Arsenale

From Koo Jeong-A’s scented pavilion to Julien Creuzet’s ‘layers of history’, here's what not to miss during this year’s Biennale 

From the Cecilia Vicuña’s paintings celebrating Indigenous forms at the Giardini to Marlene Dumas’s groundbreaking exhibition at Palazzo Grassi, these are the highlights from the 59th Venice Biennale

In a cavernous Central Pavilion, ‘The Milk of Dreams’ reminds us that feminist triumphs and struggles stretch beyond time and geography 

In the second of our two-part round-up, Chloe Stead reviews the best pavilions across the Giardini

At the Arsenale, monumental works question the place of the human in nature, and the nature of the human

In the first of our two part round-up, Terence Trouillot reviews the best pavilions across the Giardini

The frieze editors select the projects they are most looking forward to at the National Pavilions

The frieze editors select the projects they are most looking forward to at the National Pavilions

The frieze team selects the projects they are most looking forward to at the Giardini’s Central Pavilion and the Arsenale

The frieze team selects the projects they are most looking forward to at the Giardini’s Central Pavilion and the Arsenale

Your guide to the best on view in Venice – from national pavilions to collateral events and museum shows, from the Giardini to Giudecca

A first look at ‘Viva Arte Viva’ at the Arsenale

The title for Massimiliano Gioni’s Venice Biennale – an exhibition which is mostly wonderful, often magisterial and elegantly provocative – comes from a work by Marino Auriti, Enciclopedico Palazzo del Mondo (c.1950s). A model of this skyscraper is installed in the first room of the Arsenale. The Italian-American artist’s quixotic aim was for the building to house all the knowledge in the world; he estimated that it would cost about $2.5 billion to realize. Unsurprisingly, Auriti never found a backer, though he wrote plenty of letters, and even patented his design. For decades it languished in his garage. In 2003, 23 years after Auriti died, his granddaughters donated the model to the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

Highlights of the Arsenale portion of  'ILLUMInations' at the 54th Venice Biennale