Australian pavilion

The Venice Biennale is an international art biennial exhibition held in Venice, Italy. Often described as "the Olympics of the art world", participation in the Biennale is a prestigious event for contemporary artists. The festival has become a constellation of shows: a central exhibition curated by that year's artistic director, national pavilions hosted by individual nations, and independent exhibitions throughout Venice. The Biennale parent organization also hosts regular festivals in other arts: architecture, dance, film, music, and theater.[1]

Outside of the central, international exhibition, individual nations produce their own shows, known as pavilions, as their national representation. Nations that own their pavilion buildings, such as the 30 housed on the Giardini, are responsible for their own upkeep and construction costs as well. Nations without dedicated buildings create pavilions in venues throughout the city.[1]

The Australian pavilion was designed in 1987 by the Australia Council's Design Arts Board and constructed by 1988. The two-level single exhibition space includes a veranda-style entrance with a courtyard constructed around a pre-existing tree. This connection between internal space and landscape was designed to relate to architectural themes in Australia. The curvature of the pavilion's sheet metal roof is meant to invoke a wave.[2]

The original Australian Pavilion, designed by Philip Cox to be a temporary structure of fiber cement and steel,[3] was opened in 1988 at the western edge of the Giardini.[4] Italian-born Australian industrialist Franco Belgiorno-Nettis had previously lobbied so successfully that in 1988 Australia beat 16 other countries to the last site on which to build a permanent pavilion in the Giardini.[5] Cox and other generous donors gifted the pavilion to the Commonwealth Government.[6] The pavilion was not heritage protected because of its temporary status.[7] A new, permanent pavilion was designed by architectural practice Denton Corker Marshall and completed in 2015.[8] Built from concrete and steel, the two-story structure contains 240 square meters of exhibition space and the exterior is covered in black granite from Zimbabwe.[9] Australia's participation at the Venice Biennale is managed by the Australia Council for the Arts. However, all of the A$6 million ($6.04 million) originally needed for the new building were to be raised from the private sector.[8] Eventually, the pavilion cost $7.5 million to build, $1 million of which was funded by the Australia Council for the Arts; the rest was donated by 82 private Australian donors, including actress Cate Blanchett[9] and producer Santo Cilauro.[10]