Venice (Again): For Art Lovers Only!

 

Truly, there is art everywhere in Venice; it does the hearts of us artists good to know that hundreds of thousands of people travel from all over the world to see art. Sometimes, we feel like we labor in a gigantic vacuum...

Like the above sculpture, and the  one below. These works weren't even part of the official Venice Biennale. They were installed in a small park along The Grand Canal. And there were several of these shady little oases along our walk out to the Biennale. I liked this piece because it was a sleek, blue horse. 

The Biennale itself is pretty hard to describe. It's like a world's fair, but devoted entirely to art. It's set in a huge park and there are permanent pavilions- like a slew of them(!) all in different architectural styles- strewn all over a vast parkland. It was great to have a cover of trees as it was sooooo hot when we were there. (The city of Venice is mostly stone and hard surfaces. It was delightful to have grass and gravel under foot instead of relentless stone!) So in each building, one or two countries have an artist featured. The theme of this year's Biennale was "Foreigners Everywhere" and featured work by artists who have been displaced or marginalized. Some pretty crazy work!! Jeffery Gibson, a gay Native American artist, was chosen to represent The United States. His work really resonated with me as he uses beads (an incredible amount!!) and lots of text to spell out thought-provoking phrases. Here are a couple of (not great) pictures which do not do justice to his amazing work:

Or:

But there was so much variety! And you can only marvel at the resilience and detirmination of some of these artists! Like the image below. An artist originally from Korea is making beautiful and elaborate kimonos... but in Sweden! How different these two countries are! And to try and reconcile these differences in you work...

They were embroidered in lovely mythological ocean images. And in a huge bamboo scaffolding forest! It was pretty spectacular! And you keep staggering from one pavillion to the next... (consuming vast quantities of water along the way. It was HOT!!!)

This may not look like much but somehow, it was very powerful. It was in front of the German pavillion. Grim! (So much of the work was the experience of being there. Very hard to put into words the sensation some of this work inspired.)

And then there were installations like the above: Just lovely colorful, playful environments with electronic music in the background and a kind of jouyous chaos. Quite the variety and contrast.

Some of the best paviliions on offer were the absolute hardest to describe and impossible to photgraph. These works were all from Day 1 at the Biennale. We returned for Day 2 and spent most of at at the second location at a space called The Arsenale where they used to construct big boats. But we went back to the first location as we had missed a few country's offerings. Like the Swiss pavillion!! Oh where to even begin: there was a video on display- on the ceiling that was like being inside a kaliedoscope- tracing all kinds of nefarious doings by the uber rich and big agra and global hegemony. But it was beautiful and swirling and crazeeeeee!!! Oh! my eyes! Oh! my brain!!! Bob and I still can't look at art after our return home...

First Drop: City of Venice

 

It's true: it's almost impossible to take a bad picture in Venice. When I sent a few pictures back to family and friends, my sister Beatrice accused me of using "stock photos". But it really does look like this! Incredible that a city build on trees stood on end (thousands of them) in a lagoon can be real. And so hopelessly picturesque. I know; I'm waxing inarticulate and a mouthful of cliches is rolling out of me...

I wasn't prepared for how much I'd like Venice. I'm actually not that inot water- like beaches and stuff are not my first choice of where to spend a vacation- but Venice was so bizarre. And quiet!! No cars! Obviously crowded with tourists, but quiet...

And it's a silly city! I mean, where else do you spend half your time climbing up stairs and bridges to get to the other side?! What a pleasure to traverse... no dodging cars and taxis. And boats bring everything to the restaurants and stores... and then things are schlepped along on hand carts. They've got it all figured out!

And the architecture is pretty mazing. And no, I am not telling you anything you don't already know, but my mind was sufficiently blown! I probably wandered around with my mouth agape, stymied at how to respond. (Bob was kind enough to allow me to be stupified. I think he was kinda stupified, too!)

I'm so glad we got to go and explore Venice because let's face it, it probably won't be around forever. Climate Change is causing sea levels to rise and Venice apparently suffers crazy flooding every spring. But it's so beautiful! And seemed pretty clean...

Hard to comprehend the space of this square: it's truly vast. I alos have to add that it was really hot when we were there... like REALLY hot. And all the stone buildings and paving just soak up that heat. And obviously, there weren't a lot of trees so the ehat is real. But it's so beautiful... and tehre were small parks and the entire Venice Biennale is in a pretty shady location.

And yes, the canals are chock-a-block with gondolas... and gondoliers! You can't make this stuff up! I took to wondering if there were clumsy godoliers who ran into other boats or occasionally lost their balance and fell into the canals. The water did look pretty green and mucrky!