Visitors to the 57th international art Biennale which opens to the public in Venice on Saturday can enjoy a number of corollary events in the lagoon city.
The official programme includes 23 in total, not including the many exhibitions organised independently by private galleries and other venues.
A possible itinerary might begin on the island of Murano, where experimental glasswork by architect, sculptor and designer Gaetano Pesce is on display at the local museum. Work by Arte Povera artist Michelangelo Pistoletto can be admired on another island, San Giorgio Maggiore, along with a homage to fellow 'group' member, the late Alighiero Boetti. Back in the city centre, Palazzo Fortuny presents an orgy of old and new in the exhibition 'Intuition', born of the collaboration between the foundations Civic Museums and Axel&May Vervoordt.
Here, Neolithic stones stand alongside work by Paul Klee and Anish Kapoor. Fondazione Prada presents a cross-media project born of a collaboration between writer and director Alexander Kluge, artist Thomas Demand, set and costume designer Anna Viebrock and curator Udo Kittelmann. French multimedia artist Pierre Huyghe presents his work in the Espace Louis Vuitton, while former 'bad boy' of the art world Damien Hirst occupies the two spaces belonging to the Francois Pinault Foundation. Other shows not to be missed include the retrospective dedicated to Jan Fabre, Mark Tobey at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the exhibition devoted to luxury craftsmanship curated by Stefano Zecchi at the Venice Pavilion in the Arsenale gardens.
And then, of course, there is Viva Arte Viva, the central exhibition curated by Christine Macel and featuring work by 120 artists from across the globe. The collection is inspired by a new form of humanism in which the artistic act is seen as "an act of resistance, of liberation and of generosity".
Most of the artists on show are exhibiting in the Venice Biennale for the first time.
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