The Biennale Arte closes, record number of visitors and 800,000 tickets sold
VENICE – It’s about the highest attendance in the 127-year history of the Venice Biennale which closes tomorrow. 59% of the public comes from abroad and 41% from Italy. The presence of young people and students was extraordinary, amounting to 239,276, in practice 30% of the total visitors. Group organizational visitors account for 14% of the overall audience. There are 4,200 accredited journalists in the pre-opening days alone, between the Italian (1,705) and international (2,495) press, in addition to the 5,800 who are gradually accredited during the months of the exhibition, for a total of 10,000 journalists from agencies , televisions, radios, newspapers, periodicals, online magazines.
The 800,000 people who came to visit The milk of dreams, comments Cecilia Alemani “demonstrate that art has the power to create participation and that, after so many months of isolation, we want to celebrate and see art in person in an experience joyful and community shared with many friends, families, colleagues and art lovers. In times like these, as the history of the Venice Biennale clearly demonstrates, art and artists can help us imagine new ways of coexistence and infinite possibilities for transformation.”
While the president of the Biennale Roberto Cicutto underlines that «in this edition of great public success – despite the low presence of visitors from Asia – and of very high attention from the Italian and international press, the Biennale strongly wanted to guarantee the presence of Ukrainian artists, supporting the creation of the Ukraine Pavilion and providing a free space in the Gardens – »Ukraine Square« – for the presentation of works in any format (digitally transmitted), coming from artists who remained in their country and often directly involved in resisting Russian aggression. The exhibition was attended by 213 invited artists and artists, 58 nations of origin of the artists. The first participations were this year 180, the works of art exhibited more than 1500.