The Venice Biennale Will Be Pushed Back a Year, to 2022, as the Coronavirus Knocks the Art Calendar Permanently Off Its Axis

The art-world calendar has just seen its most significant
reshuffle yet as a result of the lockdown era. The Venice Biennale
is pushing the 59th international art exhibition to 2022 in
order to accommodate the delayed 17th international architecture
exhibition, “How Will We Live Together?,” originally scheduled to
open this month.

That means the next Venice Biennale art exhibition will coincide
with the next documenta, held every five
years in Kassel, Germany and due to open in the summer of 2022. The
Lyon Biennale has also rescheduled for that year.

The news comes after months of Venice-related rescheduling and
uncertainty. The Biennale initially announced in March that it
would push the architecture
exhibition’s opening from May 23 to August 29, but keep
the original closing date of November 29. Presenting that truncated
exhibition proved impossible because of “the persistence of a
series of objective difficulties due to the ongoing international
health emergency,” wrote the biennale in their announcement of the
postponement.

“I am deeply moved by the perseverance of all the participants
during the last three months,” architecture biennale curator Hashim
Sarkis said in a statement. “I hope that the new opening date will
allow them first to catch their breath, and then to complete their
work with the time and vigor it truly deserves. We did not plan it
this way. Neither the question I asked ‘how will we live together?’
nor the wealth of ways in response to it, were meant to address the
crisis they are living, but here we are.”

As of press time, Cecilia Alemani, the artistic director of
the next Venice Biennale and curator of the High Line in New
York, and biennale representatives had not responded to inquiries
from Artnet News.

The art biennale traditionally opens in May, but the new dates
for 2022 are a bit earlier: April 23 through November 27. At
least ten countries have already
announced their national artist representatives for the
exhibition.

Founded in 1895, the biannual art exhibition has been cancelled
four times during its history, twice during each World War. The
2021 postponement marks a return to even years for the Biennale,
which delayed its 1992 edition to 1993 to ensure the 1995 biennial
would align with the exhibition’s centenary. It also held editions
in both 1909 and 1910 to avoid overlapping with a major exhibition
dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Italian unification in
1911.

The post The Venice Biennale Will Be Pushed Back a Year, to
2022, as the Coronavirus Knocks the Art Calendar Permanently Off
Its Axis appeared first on artnet News.