26
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design
mag
Venice is a daunting location to display
contemporary art and architecture.The
portfolio that exists there is hard to match; the
Piazza San Marco which Harry Seidler
described as “the grandest urban space in
Europe”, the National Library of St Mark
(1536-53) by Jacopo Sansovino presenting its
long façade to the Piazza and its short façade
to the Piazzeta.Andrea Palladio described it in
1570 as “the richest and most ornate building
… since the time of the ancients”. Palladio was
in town then working on his design for San
Giorgio Maggiore, by 1630 Baldaseare
Longhena had done Santa Maria della Salute.
Inside these and the many other architectural
delights of Venice are the paintings and
sculpture of dozens of Renaissance masters.
Max Granger
examines the history of the Venice Architecture
Biennale and reviews the 2012 Australian presentation
From
Palladio
to plasticity
It is interesting to reflect on how the Venice Art
(and subsequently Architecture) Biennale
came into being. It started in 1893 when the
silver wedding anniversary of King Umberto I
of Italy and Queen Margherita of Savoy was
planned to be celebrated across the
newly-united country.The Municipality of
Venice decided their contributions should be
humanitarian and cultural. Funds were set
aside for an orphanage for the sons of
shipwrecked sailors and Venetian workmen,
plus “a national biennial exhibition
of art”.
These plans were decided three days before
the anniversary, but the exhibition did not
open until 30 April 1895 when Their Majesties
attended as a belated anniversary
celebration. In the two years of preparation
the organizing commission of prominent
citizens and artists born or resident in Venice
decided to make the exhibition international.
This decision was probably made in the Café
Florian where the commission members met
and the mayor of Venice declared the
exhibition would represent “the most noble
activities of the modern spirit without
distinction of country.” also successfully
resisted the Patriarch of Venice (later Pope Pius
X) from censoring Biennale entries.The first
Biennale of 1895 had art works from 15
countries and its uncensored
’internationalism’ has been a source of its
continuing success.
The chosen site for the exhibition was a public
garden, out beyond the mouth of the Grand
Canal, on the way to the Lido.This land was
