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The Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Address: Giardini Della Biennale, Calle Giazzo, 30122 Venice, VE, Italy Open Google map

Entrance fee: From 25 € per person

Themes: Art, Curiosity

Website: Venice Biennale

Opening hours

May - October
During the Venice Biennale the exhibition area is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm. On Mondays the area is closed, with a few exceptions. Please check Venice Biennale website for more information.

The Finnish pavilion, designed at the initiative of art patron Maire Gullichsen, was set up in the Giardini parkland to house the Finnish exhibition section of the Venice Biennale International Art Festival in the spring of 1956. Alvar Aalto had only a couple weeks’ time to produce the plans for the pavilion.

According to Aalto’s plan, the pavilion should be an exhibition space that was movable, easy to dissemble, store and re-assemble: “Like a tent,” as he put it. The walls and roof of the light-structured pavilion were made of wooden elements. The building’s architectonic idea was a whole composed of blue wall lamellas and white triangles. Skylights brought natural light into the space and left the wall surfaces free for hanging the exhibition.

Originally meant as a temporary structure the Finnish Pavilion still stands in the same place in the Venice Biennale area, and has over the decades hosted a variety of exhibitions. Nowadays the Finnish Pavilion is a popular attraction and it is considered to be an important part of the International Architecture Exhibition as well.

Throughout its relatively short history, the Finnish pavilion has undergone three major restorations. The building was restored at the Italians’ initiative in 1975-76, as a project by Finnish architectural students led by Panu Kaila in 1993 and again by Gianni Talamini in 2012. The pavilion is the only building Aalto completed in Italy during Alvar Aalto’s lifetime and its preservation is, in the words of Elissa Aalto, “a tribute to Alvar Aalto and a reminder of his relationship with Italy”.

Alvar Aalto loved Italy, and Venice most of all. Alvar and Aino Aalto travelled to Italy on their honeymoon in 1924 and visited Venice as well. Aalto returned to Venice often also with his second wife Elissa Aalto in the fifties and sixties in particular.

”For me in my mind there is always a journey to Italy. It may be a past journey that still lives on in my memory; it may be a journey I am making or perhaps a journey I am planning”. Architect Alvar Aalto, 1954.

The Finnish pavilion is located in the Venice Biennale area and has over the decades hosted a variety of exhibitions. Photo: Göran Schildt, Christine and Göran Schildt foundation

The building’s architectonic idea was a whole formed by blue wall lamellas and white triangles. Photo: Ywe Jalander, Alvar Aalto Foundation

The pavilion is the only building completed in Italy during Alvar Aalto’s lifetime and its preservation is, in the words of Elissa Aalto, “a tribute to Alvar Aalto and a reminder of his relationship with Italy”.
The Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
According to Aalto’s original plan the pavilion was designed be an exhibition space that was movable, easy to dissemble, store and re-assemble. Photo: Elissa Aalto, Alvar Aalto Foundation
The Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
Nowadays the Finnish pavilion is a popular attraction during the Venice Biennale. Photo: Alvar Aalto Foundation

Information for visitors

Good to know

Arriving to Venice 

The Finnish Pavilion is located within the Venice Biennale in Giardini exhibition park. The closest stop for the public waterbus (vaporetto) is Giardini. On foot from the railway station or Piazzale Roma the travel time is approximately 1 hour.

Please note, the Finnish Pavilion and the Venice Biennale exhibition park is only open during the Venice Art Biennale which is organised on odd-numbered years and Venice Biennale of Architecture, on even-numbered years. Read more here.

Literature about The Finnish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale can be purchased online from Alvar Aalto Shop!