I have been rather remiss in keeping this blog up to date, and as a consequence, will have to summarise severely, and keep to the highlights.
Monday 15 May was spent driving from Reitano in Sicily to Retonda in Basilicata, located in the Pollino National Park, a region of lush vegetation, steep mountains, valleys dotted with villages, and winding roads. We arrived at our B&B late afternoon, were warmly welcomed by our host Giaccomo, offered coffee and then showed to our room, which was comfortable, but basic. Dinner was essentially a selection of assorted and delicious antipasto. A later meal he cooked was also delicious.
The following days were spent exploring the park and the various towns and villages there. One day was wet, and our laxness meant that we didn't do much walking, not helped by the information on potential walks in the park being scarce and not well presented. Nevertheless, we enjoyed exploring, and found the food interesting.
On Thursday 18 May we drove north to Salerno, returning our hire car ( a relief as driving in southern Italy is not without stress!), overnighting in a B&B in the centre of the city. We explored the old city, and enjoyed the cathedral and the nearby diocesan museum.
On Friday, we took the train to Naples, and then struggled to find the correct bus to take us to the airport. The area around the central train station was absolute chaos, with milling crowds on the footpaths, and a seeming ant heap of vehicles on the roads. When we finally found the correct bus stop, and after a thirty minute wait, the correct bus arrived, we set off for the airport, only to have the bus stranded in a narrow side street near the station by a parked car which had its rear end projecting onto the road, thus preventing the bus from passing. Meanwhile traffic backed up in the narrow street behind he bus, horns began blaring, agitated drivers eventually came forward to assess the problem, the local business owners came onto the street to watch what would transpire, the municipal police were called, and when they arrived they stood around consulting amongst themselves as to the best course of action. In short, it was a minor urban crisis.
I tried to stay calm, remembering that the time before check in closed was steadily approaching....Eventually, four or five men, who appeared to be local passers-by, took it upon themselves to shimmy and jerk and bounce the offending car out of the way, the driver put the bus into gear, and we proceeded off into the traffic as if nothing untoward had occurred....
We made our flight with a little time to spare, and arrived in Venice shortly before five pm....after a 90 minute ferry ride, we were deposited on the island of Guidecca, directly opposite piazza San Marco. A short while later, we were in our apartment, with wonderful views across the channel to the piazza, and the venice skyline.
Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to checking out the Biennale, Saturday at the Giardini, Sunday at the Arsenale. Both days were terrific, lots of stimulating art, quite a bit of art which missed the mark, and all housed in wonderful settings. A tremendous serendipitous bonus, as we had not planned this vacation with the Biennale in mind.
Highlights of our wandering on Saturday were the Russian exhibit featuring contributions by Grisha Bruskin and Sasha Pirogova, who managed to present an engaging integrated exhibit of sculpture, video and sound which comprised a critique of mass movements, consumerism, and authoritarianism at a level of abstraction which made it relevant to any nation or part of the world.
Tracy Moffat, Australia's representative, certainly held her own. Her contribution was entitled'My Horizon', but inevitably it challenges the viewer to think about his or her own horizons, both real and metaphorical. Moffat presented two sets of photographs and two short videos, focussed on universal themes: memory, loss, and in her best piece, a searing video which depicted the horror of watching a disaster while being totally powerless to do anything about it....the particular case she presented was the smashing of a refugee vessel into rocks on the shore of Christmas Island a few years ago, powerfully depicted through animation intercut with frames from a range of films which depicted people watching in horror some event from afar. This approach had the effect of abstracting the issue, so that she was making a statement about more than the disaster depicted, but about more general issues, of refugees, but potentially any issue where citizens are involved (and thus complicit) in events or issues which are beyond the capacity of individuals to influence or shape.
There were other exhibits in the Giardini which deserve mention: the Greek artist George Drivas' contribution, the Laboratory of Dilemmas based upon Aeschylus' play Iketides (Suppliant Women). While Drivas' formulation (video, sound, and a maze like structure which viewers of the installation were required to traverse) was cast in terms of a debate amongst a group of medical scientists about what to do with a cell experiment which had been compromised by an intrusion of new and foreign cells, Aeschylus' original was about the dilemma of assisting a group of pursued foreigners at the risk of placing the safety of the community at risk from their pursuers. The resonance with current issues of refugees were difficult to miss. Drivas doesn't resolve the dilemma, but merely explores its ramifications, and the meta-dynamics of those who have an interest in seeing issues resolved one way or another. Resolution is left to individual viewers. I particularly liked one comment made by the chief scientist about the experiment where he notes the propensity of rats in a maze to persist in moving forward until they find their way out...and the contrast with the maze which viewers are required to traverse a maze to understand the issues addressed, all the while under the view of other viewers above who have already traversed the maze.
There was much else: a poignant video interview with the son of one of Alberto Giacometti's early lovers, recounting his mother's slide into anonymity and despair (implicitly contrasted with Giacometti's very different life trajectory). Somboon Hormtientong's Thai contribution which I found a quite thought provoking meditation on the replacement of traditional forms of life by modernity, and the consequences, costs, and implications of those processes.
On Sunday, we spent the day exploring the huge Arsenale complex, a gorgeous piece of renaissance architecture in its own right (it was the site of the Venetian city state's ship building enterprise in the fifteenth century). Again there were some stand outs: the Chinese pavilion dealt with traditional Chinese values of loss, resilience, and much more in a very powerful set of video installations around the theme of falling and gushing water and heaving oceans: their power, their rhythm, their persistence were almost overwhelming once one focussed on the screens. The Indonesian pavilion quirkily dealt with the nature of privacy and surveillance in the modern world creating a space with peep holes through which one could see eyes following your every movement. A sign mentioned that by entering the installation, visitors were giving permission to be filmed and that the footage might be used as part of the installation in the future. The Italian contribution was amazing for its macabre presentation of a factory which manufactures replicas of Jesus Christ from some organic material (wax?) which has already begun (and will continue to over the coming months) mould and decompose before the viewers' eyes (and noses!).....am not sure what it was meant to convey, but it was certainly memorable...it resonates with the Sicilian / Italian ? / Catholic preoccupation with death...
New Zealand was represented by Lisa Reihana, with a video installation entitled 'Emissaries': it was strangely enticing insofar as the film scrolled out slowly from right to left, with a series of vignettes acted out by Polynesian and anglo actors narrating episodes in the first contact between the British and the Polynesians. While the actors were real, they were placed in an idealised painted setting, which worked surprisingly well. The overarching narrative demonstrated the difficulties of cross cultural communication, the differing notions of property and rights of the british and the polynesians, and the degree to which resort to violence rests not very far below the surface of any society. What didn't quite work was the shifting focus from a New Zealand and Maori narrative, the inclusion of Captain James Cook's engagemnt in Australia (the inclusion of a group of clearly Arnhem Land dancers in one vignette jarred!) and Hawaii (which was clearly included to enable the film to narrate Cook's death). Still, the installation has stayed with me, surely the sign that it is communicating something important.
Finally there was the Tunisian contribution: a human performance based around the issuance of a universal travel document to interested applicants....which proclaims that the owner (or at least this owner) is of unknown origin, of unknown destination, and has the status of a migrant...I guess that is in many respects a fitting description for life itself....My document was stamped by the official at the desk, who took my thumbprint, and inspected my face (without glasses) with a stamp which proclaimed the name of the installation: 'the absence of paths', and confirmed that i was 'Only Human'. There was much else of interest, too much for me to summarise....
One obvious theme which emerged form the experience of two days surveying a global selection of artists' work was a general focus, even concern, about the status and treatment of refugees. The sophistication of the art differed considerably: while some of the work struck the viewer with a sledge hammer, much raised the issue in a much more nuanced and indeterminate way,the New Zealand film being a case in point.
Apart from the art, we have been enjoying exploring the city's backways, finding some good places to eat, and are yet to visit Piazza San Marco (we have been there before, and it is absolutely overrun with tourists). Our apartment on Guidecca is the perfect location; close to the centre of the city, but far enough away to provide some space to move.
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