Zeitgeist Films is partnering with Kino Lorber to release Taking Venice, the documentary thriller exploring the true story behind the rumors that, at the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government rigged the influential art exhibition, the 1964 Venice Biennale.

Release Date

Directed by Amei Wallach, Taking Venice had its North American premiere at DOC NYC and will open at the IFC Center in NYC on May 17th and at the Laemmle Royal in LA on May 24th.

Synopsis

Taking Venice uncovers the true story behind rumors that the 1964 Venice Biennale was rigged – by the U.S. Government and a team of highly placed insiders – so that their chosen artist, Robert Rauschenberg, could win the grand prize.

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government is determined to fight Communism with culture. The Venice Biennale, the world’s most influential art exhibition, becomes a proving ground in 1964. Alice Denney, Washington insider and friend of the Kennedys, recommends Alan Solomon, an ambitious curator making waves with trailblazing art, to organize the U.S. entry. Together with Leo Castelli, a powerful New York art dealer, they embark on a daring plan to make Robert Rauschenberg the winner of the Grand Prize. Although he had the potential to dazzle, Robert Rauschenberg was yet to be taken seriously by the art world in the early 1960s. His groundbreaking work known as “combines” merged painting and sculpture with found objects and pop culture images in new ways that had not been seen before. Deftly pulling off maneuvers that could have come from a Hollywood thriller, the American team leaves the international press crying foul, and Rauschenberg questioning the politics of nationalism that sent him there.

“I grew up during the Cold War when the world seemed as dangerous as it does today. But it also seemed to be filled with possibility, with the actions of people who dreamed big and took big chances. This was especially true of artists, always looking to build something new. I became an art critic, then an author, and now a filmmaker. My goal is to make films about art that leap out of the art world and into a reckoning with what’s relevant in our lives through the stories that they tell. TAKING VENICE builds on a tradition of telling the story of America then through the eyes of now because I want it to reflect how much the world and art have changed. I want there to be moments that sting with what we have lost, and moments that encapsulate what we have gained.” – Amei Wallach.

Featured in the documentary are Janet Begneaud – Sister, Robert Rauschenberg; Achim Borchardt-Hume – Curator Tate Modern London 2005-2021; Mark Bradford – Artist representing the U.S. at the Venice Biennale 2017; Christo – Artist; Alice Denney – U.S. Vice Commissioner 1964 Biennale; Valerie Hillings – Museum Director, Global Projects Curator; Hiroko Ikegami – Global Art Historian, Kobe University, Japan; Michael Krenn – Author Fall-out Shelters for the Human Spirit; Simone Leigh – Artist representing the U.S. at the Venice Biennale 2022; Christine Macel – Director Venice Biennale 2017; Ed McBride – Career Cultural Diplomat; Louis Menand – Author The Free World; Shirin Neshat – Artist; Michelangelo Pistoletto – Artist; Sarah Roberts – Curator San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Philip Rylands – Director Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venice 2000-2017; Irving Sandler – Art Critic; Carolee Schneemann – Artist, Recipient 2017 Biennale Lifetime Achievement Award; Robert Storr – Director Venice Biennale 2007; and Calvin Tomkins – Writer, The New Yorker.

Official Trailer

Watch the official trailer for Taking Venice