The 52nd Venice Biennale officially opened

Official opening of 52nd contemporary art exhibition, Venice Biennale, was held on June 10. This year, the exhibition is open for visitors until November 21. The Biennale has spread to the buildings of the Arsenale, old dockyards of the eastern part of town, and in public Giardini gardens where around 30 exhibitions of countries possessing their own permanent pavilions are located. Curator of the main exhibition presenting works produced by 100 international artists is President of the Biennale, Robert Storr.

For the second time Ukrainian exhibition was installed in Palazzo Papadopoli. This is an old 18th century palace, built in the heart of Venice upon Grand Canal, not far from Rialto Bridge. Opening of the Ukrainian pavilion had been very much anticipated even a month prior to the official opening of the Biennale. UK "Daily Telegraph" newspaper named British, American, French, Asian and Ukrainian pavilions the best ones. Vice-PM and the Minister for Culture of Italy, Francesco Rutelli, has named the Ukrainian pavilion as one of the three top events of Venice Biennale-2007.

The Ukrainian pavilion is located on three floors of the luxurious palace and includes various pieces of art: photographs, light-boxes, installations, kinetic sculpture and video installations. At the berth, right at the entrance to the building the visitors can see "Dnieper" boat by Dzine, designed as a DJ stand. Apropos, DJ Andrei Kirichenko has arrived to Venice specially for the opening ceremony.

The work of Sam Taylor-Wood titled "That White Reed", was a real decoration of the Ukrainian exhibition. It is a slow motion playback where a swan is slowly dying on the naked body of a young lady. The most provocative work was produced by Lesya Zayats depicting a 3 thousand Euro worth of bag designed by Louise Vuitton burn in fire. A work "Infernal Earth" produced by Sergey Bratkov was also a hit. This is a huge light-box depicting a factory and an operator - a man who has fallen asleep at his working place. 

String of news about the Venice Biennale

Photos of Ukrainian pavilion at the Biennale