Getting terribly excited about our biennial Venice art pilgrimage to the Venice Biennale.
Established over a century ago and nicknamed the ‘Olympics of the Art World’, countries are designated a national pavilion and represented by an artist (or artists) who is selected or invited to participate in this prestigious cultural institution. It’s a showcase of international art giving visitors the chance to see what’s out there in the art world, without the commercial exchange that is the raison d’etre of art fairs (nothing is for sale at the Venice Biennale, except for the catalogues and various tchotchke souvenirs). And it all takes place in one of the most beautiful and magical cities that has inspired a host of writers and artists for centuries, where you can sip your bellini to the tinkle of piano keys in a candle-lit historic palazzo, or take a gondola past Marchesa Casati’s former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni – now housing the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

While pavilion exhibitons won’t be unveiled until the actual opening on 29 May, the 2013 list of artists is looking particularly fabulous. Amongst the line-up for the national pavilions is one of our favourite artists, Berlinde de Bruyckere representing Belgium, and Alfredo Jaar representing Chile, Sarah Sze for the USA, and Anri Sala for France. Bruyckere has conceived a new site-specific installation that draws on the historical context of Venice. She has invited acclaimed Nobel Prize-winning novelist J.M. Coetzee to serve as curator and artistic collaborator, building on their recent collaboration on a book entitled ‘All Flesh’. Hong Kong will also be present again this year with an exhibiton by Lee Kit curated by Dr. Lars Nittve of M+. The project is conceived and intended as an artistic continuation of Lee’s idiosyncatic exploration of the quotidian, typified by his recognisable and iconic handpainted tablecloths and paintings incorporating labels of everyday products.

Curated by Massimiliano Gioni, this year’s main Biennale exhibition, titled ‘The Encyclopedic Palace’ (Il Palazzo Enciclopedico), will include: George Condo, Phyllida Barlow, Otto Piene Ellen Altfest, Tacita Dean, Hans Bellmer, Guo Fengyi, Hans Josephsohn, Sarah Lucas, Steve McQueen … It’s a breathless list of some of the most influential and significant contemporary artists, and indeed encyclopedic in its scope, so I’ll let you check out the full list in the link below –

List of ‘The Encyclopedic Palace’ exhibiting artists: http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/exhibition/artists/

While the heady parties and art star-studded openings will kick off in the first week, the exhibition will run until 24 November 2013, for those who wisely want to avoid hordes of tourists and the congestion of monolithic oligarch-owned yachts.

Venice Biennale 2013: List of National Pavilions

Argentina
Artist: Nicola Costantino
Venue: Arsenale

Australia
Artist: Simryn Gill
Commissioner: Simon Mordant
Curator: Catherine de Zegher
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Austria
Artist: Mathias Poledna
Commissioner: Jasper Sharp
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Bahamas
Artist: Tavares Strachan
Commissioner: Nalini Bethel
Curators: Jean Crutchfield, Robert Hobbs
Venue: Arsenale, Tese Cinquecentesche

Belgium
Artist: Berlinde De Bruyckere
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Artist: Mladen Miljanovic
Commissioners: Sarita Vujković, Irfan Hošić
Venue: Palazzo Malipiero, San Marco

Canada
Artist: Shary Boyle
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Central Asia
Artists: Vyacheslav Akhunov, Sergey Chutkov, Saodat Ismailova, Kamilla Kurmanbekova, Ikuru Kuwajima, Anton Rodin, Aza Shade, Erlan Tuyakov
Commissioner: Vanessa Ohlraun
Project leader: Susanne M. Winterling
Curators: Ayatgali Tuleubek, Tiago Bom
Venue: Palazzo Malipiero

Chile
Artist: Alfredo Jaar
Commissioner: CNCA, National Council of Culture and the Arts, Chile
Curator: Madeleine Grynsztejn

Denmark
Artist: Jesper Just
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Estonia
Artist: Dénes Farkas
Curator: Adam Budak
Organizer: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Estonia
Venue: Palazzo Malipiero, S.Marco 3199 III floor

France
Artist: Anri Sala
Curator: Christine Macel
Venue: Pavilion of Germany at the Giardini

Germany
Artists: Ai Weiwei, Romuald Karmakar, Santu Mofokeng, Dayanita Singh
Commissioner: Susanne Gaensheimer
Venue: Pavilion of France at the Giardini

Greece
Artist: Stefanos Tsivopoulos
Curator: Syrago Tsiara
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Iceland
Artist: Katrin Sigurdardottir
Commissioner: Dorothée Kirch
Curators: Mary Ceruti, Ilaria Bonacossa

Indonesia
Artists: Albert Yonathan Setiawan, Sri Astari, Eko Nugroho, Entang Wiharso, Titarubi
Commissioner: Soedarmadji Jean Henry Damais
Assistant Commissioner: Mirah M. Sjarif
Curators: Carla Bianpoen, Rifky Effendy, Achille Bonito Oliva

Ireland
Artist: Richard Mosse
Commissioner, curator: Anna O’Sullivan

Israel
Artist: Gilad Ratman
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Italy
Artists: Francesco Arena, Massimo Bartolini, Gianfranco Baruchello, Elisabetta Benassi, Flavio Favelli, Luigi Ghirri, Piero Golia, Francesca Grilli, Marcello Maloberti, Fabio Mauri, Giulio Paolini, Marco Tirelli, Luca Vitone, Sislej Xhafa
Curator: Bartolomeo Pietromarchi
Commissioner: Maddalena Ragni
Venue: Arsenale, Tese delle Vergini

Japan
Artist: Koki Tanaka
Curator: Mika Kuraya
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Korea (Republic of)
Artists: Group exhibition
Curator: Kim Seung-duk
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Kosovo
Artist: Petrit Halilaj
Curator: Kathrin Rhomberg
Commissioner: Erzen Shkololli
Venue: Arsenale

Latvia
Artists: Kaspars Podnieks, Krišs Salmanis
Commissioners: Zane Čulkstēna, Zane Onckule
Curators: Anne Barlow, Courtenay Finn, Alise Tīfentāle

Lebanon
Artist: Akram Zaatari
Commissioner: Association for the Promotion and Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (APEAL)
Curators: Sam Bardaouil, Till Fellrath
Venue: Arsenale

Lithuania
Artist: Raimundas Malašauskas

Mexico
Artist: Ariel Guzik
Curator: Itala Schmelz
Venue: San Lorenzo church, Castello

The Netherlands
Artist: Mark Manders
Curator: Lorenzo Benedetti
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

New Zealand
Artist: Bill Culbert
Commissioner: Jenny Harper
Deputy Commissioner: Heather Galbraith
Curator: Justin Paton

Palestine
Artists: Aissa Deebi, Bashir Makhoul
Commissioner: Palestinian Art Court – al Hoash
Curators: Bruce Ferguson, Rawan Sharaf
Venue: Liceo Artistico Statale di Venezia, Palazzo Ca’ Giustinian Recanati, Dorsoduro 1012

Paraguay
Commissioner: Elisa Victoria Aquino Laterza
Curator: Osvaldo González Real
Technical curator: Tiziano Inguanotto

Portugal
Artist: Joana Vasconcelos
Commissioner: Direcção-Geral das Artes Ministério da Cultura

Russia
Artist: Vadim Zakharov
Curator: Udo Kittelmann
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Singapore
Cancelled the participation

Spain
Artist: Lara Almarcegui
Curator: Octavio Zaya
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Switzerland
Artist: Valentin Carron
Curator: Giovanni Carmine
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Taiwan
Artists: Bernd Behr, Hsu Chia-wei, Katerina Seda
Curator: Esther Lu
Organizer: Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Venue: Palazzo delle Prigioni, Castello 4209, San Marco

Turkey
Artist: Ali Kazma
Commissioner: Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts
Curator: Emre Baykal
Venue: Pavilion at Arsenale

United Arab Emirates
Artist: Mohammed Kazem
Commissioner: Dr. Lamees Hamdan
Curator: Reem Fadda

United Kingdom
Artist: Jeremy Deller
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

Uruguay
Artist: Wifredo Díaz Valdéz
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini

USA
Artist: Sarah Sze
Commissioner: Bronx Museum of the Arts
Co-Commissioners: Holly Block, Carey Lovelace
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini