Inside the Venice Biennale 2007

A view across the Grand Canal in Venice. Hundreds of boats, vaporetti, water taxis, gondolas and cargo boats travel through here every day, ferrying residents, tourists - and now phalanxes of art lovers - to the Biennale. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

An arrangement of lightbulbs entitled America by the Cuban-born artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres in the US Pavilion. The Guardian's art critic, Adrian Searle, suggests that the work provides "an elegaic sense of life's passing" but wonders whether the inclusion of the artist, who died of Aids in 1996, is just "a little bit too convenient". Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

A visitor walks past an installation by Felix Gonzalez-Torres in the US Pavilion - displayed "with exquisite sparseness", according to Adrian Searle. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

The Fragile on its Cloak, 2007, by the Austrian artist Franc West, displayed at the Arsenale. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Visitors meander through the neon glow of Tijuanatanjierchandelie (2006), one of the final works by US artist Jason Rhoades, who died later that year. All the lights, displayed in the Arsenale, spell out slang names for the female genitalia. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

David Altmejd's art works in the Canadian Pavilion - Adrian Searle admitted that he laughed out loud at the "Max Ernst-ish spooky surrealness of it all". Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

A bird-headed man by Canada's David Altmejd. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Francesco Vezzoli's video starring Sharon Stone as presidential candidate Patricia Hill, part of his spoof election campaign installation entitled Democrazy, on display inside the Italian Pavilion. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Chalk drawings in the Italian pavilion. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

A visitor examines Dusasa I by Ghana's El Anatsui, made entirely from labels and foil on bottles of alcohol. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

A visitor strolls through the Italian pavilion. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Work by Isa Genzken in the German pavilion. The assortment of figures, hanging soft toys and spacewalkers are "an extreme, over-the-top collection", according to Adrian Searle. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Another view of Isa Genzken's German installation. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

A stuffed owl turns its back on the stream of visitors in the German pavilion. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

A visitor looks at Tracey Emin's watercolours. Adrian Searle writes that Emin's show in the British Pavilion is "a very polite exhibition" in which the artist has "ditched her strengths in favour of playing up her weaknesses." Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Three "interactive toilets" outside the Nordic Pavilion, whose signs read Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian