National Participations and Collateral Events

　　The Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, for the first time in the hundred-year history of the most famous contemporary art exhibition in the world, dedicates a special presentation to the National Participations and to the Collateral Events, attended by the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Ugo Intini and the Director General for Cultural Promotion and Cooperation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Gherardo La Francesca, with the President of the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia Davide Croff.

　　The National Participations and the Collateral Events have grown to such a number in the most recent editions of the Art Biennale that they have become truly structural exposition components that highlight the central international exhibition: a wide range of expositions and events that stretch beyond the borders of the Arsenale and the Giardini throughout Venice and characterize the “Biennale archipelago” today in a unique and original manner. Confirming the international vocation of the Biennale di Venezia, the Foreign countries are taking part in the 52nd Exhibition in the record number of 76 Participations: 34 in the exhibition venues with their own Pavilions (31 in the Giardini and 3 in the Arsenale) and 42 Countries in the historic center of Venice.

　　The national participations in this edition include a number of debuts 　 such as Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Mexico, the Republic of Moldova, Tadjikistan 　 and several returns 　 such as Bulgaria and Arab Syrian Republic. The Countries come from the five continents and in particular from 35 European nations, 20 Latin American countries, 17 Asian, 2 North American, 1 from Oceania, and 1 from Africa, Egypt. The National Participations have always represented a distinctive essential component, an extraordinary wealth for the Art Biennale, and create the opportunity for a better understanding of the artistic production of each Country, representing a veritable global “snapshot” of the contemporary in the world.

　　In this edition, though working independently, they reveal a spontaneous coherence with the themes of the main show of the 52nd Exhibition entitled Think with the Senses 　 Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, and several of the artists presented in the pavilions 　 as in the case of France, the United States and Argentina 　 have been invited by Artistic Director Robert Storr to participate in the main exhibition. The National Participations offer an extraordinary contribution which the Biennale di Venezia wishes to underline because the Exhibition has been the first and continues to be the only exhibition to institute permanent national Pavilions, some of which are celebrating their centennial this year, like Belgium (which built the first pavilion in the Giardini), or next year, when it will be Hungary’s turn.

　　The presence of the People’s Republic of China has been consolidated since 2005 in the Arsenale 　 the area designated for the central future development of the Biennale exhibition spaces 　 which represented the first sign of a decisive opening towards new areas of the world. A specific venue has also been dedicated, after years of absence, to Italian art: this edition of the Art Biennale marks the debut of the new Italian Pavilion, created in collaboration with DARC and the Fondazione la Biennale di Venezia, in the suggestive space of the Tese delle Vergini at the Arsenale. Again in the area of Italian art, by initiative of the Regione Veneto, the City and the Province of Venice, this edition will celebrate the return of the Venetian Pavilion to its city, with the objective of promoting the artistic creativity of the region.