After a full day at the Arsenale we started our second Biennale journey to the Giardini, where we wish to live more interesting times. The laguna opens in front of us and we experience the fresh morning air in a vaporetto trip to the Castello neighborhood, enjoying the views of Punta della Dogana and San Marco.
Art
May You Live In Interesting Times (I)
‘May you live in interesting times’. With this statement as a trigger point, La Biennale welcomes the visitor with a powerful (and poetic) warning. The times we are living are indeed interesting, but they may be dangerous, violent and lived as a race against the clock. This year’s exhibition, curated by Ralph Rugoff, explores the role of art in the fascintating intersection of AI, technology and humanity.
A lion in the way
The Lion embodies the absolute King, an infinite power rooted in history and time. Although being a nocturnal creature, it has often been related with the Sun, and has become a symbol in many cultures.
So shake your wild manes and roar through this WAMD-curated selection, opened by the Lion of St. Mark.
Eye of the tiger
The Tiger is a beautiful and fierce feline, strong-willed and independent. Wild at times and playful at others, tigers are sacred, an inspiration and a fantasy.
For all the tiger lovers out there, we start an eye-candy journey through art and illustration with tigers as main characters. All styles and techniques are used to portray them: there is poetry in their stripes!
Casa Vicens de Gaudí – Entre el margalló i la zinia
La Casa Vicens és la primera obra arquitectònica d’Antoni Gaudí, construïda entre 1883 i 1888, a l’encara residencial vil·la de Gràcia. El projecte li va ser encomanat com a una segona residència estival per la familia del corredor de borsa Manuel Vicens i Montaner.
-Casa Vicens is the first architectural work of Antoni Gaudí, built between 1883 and 1888, in the back then residential village of Gràcia. The project was entrusted to him as a summer residence for the family of the stock broker Manuel Vicens i Montaner.-
Viva Arte Viva (part II) – Where artists debate
After our stroll through the Arsenale we moved to the calm and shady Giardini, where the Central Pavilion and major Participating Countries pavilions are found by the calm waters of the Laguna. Here we find the two introductory chapters of this travel to discover our human identity trough ART: the Pavilion of Artists and Books and the Pavilion of Joys and Fears.
Viva Arte Viva – Artists out loud!
In a world where the concept of what defines us as humans is lost among conflict, art is most needed. In the 57th International Art Exhibition of Venice (La Biennale Arte 2017) ART (in capital letters) is treated as the ultimate path to freedom, self-expression, question and debate. This years exhibition is designed ‘with artists, by artists and for artists’, quoting Christine Macel, the curator. This journey through their ideas and imagination, their concerns and doubts, their life and practice is structured in nine chapters or pavilions, two in the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and seven across the Arsenale.
Hundertwasser: the straight line is ungodly
Friedensreich Hundertwasser – born in 1928 in Vienna as Friedrich Stowasser – became one of the most well-known artists and architects from Austria. His paintings are full of bright colours, spirals and nature elements combined with touches of gold and silver.
The Wreck of the Unbelievable (II)
“The Wreck of the Unbelievable” exhibition continues at Palazzo Grassi with the colossal Demon with Bowl. The headless statue is one of the key pieces of the fictional shipwreck; the visitor wonders how this fantastic eighteen-meter resin figure was placed in the Venetian classic palace.
The Wreck of the Unbelievable (I)
Citing Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Damien Hirst reveals the treasures of his exhibition “The Wreck of the Unbelievable” at Punta della Dogana in Venice. The artist proposes an extravagant excercise of believe: all statues, objects and pieces were supposedly sunk in a ship named Apistos and later discovered in the Indian Ocean.