Early morning Venice and the Biennale

We all got up early at around 7am to experience Venice without the tourists. There were locals going to work.

The Rialto bridge was quite empty so we got centre position for our photos.

We soon arrived at St Marks Square - with no tourists and lots of free cafe seats.

There was an artist capturing the gondolas with the cloudy background.

We continued on our walk going back across the Grand Canal on the Academie Bridge. We had a couple of coffees at different cafes with the locals. Many being the rubbish cleaners who have to bump their big trolleys over the top of the bridge steps. They are then craned over the rubbish boats for emptying. They were the only action on the canals.

We found a lot of shops with Venice Carnivale outfits.

We then went back to the apartment for a rest and getting ready for the later part of the day.

We headed back to the biennale getting a number 1 ferry going down the grand canal. We got the 4 seats on the back area to see the views. There was a wedding - and 2 mega yachts tied up on the edge. It got quite rough in the middle of the wide section.

We first finished off the pavilions in the Giardini area.

The Hungary pavilion had images and sounds as if from a nightclub- bright but not very clublike.

Then Greece was about how agriculture and local festivals are so closely linked - with an irrigation machine in the middle.

Romania showed time while at work - but not working - and art related to brutalistic architecture.

Poland had Ukrainian refugees imitating the sound of bombs - and asking the audience to repeat - with microphones provided. Some audience members did get involved.

The Venice pavilion had a migration globe of birds and an archive of plants.

Brazil had some bright outfits relating to issues of colonization — and the people playing 2 roles like birds that walk over resurgent forests.

Serbia were protesting about being kept out of Europe - while still trying to be in it with all their copied items - with all songs on the jukebox with Europe in their name from European bands.

Austria had Russian refugees where all western recordings were banned. They got round it by putting them on X-ray films.

Russia always puts Swan Lake on the tv in times of leadership change. Therefore ballet dancers practice ballet in the hope of bringing on a change.

The Congo had statues made from ground clay which is their soil ruined by years of palm oil plantations owned by Unilever.

Belgium had giant images of mythical figures with videos of them dancing to a very loud hypnotic drum beat - reflecting the noise of printing presses. We think it’s indicating 7 big media companies are ruling the press.

We then walked to the other biennale area of Arsenale , the old Defence storage area.

Arsenale has a huge building of different artists from different countries.

This were several female Māori artists relating woven blankets to traditional birth mats.

This was interesting from a Mexico City artist.

There were 2 Australian artists on the walls.

This carved wood cart of eels was amazing by NZ artist Brett Graham.

The boys then walked to 1490s bar Cantina Di Moro which had great chichetti (tapas) and a large range of good house wine. Ange and I took the no 1 ferry enjoying the views on the back again but being bothered by a serenader - who wouldn’t shut up. When we arrived we found the guys had literally run there and had already had 2 glasses of wine.

After all our snacks we went home to have a salad dinner and try to empty the fridge as we are eating out for our remaining 2 nights.

We watched the movie about an African boy harnessing the wind to irrigate the crops.