51st International Exhibition of Visual Arts 2005: Venice Biennale

Bringing together artists from every continent, speakers and art historians from around the globe, the Venice Biennale is a much-anticipated event. This year, for the first time in its history, the exposition will be curated by two women: Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez.With more than seven hundred illustrations, this catalogue of the 2005 Biennale is a compendium of the world's leading avant-garde artists and trends. It consists of three volumes, each coinciding with the main themes of this year's Biennale:The Experience of Art, curated by Maria de Corral in the Italian Pavilion is classical in character and juxtaposes works of renowned artists of the past thirty years, such as Beuys, Warhol, Basquiat, and Matta, with contemporary artists. Rosa Martinez calls her show in the Arsenale Always a Little Further, a reference to the comic books by Hugo Pratt featuring the sea captain Corto Maltese, whose taste for adventure also defines artists dedicated to exploring new frontiers. Ms. Martinez probes worlds beyond language by contrasting installation and video art with painting and sculpture.The third section of the Biennale features the 2005 Participating Countries and their pavilions. Represented are, among others, Albania, Morocco, and Lebanon, and a sampling of artists from around the globe, such as Gilbert & George of Great Britain, Gat Bener of Israel, and Pipilloti Rist of Switzerland.