The Venice Biennale presents an alternative International Exhibition from August 29th

In the year that the Architecture Biennale has been postponed to 2021 because of covid-19, La Biennale di Venezia will instead be organising, from August 29th until the end of the year, numerous events and exhibitions focusing on particularly significant episodes of its history.

All artistic disciplines will be in dialogue together: an exhibition curated collectively for the first time by all the artistic Directors of the various Departments: Cecilia Alemani (Art), Alberto Barbera (Cinema), Marie Chouinard (Dance), Ivan Fedele (Music), Antonio Latella (Theatre), Hashim Sarkis (Architecture).

The exhibition will be organised using the materials of the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts of La Biennale (ASAC) and materials from other important archives.

During the same period, the Giardini and the Arsenale will feature activities and live performances by the young artists of the Biennale College for the Dance, Music and Theatre Departments.

An arena will be set up for outdoor film screenings that will continue throughout the Venice International Film Festival (2-12 September). Guided tours will be organised focusing on the history of the Pavilions and the Giardini, the original venue of Biennale Arte. Similar guided tours will also be held at the Arsenale, centred on the history of the buildings and the restoration work done by La Biennale.

With these and other initiatives that will be announced in due course, curated in collaboration with the Director of Biennale Architettura Hashim Sarkis, the programme of which will soon be presented in detail, we wish to fortify La Biennale’s cultural events for the year 2020, following the decision to postpone the Biennale Architettura to the year 2021, from its previously scheduled dates from August 29th to November 29th.

This decision, forced by the acknowledgement that it was impossible to move forward due to the health emergency, was announced by La Biennale together with the Artistic Director Hashim Sarkis on Monday, May 18th in a videoconference with 200 delegates from 58 countries around the world, representatives at the highest level of the National Pavilions participating in the Biennale Architettura, in the presence of the official Commissioners. They all fully agreed that the difficult decision made by La Biennale was the right one, and expressed their solidarity and relief at the news.

THE EVENTS IN 2020
La Biennale di Venezia naturally confirms its schedule of international events through the end of 2020:
• from 2 to 12 September the 77th Venice International Film Festival directed by Alberto Barbera;
• from 14 to 24 September the 48th International Theatre Festival directed by Antonio Latella;
• from 25 September to 4 October the 64th International Festival of Contemporary Music directed by Ivan Fedele;
• from 13 to 25 October the 14th Festival of Contemporary Dance directed by Marie Chouinard.