About ticket

The admission fee is 15 Euro, which allows you to enter both Giardini and Arsenale. Discount for group or student is available. As you can reserve the ticket online in the official website, you would better reserve in order to avoid the line in the ticket office.

Director of the 54th Exhibition of Venice Biennale, 2011

Bice Curiger is assigned as Director of the Visual Arts Sector, responsible for curating the 54th International Art Exhibition to be held in 2011. Curiger is an art historian, critic and curator. She has been curator at the Zurich Kunsthaus since 1993, and editor of “Parkett”, one of the most authoritative and innovative contemporary art magazines in the world. Since 2004, she has been publishing director of the “Tate etc” magazine produced by London’s Tate Gallery.

Refer to the URL for the further information;
http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/news/curiger.html
http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/director/

Collateral exhibitions all over Venice

Other than main sites, Giardini and Arsenale, there held a lot of collateral exhibitions in old mansions and church, etc. in Venice.
1.Pavilions of the countries who don't have their pavilion in Giardini
2.Other official Biennale Events and Exhibitions
3.Museum, Exhibitions which is not related to Biennale officially
You can find the banners with Biennale logo all over Venice. Most of them are admission free.

reference: 2009 Venice Biennale Map

Pavilions in Venice city

Collateral Exhibitions

About the main exhibitions 2.Arsenale

Arsenale is a old shipbuilding yard, that was build in 16th century and made of stone. It is very unique and interesting that the artworks are exhibited in this ruin. Several exhibitions consist Arsenale. You can also find works outside of Arsenale. In 2009, the exhibition site was expanded to other warehouses, to where we crossed a sea on a boat.
It takes you a whole day to see all exhibitions in Arsenale.

About the main exhibitions 1.Giardini

Venezia Biennale is held at two sites, Giardini and Arsenale, mainly.

Giardini, which means "park",  consists of one large building and each country's pavilions in a park. The large building, which is usually painted and shown as an artwork,  contains many works like museum. And around 30 countries have their own pavilions in this park. One pavilion belongs permanently to one country. Countries select their representative(s) every time. Of course there are a lot of countries who doesn't own its pavilion in the park. Such countries rent space outside of Giardini.
Giardini is so large that it takes a day to see over. I usually arrive at 10 o'clock and stay there until the closing time 18:00. Cafe, restaurant and shop are open in the park.

The map of Giardini. There are around 30 pavilions in the park. Click here for big picture.

Pavilions in Giardini

How to get information?

Please access to the official site, both English and Italian available.
http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/index.html

Before opening of the exhibition, the information will be uploaded, such as the list of participant artists and map. Download the map for your efficient tour. 

Where to Stay?

The two main exhibition sites, Giardini and Arsenale are located in the east of Venice city. So hotels in Castello area and San Marco area are convenient. But there are not a lot of accommodations in the east of Castello. San Marco is the center of Venice with famous spots such as Rialto Bridge and St Mark's Basilica and there are so many hotels including economical ones and luxurious ones. This area is so bustling that you need to choose high-class hotel if you want a quiet stay.
In the west of Cannaregio, there is a railway station, bus stops for airport and many economical hotels. Although you can save money if staying in this area, it takes around one hour to go to Giardini by vaporetto, water-bus which moves very slowly. So it is not very convenient for visiting Biennale exhibitions.
Hotels in Venice except luxurious ones are basically old and tiny, but it also represent an atmosphere of Venice.