Venice Biennale prepares to unveil 52nd art showcase

The latest edition of the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition has opened its doors for previews and will officially open to the public this weekend.

Think With the Senses Feel with the Mind is the theme for this 52nd edition of Italy's renowned contemporary art fair, which has already drawn artists, collectors, dealers, critics and art patrons like Elton John to experience the vast array of artworks on display in Venice's public gardens and elsewhere in the city.

Canada will be represented at the Biennale this year by 32-year-old Montreal artist David Altmejd. Other artists participating this year include:

• Controversial United Kingdom artist Tracey Emin, who has submitted work dealing with child abuse and abortion.
• United States artist Emily Prince, who is displaying an artwork made up of more than 3,500 hand-drawn portraits ofAmerican servicemen and servicewomen who have died in Iraq.
• Moroccan artist Mounir Fatmi, whose work includes a recreation of the Manhattan skyline made up of speakers.
• French artist Sophie Calle, who has won early praise for a multimedia installation that incorporates text, portraiture, classical music and a video documenting her mother's last moments of life. Calle has said that she learned she had been accepted into the Biennale on the same day she was told her mother was dying.

Yale School of Art dean Robert Storr, a former curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art, is in charge of the Biennale this year. Heisthe first American to serve as the prestigious exhibition's director.

He has already been embroiled in some controversy, after Biennale managing director Renato Quaglia recently resigned, saying hewas quitting to protest alleged overspending by Storr.

But Storr has won praise for the installations he and his team have put together and for shining a light on art from Turkey and Africa,which has its first ever pavilion this year. However, there is just one space representing art from the entire continent.

The U.S. curator also recommended Mali photographer Malick Sidib for the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. He is the first African artist to receive the honour.

Sidib will receive the Golden Lion at a brief ceremony in Venice following the exhibition's official opening Sunday morning.

"No African artist has done more to enhance photographys stature in the region, contribute to its history, enrich its image archive or increase our awareness of the textures and transformations of African culture in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st than Malick Sidib," Storr said in a statement.

Overall, this Biennale is showcasing artwork from a record 77 countries along with separateinstallations assembled by Storr and his team.

The Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition closes November 21.