On the face of it, little links the Angus fishing port town of Arbroath and the Italian canal city of Venice.

But the artistic and architectural connections can be revealed as Scotland'S own national show at the biggest visual art festival throws open its doors for a preview today. (mon)

The show at the 56th Venice Biennale, which officially opens to the public later this week, features work by the Glasgow artist Graham Fagen in collaboration with Scottish composer Sally Beamish, reggae musician Ghetto Priest and music producer Adrian Sherwood.

The show, at a classic Venetian palace, the Palazzo Fontana, which is being used as a venue for the first time, is primarily inspired by Robert Burns's The Slave's Lament, and is the official Scotland + Venice exhibition this year.

Hospitalfield Arts, of Arbroath, based at Hospitalfield House in the town, is organising the show and the country house, largely built by the 19th century artist and collector Patrick Allan-Fraser, who lived from 1812 to 1890.

The director of the show in Venice, Lucy Byatt, is sure that Allan-Fraser, who had a Grand Tour of Europe, as many gentlemen of his time did, saw the detail in Venice.

Ms Byatt said: "Allan-Fraser toured Europe so it was inevitable he visited Venice.

"And one of the things we noticed very quickly on our site visits to Venice - absolutely knitted into the architecture of Venice - is the rope carved into stone and wood.

"Hospitalfield has this same rope carved all the way around it; and this is also a port town with a harbour that was very important for the economy.

"Of course Allan Fraser was inspired by his Grand Tour, he lived in Rome for a time and was president of the Royal

Ms Byatt says the Venice show is coming at a crucial time for the building.

With architects Caruso St John, Byatt and the company's board want to build new studios both for artists residencies and for visiting groups to stay, and conserve the house in an £11m project.

"Venice is important," Ms Byatt said, "especially for an organisation that is about to embark on such an important project, and for a place that is [seen to be] on the margins.

"Our future plan is to conserve the existing architecture [at the house], look after our collections, but add things to make the site work better for us. And so we have to raise quite a lot of money to do that."

He built into the house an architectural detail - rope that runs its way around the house.

This rope was taken from the same architectural detail seen in many of the buildings in Venice.

The rope design is now part of the publicity materials for the show, which opens on Saturday.

Every other year the Biennale features dozens of nations who display the work of their chosen contemporary artists.

Scotland has had its own show, separate from the UK Pavilion, since 2003.

Scotland + Venice is backed by the British Council, the National Galleries of Scotland and Creative Scotland.

The last Biennale, in 2013, drew more than 220,000 visitors, many of whom - collectors, curators, arts companies - may have money or connections useful for Hospitalfield's plan.

"I also think it provides the international platform for Graham [Fagan] that will be very useful for him, currently, and investment into a new commission that is comparatively substantial," Byatt added.

"It gives us the visibility that we really need to be able to realistically think about raising the funds to support what we do. And also to bring into sharp focus the fact that we really are a rather good arts organisation: we work with interesting artists and we do something which is very particular here."

- Phil Miller will report from the Venice Biennale in The Herald and Sunday Herald over the coming week