The Venice Art Biennale begins May 13 with a program offering opportunities for art-lovers, on-site and off, to get to know the event's artists and their work more intimately.

Dedicated to fostering dialogue between artists, and between artists and the public, the Art Biennale is this year taking that premise further with its "Viva Arte Viva" program and an approach of "celebrating, and almost giving thanks for, the very existence of art and artists," according to its President, Paolo Baratta. 

"Viva Arte Viva is an exclamation, a passionate outcry for art and the state of the artist," says Curator Christine Macel, who has called it an exhibition inspired by humanism—the idea that "the artistic act is contemporaneously an act of resistance, of liberation and of generosity," says Baratta.

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With this in mind, the event is organised as a journey—"a theme shared by the great humanist authors," according to Baratta—with artists at its heart. "The journey unfolds over the course of nine chapters, or families of artists," explains Macel. "Each chapter represents a Pavilion in itself, or rather a Trans-Pavilion as it is trans-national by nature."

(Related: Take A Peek At The Upcoming Rei Kawakubo Exhibition At The Met) 

Via these nine episodes, with names such as Pavilion of Artists and Books and Pavilion of Time and Infinity, visitors will learn about artists working within a variety of approaches and practices, while viewing them within the greater society and its values.

A series of parallel events place the artist front and center and offer chances for visitors and art-lovers at home to get involved. Every Friday and Saturday during the six months of the exhibition, artists will host an Open Table (Tavola Aperta), meeting visitors over a casual lunch in two spaces in the event's main venues; those events will be streamed live on the Biennale website.

The artists themselves made the videos in the Artist's Practice Project series, on which a new video is premiering every day in the weeks leading up to their openings. To access the videos on YouTube, visit this site and click on the links beside each artist's name: www.labiennale.org/en/art/exhibition/artists

To find out more about the 57th Venice Art Biennale, which runs through November 26, click here.