On 9 June the 49^th International Exhibition of Visual Arts of the Biennale opens its doors under the direction of Harald Szeemann, who takes this year’s show as a further development upon the 48^th Exhibition of 1999.

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that 2001 is a year of key importance in the realisation of the strategic objectives the new Biennale di Venezia has set itself, both at an organisational and artistic level.

As far as the former is concerned, there has been an extension of planning capacity, which is indispensable if the Biennale di Venezia is to play an active role in its various fields of activity, and at the same time develop closer links with external organisations and bodies.

A significant move in this area has been the creation of a single unit for Dance, Music and Theatre, which opens the way to more long-term planning in these three sectors.

The Biennale di Venezia is also establishing an increasing number of agreements with other institutions (universities, foundations, etc.) and of coproduction agreements with artistic bodies and theatres. Extended planning capacity is also essential if we are to promote new links with the public and establish new forms of dialogue with potential sponsors. Dialogues are currently in progress with important bodies both in Italy and abroad.

Where possible, the Biennale di Venezia has also worked to create new well-equipped structures and spaces to serve as both exhibition and theatre facilities. In 2001 it is envisaged that a further 6-7 billion lire (2 million pounds) will be invested in the Arsenale restoration – primarily in providing better facilities for the performance and exhibition spaces created by the restoration of two years ago.

2001 is also the year of the starting of the first part of the special project involving ASAC (our important Archive collection, which was for some time left in a state of near neglect): costing 4.5 billion lire, this three-year project will involve the reclassification of the collections and extensive digitalisations.

In the meantime, the collection continues to grow, accumulating material relating to all the various activities of the Biennale di Venezia – an accumulation in which the Biennale offices have been assisted by Tele+ (Cinema) and RaiSat (other Sections).

Communication with the public is also changing. The website in particular has grown very quickly; and now one can see it becoming an important portal for a whole range of activities in the arts.

These organisational developments have been the basis for further developments within the interdisciplinary work of the Biennale itself. The term "interdisciplinary" is not in our case a fashionable catchphrase; it refers to the fact that overlapping areas of interest emerge as each of various Sections of the Biennale works in its own specific field (whether collecting and exhibiting the works of others, or producing works "in house"). It is significant here that the first multi-sectorial project of 2001 – "Shakespeare & Shakespeare" – grew up around an original Biennale coproduction of "Othello" by E. Nekrosius, which took a full two years to bring to completion.

The individual Sections are developing in their own fields according to their own priorities; and as they do so they provide concrete demonstration of the specific role that may be played by the Biennale di Venezia.

So, whilst before, the Dance, Music and Theatre Sections used to host works from outside, their various programmes now reveal the increasing presence of in-house workshops, new productions and newly-commissioned works – all of which show a direct involvement in the process of artistic creation.

The 2001 programme for these three Sections will be announced in Rome on April 10. It includes, among numerous premieres, 12 new creations in which the Biennale plays a direct role as a producer (in many cases these in-house creations are a development upon ideas or works from previous Biennale events).

As far as Cinema was concerned, the priority seemed to be the re-launch of a reorganised Film Festival, which would then make it possible to think of further additional initiatives or projects. Here again, within the limits of what was possible, we have worked to improve facilities whilst waiting for the promised building work that will make significant changes to the Palazzo del Cinema. More will be said about the Cinema Section in the traditional press conference to be held on 27 July.

With regard to the Visual Arts, the priority was to expand and develop – in terms of space and quality. Only in this way could the Biennale di Venezia retain its primacy amongst all the various other "Biennales" and international art shows that are scattered around the world. The main thing was to develop exhibition facilities in recognisable venues which would be an expression of the Biennale’s identity – venues that would serve not just for one exhibition but for years to come. This was done undertaking directly works of restoration in the Venice Arsenale. This is all the more important in a period when the Exhibition is expected not simply to analyse or confirm the status of particular artistic schools or movements, but rather to capture the breadth and diversity of all the various artistic personalities at work in the different parts of the world (and the links between these personalities and the recent past). The Biennale is now called upon to cast light on what the artists of today are concerned with, their interests, tensions and gestures. This means representing (without hierarchical classification) the "other truth" of art – a truth without which any understanding of our age is incomplete. Hence, the International Exhibition of Art is not designed only for specialists and experts, but for also those who wish to improve their knowledge – and thus their membership – of the present.

During the last two years, the flat wide spaces of the Padiglione Italia were supplemented by the more strongly-modelled spaces of the Arsenale, where the character of late-sixteenth-century Venetian architecture is a dominant presence. This year, the work on the Tese delle Vergini will add two new spaces to the so-called Gaggiandre, a sort of camera obscura, and will give access to the Giardino delle Vergini, which is now just an impassable mass of thorn bushes but by June will be open to the public. In September this will be also the site of a theatrical production.

This new dimension gives new importance also to the presence of the various national pavilions, which this year will exhibit some 230 works to go alongside the approximately 110 in the main exhibition (national participation at this year’s Exhibition can be broken down in this way: 31 countries with their own pavilion; 19 without a pavilion; the Istituto Italo-Latino Americano representing some 15 nations; plus two other cultural institutions). In effect, no other Exhibition has had so many different nations participating.

During 2001 the other Sections will each have their own programme, but some of it deliberately dedicated to the Visual Arts Exhibition. The various Directors will announce and present these events at the press conference in Rome on 10 April.

The 49^th Visual Arts Exhibition will also bring together various film directors, who have been invited to produce a work related to it. At the same time, poetry will be presented as a work for exhibition.

These new extended spaces offer the different Section Directors more – and more varied – opportunities, which they have taken up readily. Szeemann has taken this expansion as the basis for both his 1999 dAPERTutto and this year’s Plateau of Humankind; one would hardly have expected less from a Curator whose character and cultural background make him much more interested in discovering the artists of the world "at work" than in allocating them a place within some sort of critical classification. Szeemann himself will explain the links and connections between the works exhibited and the spatial conditions in which they are organised – and how that organisation itself can reveal trends and patterns. My job here was to give a brief description of the links between this event and the other developments within the Biennale di Venezia – be they organisational, structural or artistic – and at the same time outline the overall plan of which they are all a coherent part. That plan is gradually producing new and numerous results thanks to the work of many highly-talented people: full-time staff, short-term staff, outside collaborators, companies, artists and artistes. I would like to thank all of them for the incredible enthusiasm that they dedicate to that extraordinary undertaking, the Biennale di Venezia.