We wander about, wearing masks and carrying tote bags. It is also the first time that a black British artist, Sonia Boyce, has won the Golden Lion for best national pavilion. As well as being the first biennale since the pandemic, this is the first time the main exhibition has been predominantly devoted to women, trans and non-binary artists. Business as usual, you might say, but there are no trillionaire oligarch yachts moored by the Giardini and there is less razzmatazz all round.
W onders and marvels, the beautiful and the terrible, the celebratory and the morbid all fill the 59th Venice Biennale.
