One of the most unique virtues of the Venice Film Festival is that it every two years, it runs alongside the Venice Biennale — the world’s foremost contemporary art showcase, spanning almost 6 months and housing exhibitions from over 90 international artists. The overlap between the film festival and the Biennale can therefore bridge the artforms in some exciting ways.
As much as I’m looking forward to attending the Venice fest in September, I’m as excited to sample the delights of the Biennale for the first time, not least because two artist-filmmaker hyphenates I really admire will be exhibiting new work.
Steve McQueen, whose Bobby Sands biopic “Hunger” was one of the great directorial debuts of recent years, will be representing Britain on the international pavilion, has been the talk of the Biennale since unveiling his 40-minute gallery film “Giardini” in June. A cinematic portrait of Venice and its residents in winter composed of minute environmental details — greyhounds lurching in alleys, the roar of distant football crowds — it has drawn ecstatic notices from the art press. I’m keen to check it out.