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Sep 02, 2019
Venice had a regal vision for its first International Art Exhibition. Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margarita opened the event in 1895. The city welcomed foreign artists from the beginning. As an art capital, Venice was already filled with renowned paintings, sculptures, and monuments, many local, others gifts, and some delivered by the navy from unwilling donors during its historic years as a maritime republic. Through the decades La Biennale, as the exhibition became known, expanded to celebrate architecture, music, dance, theater, and in 1932, film.
Italians embraced cinema but didn’t make most of the films they saw in theaters. Giuseppe Volpi, president of La Bienalle, set out to change that. A former finance minister and business magnate, Volpi steered funding from all directions, including the Ministry of Popular Culture, and it worked. The Venice International Film Festival became annual starting in 1935. It appointed an international jury to vote on awards, and welcomed a dedicated building, the Palazzo del Cinema on Lungomari Marconi on the Island of Lido.
Prominent support came from the fascist government of the day. World War II politicians abused the festival for propaganda, and it soon ended. The festival chose to forget the war years when it was held away from the city, and the Coppa Mussolini award was left to history. The festival re-emerged in 1946 and entered a long golden age until the late 1960s when political interference returned, cancelling three festivals and even removing awards. Since 1980, the Leone d’Oro and Leone d’Argento again bestow cinematic royalty and actors vie for Coppe Volpi.
This week, the festival’s historic island of Lido flutters with future, present, and past luminaries. The Hotel Excelsior blazes with paparazzi. Cinema and glitter mix with virtual reality at the worlds oldest film festival, as La Serenissima holds the art world in her palm.
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This means you can use the camera on your phone or tablet and superimpose any piece of art onto a wall inside of your home or business.
To use this feature, Just look for the "Live Preview AR" button when viewing any piece of art on this website!