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During the 18thand 19th centuries, the Grand Tour was de rigueur as a rite of passage for well heeled Britons and Germans wishing to add a final polish to their humanistic education. For decades hordes of pasty-complexioned Northerners cavorted through Southern Europe in search of the classical ruins and cheap sex. In 2007 this old idea was resurrected by cultural entrepreneurs promoting an art tour that included the Venice Biennale, Documenta and the Münster Sculpture Project. Cashed up art tourists also had the option to partake in Basel Art Fair’s annual shopping frenzy. It is very rare for these three exhibitions, which are the largest and most prestigious international events of this kind, to be run concurrently, since the Münster Sculpture Project is held only every ten years and Documenta every five. Hence, the Grand Tour could legitimately claim to be the largest global visual art event of the century to date.
Of the three exhibitions, the Venice Biennale is the oldest and largest. This year the event was immense, counting sixty-four participating nations, an enormous thematic show curated by Robert Storr and countless side exhibitions, some of which were major concerns in their own right featuring artists such as Joseph Kossuth, Bill Viola, Matthew Barney, Joseph Beuys and many others.
In discussing the Venice Biennale one must distinguish between its two main components, namely the thematic show curated by the Director and the artists chosen by the participating countries to represent them either in one of the national pavilions in the Giardini (the Biennale’s headquarters) or in temporary venues around the city.
Storr’s large show occupied the Arsenale (Venice’s old shipyard and warehouses) and the now incongruously named... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline