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51st Venice Biennial - Day 2 - Arsenale

An enameled sign post for the Venice biennial shows the locations of exhibits, wheel chair access and toilets. Pasted onto the sign are various stckers protesting the elitest nature of the Biennial. One states "Don't Mock Low Culture".

  My second day began at the "Arsenale" which is part of Venice's military installation but has been largely converted into visual and performing art spaces.  This exhibit started with a feminist foyer that insulted half the population and then went on to extend the very behavior they were protesting.  I won't dwell on that.
A rotating aluminum rail is erasing a series of concentric circular ridges that have been drawn in dry sand. on the opposite side of the central pivot the smoothened sand is being marked a new with concentric ridges.
   This kinetic piece resonated well with many people.  One woman said she was mesmerized by what she saw as a universal piece "it is continually creating then erasing like we all do with our lives". 
Abstract aluminum objects that look a bit like twisted taffy hang from thin cables in a darkened room. They shine with reflected light in front of an agind gray masonry wall.
   Louise Bourgeois had these two pieces plus a sound installation. 
A room sized somewhat teardrop shaped "craft" sits on a stand. It is painted with a pearlescent grey paint that reflects the light in a series of rainbows.
  My favorite piece of the entire Biennial, by a very long margin, was "Wave UFO" by Mariko Mori and her long list of collaborators.
Three electrodes are attached to my forehead. A plastic attachment with wires is connected to the electrodes.
   If you were willing to wait in line for over an hour you were greeted by attendants in specially designed lab coats and prepared to enter the capsule.  This started Japanese style with the shoes.  Next your forehead was prepped with alcohol and special adhesive electrodes (by Apple Computers) were attached to sense your brain waves so that you could interact with the piece.
A woman in a lab coat ascends a futuristic staircase. Four pairs of white clogs wait at the ground.

  Only three people at a time were allowed to enter the capsule.  The inside was a circular couch where you laid back, astronaut style, with your feet and lower legs elevated.  We were arranged with our heads towards the central console which was hidden from view prior to entering and again prior to leaving so I can't say much about it.  The attendant connected us to the console and then closed the hatch.  After a short pause the console opened and projected a depiction of the three participant's beta, alpha and theta waves in red, blue, and yellow respectively which chorespond to increasing levels of relaxation (alpha being the alert state and theta being near unconscious).  I was fascinated and my display showed big wildly oscillating red bubbles unless I actively attempted to restrain my thoughts.  If I closed my eyes and tried to think of nothingness I could make my bubbles turn blue--for a while.  My compatriots on the other hand seemed much more relaxed and had little soothing pairs of blue bubbles which varied in size slowly back and forth between their left and right hemispheres in response to the new-age music.  I think that is what I was supposed to be doing.
two people with electrodes attached to their foreheads are exiting the futuristic looking exhibit.
   Later the display changed to a computer generated animation that seemed intended to represent travel into some exotic realm.  I liked the first part better than the entertainment part.  I just wanted to play around with my brainwaves.  The interaction lasted ten minutes.  Then the attendant came back to let us out.  Supremely well performed presentation. Best in show. 
A large faceted model of a mountain nearly envelops the pavilian building. Only one corner of the original structure is visible.
   The Arsenale was quite large an held the work of almost fifty artists.  Outside were a few more installations such as this one by Laura Belem.
Long narrow walkway between brick buildings presents a single vanishing point.   She also did a soundscape along the long walk outside of the corderie (rope factory).  Various sounds from everyday life were broadcast from pairs of speakers every twenty feet or so (40 total).
A colapsed building is visible through a small rusted opening. Heavy beams, broken roof tiles and other debris lay scattered. The overall composition is not unpleasant.    One of the protest pieces inside promoted "dilapidation" as something to be embraced not fixed.  A sarcastic viewer added a label to this collapsed structure just outside claiming it as a performance piece.  It is kind of interesting and quite representative of Venice in general.
Aluminum and tape have been used to construct a craft of dubious flightworthiness.
  The Chinese Pavilion included two UFOs made of scrap parts and tape.
Six bladed wooden propellor connected to a haphazardly constructed collection of machinery shows signs that it was actually operated.   Inside was an automotive engine and the terrifying signs that at some point it had been operated.  Yikes!
two earth tone abstracts painted onto two rectangular slabs of steel contrast with the elaborately decorated walls of a Venitian building.
   The Morrocan Pavilion was well situated and included some interesting abstracts such as these by Mohammed Bennani MOA which captured the nature of Morocco and placed it amongst the elaborate decoration of Venice.
View from three floors above the floor of a bookstore. Picture is framed by the sides of a vertical atrium.
   The Belarus Pavilion was hidden in plain sight on the third piano of this bookstore.  It took me quite some time to exhaust all other possibilities before I finally wandered upstairs (all the while expecting to be tossed out by some irate Italian Bouncer). 
Two egg shapes one polished bronze and one glass are in front of a wall sized envelope addressed to artists of the future.
  One piece included twelve egg shapes like these to represent various artists of the 20th century, packaged and addressed to artists of the future.
Three glass lollipops are labeled with a dollar sign, a Euro sign, and an X to spell the word SEX. in the background are other artworks including three images of women.
   This was a clever piece that fit right in with the Venetian glass here. 
A tourist fresh off the boat walks in front of a street artists display of oil paintings of Venice. in the background is the Grand Canal and one of many cathedrals.
   In addition to craftwork and galleries selling art, some of it quite excellent, there were a large number of street artists with stands like this one.  "If you go to gallery you pay five times the price for painting like this."  Hard to argue.
An archway frames the Piazza San Marco, one of the most recognizable sites in Venice. At the base of the picture is a pigeon. Tourists in background are snapping photos for relatives and friends who have been left behind.
   One nice thing about being an admitted tourist is that you can shamelessly take the same photos that thousands of other have and will continue to shoot.  Here is Piazza San Marco.
A "wide" street in Venice lined with shops and admiring tourists. Reflexion in shop window shows same view different angle. A small patch of sky shows the moon rising.
   Here is the street near my tiny one room, one bed, no bath hotel room.  These are all tourists.  It is the slow season. 

12 Octobre 2005

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