Your flight is now boarding. Leave from any of these six Biennale Pavilions to the countries they represent, and enjoy your journey!
We take a lot for granted in Venice. We won’t even blink at how its fortunate geographical position makes it easy to reach any point in the world, also thanks to an efficient transportation network and an intercontinental airport well connected to the city. Just perfect. For this summer issue of ours, which of course is dedicated to travel and leisure, we’d like to play a game. We’ll speak of art – specifically, the art exhibited at selected Art Biennale Pavilions – and of travel in their home countries, using the flight connections that are available at Venice airport. We will be travelling to Germany, Canada, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Finland, and Israel.
The Venetia and Germany are not that far apart, and people and goods have been making the trip back and forth since time immemorial. Many German cities are connected to the airports in Venice and Treviso, with Munich and Frankfurt being important hubs themselves given their prominence in the world of air travel.
We will be flying to a city that enjoys a privileged connection with Venice, Nuremberg. Its airport is dedicated to fifteenth-century artist Albrecht Dürer, and the city itself is famous for the Nuremberg Trials, which saw the crimes Nazi officials committed being adjudicated in a city that had been devastated by war after its pre-eminent role in the building of Nazi lore, along with Munich and Berlin. Nuremberg was faithfully rebuilt, and the old town was given its original medieval look, with all its typical buildings. It looks like it does in paintings by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), one of the most important representatives of Northern European Renaissance. An engraver, painter, and scholar, Nuremberg-born Dürer is one of the greatest German artists ever.
Dürer loved Venice, and it is known that he visited it at least twice in 1505-1507, which proved essential for his education as an artist. Documents show how he studied not only Italian nature and landscape, but also bronze smithing, printing, and xylography. He also learned and imported to Germany Italian architectural lexicon.
Nuremberg is an excellent wintertime destination for its world-renowned Christmas Market.
Direct Ryanair filght Venice/Nuremberg
The wild northern frontier of Canada is a cornerstone of national identity, as is the melting pot of people that builds the Nation. While most travellers will be enchanted by the vastness of the Canadian wilderness, by its peculiar geographical features, and by the remoteness of its most distant territories, Canada offers more than natural beauty, rural landscapes, maple forests, and the Niagara Falls.
The tension between First Nations and French and British colonists confers Canada its complex, three-dimensional ethos. Add to this a strong North American identity and influence, and traditions imported by immigrants from Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and you will get Quebec, a prosperous multicultural society that, no matter separatist tendencies, gave birth to the vital melting pot that we see in their Art Biennale productions.
Air Canada will offer convenient flights to Montreal and Toronto until October 29. Three classes – Economy, Premium Economy, and Air Canada Signature Class – aboard Airbus 330-300 aircraft for 297 passengers that will enjoy beautiful travels to Canada and to its modern, liveable cities. Also, travelling to Canada may be the right choice to further explore North America, thanks to ongoing flights to the United States and simplified border checks.
Direct Air Canada fight Venice/Toronto and Venice Montreal
One of the most popular summer destinations, thanks to its many islands large and small, fashionable or tranquil and remote, scattered in a sea most beautiful – Greece is the birthplace of an ancient civilization whom we owe our common roots. Many flights connect Venice to several islands and to Greece’s capital city thanks to Volotea and Aegean Airlines as well as EasyJet and Ryanair.
The charming city of Athens is home to many incredible Museums, including the National Hellenic Museum and the Acropolis Museum. The Greece Pavilion at the Art Biennale, famous for housing Peggy Guggenheim’s avant-garde pieces in 1948, will take this year’s visitors on a virtual journey to Athenian suburbs. The journey reminds closely, for its overhanging feelings of desolation and angst, what the Venetian did on September 26, 1687. Venetian troops, led by Francesco Morosini, used a mortar to tear down Minerva’s temple. “What a mess! We tore down the most beautiful piece of antiquity in a city adorned with the vestiges of historical memories”. The day after, Morosini was inconsolable, for he understood what he was responsible for, and tried to tell himself that the temple was hit by mistake. There was no mistake, though. The Parthenon, on the Athenian Acropolis, was aimed at on purpose.
With time, art is able to wash away these sad pieces of history. Art creates new possibilities, connections, and interactions. An important Venetian presidium is will be present until September 11 at the Athens airport: Inner Life is a collection of six large-scale art pieces of enigmatic, explosive colour that animate the corridors at the airport with hyperrealist baggage check X-rays, which inspired Venetian artist Sonia Ros. The artist elaborated these images into art that shows, with light and colour, the incredible world of the items that accompany us on our travels. Visionary images make everyday items come to life, transform, and become a metaphor of our thoughts, desires, and unconscious.
Direct flight Venice/Athens
The country was born in December 1971, with the union of the seven emirates of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. Each is governed as an absolute monarchy and together, they form the Federal Supreme Council, the highest constitutional authority of the State.
Initially, the Emirates based their economy largely on oil – their reserves being the seventh largest in the world. The first Emirati ruler, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, though, pushed for a diversified economy that would include real estate, healthcare, education, and infrastructure. Today, the Emirati economy is the most diversified in the Middle East, which is exemplified by Dubai – a global city and an international air transportation hub. In a few short years, Dubai grew into a world-class tourist destination. Every need for excess or luxury will be satisfied in Dubai, though there is more than this. What was until a few decades ago a fishermen’s village is today one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world, with over 200 nationalities present. Dubai is a living city that emanates possibility and innovation, with an interesting coastline, a fascinating desert, and an urban landscape that combines daring architecture and futuristic scenery. The diverse souls of the United Arab Emirates are combined in the work by Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, who represents his country at the Art Biennale using colourful papier-mâché sculptures. The art pieces contain organic elements (soil, leaves, and other material collected by the artist in his mountain hikes) and remind of primitive tools, bones, or parts of trees.
Dubai has been an ideal vacation destination for some time thanks to an efficient air travel network offered by Emirates, one of the best and most important air carriers in the world. Venice has a direct link with Dubai five times a week.
Direct Emirates filght Venice/Dubai
It’s always hard to make ranking lists as far as happiness goes. Finland, a Northern European country of vast territory and a small population counting six million, is often considered quite a happy country, sometimes the happiest in the world. Most of the country is covered in forestry (over 72%) and lakes – which you can bathe in in the summer, although temperatures are not exactly Mediterranean.
The population is concentrated in the south, where climate is better and where Finland’s capital, Helsinki, is. Summer is quite intense, here, with long, bright days that invites you to spend as much time as possible in the beautiful green outdoors. Finns love their summer sunlight and their relationship with nature, which shows in their Biennale project. The Finnish Pavilion focuses on the culture of the Sami, an aboriginal community worth about 75,000 that populates the north of the country and neighbouring regions in Sweden and Norway. The central theme is the lack of the concept of property in Sami culture. One doesn’t own land, one is rather a guest of Nature. Man must be a good steward, and nature will provide for him in return.
The city of Helsinki was founded in 1550 by Swedish king Gustav. Over the centuries, Helsinki developed in functional, intelligent fashion from an urbanistic and architectural point of view. Looking at the twentieth century, one cannot but focus on the creations of Alvar Aalto: the Hall of Culture (1952-1958), the University Library (1961-1968), the Finlandia Hall (1971), the Rautatalo office building (1951-1957). Also designed by Aalto is the Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Finnair, the national carrier, flies from Venice to Helsinki and hence to domestic destinations like Santa Claus’ village in Rovaniemi and further international destinations, including the Far East.
Direct Finnair flight Venice/Helsinki
How much can art be sovereign? Ilit Azoulay freed herself of the bonds of national, male artistic representation and opened up to new connections in the Middle East. This is the message of the Israeli Pavilion at the Art Biennale. Israel is one of the most interesting countries to visit and get to know for the complexity of its millennia-old history and its harmony with the present and its future.
If you dream of golden sandy beaches, or the beauty and tranquillity of the great outdoors, if you are fascinated by ancient history and archaeology, or you want to live modernity in one of the most fashionable western cities, all it takes is a two-hour flight to discover the riches of an incredible country, which is so small that can be crossed north to south in under a half-day drive.
There is Jerusalem, too, a city boasting over 3000 years of history that is sacred to the three Abrahamic religions. In it, you’ll find over 2000 archaeological sites, 60 museums, and a rich cultural programme. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth at 428 metres under sea level, and came to be over three million years ago. It is a natural wonder for the splendour of its setting. There is the Negev, too, a majestic desert counting dozens of interesting naturalistic sites. And there is much, much more.
El-Al, the Israeli national carrier, is famous for its safety protocols before and during flight. It connects Venice with Tel Aviv, as does low-cost airline Wizz Air.
Direct El Al flight Venice/Tel Aviv
