The 2022 Venice Biennale, 80 country pavilions and the central art exhibition, what we liked and how we organized ourselves.
Overview
2022 a long-awaited event was taking place in Venice: The 59th edition of the Venice biennale. Thousands of art lovers come from all over the world to visit this wonderful and international collective of contemporary art. We visited this year’s biennale and are happy to share our recommendations and helpful knowledge.
The biennale exposition is divided into two main locations: Arsenale and Giardini. Both are reachable by boat. The two locations are not too far apart. If you plan to visit everything in one day, you could easily reach the next location by foot without having to worry about public transportation. It tends to get really warm and exhausting under the sun so make sure to stop for some refreshments wherever you can!
Facts and figures
Duration of the art exhibition: April 23 to November 27, 2022
Curator: Cecilia Alemani
Tickets: € 25.– Book online at labiennnale.org
Opening hours:
Giardini, Arsenale and Forte Marghera:
04/23 to 09/25: 11:00 am to 7:00 pm.
(Arsenale: until 8 pm.)
27/09 to 27/11: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Closed on Mondays. (Exceptions: 25/04, 30/05, 27/06, 25/07, 15/08, 05/09, 19/09, 31/10, 21/11).
The 59th Art Exhibition
The 59th art exhibition entitled “The Milk of Dreams” by curator Cecilia Alemanni follows the fairytale book of the same name by Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). Fantastic creatures of the surrealist artist accompany the visitor on an imaginary journey in search of the great survival questions of our time.
The exhibition offers space for over 200 artists from 61 nations in the central pavilion, in the Corderie, the Artiglierie, the Gaggiandre and in the Giardino delle Vergini.
The National Pavilions
At the Biennale, 80 nations, from Albania to Zimbabwe, present their own themes in their pavilions. Some of the pavilions date back to the founding of the Biennale in 1895 and enjoy extraterritorial status.
Most of the pavilions are located in the Giardini, but some are in the Arsenale or in other buildings scattered around the Venice city area.
Our experience
In our experience it’s possible to visit both locations in one day. If you have more time on your hands you should consider taking two days to visit the biennale, since there are many things to discover. If analyzing every piece of art and finding out the backstory to it is not your goal you should be fine with one day. On the other hand, if you want to deeply understand the exposed pieces, you should take some time and maybe even research beforehand on the artists at the exhibitions.
The way we did it and the way we recommend is visiting the Arsenale location in the morning and the Giardini location in the afternoon if you choose to visit everything in one day. Personally, we found the Giardini location to be more interesting and expressive. While some pavilions really didn’t strike a chord with us at first glance, others did.
The Giardini location has multiple options when it comes to fresh beverages, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and food. The Arsenale location doesn´t necessarily offer options exclusive to the event. Being a bit more central it’s easy to find surrounding bars and restaurants. Be careful though! Many small businesses tend to only accept cash payments.
Our personal favorites of the biennale are Denmark and Korea. We came back to see them more than 3 times because they are truly fascinating. Another pavilion we enjoyed was Hungary’s. The outside of the building is already very unique and beautiful, but the art inside is even more impressive. Finland’s pavilion was also interesting, you just need to take your time, which many people tend not to do unfortunately. Some pavilions on the other hand were even irritating. Australia’s Pavillon was very loud and hard to comprehend, while Canada’s installation was very minimal. The UK´s pavillon almost drove us insane because it challenges your auditory senses and creates a lot of confusion in our opinion. We couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Wie Sie zur Biennale kommen
You can walk to the Biennale from St. Mark’s Square, otherwise take the public water bus line 1. Tickets
Line 1 starts from Piazzale Roma, where public transport from Mestre arrives. The nearest stop is S. Lucia station, where high-speed trains from all over Italy as well as regional trains arrive.
Line 1 ends at the Lido. From Piazzale Roma and the train station head in the direction of Lido, from the Biennale head in the direction of Piazzale Roma.
The Biennale has two landing stages, Arsenale and Giardini.
From the airport, either take bus line 5 to Piazzale Roma and then waterbus line 1, or take the Alilaguna line to St. Mark’s Square.
There are also water taxis at the airport.
