The Biennale Library has been an integral part of the Central Pavilion at Giardini since 2009. The restoration was completed in 2010 with the opening of the large reading room, surrounded by a two-level gallery on which over 800 meters of shelves are laid out. The reading room is also used for conferences and workshops. The Library specializes in contemporary art, with a special focus on documentation and deepening of the Foundation's activities, preserving all the catalogs of Biennale activities and collecting bibliographic material related to the disciplines of architecture, visual arts, cinema, dance, photography, music, and theater. Thanks to its book heritage of more than 153,000 volumes and 3,000 periodicals, it is one of the main libraries of contemporary art in Italy.
Biennale Library
GALLERY
Biennale Library
Biennale Library
Biennale Library
Biennale Library
Biennale Library
Biennale Library
Heritage and Location
The library's heritage, originated from the ASAC book archive, is constantly being developed and updated through purchases, donations and, above all, exchanges with the main institutions of production, research and preservation of contemporary, national and international arts. Since 2009, through the Book Pavilion, the Library also welcomes and acquires volumes donated by artists and architects participating in art exhibitions and architecture exhibitions. The books collected thanks to this project realized by the La Biennale Foundation are the result of constant collaboration with the directors of the art and architecture exhibition.
Consultation
The Library adheres to the National Library Service (SBN) and is currently completing the catalog of the original fund. You can browse the online catalogue, including catalogues of exhibitions, monographs, essays, repertoires and specialized periodicals at the page http://polovea.sebina.it/SebinaOpac/Opac.do#0. A counting project is active in order to enhance the content about La Biennale topic present in the Italian and foreign periodicals. Thanks to the analytical description of the content, users can easily find the individual articles, thus deepening the search. The activity is carried out both in subscription magazines (about 200 titles) and in discontinued ones.