Dispatch from Venice

When the Venice Biennale was founded in 1895 it was in many ways a response to the crisis facing the city. No longer an independent republic and marginalised in the newly re-unified Kingdom of Italy, Venice was seeking ways to re-invent itself, attract new types of visitors and boost the local economy.

Most of the great exhibitions during that period were one-offs but the forward-looking poet, playwright and mayor of Venice, Riccardo Selvatico, and his circle could see the benefit of making the exhibition a regular event. This year’s edition, which continues until 22 November, is the largest ever, with 77 countries participating and with scores of associated shows.

Most visitors to the Biennale this year — there were 320,000 in 2007 — will come and go unaware that Venice is experiencing a new economic crisis at least as serious as the one faced in the late-19th century. For the city has run out of funds in a spectacular fashion. After the disastrous flood of November 1966, the Italian state enacted a Special Law to repair and restore not only Venice’s public monuments, but also to help maintain the whole fabric of a city in which even many of the humblest houses are historical treasures. Contributions reached a high of nearly s269 million in 1997. This year only s4 million is guaranteed, with a further s24 million promised, which may or may not arrive. The municipality reckons that it needs an annual minimum of s70 million to maintain the city.

The most visible signs of this crisis are the enormous advertising hoardings now enveloping some of Venice’s most famous monuments. Until a few days ago, visitors arriving at the railway station were confronted across the Grand Canal by a gigantic image publicising a fashion goods company covering the scaffolding on the façade of the San Simeon Piccolo church (the only one where the Tridentine Mass is celebrated every Sunday). Part of the Doge’s Palace and Bridge of Sighs are still covered with a massive ad featuring a trio of leggy, scantily clad models. Across the Piazza, Sansovino’s Marciana Library has a hoarding with a gigantic wrist-watch. These three sponsorship deals have brought in nearly s4 million for urgent consolidation works on these buildings.

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