2013 Venice Biennale - Enciclopedic Palace

The theme of the 55th International Venice Biennale (June 1st until November 24th with previews by invitation only from the 29th to 31st of May) has been announced.

Venice Biennale curator Massimiliano Gioni

The Encyclopedic Palace, chosen by this year's curator Massimiliano Gioni whose idea is to evoke the self-taught Italo-American artist Marino Auriti who "on November 16, 1955 filed a design with the US Patent Office depicting his Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopedic Palace), an imaginary museum that was meant to house all worldly knowledge."

As usual the main Pavilions are at Giardini and Arsenale with additional exhibitions located at various venues throughout the city.



AW (Tony) Scott in Venice for the Biennale

Gioni's big break in international contemporary art came in 2003 when he was invited to be the artistic director at the Trussardi Foundation, which had decided to abandon its permanent home at the Palazzo Marina alla Scala in favor of becoming a floating foundation. “I was presented with the challenge of working without an exhibition space and with a migratory institution that only exists when we find a new space.”

The lack of space was a challenge, drawing him to the idea of creating temporary installations throughout Milan and spreading contemporary art across the city. Massiliano installed Swiss artist Urs Fischer’s House of Bread at the Instituto dei Ciechi which had never before been opened to the public for a contemporary art exhibition, and presented Martin Creed’s I Like Things in the Palazzo dell’Arengario in Piazza del Duomo in Milan. He even installed Creed’s iconic neon sign reading Everything is Going to Be Alright on its façade.

Gioni has plenty of experience in the field of major arts events. His work at Trussardi led to other international jobs like co-curating Manifesta 5 in San Sebastian (2004) and the Berlin Biennial (2006).

While working in Berlin he quoted his co-curator, Maurizio Cattelan as saying, “curating a biennial is like pointing a gun at your head and smiling at the same time, and waiting for someone else to come and pull the trigger…”

The official Press Conference to launch the 2013 Venice Biennale will be in Rome on 13th March.