Venice Biennale Part II

The Germany Pavilion, of which the most interesting part was it being called "Egomania."

Tucked in the corner of the Giardini is the Canadian pavilion, which was covered by this big "poster".  To me...a big who cares.  The exhibition inside didn't improve in my opinion.

Oops, I missed the British Pavilion (the exhibition inside was again, meh) because I was intrigued by what I saw through the door of the French Pavilion. 

 

There was also this "film slot machine" where if the same three parts of a face all came up to form a real face, the person who pressed the button won something.  Regardless, this huge film machine was awesome, and the sound it made was mesmerizing.

A remnant of political history, the pavilion of Czechoslovakia.

The only thing of interest I saw in this pavilion.  I'll use it as an example of similarity in my Geometry classes.

The Uruguay Pavilion was a former maintenance facility.

Skipping over Australia, we cross the canal to see the Facist era set of pavilions, such as Egypt.

The Greece Pavilion, its classical facade was covered up by this wood slat front.

And the Greek exhibition was an experiential one....walk in, silence, water, take a right turn and back outside.

Hmmmmm.....

The Romania Pavilion

The snark.......

....found on the walls of the Romania pavilion didn't come through with the exhibition.

More politics, the Yugoslavia pavilion is now the pavilion of Serbia.  The exhibition about the drab life in Belgrade was a bit depressing.

Simulated water in the Venetian Pavilion

DD, having lived in Brazil when younger was excited to see the exhibition in the Brazilian pavilion.  The disappointment of what we saw became the running joke.  "Does putting fish heads in a box of sand constitute art?

The exhibition in the pavilion was a piece about an artist trying to build a salt bridge (not sure if it was a metaphor or for real as I was getting tired) but outside, I thought this was more powerful.

Right in the middle of the action, with the prime real estate, Gli Stati Uniti d'America!

Not sure what most of the exhibition was trying to convey, but this working ATM that played organ music when being used was great.

Outside the US Pavilion.  Too bad there wasn't an actual runner on it so we could see the piece in action.

My favorite pavilion, from an architectural point of view was the Hungarian Pavilion!

Walk in and you see two people in a video singing about, what in context is a car crash.  Not sure why until.....

You walk to the other half of the exhibition and see this.  I liked how there was kind of a mystery involved.

Three Western European pavilions line the walk towards the former Italian exhibition space, which has moved to the other location.  Holland here, turned it's pavilion into a theater space.

Spain's exhibition was supposed to be an ongoing performance piece, but nothing was going on while we were there.

The last pavilion of the first afternoon, Belgium

Huh?

So, it turns out the artist puts glass over media, and paints as the picture moves.....and then once the glass is removed it's just a mess.  Kind of like the way our news is when removed from any context.  Another DD interpretation.

After the Bienannle, we decided to walk to Fondamente Nove from where we would take a boat to Burano for dinner at a restaurant a friend had suggested.  We walked by the hospital of Venice and here's a water ambulance.

I love finding stuff like this where you can find out how cities function.

 

This is just the appetizer!

Venice Biennale Part I

When you arrive in Venice at 1AM after a delayed flight, your reward for traipsing through the city is getting to Piazza San Marco and having it ALL TO YOURSELF.

The view from the traghetto on our way to the Biennale

Who would ever have thought that when I moved to Italy I would actually make a special trip to go and see art....modern art at that.  The Biennale is one of the most famous art shows in the world.  It's held every two years in Venice and is currently in its 54th exhibition.

Have ticket.....time to see some art!

Every country is invited (at least I think) to present at the Biennale.  Countries which are more recent additions to the Biennale , such as Thailand here, are given presentation spaces throughout Venice.  Thailand showed at a restaurant just outside the main exhibition space, the Giardini.

The Thai Pavilion was all about NAVINLAND, which is a community of citizens of the world who have the surname Navin....or subscribe to the tenets of the artist, Navin.  I wasn't sure, but it was certainly an interesting start!

Here in the Giardini are the exhibition spaces of the countries that have been at the Biennale for many years.  Each country here has a building, as one might expect there are mostly European countries here, but there are some unexpected countries that also have permanent exhibition spaces.

First up, the Swiss pavilion.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

Next up, the Danish pavilion, which had a theme of something like "the power of the spoken word"

The part I found most amazing was this carved wooden floor....

....which had pictures of many people (politicians and religious leaders) who are anti-gay, anti-islamist, etc.  We all know who this is!

Geert Wilders, one of the 32 faces on the floor, the Dutch politician who is known for his anti-Islamic statements.  DD, my travel partner, being the English teacher, stated, that we walked on these faces because they have hit their ceiling and we need them as a "floor" to improve the world.  Heady words indeed.

 

Moving down the way, we have the Venezuelan and Russian Pavilions.

After the intensity of the Swiss and Danish pavilions, it was nice to have a light-hearted moment.

This wall art is made completely of folded paper!  The Russian pavilion, had little that I found interesting.  But the pavilion itself was BEAUTIFUL.

The Nordic Pavilion

The Nordic Pavilion is jointly owned and operated by Norway, Sweden, Finland and I think Iceland.  This year Sweden presented.

About the only thing I found interesting was the trees around which the pavilion was constructed.  It keeps with the Nordic theme of being in harmony with nature.  Those blobs on the ground, looked like moose droppings to me.

Next up, Japan!

I stepped inside and was hit with this graphic motion picture.  I wasn't sure if the curved surface was real or an illusion.

 

 

I was totally engrossed by the piece.  DD thought it might have been some sort of reference to the earthquake and tsumani that occurred this spring.

Right next door, in a pavilion totally enclosed by glass windows, was Korea (South Korea)

 

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One of my favorite pieces of the entire Biennale, was a movie and set of pictures of Korean soldier is flower camouflage. More to come...