An overview of the last 50 years of the Venice Biennale: main artists, curators and works. Atmosphere, encounters and portraits are conjured up partly through rare and mostly unpublished photographic documents.
The volume begins with sharp memories, as if flicking through the pages of a diary, together with those of old catalogs with their unmistakable graphics. Among the wittily-told personal stories about the artists, artworks and main personalities of the first few art Biennals (from 1962 onwards¿the first exhibitions are merely referred to due to the author’s young age) we find lightning reviews, unprecedented and sometimes bizarre events, and brilliant descriptions of both well-known and lesser-known figures.
The comments on the Venetian architecture exhibitions are more circumstantial, with critically retrospective – and hence constructive – arguments, and no holds barred, as what is left unsaid can easily be perceived by an audience of connoisseurs: the declining Italian scenario, the establishment sof starchitects, appreciation of the Old Masters and for certain exponents of the younger generation.