The 51st International Art Exhibition, organized by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez - art historians, critics and independent curators from Spain -, will open to the public on Sunday, 12 June 2005. The exhibition will be composed of two specific and complementary shows that will offer an articulated yet homogeneous reading of international contemporary art from the Seventies through today, with an eye to the near future. The two exhibition projects - The Experience of Art and Always a Little Further - will present, from different points of view, the best of contemporary art through a rigorous selection of artists represented by a series of works that document their creative history. The Experience of Art, curated by Maria de Corral, will be hosted in the 34 rooms of the Italian Pavillion in the Giardini della Biennale and will present forty-two international artists within an itinerary made up of a significant number of works, most of them created especially for the Biennale, which will represent the trends in the development of various languages since 1970. of the Corderie and the Artiglierie of the Arsenale, will present forty-nine international artists united by their research into the nature of the contemporary, who will offer a variegated overview of the latest trends through videos, sculptures and installations conceived for these specific venues. The National Participations register the largest number of participants in the history of the Biennale: seventy-three countries will present 31 exhibitions in the pavilions in the Giardini della Biennale and 42 in many other venues in Venice. Several countries are participating for the first time, including Afghanistan, Albania, Morocco, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan La Biennale di Venezia