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Surely a trip to Venice does not make any news and there is not much point in talking about a city that has everything a tourist could hope for.

However, if your interests go beyond a boat trip down the Canal Grande, walking over Rialto bridge and visiting San Marco's cathedral, Venice could also offer much more than that.

La Biennale di Venezia is one of those events that set aside a pretty city from the rest and makes it ultra relevant. It is the exhibition which establishes who is who in contemporary art and sets the pace that other cities and museums have to catch up with.

In its 54th edition, that runs until the 27^th of November, the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale has chosen the title of ILLUMInations - a reference to light, the influential poetry collection under that name by Arthur Rimbaud and the Biennale's own structure based on national pavilions.

The exhibition unwinds through the spaces of the Giardini della Biennale and along Arsenale in the south east extreme of the main territory of Venice - far away from the most touristy attractions, but still within a walking distance from its centre.

These places are already a piece of art themselves, regardless of the artworks exhibited inside the pavilions, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to pass a day simply walking through the breezy gardens and admiring the architecture.

But if you want to optimise the €20 entrance to the exhibition you must take in the extremely dense information stored inside the buildings.

In the most important gallery, the Central Pavilion, hang three works by Japopo Tintoretto. A rather unexpected choice for an exhibition on contemporary art that however can be justified when it is framed by an urban landscape of stuffed pigeons by Maurizio Cattelan.

Among the vast amount of artworks featured in this year's edition commissioned by Bice Curiger, animatronic heads that hold a fractured dissertation about contemporary art by British artist Nathaniel Mellors, or a room where the audience can create their own sculptures and messages with Plasticine by Norma Jeane.

The other Biennale heavyweights are Franz West, Cindy Sherman, Sigmar Polke and Fischli and Weiss. Big names for a fundamental art exhibition that gives Venice another good reason for visiting.

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