Because of the weather we had postponed our visit to the official Biennale until the weekend.  Right on schedule we left the apartment right at 10:00 and, of course, it started to rain.  But it was really short lived.  We stopped for a coffee in Castello and then Vicki spied some drinking glasses which she just had to have, and Donna wanted to stop into a Pharmacy. And before we knew it, we were lost.  Aaah Venice.

After some backtracking, we found our way to the Arsenale and the entrance:

The title and over-arching theme of this biennale is Strangers Everywhere and the rooms were full of social commentary.  I don’t recall there being so much representation from Australia and Africa in past years.

The entry room was filled with long, woven metal strips from Australia.  Here in the next room were some interesting works on fabric, also Australian, that matched Donna’s color scheme:

Here’s Donna and me discussing these photos which had a pattern over the image:

There was a large room with many small video screens.  The one I watched was gruesome:  war in an Asian country.  I didn’t stay to find out exactly where.  Donna said they were “shouting at us.”

One of the more memorable rooms was also with video.  In each of about 10 maps, there was a narrator drawing their immigration path. It reminded me of the wonderful Italian film, Io Capitano.

After that we were all feeling burnt out.  I tried to go into a little theater with an African dance film, but it was full.  So, we all met outside and ate some potato chips and then pressed on to find the Italian Pavilion.  And lo and behold—the sun came out and it was glorious.

The Italian building was a very short walk around the back.  On the way, we could see Lorenzo Quin’s Hands in the distance and we passed this installation of contemporary columns from an L.A. artist:

Inside the Italian Pavilion—hmmm…  First this Buddha, at the end of a sound producing road.  The sound at the other end was a low rumble, like organ music in an earthquake.

The next room had a similar soundscape with tons of scaffolding  and in the center was a circular pool of undulating viscous water.  In Donna’s words, it was mesmerizing.

We came out and walked to the bar right in front of the historic Arsenale.  We got a bunch of panini and pressed on towards home.  Elisa come for a visit and to check on Donna’s eye issue.

Vicki and I went out to forage for dinner stuff at the supermarket and we stopped into the amazing Gesuiti church.  I lit a candle for my grandgirls, while Vicki gushed over the Titian (aka Tiziano Vecellio) painting.

Dinner and conversation, lots about the Biennale filled in the rest of the night.