THE VENICE BIENNALE MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART IN VENICE & BEYOND JUNE 5-13, 2019 TOUR LEADER: DR NICK GORDON THE VENICE Overview BIENNALE The Venice Biennale, from its inception in 1895, has been one of the Tour dates: June 5-13, 2019 world’s premier contemporary art fairs. We explore it over several days, allowing you to absorb some of the best contemporary art from around the world. The 2019 Biennale will be directed by Ralph Rugoff, the first curator Tour leader: Dr Nick Gordon from the UK to be selected for the sort after position. Rugoff has worked extensively with a range of contemporary arts and has curated major Tour Price: $5,730 per person, twin share exhibitions of Tracey Emin, Ed Ruscha and Andreas Gursky. His appointment follows the very introspective 2017 Biennale, and promises to Single Supplement: $1,640 for sole use of take advantage of his reputation for highly original and engaging shows. double room Between visits to the Biennale’s exhibition spaces, many of which are only Booking deposit: $500 per person open to the public during the Biennale, we discover the abundance of modern and contemporary art in Venice, travel to some of the quieter islands and see some of the less well-known jewels of Venetian art. The Recommended airline: Emirates tour also includes day trips to the World Heritage-listed Aquileia, as well as to two of Italy’s best new modern and contemporary art spaces in Maximum places: 20 Rovereto, a quiet town nestled in an alpine valley. Itinerary: Venice (8) Accommodation is in a carefully selected four-star hotel in the heart of Venice, a few minutes from the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Square. The Date published: February 9, 2018 hotel is quiet, despite being in the centre, and close to some of the best districts in Venice for dining. An extended stay in central Venice will allow you to enjoy the city in the evening when the majority of visitors have left. Your tour leader Dr Nick Gordon holds a University Medal and PhD in History from the University of Sydney. He specialises in medieval and early modern European history and has taught at Australian universities for 10 years, on topics ranging from Ancient Greek democracy to the art and culture of Renaissance Italy, the French and industrial revolutions and the rise of modern psychology. Nick has presented numerous popular art history courses at the University of Sydney’s Centre for Continuing Education, and is a regular speaker in the Nicholson Museum’s public lecture series. His academic expertise is complemented by the specialised knowledge he has gained as a practicing artist, and he brings these insights to the art enjoyed throughout this tour. Enquiries and Nick has been leading cultural tours to Europe since 2006 and his deep bookings love of art, art history and the city of Venice led him to develop Academy Travel’s tours to the Venice Biennale. For further information and to secure a place on this tour “Dr Nick Gordon is a fabulous tour guide, tirelessly patient and please contact Frederick impressively knowledgeable. He significantly improved my enjoyment of Steyn at Academy Travel on the sites.” 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 “Nicholas was always approachable, kind and informative.” (outside Sydney) or email [email protected] Feedback from participants on the Venice Biennale tour, June 2017. .au Tour Highlights UNPACK YOUR BAGS IN VENICE Venice is a rewarding destination, especially for those who take the time to unpack and stay for an extended period. The location of our hotel, just minutes away from St Mark’s Square, allows you to fully enjoy the city, from its magnificent palaces, to its fine restaurants and the incomparable beauty of the city’s laneways and canals in the mornings and evenings when the average tourist is not there. THE VENICE BIENNALE The Venice Biennale is the oldest and largest event of its kind in the world, with over 170 exhibitions and major galleries putting on special shows. Explore the extraordinary range of art on view with structured visits and time for independent exploration, and visits to venues normally closed to the public including the historic Arsenale and private palaces overlooking the Grand Canal. MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART Venice is a city of modern art, with excellent galleries including The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Ca’ Pesaro and the private collection of the Francois Pinault Foundation in the Punta Della Dogana¸ Venice’s historic customs house transformed into a gallery by Tadao Ando. Beyond Venice we visit two of Northern Italy’s best new modern art galleries, MART and Casa Depero. AQUILEIA AND GRADO Escape the city to a little visited corner of Italy on a day trip to the World Heritage-listed Roman mosaics at Aquileia, one of the great cities of the Roman Empire, and the fine collection of ancient glass, sculpture and mosaics at its recently renovated archaeological museum. We also take in medieval Grado, home of the medieval patriarch, Venice’s most esteemed religious figure, and now a quiet seaside town. VENICE’S HIDDEN JEWELS Beyond St Mark’s Square and the handful of sites most tourists see, is a wealth of art, architecture and history. Explore the city’s local neighbourhoods, where Venetians eat, drink and talk the evenings away; see masterpieces by Bellini, Carpaccio and Tiepolo; and visit the quiet islands of Torcello, with its exquisite medieval mosaics and lunch at Locanda Cipriani, and San Lazzaro degli Armeni Venice and its Biennale Venice has a very long history of enterprise. Perhaps the people’s acumen stems from the city’s early history, in which refugees from the mainland picked a collection of muddy islands in the lagoon as a site for settlement. They quickly became the middlemen of the Middle Ages, transporting other people’s goods at a substantial profit and controlling Europe’s balance of trade. Even with the decline of trade in the 17th century, Venice continued to prosper by promoting itself as a unique destination. The number of casinos increased dramatically, as did the other trades that supported the revellers from around Europe who came for Carnivale (which lasted for six months of each year in Venice). While shipping was still significant (and remains so), Venice transformed itself into a type of service economy, about 300 years before it became fashionable to do so. More recently, Venice has flourished as a city of art; its success is intrinsically linked to the establishment of the Biennale in the 1890s. World Fairs had already proven to be a hit, and the art market was booming on the back of new industrial wealth. Unlike Paris, Venice did not produce substantial amounts of art to sell. That didn’t turn out to be such a problem: Venice would pay to transport and exhibit other people’s art in exchange for a cut of the sales. The profits from sales were modest, and the practice was later abandoned. As a commercial enterprise, however, it was extraordinarily successful. More than 200 000 people came to the first Biennale in 1895. Europe’s middle class spent money in Venice to see a selection of modern art displayed in beautiful surroundings. A decade later, foreign countries began to establish permanent bases in Venice, paying leading architects to design and build pavilions in the Giardini, now the heart of the Biennale and an open air museum of modern architecture. Over the past 20 years, the event has trebled in size with exhibitions hosted by nations, major public galleries, philanthropic foundations, arts organisations and individuals. The modern and contemporary art collections in the city have grown at a similar rate – the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has doubled its capacity, the public collections have grown substantially, and the private collections of billionaires, such as Francois Pinault and Miuccia Prada, now call Venice home. These are alongside the masterpieces by Titian, Bellini, Tiepolo and Palladio littering the city. As a model for an event, the Biennale has also been a great success – there are now well over 100 biennales worldwide, and many smaller recurring events using the same model. Venice, however, has the oldest, largest and most prestigious biennale. Clockwise from bottom left: Claudia Fontes’ “The Horse Problem” in the Argentina Pavilion, 2017; Otto Vincze’s “River Pool” on the Giudecca Canal, 2017; Chiharu Shiota’s fabulous “Key in the Hand” installation at the Japan Pavilion, 2015; inside Roberto Cuoghi’s “Imitation of Christ” installation in Italy Pavilion, 2017 Detailed itinerary Included meals are shown with the symbols B, L and D. Tour start & finish time The tour starts on Wednesday 5 June at 4.00pm, at the Hotel Al Codega, Venice. The tour ends on Thursday 13 June at Hotel Al Codega, Venice, after breakfast. Wednesday 5 June Arrive The tour starts in the hotel this afternoon. Please consult your individual travel documents for arriving at the hotel. After a stroll around our neighbourhood, there will be a light dinner in a local restaurant. (D) Thursday 6 June The Venice Biennale This morning we visit the Giardini, the historic centre of the Biennale and the location of many of the national pavilions. We visit the Central Exhibition curated by Biennale Director Ralph Rugoff, the Australian Pavilion, and enjoy time to explore the other national pavilions. After a welcome lunch in an excellent Venetian restaurant, we continue exploring the National Pavilions in the Giradini and exhibitions in the Castello district. In the early evening we meet to talk about the day’s art over an aperitif. (B, L) Friday 7 June The Arsenale and Hidden Gems This morning we take a walking tour of the smaller exhibitions and hidden gems of Venetian art in the Castello and Canareggio districts, including masterpieces by Bellini and Carpaccio, and the excellent Museum of Icons, with works by Cretan, Cypriot and Dalmatian masters from the 14-16th centuries.