Venice Day 3

Hi,

There is a pigeon problem at the Cipriani and elsewhere in Venice. The hotel has found a perfect solution.

Today was our first day at the Biennale, We spent it at the Giardini where the national pavilions are and Valentina was our guide. She is extremely helpful in explaining what we are seeing and also in choosing what we should see out of all the possibilities. So helpful! Really without her, I don't think we could have enjoyed ourselves nearly as much. But before we see her we stopped in at the Anselm Keifer exhibition in the Palazzo Ducale.

We followed the signs and those lead to a long tour through the palace.

Finally, we arrive at the Kiefer show. He is telling the story of Venice and the evolution from a marshy lagoon towards victory, wealth, and the high heavens. It is a grandious story and includes an empty coffin. St Mark's body evidently was lost somewhere along the way and marks a void in the Venice's very being. Here is the whole story if you want to read it.

And then we left via the prison system in the palace which went on for far too long.

We finally escaped and went to meet Valentina at the entrance to the Biennale.

First stop was the Great Britian pavilion. It won the Golden Lion award but then there were protests and lots of people thought the French pavilion should have gotten it so the English artist Sonia Boyce talked to the French artist Zineb Sedira and they decided to share it. Just what a woman would do....

The British artist is Afro-Caribbean who created a song performance with 3 singers called Feeling Her Way. She gave them room to express themselves. There is also a lot of wallpaper involved.

The French artist Zineb Sedira is Algerian and her work was called Dreams Have No Titles. She recreates a movie set which has a 50s or 60s feeling about it. Then at the end she ties all the sets together in a video which ends with a woman dancing to Express Yourself. She involves people she knows and family and relies on research she does with old movies. She collects reels of old films from the earlier times she is interested in.

Then she gives the visitors a place to be in the movies too.

Then we went to the American pavilion where Simone Leigh. She is a ceramic artist who has gained recognition for her work expressing issues of racism.

This woman had no eyes or ears and her hair is made up of roses.

Then to the Sami exhibit which was in the Nordic pavilion. The Sami are an indigenous people who raised reindeer in the north country until the governments disallowed them from doing that and so their whole life collapsed. This painter depicts the story.

Then to the German pavilion where the artist Maria Eichhorn was protesting the actual building which was reconstructed during the Nazi era. First she wanted to move the building but then when that was not allowed she just took it down to its foundation.

Ok so that was all before lunch so after lunch we got into the exhibition The Milk of Dreams. We were greeted by the Elephant in the Room by Katirina Fitsch.