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...

Giardino di Ninfa

The Gardens of Ninfa is located about 40 km southeast of Rome.  A brief history.  The town of Ninfa, located along the Appian Way, was prosperous in the 1100's.  In 1297, the town was purchased by the Caetani family and then in the late 1300's the brothers of the family went to war with each other, the town was ruined and eventually emptied of inhabitants.  Those events are the genesis of what we see today, whcih is a bunch of ruined buildings that have been overgrown by nature, and with some planning in the past hundred years, and plantings or roses and different plants, there is now a 21 acre garden.  But the most spectacular part for me was the amazingly clear river that runs through the grounds.

The gardens are open the once or twice a month April through October so getting in is an ordeal.  I happen to see an advertisement in the newspaper for a day trip, so I called and DD and I were on our way.   Alas, apparently the best time to go is in the late Spring when all the flowers are in bloom, but this beautiful clear crisp fall day was pretty good itself.   I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 

The second part of the day, which after the gardens was total "gravy", was a visit to the nearby hilltown of Sermoneta, which was having its annual second Sunday in October celebration of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.  A resident of the town was a significant player in this Battle of Lepanto, but in my Wikipedia search on the Battle, I find no reference to the Duke who was so featured in the posters throughout town.  That being said, there was a "renaissance festival" with displays of artisan crafts and skills, but most fun was the sword fighting demonstration.....and participation!

Sermoneta, Italy