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Venice Biennale: The History
Ι
t is a major contemporary art exhibition
that takes place once every two years (in
odd years) in Venice. The first Biennale was
held in 1895; during the first editions, decora-
tive arts played an important role. The event
became more and more international in the
first decades of the 20th century: from 1907
on, several countries started installing na-
tional pavilions at the exhibition. After World
War I, the Biennale showed increasing inter-
est in innovative traditions in modern art. Be-
tween the two World Wars, many important
modern artists had their work exhibited there.
In the 1930s, several new sections of the
event were established: the Music Festival in
1930, the International Film Festival in 1932
and the Theatre Festival in 1934. From 1938,
Grand Prizes were awarded in the art exhibi-
tion section.
After a six-year break during World War II,
the Biennale was resumed in 1948 with re-
newed attention to avant-garde movements in
European, and later worldwide, movements
in contemporary art. Abstract expressionism
was introduced in the 1950s, pop art in the
1960s.
The protests of 1968 marked a crisis for the
Biennale; the Grand Prizes were abandoned
and more emphasis went to thematic exhibi-
tions instead of monographic ones. The 1974
edition was entirely dedicated to Chile, as a
major cultural protest against the dictator-
ship of Augusto Pinochet. New prizes were
Cypriot Participation 1968-2009
1968
– Stelios Votsis, Costas Joachim, George Kyriakou,
Christoforos Savva, Yorgos Skotinos, Andreas Chryso-
chos
1972
(contribution to the Graphic Arts Section) – Costas
Averkiou, Stelios Votsis, Angelos Markides, Nikos Kour-
oussis, Mikis Finikarides
1986
– Maria Loizidou
1988
– Angelos Makrides
1990
– Nikos Kouroussis
(Venice Aperto) – Theodoulos Gregoriou
1993
– George Sfikas
1997
– Theodoulos Gregoriou, Lefteris Olympios, Nikos
Charalambides, Savvas Christodoulides
1999
– Glavkos Koumides
2001
– Andreas Karayan
2003
– Nikos Charalambides
2005
– Panayiotis Michael, Konstantia Sofokleous
2007
– Haris Epaminonda, Mustafa Hulusi
2009
– Socratis Socratous
(Parallel Projects) – Yioula Hadjigeorgiou
Leaflet for the Cypriot participation in the
34th Venice Biennale, 1968