But for now, many people’s hopes for Venice lie in its cultural regeneration, as the last few years have seen artists, collectors and gallerists moving into Venice and opening new contemporary art venues. Many of Venice’s new adoptees hail from elsewhere, drawn in by the city’s archaic charm, and by the Venice Biennale.
Created in 1895, the Biennale has become a premier event of the art world, and its significance has rendered Venice a capital of contemporary culture. The 2022 edition drew 800,000 ticketed attendees — a fraction of the millions of visitors arriving in Venice annually.
However, as Scott Reyburn, a Times contributor, put it during the panel discussion, rather than merely consuming the city with social media’s “click-and-run tourism,” Biennale visitors come for the city’s culture, and their presence helps to invigorate it. It’s an event that does not reduce the quantity of the tourism, as Bergamo Rossi acknowledged, but it does increase its quality.
The Biennale also sees collateral exhibitions in palazzos, churches and other locations around the city, filling all of Venice with contemporary art and rendering it an attractive stage for new art sites — including Berggruen Arts & Culture, the Stanze della Fotografia, the Vincenzo De Cotiis Foundation, and galleries like those of Lorcan O’Neill, Tommaso Calabro and Patricia Low.
“Look at where we are now,” said Bergamo Rossi, pointing out that the main location for the Art for Tomorrow conference, the 18th-century Palazzo Diedo, became an art foundation because Nicolas Berggruen, an investor and philanthropist in Los Angeles, was drawn to the city’s cultural spirit.
