Arsenale

Starting with the 48^th International Exhibition of Art entitled dAPERTutto in 1999, the Biennale di Venezia has engaged in a wide-ranging restoration programme to create exhibition areas in some of the important buildings on the monumental east side of the Arsenale, the old shipyards and warehouses that used to build and fit the fleets of the Venetian Republic.

The Corderie had already been used for Aperto, the section of previous Biennales which was dedicated to young artists; but now exhibitions and events can also be housed in the unusual and fascinating spaces of the Artiglierie, the Gaggiandre, the Isolotto, the sixteenth-century Tese and the Tese delle Vergini – all in all, a total covered area of some 17,000 square metres, most of which gives onto the large water basin of the Arsenale. The buildings have been suitably restored, consolidating roofing, installing adequate flooring and wiring, laying out exhibition areas and guaranteeing all the necessary facilities (ticket offices, control rooms and some 200 square metres of bookshop space).

The Corderie. Aligned on the south side of the Arsenale, this was built in 1303 and then restructured between 1579 and 1585 after designs by Antonio Da Ponte. Once the place where the ropes and hawsers for the Venetian fleet were produced, the entire building is covered by a wooden tie-beam roof measuring some 316 metres in length, 21 metres in width and 9.7 metres in height. The structure is divided into three aisles, with a loft running above the two side aisles at a height of seven metres. All in all, there are 6,400 square metres of exhibition space.

The Artiglierie. This is linked to the Corderie by the Parco Bombarde building (restored in 2000, this latter was used in the sixteenth century to display artillery and war trophies). The Artiglierie itself is a long single-storey building dating from around 1560, and was formerly a workshop that was divided into seven different areas. The overall length is around 170 metres, whilst the width varies between 15 and 17 metres, providing a total of 3,300 square metres of exhibition space. Alongside is the building of the Isolotto, an ex-warehouse of some 900 square metres, restored as an exhibition space in 1999. This year the Artiglierie and Isolotto will be flanked by an external exhibition area.

The Gaggiandre, Tese delle Vergini and Giardini delle Vergini.

After the Isolotto comes the long quayside that extends along the eastern side of the Arsenale. Onto this give the Gaggiandre, two large wet-docks built in 1568-1573 to designs attributed to Jacopo Sansovino. Next to the Gaggiandre and the sixteenth-century Tese (housing the Teatro delle Tese), the eastern side of the Arsenale is bound in by the Tese delle Vergini (3,400 square metres), which is divided into four different areas and has an ample garden behind it. After partial use in previous years, this building will for the first time be widely exploited as an exhibition venue.

The Arsenale theatres

The 1999 and 2000 restoration projects enabled the Biennale di Venezia to create two new theatre spaces within the Arsenale, thus re-drawing the map of theatre life within the city. Both the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale and the Teatro alle Tese were created by means of "lightweight" – easily reversible – conversion projects, which have made it possible to put them to new use without permanently distorting their architectural characteristics.

Teatro Piccolo Arsenale. In 2000 the former Arsenale Cinema became a theatre space with a proscenium arch stage and seating for 328. This is equipped with a suspension ring and advanced lighting (a dimmer cabin with more than 100 channels and a state-of-the-art control panel), as well as with stage furnishings and facilities for both public and actors.

Teatro alle Tese. The buildings of the sixteenth-century Tese comprise four equal-sized structures (formerly open slipways); built in 1564 to designs by Jacopo Sansovino, these stand alongside each other and are connected by wide arches. After being opened to the public in 1999 – when they housed part of the dAPERTutto Biennale - they were then adapted for use as an open and modular theatre space, which the Biennale di Venezia conceived of as an area that could also be used for musical activities and congresses (with a total seating capacity of 500, divided between stalls and raised tiers). This open space can be used for experimentation, for creative studies, and for works of theatre, music and dance that require a non-traditional use of space and a non-traditional alignment of public and stage.

Giardini di Castello