Venice Biennale is one of the most important events for contemporary art. Art in a very wide sense – dance, art, cinema, architecture and music. Once every two years Venice provides a ground for many nations to present their art in a pavilion. Initially, this oldest biennale, took place in Giardini – beautiful garden with separate buildings-pavilions, later one venue was not enough and the Biennale extended to a second venue – Arsenale. Moreover, many pavilions are randomly appear on the streets of Venice and are hidden from the tourists. This year for the 56th biennale the title is All the Worlds Futures.

Serbian Pavilion 

It was one of the most powerful experiences at Venice Biennale. The exhibition was called “United Dead Nations”, the name is extremely powerful especially with the display. In the room on the floor there are piles of flags that once belonged to non-existing countries nowadays, countries like USSR and Yugoslavia. The music was peacefully tragic and completed the exhibition beautifully.

French Pavilion

British Pavilion

This pavilion was quite a shock, but the colour was good. British pavilion, executed by Sarah Lucas, welcomes you with a giant yellow penis and in the first room there is another one, because one is not enough. Walking through the room you can cigarette in the butt and children running around and laughing at toilet jokes. Other people are getting upset and saying that it’s not funny.

Japanese Pavilion

Japanese presented a very touching video installation about how kids come into the world. Four screens were playing different videos, one girl was saying that: “There was a red carpet and the pink carpet, I fell asleep and the next morning mommy said welcome home”. Walking upstairs you find yourself in a setting with red strings and a boat. It is believed that when a person is born he/she is already connected to your future husband/wife by a string and that’s how they find each other. The room was decorated beautifully.

Romanian Pavilion

Romania was the only country to showcase fine art by Adrian Ghenie. The exhibition “Darwin’s Room” was curated by Mihai Pop. It was interesting to see so many self-portraits and landscapes, oil on canvas is a rare at a Biennale.

Nordic Pavilion 

Surprisingly, one of my favourite pavilion was from Norway. The installation from frames with broken glass is also complimented by the sound of glass. Very light singing at the background, very calming. Trees in the middle of pavilion, birds sound and sense of presence of the nature. You just want to stay there for a while.

This is a small piece from what Biennale has to offer. As not a great fan of contemporary art I actually enjoyed being there. The experience, the atmosphere, beautiful walks, Italian spirit and diversity of pavilions make Venice Biennale worth a trip.