Venice was hot and sweltering, but being seasoned travellers we had brought our umbrellas to create our own shade..we had been in Venice on earlier trips but being shown around using short cuts and amusing stories of past residents and remaining palaces was not to be missed.
The Art on display was just amazing with many countries pavilions and exhibitions all around the city.
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| Spices at Arsenale |
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| Estati Uniti (USA) pavillion |
After staggering around in the heat, it has to be said that this year the main events in the Gardini and Arsenale were great, but the associated events all around the city were slightly disorganised. Many were closed on three or four days of the week, and others had haphazard hours so that you never knew if they were going to be open when you arrived. Many were located in odd places which were hard to find and the not to be forgotten Sarajevo pavillion which appeared to be unreachable, and only visible from the Arsenale side of a lake!
Raining gold coins
Comments in the press say that the standard of art this year is high and it is one of the best events of recent years, and its true that mercifully most of the art is by young and talented artists with very few of the hyped and dead artists' stuff that I find dreadful in modern art events. There is a lot of attention being paid to Chinese artists and they have installed some stunning shows. The glass exhibition at one incredible palace was remarkable and the Russian pavillion with its exhibition dedicated to Danae from Greek mythology, was my favourite. It had a huge installation which took up all the rooms and had raining gold coins which were cycled through the installation with visitors participation. More about the installation here. (and even more here)
After all the walking, eating and enjoying the fantastic Venice setting we are once again back at home ... and its raining :-(
135 Photos from Venice
