ABSTRACT
The international art exhibition, the Venice Biennale, which took place for the first time in 1895 in the Giardini of Venice, has since its inception developed into the most prestigious of cultural events, a gathering of not only important figures from the art world, but also from the world of politics and society in general. For more than a hundred years it has witnessed a whole range of world events, among them: the grand inaugural exhibition opened by the Italian royal couple (1895); visits by the twice-refused applicant to the Vienna Academy of Art, Adolf Hitler (1934); artists representing the fascist Slovak state exhibited in the Czechoslovak pavilion (1942); the nonparticipation of the Soviet Union and its satellite states during the Stalin dictatorship of the early 1950s; the student protests in 1968 with the shouts of “Burn all the pavilions!”; the introduction of awards for the best national pavilions (1938); the discontinuation of these awards (1970) and their reintroduction (1986). After this brief but very telling list of events, there can be no doubt of the fact that the oldest and currently most important exhibition of contemporary art from all corners of the world had and retains a very strong involvement in the cultural politics of individual countries (both those that exhibit and those that do not), as well as national and international politics in general.
