At the end of 2008, the Biennale gained the right to use the whole of Ca’ Giustinian in San Marco and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (formerly known as Padiglione Italia) at the Giardini from the City of Venice, as a year-round concession. These new circumstances allowed the start of programmed interventions aimed at increasing the high quality standards of exhibitions and public services offered, as well as at launching some permanent activities.

 

At the beginning of 2009, the Biennale has moved back to its historical headquarters at Ca’ Giustinian (San Marco), right after a significant restoration that lasted 3 years, realised thanks to special fundings from the City of Venice and from the “Legge Speciale”, and partly financed by the Biennale itself.

A 15th century gothic Palazzo, one of the richest and most admired in the history of Venice, Ca’ Giustinian overlooks the Bacino di San Marco right at the beginning of the Grand Canal. Its surface covers 6100 square metres, 5600 of which covered and 500 of terraces.

Originally a patrician residence, then a renowed 19th century hotel loved by artists (such as Verdi, Proust, Turner), it became the official headquarters of the Biennale (as well as of municipal tourism offices) in the aftermath of the 2nd World War, and it is now a completely restored building.

Its features, its position and structure enabled the Biennale (that today occupies its entire surface) to use it not only for strictly administration purposes: it aims to be an “open house” for anyone, a place where the Biennale and the city relate to each other, a gathering point for meetings and events.

On the groundfloor is an exhibition space named Portego, for exhibits concerning the valorisation and the display of works and materials from the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts (ASAC).

 On the same floor, on the front façade, the old Sala degli Specchi (overlooking the Bacino) has become L’ombra del Leone, a cafeteria and also an open salon for the city, whose aim is to host cultural events and gatherings with well-known personalities from the arts and cultural environments. In order to complete these spaces, a pontoon known as Campiello d’acqua was built in front of them, thanks to the shareholding of the City of Venice, to promote people’s involvement in such activities.

At the end of August 2010, in conjunction with the opening of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, the restoration of Ca’ Giustinian will be completed with the recovering of the Sala delle Colonne (550 square meters), dating back to the 30’s, a unique place for both its structural and architectural features, that will be ultimately intended as a flexible space for conferences, meetings, workshops, exhibitions, with particular regard to live performance-related activities.

At the end of this restoration, which also includes the realisation of a shop/design lab on the lower floor, Ca’ Giustinian will reach the status of a multifunctional centre, capable of hosting permanent activities, according to the Biennale scheduled exhibition programme for the Palazzo delle Esposizioni at the Giardini.

Ca' Giustinian is the result of the union of two different buildings: Giustinian (1474) and Badoer-Tiepolo. During the 16th century, they were combined in one, thanks to the internal adjustment of masonries and attics. The famous leader Giovanni dalle Bande Nere stayed there, when he was working for the Serenissima Republic.

In 1750 it passed from the Giustinian family to the Morosinis. In 1817 it was acquired by Arnold Marseille, who turned it into a “Hotel de l’Europe”, that hosted among its guests:

Giuseppe Verdi, who used to occupy a room with a private drawning room and a piano, where his operas Ernani (1843) and Rigoletto (1851) were partly written.

He then supervised their first performances at the nearby Fenice, as well as those of Attila (1846), Traviata (1853) and Simon Boccanegra (1857); Théophile Gautier wrote some chapters of his Voyage en Italie (1852) there; William Turner realised some paintings of the Bacino di San Marco in his three stays in Venice between 1820 and 1840; Marcel Proust stayed there in his journey to Venice round the turn of the 20th century; François-René de Chateaubriand.

Acquired in the 30’s of the 20th century by the City of Venice, whose plan was to settle its casino there, the palace underwent several major changes, as the addition of the Sala delle Colonne, realised on the first floor, facing San Moisè Church. Right after the war, it became the headquarters of the Biennale as well as of the municipal tourism offices.

In the 50’-70’s the Sala delle Colonne was intended as an open space for conferences, concerts, cultural and political events, on an almost daily basis. The last floor hosted the city’s cinema club until the end of the 70’s.

 

In the framework of the reorganization of the exhibition spaces of the Biennale venues, in the historical Padiglione Italia at the Giardini was renamed Palazzo delle Esposizioni della Biennale in 2009.

This change aimed at underlining its new versatile nature, destined to be the centre of multiple permanent activities as well as a milestone for other Pavillions at the Giardini.

It is a structure (3500 square metres, 2800 of which destined for exhibitions), open all year long in the service of hosting the main events of the Biennale, with specific areas, designed for educational activities, a library service, open to students and scholars alike, and a bookstore.

In order to do so, a requalification program was launched (involving interventions on structures, plants, shutters, etc.) with the aim of realising the right set ups for the new bookstore and cafeteria, creating a new arrangement for the influx of both incoming and outgoing visitors.

The set up of some of these areas was curated by some of the artists involved in the 53rd International Art Exhibition: Massimo Bartolini (Educational area), Rirkrit Tiravanija (Bookstore), Tobias Rehberger (Cafeteria). The latter won a Golden Lion for Best Artist of the exhibition.

The new ASAC library. The first phase of the realisation of the Library of Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts (ASAC) ended in June 2009 –on the occasion of the opening of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – and regarded the adjustment of all internal spaces of the first part of a restored annex of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni at the Giardini. This intervention implied the functional restoration of its rooms, all equipped with up-to-date gear for reference research. This way the Biennale library was finally open after ten years: a library specialised in Visual Arts, providing books, catalogues, papers that can be consulted in special reading rooms open to exhibition visitors, students as well as researchers in Venice. The Library of the Biennale underwent an extraordinary requalification, both under a functional and an architectural point of view, offering very high standards for reference work. Thanks to this operation, the long awaited event of giving back the ASAC to Venice finally took place, in a requalified structure and in an ideal, alive setting, strongly engaged with events and exhibitions.

At the end of August 2010, in conjunction with the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, there will be the second and last opening of the restored areas in the same annex of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. The rest of the ASAC book collection (Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Music and Theatre) will be placed there, along with the papers collections.

The ASAC has now reached a joint management status, and found a structurally rationalized organization: on one side it offers a new place for research reference work, on the other a renewed space for digitalization, storage and reference of its historical archives, at the Vega centre in Marghera.

The first realisation of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni at the Giardini dates back to 1894, on behalf of the City of Venice, and its aim was to host the first Biennale exhibitions the following year. The building (known as “Pro Arte” at the time) was conceived by Enrico Travisanato, and its liberty façade was designed by Marius De Maria and Bartolomeo Bezzi. Until 1905, the Biennale only occupied this Palazzo, where artists coming from different countries would gather and exhibit their works together, with no internal division. Because of the great success achieved by its first editions, the Biennale encouraged foreign countries to build their own pavillion at the Giardini to let their national artits have an exclusive exhibition space (the first country to take up this invitation was Belgium, in 1907). In the following decades, the main Palazzo underwent many changes and transformations, hosting the interventions of important artists such as Ernesto Basile (entrance, 1905), Galileo Chini (decorations, 1907-1909), Guido Cirilli (façade, 1914), Gio Ponti (Rotunda, 1928), becoming the present Padiglione Italia in 1932, with the still visible engaging façade by Duilio Torres. The strong collaboration between Carlo Scarpa and the Biennale began in 1948 (and lasted until 1972), a direct bound which resulted in numerous remarkable projects. In 1968 Carlo Scarpa realised the loft conversion of the main salon of the Pavilion, doubling the actual exhibition space. He also realised the Giardino delle Sculture in 1952. In 1977 Valeriano Pastor designed the Auditorium, destined to the City of Venice, and now trasformed into the ASAC Library.

 

Since 1999, the Biennale has been particuarly attentive to all the restoration works designed for the Arsenale, a complex urban estate of high historical importance, in order to plan a new functional exhibition arrangement in the areas conceded by the Demanio Militare.

50.000 square metres (25.000 of which of indoor space) of the South-East area of the Arsenale have become the stable site of the Biennale activities, with exhibition spaces such as: Corderie, Artiglierie, Gaggiandre, Tese Cinquecentesche, Tese delle Vergini.

Live performances have taken place at the Teatro alle Tese and at the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale.

These buildings were properly renewed, restoring shingles, plants and floorings, providing up-to-date and equipped services for visitors: ticket-offices, bookshops, catering services, control rooms.

The new Padiglione Italia, destined to the exhibitions promoted by The Ministry for Cultural Affairs, overlooks the Gaggiandre and the 16th-century Tese on one side, and the Giardino delle Vergini on the other. It hosts Italian artists in a significantly enlarged and requalified structure (in 2009 the exhibition space was extended from 800 to 1800 square metres).

At the same time a new reorganisation plan to access this area has been defined, specifically by realising a new entrance from the Ponte dei Pensieri, which links the Giardino delle Vergini to the Castello neighbourhood.  This bridge is in fact a completely new access to the Arsenale, making the Giardini-Arsenale being perceived as a new unity.

Its entire surface (6000 square metres) having been used for the first time in 2008, on the occasion of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition, nowadays the Giardino delle Vergini also hosts a landscape installation by Gustafson Porter - Gustafson Guthrie Nichol firms.

The Arsenale is the largest pre-industrial production centre of the world. Its surface occupied forty-six hectars, and it would host up to 2000 workers a day in full swing. It is an important place for Venice, not only because the Serenissima fleet was built there, but also because these shipyards, depots and workshops were the symbol of the military, economical and political power Venice had back in time. Its first unit dates back to the beginning of the 13th century, and was developed on the Darsena Vecchia sides. At the beginning of the 14th century the first extension was realised, by buiding the Darsena Nuova and, in the following century, the Arsenale underwent other transfromations due to the impelling naval and military needs of the Serenissima. As time went by, the Arsenale kept losing its military importance, becoming a more commerce-related site. Between 1876 and 1909, the last significant extension intervention was made, that is the realisation of the new structures between of the Darsena Nuova and Nuovissima.

Corderie. Extending on the southern side of the Arsenale, built in 1303 and then rebuilt between 1576 and 1585 after the designs of Antonio da Ponte, they were originally destined to the production of hawsers and naval ropes. The building, fully covered by wooden trusses, measures 316 metres in length, 21 in width and 9,70 in heigth. It presents a three-aisle structure, each one propping up wooden trusses, approximately at a seven metre heighth. The exhibition spaces cover a 6400 square metres surface.

Artiglierie and Isolotto. Made up of a one floor building dating back to 1560, the Artiglierie occupy a 3.300 square metres area. They originally hosted the Arsenale workshops. Next to this site, there is a former warehouse (the Isolotto) that covers 900 square metres.

Gaggiandre, Tese, Giardino delle Vergini. The Gaggiandre, two magnificent shipyards built between 1568 and 1573 after some designs attributed to Jacopo Sansovino, overlook a large internal dock. Beyond the Tese, partly realised in the 16th century, is the Giardino delle Vergini, a fascinating green area.

The Biennale di Venezia first employed the Arsenale, specifically the Corderie area, in 1980, in occasion of the 1st International Architecture Exhibition curated by Paolo Portoghesi, who set up the Strada Novissima at the Corderie of the Arsenale. In the following years, the same spaces were used in other Art Exhibition for the Aperto section, devoted to the promotion of young artists.