Architecture officially became its own separate department for the first time during Giuseppe Galasso’s four-year presidency (1979-1982). Galasso appointed Paolo Portoghesi to be artistic director: he curated the first International Architecture Exhibition, titled La presenza del passato (The Presence of the Past).
1980 marked the first edition of ‘Aperto’ (Open), the Biennale’s new section for young artists, which continued until 1993; it was curated by Achille Bonito Oliva together with Harald Szeemann. The 1990s brought epoch-making changes that upset the entire global balance of power. This was the decade which followed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the end of the standoff between the great Western and Soviet blocs and the emergence of a new borderless European community. In 1998 La Biennale was converted from a public body into a legal entity governed by private law, acquiring greater autonomy and flexibility. That same year Paolo Baratta was appointed president and ushered in significant changes: new exhibition spaces at Arsenale; new specific areas and auditoriums for dance, music and theatre events; a single curator appointed by La Biennale and responsible for the International Art Exhibition; an increase in participating countries, with national pavilions in the historic centre or at new Arsenale sites.