Sunday 13th October
As it happened, our visit to Venice has coincided with the Venice Biennale which runs for 5 months every two years. It is a massive event with most countries of the world displaying some of their best modern art in modest pavilions scattered across the largest Gardens we had seen in Venice. For those without their own pavilion they exhibit in larger pavilions in II Palazzo Enciclopedico and the ancient Arsenale overlooking the Grand Canal. We had also seen some Biennale artwork in old churches, museums and galleries across the city: everywhere you look there are big red signs with the Biennale logo and the name of the Country exhibiting.
So today we spent all day strolling around the gardens, wandering in and out of all of the pavilions proudly bearing the name of the country represented. When we first arrived I couldn't see Australia on the list and was disappointed: but I wasn't looking at the complete list and we did have a pavilion.
As we approached the exhibitions area we realised how little grass we had seen since we arrived in Venice. The city is so compact and full of paved laneways, stairways and canals there is little or no space for greenery, except the occasional planter box in a window or in a pot outside a hotel. Some of the dogs and kids we saw probably never get to stand ( or wee or pooh - the dogs I mean!) on grass at all. The kids use the local piazzas or squares to run around in and play ball games, and we've had to duck a few times when a soccer ball goes whizzing past.
We spent many hours viewing so much modern art that we were completely overwhelmed by the end. The art ranged from beautiful to extraordinary to horrifying to completely mystifying. Some of it consisted of enromous scupltures and some were tiny miniatures, and everything in between. And there was only one Madonna and Child painting in the whole exhibition!
One of the first exhibits was a few groups of rocks which we weren't too sure could be classified as art: Ewan commented that it looked as if we had arrived at a Garden Supplies place (!).
The topcs ranged from a comic book version of the new testamant to sculpture depicting the psychotic symptoms of patients in a psychiatric institution, to light rods through furniture (NZs contribution) to multimedia videos about everything. If you really read every word of explanation and watched every multimedia installation I think you could be there for weeks. The best I can do is put in a few photos so you can judge for yourselves! Check out the first one: this exhibit was sculpture carved from old books: fascinating and clever.
The Australian pavilion was partly open air and had a nice feel to it. The work displayed consisted of some pieces constructed from words from newspapers and some aerial shots of the open cut mines in WA that looked very golden. Not startling but interesting.
Alhtough there were people from all over, judging by the range of accents, it wasn't too busy and we saw everything we wanted to. I do have to apologise to Sarajevo and Azerbaijan as we ran out of puff by the time we got to them!
The Arsenale building where some of the artwork was housed has a long history beginning when Venice was a wealthy trading port and could produce a ship a day. Three huge long buildings reflected the size of the wealth and the importance of Venice in the 13th century, and are perfect for the Biennale now.Very impressive. A huge rusty old crane is all that's left of the machinery: alhtough initially we weren't sure if it was a work of art or a piece of history!
On the way home we noticed a couple of very sleek private yachts morred on the shore. We had a alaugh when we saw the name of a very glamourous black one: it was called My Trust Fund! Very cute.
We headed for home and revived ourselves with spritz and a snack on the way at our favourite bar. After some quiet time at home (trying to finish our Venice-based murder mysteries) we wandered back towards the Grand Canal and found a small trattoria where we sat outside to enjoy the Venetian ambience on our last night. We enjoyed some fabulous tender mussels in a tasty tomato sauce. Ewan had some corn linguine with anchovies and cinnamon. A very odd combination but delicious.
We have become very proficient at navigating the lanes to find our way home, although once it gets dark everything looks so different. Every walking trip to anywhere involves lots of twisting and turning lanes and stairways which can all look the same in the dark. You soon learn to look for particular touch points to assist your navigation - a planter box, a shop selling white masks, a letter box and even a rubbish bin. My advice is to definitely stay on the islands that make up Venice as you become part of it. If you were staying on the mainland and just visited every day it would be a very different experience.
When we reached home, Anna, the woman who owns the apartment was there: we had been trying to catch up with her so she had popped around to see if we were in. She is a very vivacious older woman who is an art historian and tour guide. We had a long discussion over a cup of Earl Grey tea and she answered lots of our questions and gave us lots of information about Venice. She thoght we were very observant tourists and was very impressed with our 'passion' to gain knowledge.
A good day was had by all.
Your arty farty correspondent
Dianne
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