Saturday: Mostly A Day Of Rest

I slept for many hours, which ate away a large chunk of the morning.  In the afternoon, Ulrika and I walked down to the zatere, bordering the Giudecca canal, and sat in an outdoor cafe for an hour or so.  There was some sort of big "doing" afoot, since as we watched, the parade of humanity began to look increasingly spruced up..  (And naturally all of this occurred on the one day I did not have any sort of camera at hand).  Women in long formal gowns, or shorter dresses, accompanied by well-suited men, walked around our viewing station... providing us with much to comment upon.  We became the Joan Rivers and Melissa of the Dorsoduro.  Eventually the fashion show people all moved to two large boats which I suspect would take them to some outlying island for a wedding.  Personally, I had never before seen so much obviously couture clothing;  it was like one giant art show which could be viewed by sitting on one's derriere while sipping a Gin and Tonic.  Perfecto!!

We had booked a dinner reservation for the reputedly good Al Casin dei Nobili, so at 7:30 we had a fine seat in their coveted outdoor section.  I was accompanied by Mary and Lilian; Ulrika had other plans.  Dinner was very good, although certainly not cheap.

Tomorrow my friend Dawn will get here, and we have all been much anticipating her arrival.

The Biennale, Day 1

Ulrika and I have begun our immersion into this fantasm of comtemporary art, La Biennale.  Yesterday (Friday) morning we got an early start and went to the Giardini.  On the way, there was a stop to get fruit:

The Giardini is a beautiful park where many countries have their own pavilions. It is an exhausting and mind-blowing trek to see all of them in one day, but somehow we managed to do it.  There was so much...  it will not be possible to show or even mention most of it.  But here is a little taste:

One of the main "streets"

The Korean Pavilion

This is called Self-Hatred; the molded image attacks the mold. 

And for the other side of it, La Pieta or Self-Love.

This Pavilion also contained a room with two really large framed mirrors on opposing  walls,  and smaller framed mirrors on the opposite opposing walls.  These all appeared to be completely blank until speakers would broadcast a tremendous crash with breaking glass, and simultaneously the mirrors would begin to show cracks and holes, and the smaller mirrors were heavily damaged (apparently) .  The mirrors look completely normal before the "crash", and completely "realistic" as shattered.

                                                                      The French Pavillion

 Called "Chance", the French Pavillion looks at the role that good luck or bad luck play in our lives.  The main room contains a huge metal apparatus which acts as a conduit for a continuous strand of paper(?) or teflon on which pictures of new-born babies have been printed.  An alarm goes off sporadically, the entire aparatus comes to a halt, and the face of the baby in a specified postition flashes on a large screen.  Perhaps this means  good luck or bad luck, but very randomly this one child has been singled out and will live with the consequences of this event for the rest of their lives.

In smaller side rooms flanking the main one, huge digital counters show the number of births and deaths that have occurred in a specific period of time.

                                                                               

                                         I wish I remembered which Pavillion this was in but I don't

     This was so beautiful to see, like an unbelievably long piece of oragami, made of what looked like very heavy waxed paper.    

Ethiopia

Closeup

    OK, so here's the interesting story about this.  A monk who saw himself as a healer spent his entire life drawing these beyond-intricate art pieces. And he did them to capture the devils and evil spirtis inhabiting people with problems (or maybe people who were seen by others as being problems).  The idea is that the spirits are trapped forever within the work and thus the person is cured.  This closeup shows the encased spirits.

                                            

      Country represented unknown, but this was interesting because it's a theatre for an Opera seen as an open collaboration between countries:  inclusive vs. exclusive.

    The stage is made of mirror.  "Illuminations" is  the theme of this year's Biennale.  There is a widespread use of mirror.

OK, this is getting really long, I know.  So here is just a taste of more without the explanation, for you just to see the images:

These "boats" with video and audio of waves was the Venetian entry, and very beautiful.

I will leave you with a couple of my favorite smaller details.  These are "assignments" in a classroom installation:

And that was only from the Giardini...  much more to come.  Go and get a good rest!  That is my plan as well.