The Venice Biennale

- The Venice Biennale is held every 2 years in odd-numbered years. Countries from all over the world are invited to place art or an installation in their own pavilions. In some cases, the pavilions appear to be large galleries or large rooms and other spaces. The exhibition focuses on modern art. Here are three of the current installations. The mural above is called "Imposition Symphony" by Stelios Faitakis. Even a casual observer can make out police officers in contemporary riot gear, Mao, a Nazi book burning and figures entering a somewhat anomalously fiery gas chamber. It is part of a series called "Speech Matters".
Adrian Villar Rojas, a young, little-known sculptor selected to represent Argentina at the Venice Biennale, spent a few weeks working with a crew of about 10 people to create a dense forest of burly concrete and clay sculptures in a brick-lined space at the Arsenale.
- "Contamination," by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos might best be described as the throw pillow that ate the Palazzo Grassi. An immense ganglia-like sculpture made of assorted bright fabrics, sewn and stuffed, that stretches through the building's three-story atrium like a goofy but not entirely benign alien or virus. It invokes knitting, crocheting, applique and all manner of decorative fringes and stitched-on beads, along with the occasional mask (so Venetian).

- The New York Times has placed an interactive "flipping-page" slide show on its web site for viewers to post their street-corner criticism or comments (limited to 6 words) on the images they see there. The see this, go to

nytimes.com/arts