Venice Bienale

Ciao amici! Sono stanca!

The trip to Venice was a whirlwind. We were marched around at top speed (something almost impossible in narrow, cobble-stone streets and tourist-filled vaporetti) fueled by icky croissants, soggy sandwiches and at night, mega-expensive experimental Italian cuisine. Oh, and Bellini's of course!

Our hotel could not be further away from the Biennale without going off the main islands. So it took us about an hour each way to get there and back to hotel. Ugh! Wet, cold weather! The always positive Brazilian here actually packed a bikini! Yes, got some laughs from that one. You never, know, right?

We figured out that they bought us a ticket from Stanstead Airport (45 mins from London by train) to Treviso airport (1 hour from Venice by bus) as a team-building exercise! But it was a good trip overall. We got to see the main pavilions as well as the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and the Palazzo Grassi , which is the property of Christie’s owner, François Pernault, yes he of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Samsonite, etc… Apparently there’s an internship to be awarded to a Christie’s student at the end of each year at the palazzo. We were all excited hoping that maybe as an intern we might get some Gucci shoes and lovely handbags. Yeah right!

Anyway, I have my essay to write, so I’ll just post a few pics with commentaries here. Nobody has the patience for all the art we saw anyway!

Ashton (tall guy on left, US), Surya (S. Korea), Ming (Singapore) and Conor (Canada-by-way-of-Ireland), following their Italian-speaking guide... me!

Yes we actually had a few hours of clear sky. Just had to take apicture of this beautiful house. If i get the internship, this is where I'll live with my Gucci shoes and LV hand-bags.

Now for some art: This was by Polish artist Monika Sosnowska. Difficult to see in the pic, but she forced the pre-fabricated metal frame of a typical communist, 70's-style building into Poland's (somewhat) classical pavillion. The metal is all bent and twisted so that it could fit in the pavillion. Cool statement on the changes in architectual tastes and the destruction needed to transform old fashions and trends into new ones.
The thing looks like the skeleton for Cindarella's carriage and i found myself singing, "Bibbledee-bobbledee-doo...."

Off to have a nice dinner after days of eating horrible croissants and soggy sandwhiches. Me, Conor (Canadian) and Margret (Norwegian). Conor is hilarious and Margret has one of the most original laughs I've ever heard. Conor has his rich-playboy look on. We were in a water taxi to go to the restaurant because we got dressed up. They charged the nine of us 10 Euros each to go about 10 minutes down the canal. It was like a limousine, though. Fun.

Also in Limo: Ricardo (Mexico), Paula (Puerto Rico), Mehgan (US). The dinner came out to about 100 euros per person! And I ended up trying out a venice menu which served... get this: veal gristle in onions and garlic. Gristle. know what Gristle is? You know the tendons and stuff between the bones and the joints and muscles that we usually spit out? That's gristle. Uck. Second course: spaghetti with anchovie sauce - half a packet of salt in it. Next! At least the wine and the tiramissu were good.

Nicole (Left, US) and Anna (Greece). Esta aí da direita é a esticadona. Ela é toda fake. A Nicole é filha de um dono de galeria em New York e fica totalmente bêbada com super facilidade. Meio irritante.

More Art: French Pavillion, artist Sophie Calle. She received a (real) letter from her boyfriend telling her it was over... same existential crap as always. At the end of the letter, he writes, "Take Care of Yourself." - the title of the piece. What does she do to take care of herself? She sends the letter to over 100 women asking them to interpret, translate, understand, use the letter as they see fit.. doing whatever they like to it. She sent it to all sorts of different professionals as well as her mother, a tarot-reader, etc... So you have literature teachers deconstructing it and correcting its grammar, you have a clown making jokes of the words, you have a historian analysing it in terms of history, you have a musician play it and so on, and so on... It's hilarious! Very well done and I for one identified with it instantly. Very cool. First piece of installation art I can really understand.

Projeto Morrinho. Um grupo de meninos das favelas cariocas que recriam as favelas nos mínimos detalhes em miniatura, feito de tijolos pintados, garrafinhas e tampas. tem até campo de futebol, olha! Isto tem mais ou menos uns 2 metros de altura, para ter uma idea. Apareceu também na Bienal de São Paulo no ano passado.. aliás muitas coisas brasileiras foram repetidas.

Ricardo and me over a canal. Ricardo is such a figura. He belongs on Gay eye for the straight guy or something.

Last one: Iran do Espirito Santo, Brasil. There quite a few Brazilians in the Biennale and much better pieces than this one, but I didn't take pics. This was OK. Somewhat cool to see the disappearing wall reflected in granite that looked as if it had crashed.

Awwww, just like students!! We sit on the floor waiting for the Ryanair plane in Treviso airport. I think we spent more on the trains, buses and checked baggage fee (yes we had to pay to check luggage) than Christie's did for the whole trip.