LA BIENNALE
DI VENEZIA

Here at illy, we have been proud partners of the Venice Biennale since 2003. We take part in each edition of the exhibition with different events and spaces where visitors can take a break, sip a coffee, and reflect on the visual splendour around them.

This was the idea behind the creation of “illymind”, a recreation area designed to be in complete harmony with the atmosphere of the Biennale.

ILLYMIND Timeline

2019

A series of dinner events organised in conjunction with the MICHELIN Guide, held in the setting of the Le Bombarde dell’Arsenale restaurant during the six months of the exhibition, set the stage for creative dialogues between artists selected by the curator of the 2019 Biennale, Ralph Rugoff, and Michelin-starred chefs chosen by Michelin itself.

2017

Robert Wilson designed an installation to celebrate 25 years of illy Art Collections at the Magazzini del Sale centre in Venice. The American artist created “the dish ran away with the spoon everything you can think of is true”: an enchanted space in which images, lights and sounds mark a pathway that winds its way through various landscapes inhabited by objects and sculptures.

2015

We chose to present Sebastião Salgado’s photography exhibition Scent of a Dream, a photographic journey through coffee-growing countries that began in 2002 and came to an end in 2015, here in Venice.

2013

We chose to mark our presence at the 55th International Art Exhibition by putting coffee culture in the spotlight. With less than two years to go before the beginning of the 2015 EXPO in Milan, we at illy – having been chosen by the Organising Committee as curators of the Coffee Cluster (the themed pavilion dedicated to coffee) – created the perfect link between the Venice festival and the international exhibition by making coffee the official drink.