Why go to the Venice Biennale and further burden a city already sinking under the pressure of its own attractiveness? It's simple: the Biennale remains the best crash-course in contemporary art, with two major surveys, a score of national pavilions, and sundry projects scattered around town, sometimes in exquisite churches or palazzi. Documenta, the other prestigious international exhibition in Europe, tends to be more curator-driven; also, it takes place only every five years, and its setting, Kassel in Germany, isn't a World Heritage Site.

LRB 4 August 2005 | PDF Download