Last year in September, we attended the 60th Biennale Arte in Venice, a celebration of the visual arts that concluded its six-month run on November 24, 2024. Over the coming weeks, we’ll share in a series of posts highlighting the works we saw and liked. Let’s start with some music.
As a fan of posters, I (Chris) was thrilled to discover a collection of vintage Biennale posters displayed at their shop and the archive library (you might have caught a glimpse of them in our earlier posts here). I couldn’t resist picking up a set of 25 postcard-sized reproductions to take home.
In this post, I’ll share a brief history of La Biennale di Venezia, drawing from their official website.
For 130 years, La Biennale di Venezia has been one of the World’s most prestigious cultural institutions. It started in 1895, when the Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte della Città di Venezia (1st International Art Exhibition of the City of Venice) was opened.
224,000 visitors attended that year !
The posters shown below were in full size hanging from walls, some were framed and many were originals (as far as I can tell).
From its early days, the Biennale is organized by implementing a ‘by invitation’ system, incorporating a section for international artists, and creating opportunities for Italian artists to showcase their work through jury selection.
Seen on many of the older posters, “riduzioni ferroviarie” means “railway discounts“ in Italian. It refers to reduced train fares offered to attendees traveling to the event.
The Biennale’s influence expanded significantly in the 20th century.
The 1930s saw the introduction of new festivals dedicated to Music, Cinema, and Theatre—most notably, the Venice Film Festival, established in 1932 as the world’s first film festival.
< 8th International Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale D’Arte Cinematografica) held in 1940
The first Venice Biennale for Theatre was held in 1934 as part of the broader 19th Venice Biennale. It marked the establishment of a dedicated focus on theatrical arts within the Biennale’s multidisciplinary framework.
During the Second World War, the activities of the Biennale were interrupted in September 1942. The 24th edition of the Art Exhibition resumed in 1948.
< Poster for the 24th Arte Biennale in 1948
Later, the Biennale continued to innovate with the launch of the International Architecture Exhibition in 1980 and the addition of Dance in 1999.
Today, these six disciplines—Art, Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Music, and Theatre—are integral to the Biennale’s programming, supported by the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts (ASAC).
This is not the first time we attended the Venice Biennale. We went to the 56th Arte Biennale in 2015 and ran a series of 6 posts on that exhibition. Take a look at those post starting from here.
Poster for the 56th Arte Biennale titled “All The World’s Futures” in 2015 >>
In a series of posts that are coming, we will be sharing photos a selection of the works we saw at the 60th Exhibition. Watch this space.
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