Oh my biennale what a day. I spent most of the day at Giardini exploring pavilions and later following people around ‘discreetly’ (ahem) photographing their tote bags (as you do).
I walked for hours and hours and hours and absorbed so much art it somehow neutralised my tiredness for most of the day.
Being a semi-heathen in the world of art, my mind became absorbed with perhaps less conventional aspects of the event. Like the percentage of art-speak in curatorial statements and work descriptions (thankfully going down), multi-dimensional ways of telling stories ( I loved the Finalnd pavilion’s moving projections and talking projector characters and the Greek story set in a maze while walking through the maze and becoming part of the story), people’s patterns through the artworks and the sheer number of different tote bags that were being given out. I was also mesmerised by various artworks which I wrote separately about and which left me mulling for the rest of the day.
The highlight of my day was definitely meeting Ernesto Neto and telling him just how wonderful his ‘Um Sagrado Lugar’ is and the absolutely amazing experience I had in there. I got a little bit emotional there if I’m honest.
The evening involved some spritz and lots of walking around to find mythical parties organised by some of the pavilions. We heard stories from some of the Maltese artists about an amazing Spanish party the night before and everyone wanted a taste of the shenanigans. Sadly the walking did not get us to a party. It did however land us right in front of the most amazing pizza takeaway in the whole of Venice which ended my night in absolute yumminess.
