Vatican Enters Venice Biennale

Pope Francis has made another major step toward taking on an insular, wealthy, and powerful community—no, not the Curia, but rather the contemporary art world. For this first time, the Vatican will have a pavilion at the Venice Biennale and will feature the same theme as the famous frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel: the first few chapters of Genesis. The pavilion will be made up of three different rooms: “Creation,” “De-Creation,” and “Re-Creation.” The artists assigned the rooms are Studio Azzurro, Josef Koudelka, and Lawrence Carroll, respectively. The man behind the move, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture Gianfranco Ravasi, is said by TIME to want to change the tone regarding religious symbols in art and sees the Biennale as a space to do just that.