Biennale 2013 - The Encyclopedic Palace

As I mentioned in my last post, I now have my permanent Biennale pass, which allows me entry into any of the Biennale exhibits anytime between June 1 and the closing day, November 24.  With this in my possession, I decided to go spend a few hours soaking up some culture yesterday.  Mike still needed to get his pass, which required him to show up in person with his identification documentation. Off we went to  the Giardini ticket booths as soon as they opened at 10 am. Our plan to go early paid off- the lines were short, no one cut in front of us, we moved quickly. Before we knew it, we had a second pass in hand. 

We'd taken a look at the exhibition maps the other day and had already decided to begin our Biennale exploration at the Arsenale.

This year Italian born Massimiliano Gioni, the youngest curator of the Venice Biennale, chose the theme Il Palazzo Enciclopedico after Italian-American artist Marino Auriti's concept of a museum (the Encyclopedic Palace) to contain all the world's knowledge. The exhibition, The Encyclopedic Palace, housed at the Arsenale, includes works by 92 artists (hope that's correct, I counted the list) from around the globe.

The exhibition hall is huge, it's contents almost overwhelming.  My plan was to carefully view each exhibit, pay attention to which artist did which work, and to read whatever information was available for each exhibit. I took notes. I took photos. I looked. I learned. I liked. I disliked.

There were many exhibits that were videos, and in general these did not appeal to me. I can't even put my finger on exactly why, they just did. After watching a few of them, I found I was quickly walking past these after just a moment or two perusal.

Here's my list of likes from this collection, in no particular order:
Lin Xue, Hong Kong, 1993-1995 untitled scroll - ink drawings using bamboo pen, with incredible detail

R.Crumb , Philadephia,2009 Illustrated book of Genesis- a monumental number of illustrations depicting the entire book of Genesis, including who begat who, with Crumb's interpretation of what every person looked like.

Shinichi Sawada, Shiga Japan, clay figures and masks.

Matt Millican, Santa Monica California- collage on paper and cotton, Learning from that Persons work

 








Pawel Atthamer, Warsaw Poland, 2013 - "Venetians " - Polyethelyene Resin and metal sculptures . A collection of 90 scultures

Yes, I really enjoyed all the Venetians!

And for the winner of the Dislike category?  Here you go:

This is part of a series of works by Carol Rama of Torino, Italy, painted in 1939.  Each of the paintings were a bit disturbing to me. Can you guess what rating I might have given this?  You got it.

Following several hours inside this main exhibit, I visited the nearby exhibits of the Vatican, exhibiting for the very first time this year; United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Republic of Kosovo, Turkey, Kingdom of Bahrain and the Republic of Indonesia.

My favorite of these ?  Definitely the exhibition of the United Arab Emirates titled Walking on Water by Mohammed Kazem 2005/2013.  You enter a chamber surrounded by the images and sounds of a very rough dark sea. You feel as though you are lost at sea, and even though you are stationary, you feel very wobbly upon leaving the chamber. An interesting experience.

Outside the Biennale exhibit spaces, here in Castello you can't escape art. The latest installation  to arrive on Via Garibaldi- a line of blue tempra paint. I've witnessed more than a few locals having some choice words to say about the blue line.  After this morning's rain- no more installation!

Biennale Blogs

It's that time of the year  when the entire art universe descends on Venice for the International exhibition of contemporary art. In reality, it's held every other year, on the odd years, hence the name "Biennale".  On the even years, there is a Biennale, but for Architecture instead.

Each country that wishes to exhibit can do so, and selects some of it's most notable artists for the honor of exhibiting here at Biennale. There are 30 permanent pavilions located at Giardini ( the public gardens in the district of Castello) to house the exhibitions of returning regular countries. Other exhibits are located in the Arsenale, as well as all over the rest of Venice in non-used churches, palazzos, and other rented spaces.

This year, the 55th Biennale, kicked off a few days ago. I have to admit that having spent the last 5 years living way on the other side of town in Santa Croce, I barely noticed the onslaught of the art world at Biennale time. I have attended bits and pieces of Biennale before, but have never done the entire exhibition. I'm about to change that statistic.

Truth be told, I'm not much of a contemporary art fan.  Probably not the wisest statement for me to be making, in as much as I am married to an artist, and have a daughter with a fine arts degree who is a budding artist herself. Nevertheless, it's the truth. I'm not a great fan, but I have been known to be a critic. Mike is a pretty good realistic painter who took a turn to the dark side years ago when he decided he preferred to paint abstract instead. Again, remember I have already mentioned that I am not a great fan of contemporary art. It's not so much that I am not a fan of it, it's more that I just don't understand it. Ok, so fairly often when Mike would bring one of his abstracts up from his studio, I'd give my opinion, using what I called my "Crap scale". I'd rate his pieces Crap, really crap, total crap, and pure unadulterated crap. It was just between us, and all in fun.  (In reality, Mike's abstracts are very good. He's had several exhibitions, sells his work and had had several commissioned pieces).

Living near both Arsenale and Giardini, it's been hard to miss all of the Biennale preparations going on around us for the last 2 weeks. I almost felt a little left out not having been to any of the big exhibitions before, so I decided this year would be different.  I researched my options for tickets and discovered I can purchase a "Permanent Card" which is available for residents.  I even tried to purchase the ticket on the Biennale website, only to find out that advance purchase of this particular type ticket isn't allowed. I have to wait until June 1. Guess where I will be on June 1. That's right. You'll find me at the ticket office at Giardini waiting patiently in line for my own pass for this season.

My plan is to hit each and every exhibition, both the permanent pavilions and all of the collateral locations all over Venice. Biennale runs from June 1, the public opening date, until November 24. This week are the   opening events that are open only to special ticket holders and the press, and all of the gala pre-opening events that are invitation only.  You'll see my coverage of the exhibitions here on my blog as I experience all of it myself.

Who knows what I'll learn by exposing myself to something new. It's bound to be an interesting experiment. And- I plan to use my "Crap" rating scale only if necessary, but modified slightly to fit the circumstances. For Biennale it will be  Crap, Really Crap, Total Crap, and Crappissimo (that's Italian for "the most crappy").  Again, it's only in fun, and just between us. I know that this is an exhibition for the best of the best in the art world, and I have the utmost respect for the talent of these artists and newcomers.

Postscript:

Yesterday I stood in line at the Biennale ticket office at Giardini to purchase my season pass. I had already had a very long day, and the line seemed endless, but I was determined to find the patience to accomplish my task and go home with pass in hand.

Slowly, slowly, slowly the people ahead of me in line got their business taken care of. We inched forward. Just as there was only one couple ahead of me, I noticed a woman dressed entirely in red appear in front of me. She looked at me, I raised my eyebrow, she said, "Oh, I'm just here to join up with my friends", and pointed to the couple ahead of me. Ok, I could handle that.

A minute later, another pair of women put themselves in the line between me and the couple at the window who are just about to complete their transaction. I told these two women that the line is way behind me. One of them, with a very distinct French accent, proceeds to tell me that her friend has been waiting for her to arrive, and was standing off to the side of our line chatting with other people while she waited. So now that she's arrived, they are taking their turn at the window.  I explain again that  the line starts at the back. This woman proceeds to say she is taking her turn now, in front of me, given that she has finally arrived, and her friend has been in the "waiting line" over to the side for awhile. There is no "waiting line". I, and all the people behind me, have been in the only "waiting line" there is.  I told her I didn't understand this other "waiting line concept, her friend was over there chatting and was not in line" but she wasn't cutting in front of me. I'd waited, and it was my turn. This woman again decides she is going to educate me on how it is ok for her to cut into line because her friend was chatting while waiting for her.  This is a new one for me. She was mighty persistent, but  I stood my ground.  She kept trying, and finally asks " Are you this aggressive in your daily life? "

Funny, in my opinion, she was the aggressive one, attempting to push her way into the head of the queue.  I declined to respond. The look on my face said it all. What did she do? She cut into the line in front of the person just behind me, who let it all happen without saying a word.

I did not have a good first foray into the world of Biennale. But I did walk away with my permanent pass in hand, mission accomplished. Here's to better Biennale days ahead.

Secret Garden update

No rain today (big surprise), and you would have thought I'd take advantage of the clear skies to get down into the garden again. Not today. I gave myself a day off to spend a few hours at the Biennale exhibits (more on that in my next post ).  We did go down for a look-see, hoping to notice some progress. Luckily I remembered to grab my camera on my way out the door!

Here's the new tomato bed, filled with heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and some big round tomatoes we hope will be perfect for thick slices on summer sandwiches. 

The first of the tomatoes on the vine!!

The zucchini bed. Too early to spot any zucchini's, but everything looks like it's getting bigger.

The pepper and eggplant bed along the side garden wall. 

First of the peppers!

Roses blooming today. Another first!

View of the front half of the garden.

The back corner finally cleared.  Now I can do a little dreaming about what this might look like in a year or two. 

A Secret Garden in Venice

There have been books written about Venice's secret gardens. Where are they ? Always behind wooden or iron doors, surrounded by brick walls, away from Venice's curious visitors.  And always, when you find one, you feel as though you have been given a special little gift, the opportunity to sneak a peak at something rare.

My post today isn't about going on a secret garden hunt in Venice. No, it's about my own secret garden project in Venice. If you are a reader of my blog, you know from past posts that we had a marvelous secret garden at our previous apartment. Totally walled in, 600 square meters of private green space filled with iris beds, rose bushes, all sorts of flowering perennials, trees, a grape arbor that produced grapes, and yes, grass that needed to be mowed on a regular basis. Who mowed grass in the historic enter of Venice??? We did.

That garden was huge, and required lots of tender loving care. Although we were very reluctant to leave it, when it was time to search for smaller apartment, we were ok with our decision. Little did we know we'd take on yet another garden with the new apartment in Sant'Elena. Yes, we're now on Garden Numero Duo.  This one is smaller, about 1/4 acre, and also as sorely neglected as the last one had been. So we're back to work again. Welcome to my own "Secret Garden".

It's quite a work in progress. This one has been so badly neglected, the weeds have now grown to almost trees and are about as tall as I am. From front to back, side to side, there was nothing but wilderness.  Unfortunately, we didn't get down into the garden as soon as the weather turned warm. Our first priority was to get the terrace set up: new sun umbrellas delivered and constructed, lots of geraniums hauled home and potted.  With that work completed, it's time to kick it into high gear on the garden work. And the weeds that we should have tackled a few weeks ago have had lots of rain to nourish them into full blown monsters.

                                             

Above is a photo of Mike digging up stumps. I'd already finished pulling weeds from the area in the foreground.

Along the brick wall are not one, but two wonderful old troughs with running water.  We cut back a climbing vine that had taken over the wall. It looked nice, but I happen to be allergic to that particular vine. Anyone else allergic to Virginia Creeper??  And why has it followed me all the way to Venice?  There is a nice pink climbing rose along a back part of the wall.  I have visions of some terracotta lions on plaques taking up residence on this wall some day soon. 

                                         
This is the beginning of the weed pile that has since grown to about triple it's size. Our trash collectors will only take away one bag of garden trash per day. At that rate, I'm going to have enough bags to last us till November.

The first bed uncovered!  The whole entire garden has beds established, delineated by brick edges, with walkways in between.  We've gotten two of the beds completely de-weeded, and have planted one bed with tomatoes, the other with zucchine.  We have a smaller bed along the brick wall planted with eggplant peppers and watermelon.

There's lots more work to come down in our "Secret Garden". In the middle there is a lovely section with rose bushes we're working on clearing out, and 3 more large beds that are half-way cleared. I'm  already planning an iris bed along one of the brick walls.

Now you know what I've been keeping busy with.  We are so looking forward to some homegrown vegetables from our own little "Orto".  I think we have too many zucchini plants, we'll be selling some to the fruttivendolo in Sant'Elena!  Or I'll be making LOTS of zucchini bread!

As the season progresses, I'll be posting garden progress.

Vogalonga 2013

One of my favorite Venice events is the Vogalonga, a 30 Kilometer rowing event that starts and ends at St. Mark's. It's a non-competitive race open to just about every rowing type boat imaginable from one man kayaks to 16 man boats, canoes and drum boats. This year's event began, unfortunately, in a light rain, that progressed to a heavy rain at a few points during the day.  Not a good day for the rowers. The good news is the sun came out towards the middle of the afternoon, just as rowers were finding places to pull up their boats to rest at the end of a long, wet 30 kilometers.

This year 1,700 boats and 7,000 rowers from all over the world participated.

Between 9 am and 3pm, the Grand Canal is closed to all motorized boat traffic, so no vaporettos available. If you needed to get somewhere today, you were walking, or taking a very long route around the outside of the city, or- worse case, renting a private water taxi that was also taking a long route to your destination as they also were not allowed on the Grand Canal  during the regatta. I have to say, while  we were waiting for the first of the boats to return to the Grand Canal, the silence on the canal is almost eerie. It's something you don't see too often, so when you do, you can't help but be awe struck by how just how grand this canal is.

Here's a look at the Vogalonga course, beginning at St. Mark's square, down around Sant'Elena, past Certosa Island, Sant Erasmo island, Burano, Mazzorbo, Murano and back through Venice down the Cannaregio canal to the Grand Canal ending at St. Mark's.

 I positioned myself at the waterfront at Sant'Elena at 9:00 am this morning, in the rain, and was able to get some great photos.

Later in the morning I was at Rialto, watching as rowers were making their way down the Grand Canal. Right in front of me I saw a man swimming. At first I thought he had fallen overboard off one of the boats. I looked closer and noticed he had flippers, a wet suit and swim cap, and was being accompanied closely by a gondola with 2 rowers front and back. This man hadn't fallen in, he was actually SWIMMING the Vogalonga!!!!  Made me think of Lord Byron!

 The next few photos are post-Vogalonga, after the rowers had completed the course. These colorful kayaks were stowed at the Rialto fish market. All of the participants who came with these boats were changing out of their wet clothing under cover of the fish market.

 Here a group of rowers were pulling their boats up at Campo San Trovaso, and headed to the wine bars across the canal for some spritz's.

And this guy pulled his boat up at the memorial in front of Giardini. A little unorthodox, but hey, it's Vogalonga.