The 55th Venice Biennale: An Encyclopedic Palace of Art

Occurring bi-annually on odd-numbered years since 1895, the International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale is one of the most anticipated events in the international cultural calendar. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni and organised by La Biennale di Venezia, the theme of the 2013 edition of the Biennale is Il Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopedic Palace). Beginning in June, the Biennale’s 88 national participants, ten of which will exhibit for the first time, will transform Venice into a floating city of art.

Massimiliano Gioni who selected this year’s exhibition theme has stated that he was inspired by the utopian dream of a bygone era. Marino Auriti, a self-taught, Italian-American artist designed his Il Encyclopedico Palazzo del Mondo (The Encycopedic Palace of the World) in 1955 and sought to have it built on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Boldly intended as a museum ‘to hold all the works of man in whatever field, discoveries made and those which may follow’, Auriti’s dream remained unrealised; his scale model for the Encycopedic Palace was relegated to a storage warehouse for decades.

Seeing in Auriti’s dream an example of humanity’s ambition to encapsulate the infinite variety and richness of the world in a definable structure, Gioni describes Il Palazzo Eycicopedico / The Encycopedic Palace as ‘a show about obsessions and about the transformative power of the imagination’. This concept will be realised through the organisation of the 2013 Venice Biennale exhibition space, as the Arsenale will be ordered according to a progression of natural to artificial forms, which harks back to the wunderkammers and cabinets of curiosities of the 16th and 17th centuries through which attempts were made ‘to construct a visual compendia of the world’.
To Gioni, Auriti’s unrealised and unrealisable dream, The Encycopedic Palace of the World, represents an‘elaborate but fragile construction, a mental architecture that is as fantastical as it is delirious’. Juxtaposed with the ever-growing array of artists and artworks in all different media, the 2013 Venice Biennale theme suggests that the attempt to encapsulate and order the knowledge of the world of contemporary art through the various National Pavilions and exhibition spaces ‘now seems as dizzyingly absurd as Auriti’s dream’.

The Culture Trip’s Venice Biennale Series

The 55th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale will take place from 1 June – 24 November. The Culture Trip’s Venice Biennale Series is an article series leading up to the start of the exhibition. With 88 countries participating in this year’s Biennale — 10 of them for the first time — and 150 artists from 37 countries, our coverage over the next couple of months will highlight a selection of the National Pavilions that will be participating in the 2013 edition of the Venice Biennale.
Presenting art per country is particuarly precious in times of globalization, because it gives us the primary fabric of reference on which the always new, always varied, autonomous geographies of the artists can be observed and better highlighted. Thus from Belgium to Iraq, our country-specific profiles will take an in-depth look at the ways in which artists and curators grapple with contemporary issues through their Pavilions’ chosen themes and the ways in which this is visually communicated through art. Our Countries List provides links to our featured National Pavilions. You can follow our daily Venice Biennale updates on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

AFRICA & CARIBBEAN
– Egypt: ‘Egyptian Mosaics Adorn the Venice Biennale’s Encyclopaedic Palace’

– Ivory Coast: ‘A New Perspective: Introducing Côte d’Ivoire to the Venice Biennale’

– South Africa: ‘South Africa’s Leading Contemporary Artists Descend Upon the Venice Biennale’

– The Bahamas*: ‘Polar Eclipse: The Bahamas Debuts at the Venice Biennale’

– Zimbabwe: ‘A Vision of Religious Belief: Zimbabwe at the Venice Biennale’
AMERICAS
– Argentina: ‘Argentina Pays Tribute to Eva Perón at the Venice Biennale‘

– Brazil: ‘Brazil Applauds Contemporary Art of the Present and of the Past‘

– Canada: ‘Show Woman and Porcelain Dreamer: Shary Boyle to represent the Canada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale’

– Chile: ‘Alfred Jaar’s Critical Response to the Venice Biennale’

– Costa Rica: ‘A Collective Offering from Costa Rica at the Venice Biennale’

– Latin America: ‘Cartographic Collaboration: Latin America Maps the Atlas of Empire’

– Mexico: ‘Magical Echoes at the Venice Biennale’

– Paraguay*: ‘Paraguay and the South American Encyclopedic Palace at the Biennale’

– United States: ‘Sarah Sze’s Architectonics of Objects’

– Uruguay: ‘Sculpting the ‘Soul’ of Objects: Wifredo Díaz Valdéz at the Biennale’

– Venezuela: ‘Venezuela Showcases Creative Strength at the Biennale’
ASIA/PACIFIC
– Australia: ‘Simryn Gill goes Beyond the Backyard’

– Bangladesh: ‘Bangladesh Brings International Appeal to Venice’

– China: ‘Transfiguration: China at the 2013 Venice Biennale’

– Central Asian Pavilion: ‘Wintry Reflections at the 2013 Central Asian Pavilion’

– Indonesia: ‘Magic and Creative Power’

– Japan: ‘Art in Response to Disaster’

– Maldives*: ‘The Portable Nation: The Republic of the Maldives at the 55th Venice Biennale’

– New Zealand: ‘Bill Culbert Illuminates Venice Biennale for New Zealand’

– South Korea: ‘Light, Colour and Bottari’

– Thailand: ‘Bringing the Thai Kitchen to the Art World’

– Tuvalu*: ‘Exposing the Threat of Global Warming’
EUROPE
– Andorra ‘Time Flies for Andorra at the 55th Venice Biennale’

– Austria: ‘Contemporary Austrian Art in the Idiom of Film’

– Azerbaijan: ‘Azerbaijan Fuses Traditional Ornamentation with Contemporary Design at the Venice Biennale’

– Belgium: ‘Belgium’s Discerning Dedication to the Human Condition at the Venice Biennale’
– Croatia: ‘The Art of Dreams: Kata Mijatović Represents Croatia at the Venice Biennale’

– Cyprus: ‘Cyprus Assumes its Cosmopolitan Identity’

– Denmark: ‘An Interdisciplinary Offering from Denmark at the Venice Biennale’

– Estonia: ‘Phantasmagoria: Dénes Farkas for Estonia at the Venice Biennale’

– Greece: ‘Fighting Crisis, Making Art’

– Hungary: ‘ Interpretations of Destruction as Global Realities: An Explosive Offering by Hungary at the Venice Biennale’

– Ireland: ‘Scenes of Struggle: Ireland’s Journey Through Film at This Year’s Venice Biennale’

– Italy: ‘Artists in a Creative Dialogue at the Biennale’

– Latvia: ‘Nature and the Not-So-Natural Latvian Exhibition at the Venice Biennale’

– Luxembourg: ‘A Multidisciplinary Approach: Art, Music and Architecture for Luxembourg at the Venice Biennale’

– Portugal: ‘Joana Vasconcelos’s Floating Pavilion: Portugal at the Venice Biennale’

– Romania: ‘Romania’s Immaterial Retrospective at the Venice Biennale’

– Russia: ‘A Veteran Art Force at the Russian National Pavilion’

– Serbia: ‘Serbia Shows There’s ‘Nothing Between Us’ at the Venice Biennale’

– Slovakia: ‘Ephemera as Archive: The Czech and Slovak Republics at the Venice Biennale’

– The Holy See*: ‘The Holy See at the Biennale: Restoring the Relationship Between Church and Art’

– Turkey: ‘Ali Kazma and The Art of Resistance’

– UK: ‘Shrouded with Mystery: Jeremy Deller to Represent Britain at the 2013 Venice Biennale’
MIDDLE EAST
– Bahrain: A World Of Your Own: Bahrain Debuts at the Venice Biennale

– Iraq: ‘Welcome to Iraq’: A Celebration of Iraqi Art at the Venice Biennale’

– Israel: ‘Between Cause and Effect: Israeli Artist Gilad Ratman at the Venice Biennale’

– Kuwait: ‘Visions from a Modern Nation: The First Kuwait Pavilion’

– Saudi Arabia: ‘The Edge of Arabia: Emerging Saudi Artists at this year’s Venice Biennale’

– United Arab Emirates: ‘Art by Numbers: The UAE at the Venice Biennale’