One hundred thousand people visited the 1st Bienal in 1951. This figure doubled for the second edition in 1953 and the Bienal of Guernica saw an avid audience who waited expectantly at the doors for the exhibition to open. The sixth edition, held a decade later in the current Pavilion, saw 300 thousand people pass through the doors.
Now in its sixth decade of life, how many people will visit the 30th Bienal, from September to December this year?
Here are some images taken from that first decade, highlighting that essential ingredient of the exhibition, without which the event would make no sense: the audience.
Inauguration of the 1st Bienal, 1951. Ciccillo Matarazzo is in the center of the image.
The public at the entrance to the 2nd Bienal at the Pavilhão das Nações (1953)
The 6th Bienal at the Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo (1961)