The 52nd International Art Exhibition of the Venice
Biennale features 76 national pavilions, situated in the
Giardini and numerous venues dotted around the city.
One of the highlights is Sophie Calle's exhibition 'Take
Care of Yourself', curated by Daniel Buren, in the
French pavilion. Calle has used an email sent from an
ex-boyfriend, in which he dumped her, as the basis for
her project. She sent it to 107 women – including
a curator, a jurist, a newspaper editor, a psychologist
and a proofreader – asking each of them to interpret it.
The exhibition of the late Felix Gonzales-Torres in the
American pavilion is also superb, with its two,
intertwined pools outside in the courtyard, a display
of bullet-like liquorice sweets, cascading fairy lights,
and take-away posters. AES+F Group's video 'The
Last Riot 2' is a crowd-puller in the Russian pavilion
while Monika Sosnowska impresses in the Polish
pavilion with her architectural installation.
The main group exhibition in the Arsenale, curated
by Robert Storr, is strongly political, documenting the
conflicts and tensions in the world today – the Iraq War,
the Middle East, the Balkans and Latin America.
It's a soul-searching, fairly academic show in our
troubled times.

June 10 through November 21, 2007
Main venues: Giardini and Arsenale,
Venice
Tel.+39 041 5218711