This edition is politically light and playful, a riposte to the sombre tone of 2015
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Best of the rest in Venice
There are nearly 30 pavilions off-site from the Giardini and Arsenale at this year’s Biennale, and as many collateral and independent exhibitions. Best of these is the Philip Guston show; here are five more worth crossing the city for.
James Lee Byars: Golden Tower Campo San Vio
Rising above the Grand Canal between the Accademia and the Guggenheim, Byars’ 66ft “Golden Tower” is a thing of beauty, audacity and craziness. Byars, an American sculptor-performer who died in Cairo in 1997, wanted to outdo the Lighthouse of Alexandria. His tower achieves its inaugural outdoor showing here, and its gilded surfaces wonderfully echo the gold mosaic façades on the adjacent Palazzo Barbarigo. A single armed guard, Lilliputian in scale, underlines the absurd element.
