Staged every second year, La Biennale di Venezia’s International Art Exhibition is a worldwide famous place of inspiration and pleasure that offers the chance to encounter, appreciate and debate the latest avant-garde artistic contributions from different countries. The 56th International Art Exhibition was the occasion for a day of exploration into the fascinating world of contemporary art for a large group of students of the Istituto Marangoni Milano School of Design, who on November 14th met celebrated contemporary art expert and Faculty Member, Lisa Hockemeyer in Venice to attend her seminar Art as a Mirror. The Venice Art Biennale: From its Origins to ‘All the World’s Futures’. The seminar, held at the Tese dei Soppalchi of the Arsenale, traced the story of the manifestation from its first edition in 1895 - highlighting its importance in making the wider public, whether specialist or dilettante, understand and be influenced by international contemporary art and ideas. Hockemeyer also retraced the most important aesthetic proclamations and artistic encounters seen at the Biennale in the past 120 years, and went on exploring some of its present main exhibitions. A special Istituto Marangoni 3-day pass to the Venice Biennale was also provided to all participants, many of whom were happy to take the chance to spend the weekend visiting the Arsenale, the Giardini and the individual pavilions of different nations.