In September 1972, the bold experimenter Merce Cunningham staged a seminal dance Event in Piazza St Marco, Venice during the 35th International Music Biennale. 50 years later, we pay tribute, celebrate and evolve the pioneering legacy of Cunningham in a collaboration between the Biennale Archives, Biennale College, and The Cunningham Trust.

This Biennale will offer a rare opportunity to see Cunningham’s last collaboration on film with Tacita Dean's Craneway Event.

In installation form, Dean’s Craneway Event offers a film portrait of late choreographer Merce Cunningham as he leads his dancers in three days of rehearsal for one of his dance “events” in the former Ford Assembly Plant in Richmond, California. The plant’s expansive windows allow shifting light and views of the San Francisco Bay to play a role alongside the dancers, complementing their movements. Completed just months after Cunningham’s passing, Craneway Event is a poetic homage to the avant-garde master.