji, Genti Gjokola, Alban Hajdinaj, Armando Lulaj, Heldi Pema. (Commissioner: Rubens Shima. Curator: Bonnie Clearwater)
2017 — Leonard Qylafi. Curator: Vanessa Joan Müller)
Argentina
In 1901, Argentina was the first Latin American nation to participate in the Biennale. In 2011, it was granted a pavilion in the Sale d'Armi, which it will restore.
List of exhibitors in the Argentine Pavilion:
1903 — Pío Collivadino
1905 — Pío Collivadino
1907 — Pío Collivadino
1954 — Lucio Fontana
1958 — Lucio Fontana, Juan del Prete, Raquel Forner
2009 — Luis Felipe Noé (Curator: Fabián Lebenglik)
2011 — Adrián Villar Rojas (Curator: Rodrigo Alonso)
2013 — Nicola Costantino (Curator: Fernando Farina)
2015 — Juan Carlos Distéfano (Curator: María Teresa Constantín)
Australia
The original Australian Pavilion, designed by Philip Cox to be a temporary structure of fiber cement and steel, was opened in 1988 at the western edge of the Giardini. Italian-born Australian industrialist Franco Belgiorno-Nettis had previously lobbied so successfully that in 1988 Australia beat 16 other countries to the last site on which to build a permanent pavilion in the Giardini. Cox and other generous donors gifted the pavilion to the Commonwealth Government. The pavilion was not heritage protected because of its temporary status. A new, permanent pavilion was designed by architectural practice Denton Corker Marshall and completed in 2015. Built from concrete and steel, the two-story structure contains 240 square meters of exhibition space and the exterior is covered in black granite from Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, the old pavilion was dismantled and shipped to Australia, where it will be installed at the Coldstream, Victoria estate of Melbourne restaurateur Rinaldo Di Stasio.
Australia's participation at the Venice Biennale is managed by the Australia Council for the Arts. However, all of the A$6 million ($6.04 million) originally needed for the new building were to be raised from the private sector. Eventually, the pavilion cost $7.5 million to build, $1 million of which was funded by the Australia Council for the Arts; the rest was donated by 82 private Australian donors, including actress Cate Blanchett and producer Santo Cilauro.
List of exhibitors in the Australian Pavilion:
1954 — Sidney Nolan, Russell Drysdale, William Dobell
2007 — Callum Morton, Susan Norrie, Daniel von Sturmer
2009 — Shaun Gladwell, Vernon Ah Kee, Ken Yonetani, Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro (Curator: Felicity Fenner)
2011 — Hany Armanious (Curator: Anne Ellegood)
2013 — Simryn Gill (Curator: Catherine de Zegher)
2015 — Fiona Margaret Hall (Curator: Linda Michael)
2017 — Tracey Moffatt (Curator: Natalie King)
Austria
Designed by Joseph Hoffmann with the collaboration of Robert Kramreiter, 1934 (restored by Hans Hollein, 1984). The clear symmetrical building, conceived as a white cube from the outset, was the first Venice pavilion to have been designed by a leading Classical Modern architect. The Hoffmann pavilion was not used following the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich in 1938, nor in the subsequent Biennale years of 1940 and 1942. Austrian artists with close ties to the Nazi regime were shown in the German Pavilion.
List of exhibitors in the Austrian Pavilion:
1978 — Arnulf Rainer (Commissioner: Hans Hollein)
1980 — Valie Export, Maria Lassnig (Commissioner: Hans Hollein)
1982 — Walter Pichler (Commissioner: Hans Hollein)
1984 — Christian Ludwig Attersee (Commissioner: Hans Hollein)
1986 — Max Peintner, Karl Prantl (Commissioner: Hans Hollein)
1988 — Siegfried Anzinger (Commissioner: Hans Hollein)
1990 — Franz West (Commissioner: Hans Hollein)
1993 — Gerwald Rockenschaub, Andrea Fraser, Christian Philipp Müller (Commissioner: Peter Weibel)
1995 — Coop Himmelb(l)au, Peter Kogler, Richard Kriesche, Peter Sandbichler / Constanze Ruhm, Eva Schlegel, Ruth Schnell (Commissioner: Peter Weibel)
1997 — Die Wiener Gruppe (Friedrich Achleitner, Konrad Bayer, Gerhard Rühm, Oswald Wiener) (Commissioner: Peter Weibel)
1999 — Peter Friedl, Rainer Ganahl, Christine Hohenbüchler and Irene Hohenbüchler, Wochenklausur (Commissioner: Peter Weibel)
2001 — Granular Synthesis (Ulf Langheinrich & Kurt Hentschläger), Gelatin (Commissioner: Elisabeth Schweeger)
2003 — Bruno Gironcoli (Commissioner: Kasper König)
2005 — Hans Schabus (Commissioner: Max Hollein)
2007 — Herbert Brandl (Commissioner: Robert Fleck)
2009 — Elke Krystufek, Dorit Margreiter, Lois & Franziska Weinberger (Commissioners: Valie Export und Silvia Eiblmayr)
2011 — Markus Schinwald (Commissioner: Eva Schlegel)
Designed by Leon Sneyers, 1907 (totally restored by Virgilio Vallot, 1948).
List of exhibitors in the Belgian Pavilion:
1948 — Louis Buisseret, James Ensor, Constant Permeke, Louis Van Lint
1958 — Jules Lismonde (winner of the Renato Carrain Prize)
1964 — Vic Gentils
1997 — Thierry de Cordier
1999 — Berlinde de Bruyckere
2001 — Luc Tuymans
2005 — Honoré d'O
2007 — Éric Duyckaerts, Berlinde de Bruyckere
2009 — Jef Geys (Curator: Dirk Snauwaert)
2011 — Angel Vergara, Luc Tuymans
2013 — Berlinde de Bruyckere (Curator: J.M. Coetzee)
2015 — Vincent Meessen and guests (including Mathieu K. Abonnenc, Sammy Baloji, James Beckett, Elisabetta Benassi, Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin, Tamar Guimarães & Kasper Akhøj, Maryam Jafri, Adam Pendleton) (Curator: Katerina Gregos)
2017 — Dirk Braeckman (Curator: Eva Wittocx)
Brazil
Designed by Amerigo Marchesin, 1964.
List of exhibitors in the Brazilian Pavilion:
1950 — Roberto Burle Marx, Milton Dacosta, Cicero Dias, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, Flavio de Carvalho, Candido Portinari, José Pancetti, Bruno Giorgi, Victor Brecheret, Livio Abramo, Oswaldo Goeldi
1958 — Lasar Segall
1956 — Aldemir Martins
1960 — Antonio Bandeira, Danilo Di Prete, Manabu Mabe, Aloisio Magalhães, Teresa Nicolao, Loio-Pérsio, Mario Cravo
1962 — Alfredo Volpi, Anna Letycia Quadros, Fernando Jackson Ribeiro, Gilvan Samico, Iberê Camargo, Isabel Pons, Ivan Ferreira Serpa, Lygia Clark, Marcelo Grassmann, Rossini Quintas Perez, Rubem Valentim
1964 — Abraham Palatnik, Alfredo Volpi, Almir Mavignier, Franz Weissmann, Frans Krajcberg, Glauco Rodrigues, Tarsila do Amaral
1966 — Sergio de Camargo
1968 — Lygia Clark
1970 — Mary Vieira, Roberto Burle Marx
1972 — Humberto Espíndola, Paulo Roberto Leal, Franz Weissmann
1976 — Claudio Tozzi, Evandro Carlos Jardim, Regina Vater, Sergio Augusto Porto, Vera Chaves Barcellos
1978 — Carlos Alberto Fajardo, G. T. O. (Geraldo Telles de Oliveira), Julio Martins da Silva, Luiz Aquila da Rocha Miranda, Maria Auxiliadora Silva, Maria Madalena Santos Reinbolt, Paulo Gomes Garcez, Wilma Marins
1980 — Anna Bella Geiger, Antonio Dias, Carlos Vergara, Paulo Roberto Leal
1982 — Tunga, Sérgio de Camargo
1984 — Eduardo Sued, Luiz Paulo Baravelli
1986 — Gastão Manoel Henrique, Geraldo de Barros, Renina Katz, Washington Novaes
1988 — José Resende, Juraci Dórea
1990 — Frida Baranek, Daniel Senise, Francisco Brennand, Gilvan Samico, Wesley Duke Lee
1993 — Angelo Venosa, Carlos Alberto Fajardo, Emmanuel Nassar
1995 — Arthur Bispo do Rosário, Nuno Ramos
1997 — Jac Leirner, Waltercio Caldas (Curator: Paulo Herkenhoff)
1999 — Iran do Espírito Santo, Nelson Leirner (Curator: Ivo Mesquita)
2001 — Vik Muniz, Ernesto Neto, Miguel Rio Branco, Tunga (Curator: Germano Celant)
2007 — José Damasceno, Detanico & Lain (Curator: Jacopo Crivelli Visconti)
2009 — Luiz Braga, Delson Uchôa (Curator: Ivo Mesquita)
2011 — Artur Barrio (Curators: Moacir dos Anjos, Agnaldo Farias)
2013 — Hélio Fervenza, Odires Mlászho, Lygia Clark, Max Bill, Bruno Munari (Curator: Luis Pérez-Oramas)
2015 — André Komatsu, Antonio Manuel, Berna Reale (Curator: Luiz Camillo Osorio)
2017 — Curator: Jochen Volz
Canada
The Canadian pavilion was designed by the Milan-based architecture firm BBPR (Gian Luigi Banfi, Ludovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti, Ernesto Nathan Rogers) and was first used at the 1958 biennale. The nation has been participating in the international exhibition since 1952. The National Gallery of Canada took over the Venice selection process from the Canada Council in 2010.
List of exhibitors in the Canadian Pavilion:
1952 — Emily Carr, David Milne, Goodridge Roberts, Alfred Pellan
1954 — B C Binning, Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean-Paul Riopelle
1956 — Jack Shadbolt, Louis Archambault, Harold Town
1958 — James Wilson Morrice, Jacques de Tonnancour, Anne Kahane, Jack Nichols
1960 — Edmund Alleyn, Graham Coughtry, Jean Paul Lemieux, Frances Loring, Albert Dumouchel
1962 — Jean-Paul Riopelle
1964 — Harold Town, Elza Mayhew
1966 — Alex Colville, Yves Gaucher, Sorel Etrog
1968 — Ulysse Comtois, Guido Molinari
1970 — Michael Snow
1972 — Gershon Iskowitz, Walter Redinger
1976 — Greg Curnoe
1978 — Ron Martin, Henry Saxe
1980 — Collin Campbell, Pierre Falardeau & Julien Poulin, General Idea, Tom Sherman, Lisa Steele
1982 — Paterson Ewen
1984 — Ian Carr-Harris, Liz Magor
1986 — Melvin Charney, Krzysztof Wodiczko
1988 — Roland Brener, Michel Goulet
1990 — Geneviève Cadieux
1993 — Robin Collyer
1995 — Edward Poitras
1997 — Rodney Graham
1999 — Tom Dean
2001 — Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller (Curator: Wayne Baerwaldt)
2003 — Jana Sterbak (Curator: Gilles Godmer)
2005 — Rebecca Belmore
2007 — David Altmejd (Curator: Louise Déry)
2009 — Mark Lewis (Curator: Barbara Fischer)
2011 — Steven Shearer (Curator: Josée Drouin-Brisebois)
The first Central Asian Pavilion was an initiative of Victor Miziano in 2005. The second pavilion was organized by Yulia Sorokina (Almaty) and the third by Beral Madra (Istanbul). Each of these was different in format and approach. The first one – Art from Central Asia. A Contemporary Archive – aimed at placing Central Asia on the ‘map’ of international art. Along the works of invited artists, there were many video compilations of films, performance and happenings presented by Central Asian artists from the end of the 1990s and beginning of 2000.
List of exhibitors in the Central Asia Pavilion:
2005 — Said Atabekov, Vyacheslav Akhunov & Sergey Tychina, Maksim Boronilov & Roman Maskalev, Elena Vorobyeva & Viktor Vorobyev, Kasmalieva & Djumaliev, Sergey Maslov, Almagul Menlibaeva, Erbossyn Meldibekov, Alexander Nikolaev, Rustam Khalfin & Yulia Tikhonova (Curators: Viktor Misiano, Commissioner: Churek Djamgerchinova)
2007 — Roman Maskalev, Almagul Menlibaeva & German Popov, Gulnur Mukazhanova, Alexander Nikolaev, Aleksey Rumyantsev, Alexander Ugay, Аsia Animation, Said Atabekov, Vyacheslav Akhunov, Alla Girik & Oksana Shatalova, Digsys, Natalia Dyu, Zadarnovsky Brothers, Gaukhar Kiyekbayeva, Vyacheslav Useinov, Jamol Usmanov, Aytegin Muratbek Uulu, Jamshed Kholikov, ZITABL (Commissioner and curator: Yulia Sorokina)
1993 — Milivoj Bijelić, Ivo Deković, and Željko Kipke
1995 — Martina Kramer, Goran Petercol, Mirko Zrinščak, Ivan Faktor, Nina Ivančić, Damir Sokić, Mladen Stilinović, Dean Jokanović Toumin, Goran Trbuljak, Gorki Žanić
1997 — Dalibor Martinis
1999 — Zlatan Vrkljan
2001 — Julije Knifer
2003 — Boris Cvjetanović and Ana Opalić
2010 — Saša Begović, Marko Dabrović, Igor Franić, Tanja Grozdanić, Petar Mišković, Silvije Novak, Veljko Oluić, Helena Paver Njirić, Lea Pelivan, Toma Plejić, Goran Rako, Saša Randić, Turato Idis, Pero Vuković e Tonči Žarnić
2013 — Kata Mijatović (Curator: Branko Franceschi)
2015 — Damir Očko (Curator: Marc Bembekoff)
2017 — Tina Gverović, Marko Tadić (Curator: Branka Benčić)
Czech Republic and Slovakia
Designed by Otakar Novotný, 1926 (annex built by Boguslav Rychlinch, 1970).
List of exhibitors in the Czech and Slovak Pavilion:
1926 — Charlotte Schrötter-Radnitz
1956 — Josef Lada, Adolf Zábranský, Jiří Trnka, Antonín Pelc, Cyril Bouda, Václav Karel, Kamil Lhoták, Antonín Strnadel, Vincenc Vingler, a.o.
1964 — Vladimír Kompánek
1966 — Jozef Kornucik, Vladimír Kompánek
1970 — Jozef Jankovič
1986 — Ivan Ouhel
1993 — František Skála, Daniel Fischer
1995 — Jozef Jankovič
1999 — (Curators: Petra Hanáková and Alexandra Kusá)
2001 — Jiří Surůvka, Ilona Németh (Curator: Katarína Rusnáková)
2005 — Stanislav Filko, Jan Mančuška, Boris Ondreička (Curator: Marek Pokorný)
2007 — Irena Jůzová (Curator: Tomáš Vlček)
2009 — Roman Ondák (Curator: Kathrin Rhomberg)
2011 — Dominik Lang (Curator: Yvona Ferencová)
2013 — Petra Feriancová, Zbyněk Baladrán (Curator: Marek Pokorný)
2015 — Jiří David (Curator: Katarína Rusnáková)
Denmark
Designed by Carl Brummer, 1932 (annex designed by Peter Koch, 1958).
The Danish Arts Council Committee for International Visual Arts serves as commissioner for the Danish Pavilion at the Biennale, where Denmark has taken part since 1895.
List of exhibitors in the Danish Pavilion:
1999 — Jason Rhoades, Peter Bonde
2003 — Olafur Eliasson
2005 — Eva Koch, Joachim Koester, Peter Land, Ann Lislegaard, Gitte Villesen
2009 — Adel El Siwi, Ahmad Askalany (Curator: Adel El Siwi)
2011 — Ahmed Basiony (Curators: Aida Eltorie, Shady El Noshokaty)
2013 — Mohamed Banawy, Khaled Zaki
2015 — Ahmed Abdel Fatah, Gamal Elkheshen, Maher Dawoud
Estonia
The expositions at the Estonian Pavilion are regularly commissioned by the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia.
List of exhibitors in the Estonian Pavilion:
2003 — Kaido Ole
2005 — Mark Raidpere
2007 — Marko Mäetamm (Curator: Mika Hannula)
2009 — Kristina Norman (Curator: Marko Laimre)
2011 — Liina Siib
2013 — Dénes Farkas
2015 — Jaanus Samma (Curator: Eugenio Viola)
Finland
Designed by Alvar Aalto to be a temporary construction for the architecture biennale in 1956, the pavilion was later restored by Fredrik Fogh with the collaboration of Elsa Makiniemi, 1976–1982. Also used by Iceland. In 2011, a big tree fell on the pavilion in Venice, effectively interrupting the Finnish exhibition in the 2011 biennale. The pavilion and the works exhibited there were damaged and the show had to be closed ahead of time. The pavilion was later restored in 2012 by Gianni Talamini.
2005 — Jaakko Heikkilä
2007 — Maaria Wirkkala
2011 — Vesa-Pekka Rannikko (Curator: Laura Köönikkä)
2013 — Antti Laitinen, Terike Haapoja (Curators: Mika Elo, Marko Karo Harri Laakso)
2009 — Claude Lévêque (Curator: Christian Bernard)
2011 — Christian Boltanski (Curator: Jean-Hubert Martin)
2013 — Anri Sala (Curator: Christine Macel) [Exhibition was held at the French pavilion]
2015 — Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, Lili Reynaud-Dewar (Curator: Emma Lavigne)
2017 – Xavier Veilhan (Curators: Lionel Bovier, Christian Marclay)
Gabon
Gabon first participated in the Venice Biennale in 2009.
List of exhibitors in the Gabonese Pavilion:
2009 — Owanto (Curator: Fernando Frances)
Georgia
List of exhibitors in the Georgian Pavilion:
2009 — Koka Ramishvili (Curator: Khatuna Khabuliani)
2013 — Bouillon Group, Thea Djordjadze, Nikoloz Lutidze, Gela Patashuri with Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin, Gio Sumbadze (Commissioner: Marine Mizandari, curator: Joanna Warsza)
2015 — Rusudan Khizanishvili, Irakli Bluishvili, Dimitri Chikvaidze, Joseph Sabia, Ia Liparteliani, Nia Mgaloblishvili, Sophio Shevardnadze (Curator: Nia Mgaloblishvili)
Germany
The commissioner for the German contribution to Biennial is the German Foreign Ministry. On the recommendation of an advisory committee of museum directors and art experts, the ministry appoints a curator (formerly called a commissioner) responsible for the selection of the artists and the organisation of the contribution. This appointment is usually for two years in succession. The Sparkassen-Kulturfonds (culture fund) of the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband is the pavilion's main sponsor. The Goethe-Institut and, since 2013, the ifa Friends of the German Pavilion are also funders.
From 1982 until 1990 the German Democratic Republic organized its own exhibitions in the former Pavilion of Decorative Art. Germany's pavilion was redesigned by Ernst Haiger and inaugurated in 1938 by the ruling Nazi government, a fact that has inspired artistic responses from some presenters. It was originally designed by Daniele Donghi in 1909.
List of exhibitors in the German Pavilion:
1950 — Der Blaue Reiter (Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl)
1952 — Die Brücke (Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl)
1954 — Heinz Battke, Leo Cremer, Edgar Ende, Paul Klee, Karl Kunz, Oskar Schlemmer, Rudolf Schlichter, Hans Uhlmann, Mac Zimmermann (Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl)
1958 — Karl Otto Götz, Fred Thieler, Julius Bissier, Rolf Cavael, Werner Gilles, Otto Herbert Hajek, Wassily Kandinsky, Heinrich Kirchner, Fritz Koenig, Hans Mettel, Otto Pankok, Hans Platschek, E. Andreas Rauch, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Johanna Schütz-Wolff, Emil Schumacher, K. R. H. Sonderborg, Wilhelm Wessel, Hans Wimmer (Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl)
1960 — Willi Baumeister, Julius Bissier, Emil Cimiotti, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Rupert Stöckl, Werner Schreib, Ernst Weiers (Kurator Konrad Röthel)
1962 — Werner Gilles, HAP Grieshaber, Erich Heckel, Alfred Lörcher, Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff, Emil Schumacher (Curator: Konrad Röthel)
1964 — Joseph Fassbender, Norbert Kricke (Commissioner: Eduard Trier)
1966 — Horst Antes, Günter Haese, Ferdinand Ris (Commissioner: Eduard Trier)
1968 — Horst Janssen, Richard Oelze (Commissioner: Alfred Hentzen)
1970 — Kaspar-Thomas Lenk, Heinz Mack, Georg Karl Pfahler, Günther Uecker (Commissioner: Dieter Honisch)
1972 — Gerhard Richter (Commissioner: Dieter Honisch)
1976 — Joseph Beuys, Jochen Gerz, Reiner Ruthenbeck (Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz)
1978 — Dieter Krieg, Ulrich Rückriem (Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz)
1980 — Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer (Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz)
1982 — Hanne Darboven, Gotthard Graubner, Wolfgang Laib (Commissioner: Johannes Cladders)
1984 — Lothar Baumgarten, A. R. Penck (Commissioner: Johannes Cladders)
2001 — Gregor Schneider (Commissioner: Udo Kittelmann)
2003 — Candida Höfer, Martin Kippenberger (Curator: Julian Heynen)
2005 — Thomas Scheibitz, Tino Sehgal (Curator: Julian Heynen)
2007 — Isa Genzken (Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen)
2009 — Liam Gillick (Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen)
2011 — Christoph Schlingensief (Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer)
2013 — Ai Weiwei, Romuald Karmakar, Santu Mofokeng, Dayanita Singh (Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer) [Exhibition was held at the French pavilion]
2015 — Tobias Zielony, Hito Steyerl, Olaf Nicolai, Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk (Curator: Florian Ebner)
2017 — Anne Imhof (Curator: Susanne Pfeffer)
Great Britain
Designed by Edwin Alfred Rickards, 1909.
Since 1938 the British Council has been responsible for the British Pavilion in Venice.
List of exhibitors in the British Pavilion:
1948 — Sculptures by Henry Moore. Paintings by J. M. W. Turner. Works by Ben Nicholson and John Tunnard.
1950 — Paintings by Matthew Smith and John Constable. Sculptures by Barbara Hepworth.
1952 — Paintings by Graham Sutherland and Edward Wadsworth. Sculptures by the New Aspects of British Sculpture group (Robert Adams, Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick, Geoffrey Clarke, Bernard Meadows, Henry Moore, Eduardo Paolozzi, and William Turnbull).
1954 — Paintings by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Ben Nicholson. Sculptures by Reg Butler relating to his Unknown Political Prisoner monument. Lithographs by Allin Brains, Geoffrey Clarke, Henry Cliffe, Robert Colquhoun, William Gear, Henry Moore, Eduardo Paolozzi, Ceri Richards, William Scott, and Graham Sutherland.
1956 — Paintings by Ivon Hitchens, John Bratby, Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch, and Jack Smith. Sculptures by Lynn Chadwick.
1958 — Paintings by William Scott and S. W. Hayter. Sculptures by Kenneth Armitage, Sezione Giovani, Sandra Blow, Anthony Caro, and Alan Davie.
1960 — Mixed media works by Victor Pasmore. Paintings by Merlyn Evans, Geoffrey Clarke, Henry Cliffe.
1962 — Paintings by Ceri Richards. Sculptures by Robert Adams and Hubert Dalwood.
1964 — Mixed media works by Joe Tilson. Paintings by Roger Hilton, Gwyther Irwin. Sculptures by Bernard Meadows.
1966 — Paintings by Richard Smith, Bernard Cohen, Harold Cohen, and Robyn Denny. Sculptures by Anthony Caro.
1968 — Paintings by Bridget Riley and Francis Bacon. Sculptures by Philip King. 'Ways of Contemporary Research' exhibition with works by Anthony Caro, David Hockney, Ben Nicholson, Eduardo Paolozzi, Victor Pasmore, Graham Sutherland.
1970 — Paintings by Richard Smith.
1972 — Paintings by John Walker. Sculptures by William G. Tucker. 'Grafica sperimentale per la stampa' exhibition with works by Pentagram (Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes, Mervyn Kurlansky), Michael English, John Gorham, F. H. K. Henrion, Lou Klein, Enzo Ragazzini. 'Il Libro come luogo di ricerca' exhibition with works by Gilbert and George and Victor Burgin.
1976 — Works by Richard Long, Richard Hamilton, Victor Pasmore, David Mackay, Alison and Peter Smithson, James Stirling, John Davies, Phillip Hyde, Anne Rawcliffe-King, Yolanda Teuten.
1978 — Photography by Mark Boyle. 'Six Stations for Art-Nature. The Nature of Art' exhibition with works by Gilbert and George, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Richard Long, and Malcolm Morley. 'Art and Cinema' by Anthony McCall.
1980 — Works by Tim Head and Nicholas Pope. 'Art in the Seventies' exhibition with works by Bruce McLean, Kenneth Martin, Television Exhibitions, Barry Flanagan, Gilbert and George, Hamish Fulton, and Richard Long. 'Art in the Seventies. Open 80' exhibition with works by Roger Ackling, Tony Cragg, and Leonard McComb.
1982 — Works by Barry Flanagan. 'Aperto 82' exhibition with works by Catherine Blacker, Stephen Cox, Antony Gormley, Tim Head, Shirazeh Houshiary, Anish Kapoor, Christopher Le Brun, Judy Pfaff, Stephen Willats, and Bill Woodrow. 'Arte come arte: persistenza dell’opera — Mostra internazionale' exhibition with works by Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Ronald Kitaj, and Raymond Mason.
1984 — Works by Howard Hodgkin. 'Arte allo Specchio' exhibition with works by Peter Greenaway and Christopher Le Brun. 'Arte, Ambiente, Scena' exhibition with works by Judy Pfaff. 'Aperto 84' exhibition with works by Terry Atkinson, Helen Chadwick, Rose Garrard, Glenys Johnson, Paul Richards, Amikam Toren, and Kerry Treng.
1986 — Works by Frank Auerbach (Commissioner: Henry Meyric Hughes). 'Aperto 86' exhibition with works by Lisa Milroy, John Murphy, Avis Newman, Jacqueline Poncelet, Boyd Webb, and Richard Wilson. 'Art e Scienza' exhibition with works by Eric Bainbridge, Alastair Brotchie, Anthony Caro, Leonora Carrington, Ithell Colquhoun, Stephen Cox, Tony Cragg, Neil Cummings, Brian Eno, Barry Flanagan, Jeremy Gardiner, Eric Gidney, Jocelyn Godwin, Anthony Gormley, Paul Hayward, Allen Jones, Liliane Lijn, Peter Lowe, Kyeran Lyons, Conroy Maddox, Thomas Major, Kenneth Martin, Mary Martin, Alastair Morton, Hugh O'Donnell, Andrew Owens, Digital Pictures, Mike Punt, Bridget Riley, Kurt Schwitters, Peter Sedgley, Jeffrey Steele, Paul Thomas, Philip West, and Alison Wilding.
1988 — Tony Cragg (Commissioner: Henry Meyric Hughes). 'Aperto 88' exhibition with works by Tony Bevan, Hannah Collins, Grenville Davey, Andy Goldsworthy, Simon Linke, Peter Nadin, and Thoms William Puckey. 'Scultori ai Giardini' exhibition with works by Lynn Chadwick, Anthony Core, Philip King, and Joe Tilson.
1990 — Anish Kapoor (Commissioner: Henry Meyric Hughes). 'Three Scottish Sculptors' exhibition with works by David Mach, Arthur Watson, and Kate Whiteford. 'Aperto 90' with works by Eric Bainbridge, David Leapman, Patrick Joseph McBride, Therese Oulton, Fiona Rae, and Anthony Wilson. 'Fluxus' exhibition with works by Braco Dimitrijevic, Brion Gysin, Dick Higgins, and Robin Page.
1993 — Richard Hamilton (Commissioner: Andrea Rose). 'Aperto 93' exhibition with works by Henry Bond, Christine Borland, Angela Bulloch, Mat Collishaw, Damien Hirst, Simon Patterson, Vong Phaophanit, Steven Pippin, Julie Roberts, and Georgina Starr. 'Punti dell'arte' exhibition with works by Anish Kapoor. 'Slittamenti' exhibition with works by Peter Greenaway and Derek Jarman. 'Macchine della pace' exhibition with works by Tony Cragg, Shirazeh Houshiary, and Julian Opie. 'La coesistenza dell'arte' exhibition with works by Braco Dimitrijevic. 'Art against Aids. Venezia 93' exhibition with works by Gilbert and George, Frank Auerbach, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Shirazeh Houshiary, Anish Kapoor, Ronald Kitaj, Malcolm Morley, Ray Smith, and Rachel Whiteread. 'Tresors de Voyage' exhibition with works by Braco Dimitrijevic, Shirazeh Houshiary, and Anish Kapoor.
1995 — Works by Leon Kossoff. 'General Release: Young British Artists' exhibition with works by Fiona Banner, Dinos Chapman, Jake Chapman, Adam Chodzko, Matthew Dalziel, and Louise Scullion, Cerith Wyn Evans, Elizabeth Wright, Tacita Dean, Lucy Gunning, Sam Taylor-Wood, Jane and Louise Wilson, Jaki Irvine, Gary Hume, Douglas Gordan, Tom Gidley, and Ceal Floyer.
1997 — Rachel Whiteread (Commissioner: Andrea Rose)
1999 — Paintings by Gary Hume (Commissioner: Andrea Rose)
2001 — Mark Wallinger (Commissioner: Andrea Rose; curator: Ann Gallagher)
2003 — Chris Ofili (Commissioner: Andrea Rose; curator: Colin Ledwith)
2005 — Gilbert and George (Commissioner: Andrea Rose; curator: Richard Riley)
2007 — Tracey Emin (Commissioner: Andrea Rose)
2009 — Video installation by Steve McQueen
2011 — Mike Nelson (Commissioner: Andrea Rose; curator: Richard Riley)
2013 — Jeremy Deller (Curator: Emma Gifford-Mead)
2015 — Sarah Lucas (Curator: Richard Riley)
2017 — Phyllida Barlow
Greece
Designed by Brenno Del Giudice, M. Papandre, 1934. In 1934, after the Biennale had organised a second exhibition in Athens (1993) — Greece officially took part for the first time in the Venice exhibition. The exhibitions at the pavilion are commissioned by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
List of exhibitors in the Greek Pavilion:
Artists:
1936 — Maria Anagnostopoulou, Umberto Argyros, Constantinos Artemis, Nicolas Asprogerakas (Commissioner: Typaldo Forestis)
1936 — Konstantinos Maleas, Nikolaos Lytras, C. Stefanopoulo Alessandridi, Umberto Argyros, Aglae Papa (Commissioner: Typaldo Forestis)
In 1984, as Finland had joined Norway and Sweden in the Nordic Pavilion, Iceland was given the opportunity to rent the Finnish pavilion until 2006. The Icelandic Art Center commissions the Icelandic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
In 2011, India was represented for the first time after 116 years, with the support of the culture ministry and the organizational participation of the Lalit Kala Akademi. Biennale organizers had reportedly invited the country in past years, but the government had declined, a decision attributed to a lack of communication between the culture ministry and the country's National Gallery of Modern Art.
2015 — Shilpa Gupta, Rashid Rana (Exhibition jointly held with Pakistan)
Iraq
In 2011, Iraq returned to the Biennale for the first time after a 35-year absence. The title of the Iraq Pavilion was "Acqua Ferita" (translated as "Wounded Water"). Six Iraqi artists from two generations interpreted the theme of water in their works, which made up the exhibition.
2011 — Adel Abidin, Halim Al Karim, Ahmed Alsoudani, Ali Assaf, Azad Nanakeli, Walid Siti
2011 — Sigalit Landau (Curators: Jean de Loisy, Ilan Wizga)
2013 — Gilad Ratman (Curator: Sergio Edelstein)
2015 — Tsibi Geva (Curator: Hadas Maor)
2017 – Gal Weinstein (Curator: Tami Katz-Freiman)
Italy
"Palazzo Pro Arte": Enrico Trevisanato, façade by Marius De Maria and Bartholomeo Bezzi, 1895; new façade by Guido Cirilli, 1914; "Padiglione Italia", present façade by Duilio Torres, 1932. The pavilion has a sculpture garden by Carlo Scarpa, 1952 and the "Auditorium Pastor" by Valeriano Pastor, 1977.
Partial list of exhibitors at the Italian Pavilion:
1895 — Giuseppe Ferrari
1905 — Giuseppe Ferrari
1912 — Aldo Carpi
1922 — Giuseppe Ferrari (posthumus)
1934 — Aldo Carpi, Carlo Martini
1936 — Aldo Carpi, Carlo Martini, Quinto Martini
1942 — Aldo Carpi, Trento Longaretti
1948 — Aldo Carpi, Trento Longaretti, Carlo Martini
1950 — Aldo Carpi, Trento Longaretti, Carlo Martini
1966 — Ferruccio Bortoluzzi, Trento Longaretti
1968 — Maurizio Nannucci, Maurizio Mochetti, Eliseo Mattiacci, Paolo Masi, Enzo Mari
1990 — Davide Benati, Gino De Dominicis, Nicola De Maria, Luigi Mainolfi, Giuseppe Maraniello, Carlo Maria Mariani, Claudio Olivieri (Curators: Laura Cherubini, Flaminio Gualdoni, Lea Vergine)
1995 — Lorenzo Bonechi, Ida Cadorin Barbarigo, Roberto Capucci, Francesco Clemente, Amalia Del Ponte, Stefano Di Stasio, Paolo Gallerani, Paola Gandolfi, Nunzio, Luigi Ontani, Claudio Parmiggiani, Gianni Pisani, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Angelo Savelli, Ruggero Savino, Ettore Spalletti, Vito Tongiani, Mino Trafeli, Giuliano Vangi (Curator: Jean Clair)
2001 — Alighiero Boetti, Barry McGee, Todd James, Steve Powers (Curators: Pio Baldi, Paolo Colombo, Sandra Pinto)
2003 — Charles Avery, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Sara Rossi, Carola Spadoni (Curators: Pio Baldi, Monica Pignatti Morano and Paolo Colombo). A12, Alessandra Ariatti, Micol Assaël, Diego Perrone, Patrick Tuttofuoco, Zimmer Frei (curator: Massimiliano Gioni)
2005 — Carolina Antich, Manfredi Beninati, Loris Cecchini, Lara Favaretto (Curators: Pio Baldi, Monica Pignatti Morano and Paolo Colombo)
2007 — Giuseppe Penone, Francesco Vezzoli (Curator: Ida Gianelli)
2009 — Matteo Basilé, Manfredi Beninati, Valerio Berruti, Bertozzi & Casoni, Nicola Bolla, Sandro Chia, Marco Cingolani, Giacomo Costa, Aron Demetz, Roberto Floreani, Daniele Galliano, Marco Lodola, MASBEDO, Gian Marco Montesano, Davide Nido, Luca Pignatelli, Elisa Sighicelli, Sissi, Nicola Verlato, Silvio Wolf (Curators: Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli)
2011 — L'Arte non è Cosa Nostra, a group show with 250 artists, including Valerio Adami, Vanessa Beecroft, Agostino Bonalumi, Enzo Cucchi, Roberto Ferri, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Rabarama and Oliviero Toscani (Curator: Vittorio Sgarbi)
2015 — Flaka Haliti (Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen)
Kuwait
List of exhibitors in the Kuwait Pavilion:
2013 — "National Works" featuring works by Sami Mohammad and Tarek Al-Ghoussein (Curator: Ala Younis, Commissioner: National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters)
2016 - "Between East and West: A Gulf" curated by Hamed Bukhamseen and Ali Karimi
Lebanon
Lebanon was present at the Biennale for the first time in 2007. After being absent in 2009 and 2011, it is coming back in 2013.
2007 — Foreword: Fouad Elkoury, Lamia Joreige, Walid Sadek, Mounira Al Solh and Akram Zaatari (Curators: Saleh Barakat, Sandra Dagher)
2013 — Akram Zaatari (Curators: Sam Bardaouil, Till Fellrath)
Lithuania
List of exhibitors in the Lithuanian Pavilion:
1999 — Mindaugas Navakas and Eglė Rakauskaitė
2001 — Deimantas Narkevičius
2003 — Svajonė Stanikas and Paulius Stanikas
2005 — Jonas Mekas
2007 — Nomeda Urbonienė and Gediminas Urbonas
2009 — Žilvinas Kempinas
2011 — Darius Mikšys
2013 — Gintaras Didžiapetris, Elena Narbutaitė, Liudvikas Buklys, Kazys Varnelis, Vytautė Žilinskaitė, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Jason Dodge, Gabriel Lester, Dexter Sinister (Curator: Raimundas Malašauskas)
2015 — Dainius Liškevičius
2017 — Žilvinas Landzbergas
Luxembourg
The Cà del Duca, situated on the Canale Grande, has been the permanent site for Luxembourg's participations in the Venice Biennale since 1999.
List of exhibitors in the Luxembourg Pavilion:
1990 — Marie-Paule Feiereisen
1993 — Jean-Marie Biwer, Bertrand Ney
1995 — Bert Theis
1997 — Luc Wolf
1999 — Simone Decker
2001 — Doris Drescher
2003 — Su-Mei Tse
2007 — Jill Mercedes
2009 — Gast Bouschet, Nadine Hilbert
2011 — Martine Feipel, Jean Bechameil (Curator: René Kockelkorn)
2013 — Catherine Lorent
2015 — Filip Markiewicz (Curator: Paul Ardenne)
2017 — Mike Bourscheid
Macao
List of exhibitors in the Macao Pavilion:
2015 — Mio Pang Fei
Macedonia
List of exhibitors in the Republic of Macedonia Pavilion:
The Maldives Pavilion was introduced in 2013. List of exhibitors in the Maldives Pavilion:
2013 — Mohamed Ali, Sama Alshaibi, Ursula Biemann, Stefano Cagol, Wael Darwesh, Moomin Fouad, Thierry Geoffrey (aka Colonel), Khaled Hafez, Heidrun Holzfeind & Christoph Draeger, Hanna Husberg, Laura McLean & Kalliopi Tsipni-Kolaza, Achilleas Kentonis & Maria Papacaharalambous, Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky), Gregory Niemeyer, Khaled Ramada, Oliver Ressler, Klaus Schafler, Patrizio Travagli, Wooloo (Sixten Kai Nielsen and Martin Rosengaard), (Curators CPS – Chamber of Public Secrets: Alfredo Cramerotti, Aida Eltorie, Khaled Ramadan)
Mexico
The Mexican Pavilion was introduced for the first time in 1950 with the participation of the Muralists: David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo. For this participation, David Alfaro Siqueiros was awarded the 1st prize to foreign artists. The national participation was interrupted until 2007. The exhibitors that have represented the pavilion are:
1950 – David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo
2007 – Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
2009 – Teresa Margolles
2011 – Melanie Smith
2013 – Ariel Guzik
2015 – Tania Candiani, Luis Felipe Ortega
Mongolia
The Mongolia Pavilion was introduced for the first time in 2015 with the participation of artists Unen Enkh and Enkhbold Togmidshiirev. The Pavilion was commissioned by Gantuya Badamgarav, curated by Uranchimeg Tsultem and organized by Mongolian Contemporary Art Support Association.
List of exhibitors in the Mongolia Pavilion:
2015 – Unen Enkh, Enkhbold Togmidshiirev
Netherlands
In 1914, the Swedish Pavilion, designed by Gustav Ferdninand Boberg, was handed over to the Netherlands. In 1954 the Dutch pavilion was demolished and reconstructed on the same site, designed by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld in 1954.
Since 1995, the Mondriaan Foundation has been responsible for the Dutch entry at the Biennale di Venezia, appointing a curator for each entry.
Dutch artists and curators of previous editions:
1956 — Constant, Bart van der Leck, Piet Mondriaan, André Volten
1964 — Karel Appel, Lucebert, J. Mooy
1966 — Constant Nieuwenhuys with paintings, sculptures, New Babylon objects, watercolors and drawings
1968 — Carel Visser
1982 — Stanley Brouwn
1986 — Reinier Lucassen
1988 — Henk Visch
1990 — Rob Scholte
1993 — Niek Kemps
1995 — Marlene Dumas, Maria Roosen, Marijke van Warmerdam (Curator: Chris Dercon)
1997 — Aernout Mik, Willem Oorebeek (Curators: Leontine Coelewij, Arno van Roosmalen)
1999 — Daan van Golden (Curator: Karel Schampers)
2001 — Liza May Post (Curator: Jaap Guldemond)
2003 — Carlos Amorales, Alicia Framis, Meschac Gaba, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Erik van Lieshout (Curator: Rein Wolfs)
2005 — Jeroen De Rijke / Willem de Rooij (Curator: Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen)
2007 — Aernout Mik (Curator Maria Hlavajova)
2009 — Fiona Tan (Curator: Saskia Bos)
2011 — Barbara Visser, Ernst van der Hoeven, Herman Verkerk, Johannes Schwartz, Joke Robaard, Maureen Mooren, Paul Kuipers, Sanneke van Hassel, Yannis Kyriakides (Curator: Guus Beumer)
2013 — Mark Manders (Curator: Lorenzo Benedetti)
2015 — Herman de Vries (Curators: Colin Huizing, Cees de Boer)
2017 – Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Curator: Lucy Cotter)
New Zealand
List of exhibitors in the New Zealand Pavilion:
2001 — Peter Robinson and Jacqueline Fraser (Curator: Gregory Burke)
2003 — Michael Stevenson (Curators: Robert Leonard and Boris Kremer)
2005 — et al. (Curator: Natasha Conland)
2007 — Frank Fu
2009 — Judy Millar (Curator: Leonhard Emmerling) and Francis Upritchard (Curators: Heather Galbraith and Francesco Manacorda)
2011 — Michael Parekowhai
2013 — Bill Culbert (Curator: Justin Paton)
2015 — Simon Denny (Curator: Robert Leonard)
The Nordic Countries
Designed by Sverre Fehn, 1962 (small annex built by Fredrik Fogh, 1987).
The cooperation between Finland, Norway and Sweden in Venice was initiated in 1962 after the completion of the Nordic Pavilion. Until 1984, the representation of each country was organized nationally. From 1986 to 2009 the pavilion was commissioned as a whole, with the curatorial responsibility alternating between the collaborating countries. From 2011 the cooperation has been temporarily discontinued. In a trial period lasting from 2011 until 2015, the pavilion was used for a national presentation: Sweden in 2011, Finland in 2013, and Norway in 2015.
List of exhibitors in the Nordic Pavilion:
1962 — FINLAND: Ahti Lavonen, Kain Tapper, Esko Tirronen; NORWAY: Rolf Nesch, Knut Rumohr; SWEDEN: Siri Derkert, Per Olof Ulltvedt
1964 — FINLAND: Ina Colliander, Simo Hannula, Pentti Kaskipuro, Laila Pullinen; NORWAY: Hannah Ryggen; SWEDEN: Torsten Andersson, Martin Holmgren, Torsten Renqvist
1966 — FINLAND: Heikki Häiväoja, Harry Kivijärvi, Sam Vanni; NORWAY: Jakob Weidemann; SWEDEN: Öyvind Fahlström
1968 — FINLAND: Mauno Hartman, Kimmo Kaivanto, Ahti Lavonen; NORWAY: Gunnar S. Gundersen; SWEDEN: Sivert Lindblom, Arne Jones
1970 — FINLAND: Juhani Linnovaara; NORWAY: Arnold Haukeland; SWEDEN: Did not participate
1972 — FINLAND: Harry Kivijärvi, Pentti Lumikangas; NORWAY: Arne Ekeland; SWEDEN: Did not participate
1976 — FINLAND: Mikko Jalavisto, Tapio Junno, Kimmo Kaivanto, Ulla Rantanen; NORWAY: Boge Berg, Steinar Christensen/Kristian Kvakland, Arvid Pettersen; SWEDEN: ARARAT (Alternative Research in Architecture, Resources, Art and Technology)
1978 — FINLAND: Olavi Lanu; NORWAY: Frans Widerberg; SWEDEN: Lars Englund
1980 — FINLAND: Matti Kujasalo; NORWAY: Knut Rose; SWEDEN: Ola Billgren, Jan Håfström
1986 — "Techne": Bård Breivik (NO), Marianne Heske (NO), Olli Lyytikäinen (FI), Kjell Ohlin (SE), Erik H. Olson (SE), Silja Rantanen (FI), Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (SE), Osmo Valtonen (FI) (Curator: Mats B.)
1988 — Per Inge Bjørlo (NO), Rolf Hanson (SE), Jukka Mäkelä (FI) (Curator: Maaretta Jaukkuri, FI)
1990 — "Cavén, Barclay, Håfström": Per Barclay (NO), Kari Cavén (FI), Jan Håfström (SE) (Curator: Per Hovdenakk, NO)
1993 — Jussi Niva (FI), Truls Melin (SE), Bente Stokke (NO) (Curator: Lars Nittve, SE)
1995 — Eva Løfdahl (SE), Per Maning (NO), Nina Roos (FI) (Curator: Timo Valjakka, FI)
1997 — "Naturally Artificial": Henrik Håkansson (SE), Mark Dion (US), Marianna Uutininen (FI), Mariko Mori (JP), Sven Påhlsson (NO) (Curator: Jon-Ove Steihaug, NO)
1999 — "End of a Story": Annika von Hausswolff (SE), Knut Åsdam (NO), Eija-Liisa Ahtila (FI). (Curator: John Peter Nilsson, SE)
2001 — "The North is Protected": Leif Elggren (SE), Tommi Grönlund/Petteri Nisunen (FI), Carl Michael von Hausswolff (SE), Anders Tomren (NO) (Curators: Grönlund/Nisunen, FI)
2003 — "Devil-May-Care": Karin Mamma Andersson (SE), Kristina Bræin (NO), Liisa Luonila (FI) (Curators: Anne Karin Jortveit and Andrea Kroksnes, NO)
2005 — "Sharing Space Dividing Time": Miriam Bäckström and Carsten Höller (SE/DE), Matias Faldbakken (NO) (Curator: Åsa Nacking, SE)
2007 — "Welfare — Fare Well": Adel Abidin (IQ/FI), Jacob Dahlgren (SE), Lars Ramberg (NO), Toril Goksøyr & Camilla Martens (NO), Sirous Namazi (SE), Maaria Wirkkala FI (Curator: René Block, DE)
2009 — "The Collectors" (in collaboration with the Danish Pavilion): Elmgreen and Dragset, Klara Lidén (SE), Wolfgang Tillmans (DE) and others (Curators: Elmgreen & Dragset, DK/NO)
2011 — SWEDEN: Fia Backström, Andreas Eriksson (Curator: Magnus af Petersens)
2013 — FINLAND: Terike Haapoja (Curators: Mika Elo, Marko Karo, Harri Laakso)
List of exhibitors in the Northern Ireland Pavilion:
2005 — "The Nature of Things", group show with Patrick Bloomer, Patrick Keogh, Ian Charlesworth, Factotum, Séamus Harahan, Michael Hogg, Sandra Johnston, Mary McIntyre, Katrina Moorhead, William McKeown, Darren Murray, Aisling O’Beirn, Peter Richards and Alistair Wilson (curator: Hugh Mulholland)
2007 — Willie Doherty (Curator: Hugh Mulholland)
2009 — Susan MacWilliam (Curator: Karen Downey)
Peru
List of exhibitors in the Peruvian Pavilion:
2015 — Raimond Chávez and Gilda Mantilla (Curator: Max Hernández-Calvo)
2017 — Juan Javier Salazar (Curator: Rodrigo Quijano)
Philippines
List of exhibitors in the Philippines Pavilion:
1964 — Jose Joya
2015 — Manuel Conde, Carlos Francisco, Manny Montelibano, Jose Tence Ruiz (Curator: Patrick D. Flores)
2017 — Manuel Ocampo, Lani Maestro (Curator: Joselina Cruz)
Poland
List of exhibitors in the Polish Pavilion:
1993 — Mirosław Bałka
1999 — Katarzyna Kozyra
2003 — Stanisław Dróżdż (Curator: Paweł Sosnowski)
2005 — Artur Żmijewski
2007 — Monika Sosnowska (Curator: Sebastian Cichocki)
2009 — Krzysztof Wodiczko (Curator: Bozena Czubak)
2011 — Yael Bartana (Curators: Sebastian Cichocki, Galit Eilat)
2013 — Konrad Smolenski (Curators: Agnieszka Pindera, Daniel Muzyczuk)
2015 — Joanna Malinowska and C. T. Jasper (Curator: Magdalena Moskalewicz)
2017 — Sharon Lockhart (Curator: Barbara Piwowarska)
Romania
Romania owns a National Pavilion in the Giardini since 1938, bought from the Italian state when the Venice Pavilion (built in 1932, architect Brenno Del Giudice) was enlarged. The interior was planned under the attention of Nicolae Iorga. It was initially designed as an art salon with three rooms (the main, tall show room being flanked by two smaller ones) and it stayed like that until 1962, when the walls were demolished, uniting the three rooms into one single salon. The initial architecture was recreated in 2015, albeit temporarily, by architect Attila Kim for Adrian Ghenie's Darwin's Room. Since 1997, the Romanian Institute for Culture and Research in Humanities (also known as Casa Romena di Venezia, based in Palazzo Correr) has hosted intermittently parallel exhibitions representing Romania at the Venice Biennale.
Detailed list of Romanian participations:
1907 — First participation of a Romanian artist in the Venice Biennale: Fritz Storck
1924 — Central Pavilion, Rooms XIX and XX. Group exhibition. Paintings by Ion Andreescu, Marius Bunescu, Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck, Niculina Delavrancea-Dona, Ștefan Dimitrescu, Dumitru Ghiață, Lucian Grigorescu, Nicolae Grigorescu, Doru I. Ionescu, Kimon Loghi, Ștefan Luchian, Samuel Mützner, Rodica Maniu, G. Marinescu-Vâlsan, George Demetrescu Mirea, G. Moscu, Theodor Pallady, George Petrașcu, Costin Petrescu, Ștefan Popescu, Camil Ressu, Jean Al. Steriadi, Eustațiu Stoenescu, Ipolit Strâmbu, Nicolae Tonitza, Nicolae Vermont, Arthur Verona. Sculptures by: Constantin Brâncuși, Oscar Han, Ion Jalea, Cornel Medrea, D.D. Mirea, Dimitrie Paciurea, (Talpoșin Alexandru) Severin, Oscar Spaethe, Fritz Storck. General Commissioner for Romania: Gian Battista Bombardella. Organizing Artistic Committee: A.G. Verona and I.D. Ștefănescu.
1938 — Official inauguration of the Romanian Pavilion. Organizer and commissioner: Nicolae Iorga. Paintings by Georghe Petrașcu, Ștefan Popescu, Eustațiu Stoenescu, Ion Theodorescu-Sion; sculptures by Oscar Han, Ion Jalea, Cornel Medrea. Romania was also represented by Ion Andreescu and Nicolae Grigorescu in the International Exhibition of 19th Century Landscape Painting hosted by the Italian Pavilion.
1940 — Paintings by Nicolae Dărăscu, Lucian Grigorescu, Theodor Pallady, Jean Al. Steriadi; sculptures by Céline Emilian, Mihai Onofrei (including a sculpture of King Carol II of Romania). Organizer and commissioner: Nicolae Iorga.
1942 — Group exhibition of paintings by Marius Bunescu, Henri Catargi, Ștefan Constantinescu, Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck, Horia Damian, Nicolae Dărăscu, Dumitru Ghiață, Lucian Grigorescu, Rodica Maniu, Paul Miracovici, Alexandru Padina, Theodor Pallady, George Petrașcu, Ștefan Popescu, Camil Ressu, Jean Al. Steriadi, Eustațiu Stoenescu, Nicolae Stoica, Ion Țuculescu, Gheorghe Vânătoru, A.G. Verona. Sculptures by Zoe Băicoianu, Alexandru Călinescu, Mac Constantinescu, Oscar Han, Ion Irimescu, Ion Jalea, Corneliu Medrea, Militza Petrașcu, Ion Grigore Popovici, Fritz Storck. Including sculptures of Marshall Ion Antonescu and King Michael of Romania. Organized by the Ministry of National Propaganda; Commissioner: Jean Al. Steriadi.
1954 — Group exhibition of Socialist Realism. Paintings by Lidia Agricola, Octavian Angheluță, Paul Atanasiu, Corneliu Baba, Ștefan Barabaș, Marius Bunescu, Alexandru Ciucurencu, Gheorghe Glauber, Lucian Grigorescu, Dan Hatmanu, Iosif Iser, Gheorghe Labin, Max Herman Maxy, Gavril Miklossy, Alexandru Moscu, Ion Panteli Stanciu, Camil Ressu, Mimi Maxy-Șaraga, Gheorghe Șaru, Jean Al. Steriadi. Sculptures by Gheorghe Anghel, Constantin Baraschi, Marius Traian Butunoiu, Boris Caragea, Iosif Fekete, Octav Iiescu, Ion Irimescu, Martin Izsak, Ion Jalea, Ernest Kaznovski, Egon Löwith, Constantin Lucaci, Sándor Puskás, Artur Vetro, Ion Vlad, Mihail Wagner, Lelia Zuaf. Watercolors and black and white sketches by Zoltán Andrássy, Maria Constantin, Marcela Cordescu, Gheorghe Ivancenco, Aurel Jiquidi, Vasile Kazar, Ligia Macovei, Jules Perahim, Noël Florin Roni, Jean Al. Steriadi, Béla Gy. Szabó, Walter Widmann. Organizer and commissioner: Jules Perahim (Secretary of the Union of Fine Artists - UAP Bucharest).
1956 — Group exhibition. Paintings by Corneliu Baba, Alexandru Ciucurencu. Sculptures by Ion Irimescu, Cornel Medrea. Drawings by Ligia Macovei, Jules Perahim. Organizing Commissioner: Paraschiva Pojar (State Committee for Literature and Art), Ion Irimescu (Eminent Master of Arts in the Popular Republic of Romania, Secretary of the Union of Fine Artists - UAP, laureate of the State Prize).
1958 — Group exhibition. Paintings by Henri Catargi, Dumitru Ghiață, Ștefan Szönyi. Sculptures by Ion Jalea, Gheza Vida. Black and white drawings by Vasile Kazar, Mariana Petrașcu. Commissioners: Jules Perahim and Ligia Macovei.
1960 — Group exhibition. Paintings by George Petrașcu. Drawings and engravings by Gheorghe Adoc, Zoltan Andrássy, Corina Beiu Angheluță, Gheorghe Boțan, Geta Brătescu, Eva Cerbu, Marcel Chirnoagă, Ștefan Constantinescu, Cornelia Daneț, Vasile Dobrian, Emilia Dumitrescu, Ana Iliuț, Gheorghe Ivancenco, Puia Hortensia Masichievici, Natalia Matei, Iosif Mátyás, Gheorghe Naum, Nicolae Iulian Olariu, Marcel Olinescu, Jules Perahim, Eugen Popa, Victor Silvester, Béla Gy Szabó, Gheorghe Șaru, Traian Vasai. Commissioner: Jules Perahim.
1962 — Group exhibition. Paintings by Brăduț Covaliu. Sculptures by Ion Vlad. Drawings by Vasile Dobrian, Paul Erdös. Commissioner: Jules Perahim.
1964 — Group exhibition. Paintings by Ion Bițan, Ion Gheorghiu, Ion Pacea. Sculptures by Boris Caragea. Commissioner: Mircea Deac (Secretary of the Council for Arts from the State Committee for Culture and Arts of the Popular Republic of Romania).
1966 — Ion Țuculescu retrospective. Commissioner: Petru Comarnescu.
1968 — Group exhibition. Virgil Almășanu (painting), Octav Grigorescu (drawing), Ovidiu Maitec (sculpture). Commissioner: Ion Frunzetti.
1970 — Group exhibition. Henri Mavrodin, Ion Sălișteanu (painting), George Apostu (sculpture), Marcel Chirnoagă (graphics), Ritzi-Victoria and Peter Jacobi (decorative arts). Commissioner: Ion Frunzetti (Vicepresident of the Union of Fine Artists - UAP).
1972 — Group exhibition (graphics) — Etching in the Contemporary Space (Grafica în spațiul contemporan). General theme: Work of Art or Behaviour (Opera sau comportamentul). Graphics by Anna Maria Andronescu, Marcel Chirnoagă, Dumitru Cionca, Ioan Donca, Adrian Dumitrache, Mircea Dumitrescu, Dan Erceanu, Sergiu Georgescu, Harry Guttmann, Th. Valentin Ionescu, George Leolea, Wanda Mihuleac, Tiberiu Nicorescu, Ion Panaitescu, Anton Perussi, Ion State, Theodora Stendl Moisescu, Ion Stendl, Radu Stoica, Iosif Teodorescu. Sculptures by Gheorghe Iliescu Călinești, Mircea Ștefănescu. Commissioner: Ion Frunzetti (President of the Art and Literature Theory and History Section of the Social Sciences Academy). Deputy Commissioner: Valentin Ionescu.
1976 — Group exhibition: The Ambient as a Social Problem. Sculpture (works and photos): Gheza Vida, Ion Vlasiu, Constantin Lucaci, Constantin Popovici, Grigore Minea, George Apostu, Petre (Nicăpetre) Bălănică, Aurelian Bolea, Cristian Breazu, Mihai Buculei, Florin Codre, Napoleon Tiron, Silvia Radu, Ion Condiescu. Photographic aspects – ambient: Vlad Florescu, Ion Condiescu, Eugen Petraș, Anton Eberwein. Commissioner: Ion Frunzetti.
1978 — Group exhibition: From Nature to Art, from Art to Nature. Paintings by Sorin Ilfoveanu, Iacob Lazăr, Viorel Mărginean, Horia Bernea. Sculptures by Petru Jecza, Octavian Olariu, Alexandru Gheorghiță, Caragiu Georgeta Gheorghiță. Commissioner: Ion Frunzetti.
1980 — Art in the Seventies. Sculptures by George Apostu, Horia Bernea, Octav Grigorescu, Constantin Lucaci, Ovidiu Maitec. Commissioner: Ion Frunzetti.
1982 — Hommage to Brancusi in the Central Pavilion (invited commissioner: Dan Hăulică). The Romanian Pavilion exhibited works by Florin Codre, Ion Gheorghiu (commissioner: Ion Frunzetti).
1988 — Napoleon Tiron (sculpture). Commissioner: Dan Hăulică.
1990 — Mircea Spătaru (sculpture). Commissioner: Dan Hăulică.
1995 — Brancusi's Heritage in Romania in the Romanian Pavilion (Giardini) and in the Romanian Institute for Culture and Research in Humanities (Palazzo Correr). Artists: George Apostu, Ștefan Bertalan, Mihai Buculei, Maria Cocea, Roman Cotoșman, Doru Covrig, Darie Dup, Ovidiu Maitec, Paul Neagu, Ion Nicodim, Neculai Păduraru, Constantin Popovici, Mircea Roman, Napoleon Tiron, Aurel Vlad, Marian Zidaru. Commissioners: Dan Hăulică and Coriolan Babeți.
1997 — Ion Bitzan, Teodor Graur, Ion Grigorescu, Iosif Kiraly, Valeriu Mladin, Gheorghe Rasovszky, Sorin Vreme. Commissioner: Dan Hăulică; Deputy Commissioners: Coriolan Babeți, Adrian Guță. Besides the Romanian Pavilion, another exhibition is organized in Casa Romena di Venezia.
1999 — subREAL group and Dan Perjovschi (curator: Judit Angel) in the Romanian Pavilion (Giardini). A parallel exhibition was organized in Casa Romena (Palazzo Correr) with works by Alexandru Antik, Mircea Florian, Dan Mihălțianu, Nicolae Onucsan, Alexandru Patatics (curator: Horea Avram). Honorary Commissioner: Dan Hăulică. Deputy Commissioner: Aurora Dediu.
2001 — Group exhibition. Video art by Context Network, Gheorghe Rasovszky. Commissioner: Ruxandra Balaci. Curators: Ruxandra Balaci, Sebastian Bertalan, Alexandru Patatics. Deputy commissioner: Raluca Velisar.
2003 — Alteridem.exe.2 (new media exhibition) by Kinema Ikon group. Commissioner and curator: Călin Man. Deputy curators: Raluca Velisar, Adela Văetiși. Organized by the National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest (MNAC).
2005 — Daniel Knorr, European Influenza (curator: Marius Babias)
2007 — Victor Man, Cristi Pogăcean, Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor, Christoph Büchel & Giovanni Carmine, Low-Budget Monuments (commissioner: Mihai Pop; curator: Mihnea Mircan)
2009 — Ștefan Constantinescu, Andrea Faciu, Ciprian Mureșan, The Seductiveness of the Interval (curator: Alina Șerban; assistant curator: Livia Pancu; collaborators: Alex Axinte, Cristi Borcan, Livia Andreea Ivanovici; project manager: Mirela Duculescu)
2011 — Ion Grigorescu, Anetta Mona Chișa & Lucia Tkáčová, Performing History (curator: Maria Rus Bojan, Ami Barak; special collaboration: Bogdan Ghiu and Timotei Nădășan). A parallel Romanian exhibition was hosted by The New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Research in Humanities (Palazzo Correr): Romanian Cultural Resolution (curators: Adrian Bojenoiu, Alex. Niculescu)
2013 — Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmuș, An Immaterial Retrospective of the Venice Biennale (curator: Raluca Voinea, project coordinator: Corina Bucea). At the New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Research in Humanities (Palazzo Correr): Reflection Centre for Suspended Histories. An Attempt, curator: Anca Mihulet; artists: Apparatus 22, Irina Botea and Nicu Ilfoveanu, Karolina Bregula, Adi Matei, Olivia Mihălțianu, Sebastian Moldovan. Commissioner: Monica Morariu. Deputy commissioner: Alexandru Damian.
2015 — Adrian Ghenie, Darwin's Room (curator: Mihai Pop; architect: Attila Kim; general coordinator: Corina Șuteu) in the Romanian Pavilion (Giardini); Michele Bressan, Carmen Dobre-Hametner, Alex Mirutziu, Lea Rasovszky, Ștefan Sava, Larisa Sitar, Inventing the Truth. On Fiction and Reality (curator: Diana Marincu) in The New Gallery of the Romanian Institute for Culture and Research in Humanities (Palazzo Correr). Commissioner: Monica Morariu. Deputy commissioner: Alexandru Damian.
2017 — Geta Brătescu
Russia
Designed by Alexey Shchusev in 1914. In 1922, 1938—1954, and 1978—1980 pavilion was closed. In both 1926 and 1936 Russian pavilion hosted exhibition of Italian Futurism curated by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
List of exhibitors in the Russian Pavilion:
1914 — Group exhibition of 68 artists, including Leon Bakst, Isaak Brodsky, Mikhail Vrubel, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Boris Kustodiev
1920 — Group exhibition of 20 artists, including Aleksandr Arсhipenko, Marianne von Werefkin, Natalia Goncharova, Boris Grigoriev, Mikhail Larionov, Dmitry Stelletsky, Alexej von Jawlensky
1924 — Group exhibition of 97 artists, including Nathan Altman, Lev Bruni, Igor Grabar, Boris Kustodiev, Aristarkh Lentulov, Kazimir Malevich, Mikhail Matyushin, Ilya Mashkov, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Lyubov Popova, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Robert Falk, Vassily Chekrygin, Sergei Chekhonin, David Shterenberg, Alexandra Ekster
1928 — Group exhibition of 72 artists, including Nathan Altman, Abram Arkhipov, Aleksandr Deineka, Petr Kontchalovsky, Elizaveta Kruglikova, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Yuriy Pimenov, Robert Falk
1930 — Group exhibition of 47 artists, including Aleksandr Deineka, Aleksandr Labas, Aristarkh Lentulov, Yuriy Pimenov, David Schterenberg
1932 — Group exhibition of 49 artists, including Isaak Brodsky, Aleksandr Deineka, Petr Konchalovsky, Aleksandr Labas, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Yuriy Pimenov, David Schterenberg
1934 — Group exhibition of 23 artists, including Isaak Brodsky, Aleksandr Deineka, Vera Mukhina, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
1956 — Group exhibition of 72 artists, including Igor Grabar, Aleksandr Deineka, Boris Ioganson, Petr Konchalovsky, Pavel Korin, Ilya Mashkov, Vera Mukhina, Georgy Nissky, Yuriy Pimenov, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Semen Chuikov, Kukryniksy
1958 — Group exhibition of 17 artists, including Evgeny Vuchetich, Sergej Gerasimov, Kukryniksy, Georgy Nissky, Yuriy Pimenov, Arkady Plastov
1960 — Group exhibition of 22 artists, including Aleksandr Deineka, Kukryniksy, Dmitry Moor, Vera Mukhina, Andrey Mylnikov, Georgy Nissky (Commissioner: Irina Antonova)
1962 — Group exhibition of 12 artists, including Mikhail Anikushin, Sergey Konenkov, Geliy Korzhev, Viktor Popkov, Tair Salakhov (Commissioner: Larissa Salmina)
1964 — Group exhibition of 42 artists, including Aleksandr Deineka, Pavel Korin, Evsey Moiseenko, Vladimir Stozharov, Evgeny Vuchetich
1966 — Group exhibition of 26 artists, including Vladimir Stozharov, Dmitry Zhilinsky, Misha Brusilovsky
1968 — Group exhibition of 15 artists, including Dmitry Bisti, Arkady Plastov, Yuri Vasnetsov
1970 — Nikolay Andreev, Aleksandr Deineka
1972 — Group exhibition of 31 artists, including Evsey Moiseenko, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Nikolay Tomsky
1976 — Group exhibition of 45 artists, including Georgy Nissky, Yuriy Pimenov, Tair Salakhov, Vladimir Stozharov
1977 — Group exhibition of 99 artists in frames of Biennale of Dissident, including Erik Bulatov, Ilya Kabakov, Andrey Monastyrsky, Oskar Rabin, Oleg Vasiliev, Anatoly Zverev
1982 — Group exhibition of 32 artists, including Tatiana Nazarenko, Viktor Popkov, Dmitry Zhilinsky
1984 — Group exhibition of 6 artists, including Nikolay Akimov, Aleksandr Tyshler
1986 — Group exhibition of 23 artists, including Dmitry Bisti, Vladimir Favorsky
1988 — Aristarkh Lentulov
1990 — Group exhibition of 7 artists, including Evgeny Mitta, Robert Rauschenberg, Aidan Salakhova
1993 — Ilya Kabakov
1995 — Evgeny Ass, Dmitry Gutov, Vadim Fishkin (Commissioner: Victor Misiano)
1997 — Maksim Kantor (Commissioner: Konstantin Bokhorov; curator: Yury Nikich)
1999 — Sergey Bugaev (Afrika), Vitaly Komar & Aleksandr Melamid (Commissioner: Konstantin Bokhorov; curators: Olesya Turkina, Joseph Bakshtein)
2001 — Leonid Sokov, Olga Chernyshova, Sergey Shutov (Commissioner: Leonid Bazhanov; curator: Ekaterina Degot)
2003 — Sergey Bratkov, Aleksandr Vinogradov & Vladimir Dubossarsky, Konstantin Zvezdochetov, Valery Koshlyakov (Commissioner: Evgeny Zyablov; curator: Victor Misiano)
2005 — Provmyza group, Program 'Escape' (Commissioner: Evgeny Zyablov; curators: Olga Lopukhova, Lyubov Saprykina)
2007 — AES+F, Andrey Bartenev, Georgy Frangulian, Arseny Mescheryarov, Julia Milner, Alexandr Ponomarev (Commissioner: Vassily Tsereteli; curator: Olga Sviblova)
2009 — Alexei Kallima, Andrei Molodkine, Gosha Ostretsov, Anatoly Zhuravlev, Sergei Shekhovtsov, Irina Korina, Pavel Peppershtein (Commissioner: Vassily Tsereteli; curator: Olga Sviblova)
2011 — Andrey Monastyrsky and "Collective Actions" group (Elena Elagina, Sabina Hensgen, Igor Makarevich, Nikolai Pantikov, Sergei Romashko and others) (Commissioner: Stella Kesaeva; curator: Boris Groys)
2011 — Group exhibition of 13 artists, including Dorothee Albrecht, Marco Bravura, Cristian Ceccaroni, Daniela Comani, Ottavio Fabbri, Verdiano Manzi, Patrizia Merendi, Omar Paolucci, Cristina Rotondaro, Lars Teichmann, Thea Tini, Daniela Tonelli, Paola Turroni
2015 — Group exhibition of 11 artists, including Xu De Qi, Liu Ruo Wang, Ma Yuan, Li Lei, Zhang Hong Mei, Eleonora Mazza, Giovanni Giulianelli, Giancarlo Frisoni, Tony Margiotta, Elisa Monaldi, Valentina Pazzini
Scotland
List of exhibitors in the Scottish Pavilion:
2003 — Claire Barclay, Jim Lambie, Simon Starling
2005 — Alex Pollard, Joanne Tatham & Tom O'Sullivan, Cathy Wilkes
2007 — Charles Avery (artist), Henry Coombes, Louise Hopkins, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lucy Skaer, Tony Swain,
Pavillon designed by Bruno Giacometti, 1952. Between 1990 and 2009, Switzerland also used the San Stae church as exhibition venue. From 1932 until 1952 Switzerland had another pavilion, designed by Brenno Del Giudice on the island Sant'Elena.
As of 2012, Pro Helvetia has assumed responsibility for the Swiss contributions to the Venice Biennale.
List of exhibitors in the Swiss Pavilion:
1920 — Group exhibition
1926 — Group exhibition
1932 — Paul Bodmer, Numa Donzé, Augusto Giacometti, Karl Otto Hügin, Reinhold Kündig, Martin Lauterburg, Ernst Morgenthaler, Alfred Heinrich Pellegrini, Karl Geiser, Hermann Haller, Hermann Hubacher, Johann Jakob Probst, René Auberjonois, Maurice Barraud, Hans Berger, Abraham Hermanjat, Albert Carl Angst
1934 — Cuno Amiet, Hermann Haller
1936 — Aldo Patocchi, Emilio Maria Beretta, Max Uehlinger
1938 — Victor Surbek, Hermann Hubacher, Hans Berger
1940 — Louis René Moilliet, Johann Jakob Probst, Alexandre Blanchet
1942 — Karl Walser, Otto Charles Bänninger, Max Hunziker
1948 — Fritz Pauli, Franz Fischer, René Auberjonois, Albert Schnyder
1950 — Alfred Heinrich Pellegrini, Ernst Suter
1952 — Hans Fischer, Max Gubler, Johann Jakob Probst
1954 — Cuno Amiet, Carl Burckhardt, Paul Speck, Marcel Poncet
1956 — Hans Aeschbacher, Walter Bodmer, Johannes Burla, Eugen Häfelfinger, Walter Linck, Bernhard Luginbühl, Robert Müller, Erwin Rehmann, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Louis Weber, André Gigon, Hansjörg Gisiger, René Monney, Antoine Poncet, Léon Prébandier, André Ramseyer, Serge Brignoni
1958 — Max Bill, Richard Paul Lohse, Camille Graeser, Theodor Bally, Wolf Barth, Walter Bodmer, Theo Eble, Fritz Glarner, Leo Leuppi, Louis René Moilliet, Wilfrid Moser, Max Rudolf von Mühlenen
1960 — Otto Tschumi, Varlin, Robert Müller
1962 — Albert Schilling, Paul Speck, Louis René Moilliet
1964 — Zoltán Kemény, Bernhard Luginbühl
1966 — Johannes Itten, Walter Linck
1968 — Fritz Glarner, Hans Aeschbacher
1970 — Peter Stämpfli, Walter Vögeli, Jean-Edouard Augsburger
1972 — Richard Paul Lohse, Willy Weber
1976 — Max Altorfer, Claude Loewer
1978 — Raffael Benazzi, Roland Hotz, Jean Lecoultre
2017 — Carol Bove, Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler (Curator: Philipp Kaiser)
Turkey
In 2013, Turkey signed a 20-year lease for a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The state-funded Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts is the co-ordinator of the Turkish pavilion.
List of exhibitors in the Turkish Pavilion:
1990 — Kemal Önsoy, Mithat Şen (Curator: Beral Madra)
2009 — Banu Cennetoğlu, Ahmet Ögüt (Curator: Basak Senova)
2011 — Ayşe Erkmen (Curator: Fulya Erdemci)
2013 — Ali Kazma (Curator: Emre Baykal)
2015 — Sarkis (Curator: Defne Ayas)
2017 — Cevdet Erek
Tuvalu
Despite the cost to the third world country, Tuvalu decided to develop its first national pavilion in 2013 to highlight the negative effects of global warming on the nation, which is forecast to be one of the first countries to disappear due to sea level rise caused by climate change. After working closely with Taiwanese eco artist Vincent J.F. Huang at the 2012 UNFCCC COP18 session in Doha, Qatar and collaborating with the artist on several occasions, Tuvalu's government invited Huang to act as the representative artist for the pavilion. All of the artworks at the 2013 Tuvalu Pavilion focused on climate change and included In the Name of Civilization, a giant oil rig turned agent of destruction, and Prisoner's Dilemma, a depiction of the Statue of Liberty kneeling in apology to ghostly portraits of terra-cotta penguins symbolic of ecological sacrifices made to further the development of human civilization.
List of exhibitors for the Tuvalu Pavilion:
2013 — Vincent J.F. Huang (Curators: An-Yi Pan, Li Szuhsien, Shih Shuping)
2015 — Vincent J.F. Huang (Curator: Thomas J. Berghuis)
Ukraine
The PinchukArtCentre sponsored Ukraine’s pavilions in 2007, 2009 and 2015.
List of exhibitors in the Ukrainian Pavilion:
2011 — Oksana Mas «Post-vs-Proto-Renaissance» (Curator: Oleksiy Rogotchenko)
2015 — Yevgenia Belorusets, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Mykola Ridnyi & Serhiy Zhadan, Artem Volokitin, Anna Zvyagintseva and Open Group (Curator: Björn Geldhof)
2017 — Boris Mikhailov (Curator: Peter Doroshenko)
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates' Venice pavilion first opened in 2009, but 2015 was the first time an Emirati has served as curator.
2011 — Abdullah Al Saadi, Sheikha Lateefa bint Maktoum, Reem Al Ghaith (Curator: Vasif Kortun)
2013 — Mohammed Kazem (Commissioner: Dr. Lamees Hamdan; Curator: Reem Fadda)
2015 — Hassan Sharif, Mohammed Kazem, Abdullah Al Saadi, Ahmed Al Ansari, Moosa Al Halyan, Mohammed Al Qassab, Abdul Qader Al Rais, Mohammed Abdullah Bulhiah, Salem Jawhar, Dr. Najat Makki, Abdulraheem Salim, Obaid Suroor, Dr. Mohamed Yousif, and Abdulrahman Zainal (Curator: Hoor Al Qasimi)
United States
The United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was constructed in 1930 by the Grand Central Art Galleries, a nonprofit artists' cooperative established in 1922 by Walter Leighton Clark together with John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, and others. As stated in the Galleries' 1934 catalog, the organization's goal was to "give a broader field to American art; to exhibit in a larger way to a more numerous audience, not in New York alone but throughout the country, thus displaying to the world the inherent value which our art undoubtedly possesses."
In 1930 Walter Leighton Clark and the Grand Central Art Galleries spearheaded the creation of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The pavilion's architects were William Adams Delano, who also designed the Grand Central Art Galleries, and Chester Holmes Aldrich. The purchase of the land, design, and construction was paid for by the galleries and personally supervised by Clark. As he wrote in the 1934 catalog:
"Pursuing our purpose of putting American art prominently before the world, the directors a few years ago appropriated the sum of $25,000 for the erection of an exhibition building in Venice on the grounds of the International Biennial. Messrs. Delano and Aldrich generously donated the plans for this building which is constructed of Istrian marble and pink brick and more than holds its own with the twenty-five other buildings in the Park owned by the various European governments."
The pavilion, owned and operated by the galleries, opened on May 4, 1930. Approximately 90 paintings and 12 sculptures were selected by Clark for the opening exhibition. Artists featured included Max Boehm, Hector Caser, Lillian Westcott Hale, Edward Hopper, Abraham Poole, Julius Rolshoven, Joseph Pollet, Eugene Savage, Elmer Shofeld, Ofelia Keelan, and African-American artist Henry Tanner. U.S. Ambassador John W. Garrett opened the show together with the Duke of Bergamo.
The Grand Central Art Galleries operated the U.S. Pavilion until 1954, when it was sold to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s shows were organized by MOMA, Art Institute of Chicago, and Baltimore Museum of Art. The Modern withdrew from the Biennale in 1964, and the United States Information Agency ran the Pavilion until it was sold to the Guggenheim Foundation courtesy of funds provided by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Since 1986 the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has worked with the United States Information Agency, the US Department of State and the Fund for Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions in the organization of the visual arts exhibitions at the US Pavilion, while the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has organized the comparable shows at the Architecture Biennales. Every two years museum curators from across the U.S. detail their visions for the American pavilion in proposals that are reviewed by the NEA Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (FACIE), a group comprising curators, museum directors and artists who then submit their recommendations to the public-private Fund for United States Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions. Traditionally the endowment's selection committee has chosen a proposal submitted by a museum or curator, but in 2004 it simply chose an artist who in turn has nominated a curator, later approved by the State Department.
Exhibitors
Partial list of exhibitors at the United States Pavilion:
1930 — Edward Hopper, Julius Rolshoven, Eugene Savage, Henry Tanner.
1950 (26th) — Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock
1954 (28th) — Willem de Kooning, Ben Shahn
1960 (30th) — Philip Guston, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Theodore Roszak
1962 (31st) — Jan Müller, Louise Nevelson
1964 (32nd) — John Chamberlain, Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella
1966 (33rd) — Helen Frankenthaler, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Jules Olitski
1968 (34th) — Leonard Baskin, Edwin Dickinson, Richard Diebenkorn, Red Grooms, James McGarrell, Reuben Nakian, Fairfield Porter
1970 (35th) — Survey of American Prints and Printmaking (Commissioner: Lois A. Bingham; curator: Henry T. Hopkins)
1972 (36th) — Diane Arbus, Ronald Davis, Richard Estes, Sam Gilliam, Jim Nutt, Keith Sonnier(Commissioner: Walter Hopps)
1976 (37th) — Richard Artschwager, Charles Garabedian, Robert Irwin, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Robert Motherwell, Ed Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Joel Shapiro, Richard Tuttle, Andy Warhol, H.C. Westermann (Commissioner: Thomas M. Messer; curators: Hugh M. Davies, Sam Hunter, Rosalind Krauss, Marcia Tucker)
1978 (38th) — Harry Callahan, Richard Diebenkorn (Commissioner: Robert T. Buck, Jr.; curators: Peter Bunnell, Linda Cathcart)
1980 (39th) — Vito Acconci, Christo, Laurie Anderson and others (Commissioner: Janet Kardon)
1982 (40th) — Jess, Robert Smithson (posthumous), Richard Pousette-Dart (Commissioner: Thomas W. Leavitt; curator: Robert Hobbs)
1984 (41st) — Eric Fischl, Charles Garabedian, Melissa Miller and others (Commissioner: Marcia Tucker; curators: Lynn Gumpert, Ned Rifkin)
1986 (42nd) — Isamu Noguchi (Commissioner: Henry Geldzahler)
1988 (43rd) — Jasper Johns (Curator: Mark Rosenthal)
1990 (44th) — Jenny Holzer — Mother and Child (Commissioner: Michael Auping)
1993 (45th) — Louise Bourgeois (Curator: Charlotta Kotik)
1995 (46th) — Bill Viola — Buried Secrets (Curator: Marilyn A. Zeitlin)
1997 (47th) — Robert Colescott (Commissioner: Mimi Roberts)
1999 (48th) — Ann Hamilton (Curators: Katy Kline, Helaine Posner), Yoko Ono, David Bowes
2001 (49th) — Robert Gober (Curators: Olga M. Viso, James Rondeau)
2003 (50th) — Fred Wilson (Commissioner and curator: Kathleen Goncharov).
2005 (51st) — Ed Ruscha (Commissioner: Linda Norden; curator: Donna De Salvo)
2009 (53rd) — Bruce Nauman (Curators: Carlos Basualdo, Michael R. Taylor)
2011 (54th) — Allora & Calzadilla (Commissioner: Lisa Freiman)
2013 (55th) — Sarah Sze (Curators: Holly Block, Carey Lovelace)
2015 (56th) — Joan Jonas (Commissioner: Paul C. Ha, Curators: Paul C. Ha, Ute Meta Bauer)
2017 (57th) — Mark Bradford (Curators: Christopher Bedford, Katy Siegel)
Uruguay
Ex-warehouse of the Biennale, 1958, ceded to the government of Uruguay, 1960.
List of exhibitors in the Uruguayan Pavilion:
1954 — José Cuneo, Severino Pose
1956 — Joaquín Torres García
1960 — Zoma Baitler, Washington Barcala, Norberto Berdia, José Cuneo, José Echave, Adolfo Halty, Augusto Torres, Vicente Martìn, Julio Verdier (Commissioner: Jorge Pàez Vilaró)
1962 — Germán Cabrera, Juan Ventayol
1964 — Jorge Damiani, José Gamarra, Nelson Ramos, Jorge Páez Vilaró
1968 — Antonio Frasconi (Commissioner: Angel Kalenberg)
2017 – Charles Bhebe, Admire Kamudzengerere, Sylvester Mubayi, Dana Whabira. (Commissioner: Doreen Sibanda; curator: Raphael Chikukwa)
Unofficial Pavilions
As well as the national pavilions there are countless "unofficial pavilions" that spring up every year. 2009 there were pavilions such as the Gabon Pavilion and a Peckham pavilion. Upcoming artists in new media showed work in an Internet Pavilion in 2011.
Other
"Venezia" Group of Pavilions — Brenno Del Giudice (Arti Decorative pavilion 1932); other pavilions (Yugoslavia, Romania, Latin America), 1938.
Ticket Office — Carlo Scarpa, 1951.
Book Shop — James Stirling, 1991.
Awards
The Venice Biennale has awarded prizes to the artists participating at the Exhibition since the first edition back in 1895. Grand Prizes were established in 1938 and ran until 1968 when they were abolished due to the protest movement. Prizes were taken up again in 1986. The selections are made by the Board of la Biennale di Venezia, following the proposal of the curator of the International Exhibition.
Also, the Biennale names the five members of its international jury, which is charged with awarding prizes to the national pavilions.
1938 to 1968
1948 :
Grand Prize for Painting: Georges Braque
Grand Prize for Sculpture: Henry Moore
1950 :
Grand Prize for Painting: Henri Matisse
Grand Prize for Sculpture: Ossip Zadkine
1952 :
Grand Prize for Painting: Raoul Dufy
Special Prize for Sculpture: Alexander Calder
1954 :
Grand Prize for Painting: Max Ernst
Grand Prize for Sculpture: Jean Arp
1956 :
Grand Prize for Painting: Jacques Villon (France)
Special Prize for Sculpture: Lynn Chadwick (Great Britain)
International Grand Prize for Drawing: Aldemir Martins (Brazil)
1958:
International Grand Prize for Painting: Mark Tobey (United States)
International Grand Prize for Sculpture: Eduardo Chillida (Spain)
National Grand Prize for Painting: Giulio Turcato, Osvaldo Licini
National Grand Prize for Sculpture: Umberto Mastroianni
1960 :
Grand prize for painting Jean Fautrier (France), Hans Hartung (France), Emilio Vedova (Italy)
City of Venice prize for an Italian artist: Pietro Consagra
1962
Grand prize for painting: Alfred Manessier
Grand prize for sculpture: Alberto Giacometti
1964:
Foreign artist: Robert Rauschenberg (United States)
1966 :
Foreign artist: Julio Le Parc
Italian artist: Lucio Fontana, Alberto Viani
1968 :
Grand prize for painting: Bridget Riley
Grand prize for sculpture: Nicolas Schöffer
Italian artist: Gianni Colombo, Pino Pascali
Since 1986
1986 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Frank Auerbach, Sigmar Polke (Germany)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Daniel Buren (France)
1988 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Jasper Johns (USA)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Italy
1990 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Giovanni Anselmo (Italy), Bernd and Hilla Becher (Germany)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Jenny Holzer (USA)
1993 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Richard Hamilton (United Kingdom), Antoni Tàpies (Spain), Robert Wilson (USA)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Hans Haacke, Nam June Paik (Germany)
1995:
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Gary Hill (USA), R. B. Kitaj (USA)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Akram El Magdoub, Hamdi Attia, Medhat Shafik, Khaled Shokry (Egypt)
1997 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Emilio Vedova (Italy), Agnes Martin (USA)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Marina Abramović (USA) and Gerhard Richter (Germany)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Fabrice Hybert (France)
1999 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Louise Bourgeois (France), Bruce Nauman (USA)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Doug Aitken (USA), Cai Guo-Qiang (China), and Shirin Neshat (Iran)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Monica Bonvicini, Bruna Esposito, Luisa Lambri, Paola Pivi, Grazia Toderi (Italy)
2001 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Richard Serra (USA), Cy Twombly (USA)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Marisa Merz (Italy), and Pierre Huyghe (France)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Gregor Schneider (Germany)
2003 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italy), Carol Rama (Italy)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Peter Fischli and David Weiss (Switzerland)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Young Artist: Oliver Payne and Nick Relph (United Kingdom)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Su-Mei Tse (Luxemburg)
2005 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Barbara Kruger (USA)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Thomas Schütte (Germany)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Young Artist: Regina José Galindo (Guatemala)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Annette Messager (France)
2007 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Malick Sidibé (Mali)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: León Ferrari (Argentina)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Young Artist: Emily Jacir (USA)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Andreas Fogarasi (Hungary)
2009 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Yoko Ono (Japan), John Baldessari (USA)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Tobias Rehberger (Germany)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Young Artist: Nathalie Djurberg (Sweden)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Bruce Nauman (USA)
2011 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Franz West (Austria), Elaine Sturtevant (USA)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Christian Marclay (USA)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Young Artist: Haroon Mirza (United Kingdom)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Christoph Schlingensief, curated by Susanne Gaensheimer (Germany)
2013 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: Maria Lassnig (Austria), Marisa Merz (Italy)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Tino Sehgal (United Kingdom/Germany)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Young Artist: Camille Henrot (France)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Stefano Rabolli Pansera and Paula Nascimento (Angola)
2015 :
Leone d'Oro for Lifetime Achievement: El Anatsui (Ghana)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Artist of the international exhibition: Adrian Piper (USA)
Leone d'Oro for the Best Young Artist: Im Heung-soon (South Korea)
Leone d'Oro for Best Pavilion: Haig Aivazian, Nigol Bezjian, Anna Boghiguian, Hera Büyüktaş, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, Mekhitar Garabedian, Aikaterini Gegisian, Yervant Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi, Aram Jibilian, Nina Katchadourian, Melik Ohanian, Mikayel Ohanjanyan, Rosana Palazyan, Sarkis, Hrair Sarkissian, curated by Adelina Cüberyan von Fürstenberg (Armenia)
Management
On 26 July 1973, the Parliament approved the Organisation's new statute for the Biennale. A "democratic" Board was set up. It included 19 members made up of representatives from the Government, the most important local organisations, major trade unions, and a representative of the staff. The Board was to elect the President and nominate the Sectorial Directors - one each for Visual arts, Cinema, Music, and Theatre.
In 1998 the Biennale was transformed into a legal personality in private law and renamed "Società di Cultura La Biennale di Venezia". The company structure - Board of directors, Scientific committee, Board of auditors and assembly of private backers - has a duration of four years. The areas of activity became six (Architecture, Visual arts, Cinema, Theatre, Music, Dance), in collaboration with the ASAC (the Historical Archives). The President is nominated by the Minister for Cultural Affairs. The Board of directors consists of the President, the Mayor of Venice, and three members nominated respectively by the Regione Veneto, the Consiglio Provinciale di Venezia and private backers. Dance, was added to the others.
On 15 January 2004, the Biennale was transformed into a foundation.
