Day 3 of the Biennale

I had some admin to do including keeping up with writing this blog so the others went off and I met them later for lunch near Arsenale next to the navy base - very old.

The food was excellent and not expensive- a good find.

We then went into the Biennale Arsenale area to try to finish it off after yesterday.

We saw the fantastic Brett Graham sculpture of the eels on the cart again - it’s amazing.

Continuing with the independent artists area , I like the following pieces-

Empty armchair signifying loneliness by Linda Kohen

The White Ship by Horacio Torres

Legong dancer by Romualdo Locatello

This is only 1 of the halls that continue for hundreds of yards.

Anna Zenankova from Moldova created these flowers that don’t grow anywhere from paper and fabrics.

I liked these batiks.

This from Peru of the jungle was about mythology and how colonialism started climate change.

Mexican Barbara Sanchez- Kane was protesting against male chauvinism and machismo in the military.

Silver screens with inscribed pictures were very nice - and the moving lights at the end.

Then we went onto the pavilions for each country again.

There was an igloo created from 10 gallon drums by Benin.

Maltas pavilion was about tracking eye movement when viewing a ship.

The Irish pavilion was weird with 4 men fighting with masks - and they passed the camera between them to get the footage.

The Italian pavilion was about sound and memory and had a maze in scaffolding.

The Chinese pavilion had lots of different artists.

There was a tower of paper bags - perhaps the Tower of Babel? - and misty scenes of temples.

The official Chinese statement says:

“Today, as humanity grapples with deteriorating external ecological conditions and the internal challenges of “foreigners everywhere”, this exhibition seeks to facilitate a paradigm shifting — from “difference” to “coexistence” — by reactivating and disseminating the wisdom embedded in traditional Chinese culture, which advocates for “harmony in diversity”, “harmonious coexistence”, and “shared beauty.””

Outside was the old submarine base - the prettiest I have seen. It had the theme of the biennale ’Strangers Everywhere’ in neon lights strung up across the bays.

We met up with Angela opposite the big hands sculpture created in 2017.

After all that we had done the majority of the artworks.

After we left we found another associated gallery from Dorset.

We met Ellen Harvey who had an interesting art work and book about places we would have liked to visit but don’t exist anymore.

We then had to get home to get changed quickly so we could pick up my brother Grant and his wife Anne from their hotel conveniently only 5 minutes away from our Airbnb. They are in Venice for 2 nights on their way to a cruise.

We all went out for dinner at Ca D’Or 3 minutes away. It was very good food - I had grilled monkfish and vegetables then a very smooth pana cotta.

I think everyone enjoyed it. We then continued to a restaurant doing cocktails at a very nice spot between several canals. We had very strong Negronis - and Anne had an equally strong White Lady.

We had a big sleep in the next morning!