On your vaporetto to the far pavilions

From indoor gardens to smoking, drinking and painting badly (and that's just the artists), the world's grandest art exhibition is upon us. Amid the heat and hyperbole, Bruce Nauman's hard-headed art provides the benchmark.

Writing for The Guardian, Laura Cumming tell it how it is.





Photo shows 'The dead collector Mr B', part of the joint Nordic offering from artist-curators Elmgreen and Dragset at the Venice Biennale. Photograph: Tony Gentile/Reuters