Pandemonium is the title of issue no. 3/2026 of the Magazine La Biennale di Venezia

Pandemonium is the title of issue 3/2026 of the renewed magazine published by La Biennale di Venezia under the aegis of the Historical Archive – International Centre for Research on the Contemporary Arts, and timed to appear alongside the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. The issue examines the age we live in: the age of parody. An age in which the tragic is no longer worked through, but suspended and neutralised; the sacred imitated and inverted; language emptied of meaning and of responsibility. Not irony, nor play, but the steady reduction of the real to surface and the dissipation of sense.

Pandemonium is the eighth issue since publication resumed in October 2024, after fifty-three years of editorial silence. In her introduction, Debora Rossi, Editorial Director and Head of the Historical Archive of La Biennale, recalls a precedent: in April 1952 the magazine was devoted to the twentieth anniversary of the International Film Festival, with a contribution by its director Elio Zorzi and an interview with Secretary General Antonio Maraini that clarified the system underlying the Institution and its activities.

The magazine will be presented on Tuesday 29 September at 6:30 pm at Villa d'Este, Tivoli (Rome), in a conversation between Alberto Samonà, Director of the Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este Institute, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale di Venezia, and Debora Rossi.

The cover features a still from Fahrenheit 451 (1966) by François Truffaut, based on Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel and screened in competition at the International Film Festival that same year. A meeting of science fiction cinema and the Nouvelle Vague, the film imagines a future that presents itself as a futuristic parody of the present, and renders it with the objects of its own day: a red fire engine, an old-fashioned telephone, a safety razor. On the inside back cover, Figura (1978) by Enrico Baj, from the Fondo Artistico of the Historical Archive of La Biennale di Venezia.

The issue is illustrated with archival material from the Historical Archive of La Biennale, Fondo Artistico; with photographs by Lorenzo Capellini, Graziano Arici, Francesco Galli, Federico Patellani, Ruben Manguel and Frankie Casillo and with works by Virgilio Sieni, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Marina Abramović, Mimmo Paladino, Vincenzo Eulisse, Sergio Vacchi, Ala Younis, Madhusudhanan, Roberto Gil de Montes, Alex Da Corte, Martine Gutierrez, Ossip Zadkine, Roberto Fontana, Caroline Jane Graverol, Bruce Nauman and Ulla Wiggen.

The contributors to issue no. 3/26 are Carlo Sini, Giacomo Biffi, Fabrizio Porcella, Rossana Dedola, Maurizio Crippa, Andrea Nuzzo, Alberto Manguel, John Landis, Giulia d'Agnolo Vallan, Jan Zwicky, Davide Brullo, Rezza Mastrella, Declan Donnellan, Gian Piero Brunetta, Maurizio Cattelan, Sarah Cosulich, Bernard Tschumi, Giovanni Damiani, Francesco Artibani, Davide Catenacci, Carolina Cavalli, Diego Marcon, gelatin, Flavio Del Monte, Carsten Höller, Francesca Amé, Francesco Bonami, Bruno Forzani, Julian Sacha, Nathalie Djurberg, and Saskia Neuman.

Editorial Director: Debora Rossi. Director: Luigi Mascheroni.

The Editorial team consists of the Office of Editorial Activities, the Press Offices and a team of professionals from the various Departments of La Biennale.

Graphic design: Tomo Tomo, a communication design studio founded in Milan by Davide Di Gennaro and Luca Pitoni.

The magazine will be for sale in the Biennale’s online store https://www.labiennale.org/en/buy-online and in major bookstores.

Returning to print in October 2024 after a fifty-three-year publishing hiatus, the Magazine is produced exclusively in print format and stands out for its rich iconographic apparatus, largely drawn from the Historical Archive of La Biennale and from photographic research conducted nationally and internationally. Published quarterly, each issue is dedicated to a monographic theme, bringing into dialogue the disciplines that define La Biennale di Venezia — visual arts, architecture, dance, music, theatre, and cinema — together with incursions into the fields of science, literature, and fashion. The Magazine features essays, reflections, interviews, dialogues, and previously unpublished and exclusive contributions by artists, scholars, and leading figures from the cultural sphere and civil society, both Italian and international. A multiplicity of languages and freedom of expression characterise every page, with ample space devoted to graphic experimentation and to contaminations between different forms and codes.

Issue no. 1/24. Title: Diluvi prossimi venturi / The Coming Flood
Contributions by: Manal AlDowayan, Engin Akyurek, Carlo Barbante, Davide Brullo, Carolyn Carlson, Aziza Chaouni, Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Giulia Foscari, Chiara Ianeselli, John Kinsella, Piersandro Pallavicini, Francesco Palmieri, Gilda Palusci, Orhan Pamuk, Mariagrazia Pontorno, Elena Pettinelli, Andrea Rinaldo, Emanuele Rosa, Stenio Solinas, José Tolentino de Mendonça, Lorenzo Toso, Luciano Violante, Peter Weir, Kongjian Yu. The cover is illustrated with a photographic image by Yuri Ancarani, taken during the shooting of the film Atlantide.
The volume is illustrated with photographs from the Biennale Archive and with photographs by Chiara Arturo, Alessandro Cinque, Antonio Martinelli, Paolo Pellegrin, Italo Rondinella, Paolo Verzone, Federico Vespignani, and Francesco Zizola.

Issue no. 1/25. Title: La forma del caos / Shape of caos
Contributions by: Adonis, Matteo Al Kalak, Eleonora Barbieri, William Basinski, Cesare Bisantis, Boris Behncke, Sue Black, Irene Boyer, Silvia Calandrelli, Edoardo Camurri, Mircea Cărtărescu, Maud Ceriotti Giaccari, Roberto Cicutto, Giuseppe Conte, Maria Cristiana Costanzo, Pablo Delano, Okwui Enwezor, Marta Franceschini, Alessandra Iadicicco, Gianfranco Linzi, Giulio Maira, Alberto Manguel, Pablo Maurette, Damiano Michieletto, Paolo Nori, Federico Pontiggia, Mariagrazia Pontorno, Carlo Ratti, Amerigo Restucci, Bruno Ruffilli, Debora Rossi, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, Gian Antonio Stella. The cover is illustrated with a photographic image of Archèus. Labirinto Mozart, an immersive installation by Ophicina and Damiano Michieletto.
The issue is illustrated with photographs from the Biennale Archive, the Luciano and Maud Giaccari Archive, the Bergman Center Foundation, Getty Images, and the Warburg Institute. It also includes photographs by Iwan Baan, Giacomo Bianco, Antonio Biasiucci, Frankie Casillo, Giacomo Doni, Thierry Du Bois, Charles Fréger, Mary Gelman, Roberto Marossi, Domingo Milella, Alessandro Scotti, Giovanna Silva, Dayanita Singh and Gerald Ulmann.

Issue no. 2/25. Title: Anteguerra / Things to Come
Contributions by: Christine Macel, Germaine Acogny, Roberto Cremascoli, Gianni Forte, Mazen Khaled, Luigi Gallo, Luca Francesconi, Antonio Marras, Darco Pellos and Wael Shawky, Josep Oriol Esteve, Claudio Magris, Robert Jan van Pelt, Mizue Hasegawa, Annarita Colombo, Jon Padfield, Javier Cercas, Gohar Dashti, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Anita Likmeta, Valentina Tanni, Silvano Tagliagambe, Felix Azhimov, Giovanni Caprara, Cinzia Zuffada, Pier Luigi Sacco, Matt Leacock, Krystian Lupa, Stefania Vitulli, Alexander Sokurov, Denis Brotto, Mark Salvatus. The cover is illustrated with a work by Mino Maccari: the image of the stage panel with a reflected face for the final parade of Bohuslav Martinů’s opera Comedy on the Bridge at the 1951 Music Biennale (tempera on plywood). The issue is illustrated with photographs from the Biennale Historical Archive, Fototeca Cinema, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Lisson Gallery, Lia Rumma, Barakat Contemporary, Museo Nacional del Prado, Scala, Florence, New Picture Library, Summerfield Press, Carlo Valsecchi, Collezione Maramotti, Elvert Bañares, and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts – NCCA / Philippine Arts in Venice – PAVB. It also includes photographs by Stefano Graziani, Junpei Katayama and Jon Padfield, Carlo Valsecchi, Gohar Dashti, Luca Capuano, Lorenzo Pesce, Gabrielle Traversat, Toni Fabris, Joan Fontcuberta, Jason Larkin, and Masahisa Fukase.

Issue no. 3/25. Title: Materia Prima / Raw Material
Contributions by: Maurizio Ferraris, Massimo Cacciari, Giorgio Marengo, Damiano Michieletto, Oge Obasi, Antony Hamilton, Xu Jiang, Michelangelo Frammartino, Luca Buoncristiano, Massimo D’Anolfi, Bruce Sterling, Raqs Media Collective, Daniele Cassioli, Giovanni Agosti, Giuseppe Bartolucci, Piero Genovesi, Pietro Li Causi, Davide Brullo, Hugo Mujica, Gino Gerosa, Vincenzo Milanesi, Arthur Duff, Arcangelo Sassolino, Alberto Biasi, Debora Rossi, Erzë Dinarama. The cover is by artist Mari Katayama, featuring the work on the way home #005 (2016), while the back cover presents leave-taking #013 (2021), also by Mari Katayama, who participated in the 2019 Art Biennale. The issue is also illustrated with photographs from Archivio Teatro Stabile di Torino, Fototeca Cinema, Fototeca Teatro, Flowers Gallery, Studio Ancarani, ZERO…, and Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie. It also includes photographs by Ela Bialkowska – OKNO Studio, Massimo D’Anolfi, Davide Ferrante, Pieter Hugo, Nadav Kander, Michele Palazzi, Pamela Randon, Italo Rondinella, Martin Usborne, and Michael Wolf.
The illustrations are by Lorenzo Mattotti.

Issue no. 4/25. Title: Applicazioni / Applications
Contributions by: Luigia Lonardelli, Umberto Eco, Massimo Sterpi, Stefano Micelli, Brendan Cormier, Diane De Clerq, Daniele Torcellini, Âniko Ferreira da Silva, Giuseppe Donnaloia and Pavlos Mavromatidis, Marco Santi, Stefano Salis, Lilli Hollein, Virgilio Villoresi, Giovanni Leone, Yervant Gianikian, Giovanni Bonotto, Padre Simone Raponi, Fuyumi Namioka, Francesca Ummarino, Stefano De Matteis, Elias and Yousef Anastas, Marta Cuscunà, Deyan Sudjic, Bjarke Ingels, Tim Reeve, Elisabeth Diller, Álvar González-Palacios, Julio Luzán, Julian Schnabel. The cover features a chromogenic print by German artist Andreas Gursky, Nha Trang (2004), depicting scattered rows of women weaving bamboo chairs and baskets on the floor of an industrial shed in the Vietnamese coastal city of Nha Trang. The issue also includes photo essays by Iwan Baan, Michele Borzoni, Rachele Savioli, Matteo De Mayda, Alessio Miraglia, Antonio Biasiucci, Daniele Borghello, Martino Gamper, and Lorenzo Castore.

Issue no. 1/26. Title: Alfabeti / Alphabets
Contributions by: Gilles Kepel, Giorgio Marrapodi, Frédéric Bonnaud, Valeria Della Valle, Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Tommaso Santambrogio, Ermanna Montanari, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Visar Zhiti, Line Langebek Knudsen, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Luca Valtorta, Letizia Michielon, Debora Rossi, Cesare Pietroiusti, Valentina Casali, Angela Guzman, Keith Broni, Maria Luisa Frisa, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Christopher Hampton and Monica Capuani, Sonia Folin, Silvia Pareschi, Emma Dante, Silvio Ranise and Nicola Grandi, Tsai Mingliang, Gabriele Mainetti, Tomaso Binga, Manuela Furnari, Peter Joch.

Issue no. 2/26. Title: Emisferi / Hemispheres
Contributions by: Monsignor Francesco Moraglia, Luca Muscarà, Alessandro Vanoli, Cino Ricci, Antonio Vettese, Ludwig H. Moeller, Michele d’Emilia, Beatrice Leanza, Laura Canali, Nicole Starosielski, Joshua Oppenheimer, Francesco Giai Via, Cai Guo-Qiang, Giorgio Vallortigara, Philippe Sands, Tom Buron, Davide Brullo, Francesco Petretti, Meriç Algün, Massimo Sestini, Emeka Okereke, Giuseppe Lupo, Mattia Cavanna, Grazia Toderi, Manuela Infante, Eyal Weizman, Michele Emmer, Massimo Marchiori, Lav Diaz, Paolo Bertolin and Savita Apte.

The Biennale di Venezia magazine 1950-1971
In consideration of the great success of the XXIV International Art Exhibition of La Biennale in 1948, the first after the end of World War II, the Institution decided in the early months of 1950 to publish a magazine with the intent to make it the official organ for the promotion of its events. The idea was to create a quarterly magazine titled ‘La Biennale di Venezia’. The cover image varied for each issue in relation to the activities of La Biennale, and from the very outset the magazine appeared as a precious object, printed in a large format, and highly refined from an editorial point of view: it featured inserts on different types and weights of paper, with many sophisticated images, mostly in black and white, but with some colour plates that increased in number over time. The initial title was: “La Biennale di Venezia. Quarterly magazine of art cinema music theatre fashion”. The inaugural issue was launched in July 1950 and consisted of 50 pages of text, 5 colour plates and 65 plates in black and white. The publisher was Vittorio Alfieri, Florence; the printer, Carlo Ferrari, Venice. The Editorial Board consisted of the President of La Biennale Giovanni Ponti, the Secretary General Rodolfo Pallucchini, the editor-in-chief of the magazine was Elio Zorzi (head of the Press Office) who relied on the following collaborators: Umbro Apollonio (head of ASAC), Antonio Petrucci, Giovanni Piccini, Adolfo Zajotti, Ferdinando Ballo.

Second phase of the magazine 1960-1971
The double issue number 36/37 July-December 1959 was the last in a phase of transition. Pallucchini had left his position at La Biennale in 1957 and been replaced by Gian Alberto Dall’Acqua. Apollonio took over the magazine as editor-in-chief, and was officially appointed to the position in 1958, working from the start in close understanding with Wladimiro Dorigo. The less academic approach introduced by Apollonio tended to give space to the concerns of the art of the new generations, further updating the magazine’s look to make it less glossy. The change in direction became clearly visible with issue number 40 July-September 1960: the font was changed again, the number of critical contributions increased, the images were mostly in black and white.
The new policy sought to give “ample margin to the most pressing criticism in a union of formal, historical and aesthetic aspects which today’s global art proposes and develops”. It was also decided that the magazine would be published in-house by La Biennale, without involving other more or less renowned publishers, due to the lackluster sales. This editorial policy remained in force through the 1970s, from 1975 onwards the publication of the magazine was replaced by that of the Annuari directed by Dorigo.