We visited the 2024 Venice Biennale of Art and are excited to share our highlights, personal favorites, and more!
Before we do so, get ready to learn everything you need to know about the best way to visit the 2024 Biennale. Welcome to our ultimate guide.
Venice Biennale 2024: When does it take place?
When the Art Biennale comes around it is always an exciting time to visit the beautiful city of Venice. This year the theme is “Foreigners Everywhere” – “Stranieri ovunque” in Italian, and the curator is Adriano Pedrosa. It takes place mainly in the venues of Giardini and Arsenale between April 20th 2024 and November 24th 2024. The opening hours are as follows.
Summer (from 20.04.2024 to 30.09.2024):
Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 to 19:00 – last admission at 18:45
Arsenale has extended opening hours on Fridays and Saturdays until 20:00 – last admission 19:45
Extra Monday opening April 22, June 17, July 22, September 2 and 30.
Autumn (from 01.10.2024 to 24.11.2024):
Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00 – last admission 17:45
Extra Monday opening November 18.
Where does the Venice Art Biennale 2024 take place?
The Venice Art Biennale takes over the city for the summer and early autumn months. Art can be seen mostly everywhere in the city, but the highest concentration of art can be seen within the main two venues of the Biennale: Giardini and Arsenale.
These two venues are separate but can be visited with the same ticket. However, there are many more pavilions outside of these venues that can be visited without a ticket as well.
Both venues are well connected. They can be reached by taking most main waterbus lines and then walking for a couple of minutes. At the “Giardini” stop you will find lines 4.2, 5.2 and 6. “Arsenale” can be reached with the lines 4.1, 4.2 and 1. Both these stops can easily be reached from Piazza San Marco, as well as other stops. Although these two venues are not too far from each other, we would not recommend visiting both on the same day. Art can be overwhelming, and we feel that it’s best to take some time to properly experience the pavilions at the Biennale.
If you get the chance, we really recommend that you take at least 3 days to visit the Biennale in Venice. Each venue deserves a day, as well as the other pavilions spread throughout the city.
Top Exhibits and Installations you can’t miss at the 2024 Biennale
There is a lot of diverse art to see at the various pavilions of the Venice Biennale 2024. In the following chapter you will find out what our personal favorites are and what you can’t miss this year.
Starting with the Giardini location, the French pavilion offered a very colorful and textured installation accompanied by great tunes. It gave us a very light and refreshing impression. The exhibitions at the German pavilion are worth a visit as well. The themes are executed in a very creative and mysterious way. When we reached the Austrian pavilion, we were lucky enough to witness a live show by a ballerina. If you get a chance, we recommend taking the time to visit that. Another intriguing pavilion was the UK installation. In the upper floor you will be greeted by different visual installations in the form of video and picture sequences. Here you will also be able to sit comfortably to take in the art.
Our personal favorite was the Egyptian pavilion. It is composed of different elements, with a multi-part musical at the center of the exhibition. We truly recommend taking some time to enjoy this masterpiece. The cinematography, the wardrobe, the music, and the performers were incredible. This year’s pavilion is curated by Wael Shawky and the name of the installation is “Drama 1882”. It follows the history of the Urabi Revolution which took a stand against imperial rule between the years 1879 and 1882.
To conclude, another truly moving pavilion of the Giardini della Biennale is the Polish installation. Titled “Repeat After Me II” this installation, curated by Marta Czyż, pays respect to Ukrainian war refugees in a very unique, creative and touching way.
Moving on to the location of Arsenale, we can particularly recommend taking your time with the General Pavilion which you will find before the national ones. One installation that particularly struck us is “The Mapping Journey Project” by Bouchra Khalili. This striking project is presented through various video installations that follow the migratory journeys of different refugees. In total there are 8 unique videos that follow the same format: they are uncut, they show a hand and a pencil and a map. On the way to the national pavilions, you will find a lot more sporadic art. We recommend taking your time to take in what speaks to you.
On to the national pavilions of Arsenale where one of our favorites here was the Maltese pavilion. In this year’s Biennale, Malta presented a project titled “I WILL FOLLOW THE SHIP” by Matthew Attard. This installation interestingly plays with AI and digital technology as an art form while coherently representing an intriguing main idea: The one of dissecting our societies’ trust towards digital technology.
Another pavilion we particularly recommend is the Panama Pavilion. This Pavilion can be found outside Arsenale and Giardini and is located at the end of an alley close to the Maritime Museum of Venice. The selected artworks are beautifully crafted and the stories behind the pieces are captivating.
The Ivory Coast Pavilion is beautifully curated as well. The pieces of this exhibition showcase a deep-rooted history as well as a very coherent theme. This exhibition is definitely worth a stop.
Our tips for the Venice Biennale 2024
In the following you will find some useful tips we can give you based on our experience.
Luggage: Since you will be walking and standing a lot while visiting the main venues of the Biennale, we strongly encourage you to find someplace to store your bigger items. Either way you are of course allowed to enter with a backpack or purse, however if your bags should be particularly heavy or big, we advise you to find someplace to store them. Around the Arsenale and Giardini della Biennale there are multiple options like lockers or establishments that offer a luggage drop-off service. You can also find multiple options around all the major stations. Most of the time hotels and hostels also offer luggage storage services.
Tickets: The best way to purchase a ticket is through the official website. With a regular ticket you will be able to enter both venues, Arsenale and Giardini, once each. This means you could easily do Giardini in one day and visit Arsenale in the following days. The ticket is valid for the whole duration of the Biennale 2024. But only for one entrance to each venue. If you want to visit the Biennale again, you will have to repurchase a ticket.
Pavilions: Another tip we have for you is to visit the external pavilions as well. There are many more exciting pavilions spread throughout the city. They hide interesting surprises within their exhibitions. In most cases entrance is free, which means you don’t even need a ticket.
All in all, we really enjoyed our visit to the Venice Art Biennale 2024. If you are planning a trip to Venice between April 20, 2024 and November 24, 2024, the Biennale should definitely be on your list of things to do. We had a great and unforgettable experience and we hope you will too!
