Thursday, May 26, 2011

Back Doors to the Biennale

The 54th Venice Biennale opens on June 4 and preparations now seem to be going on almost around the clock--at least in some pavillions. Below are photos (taken this evening) of the back doors of a large pavillion officially considered part of the "Giardini" venue, though it is located not in the public gardens themselves but across a little bridge on the island of Sant' Elena.

In a strange way the old graffiti I walk past nearly every day (& that you see below) seems to have suddenly become, even before the Biennale has opened, an integral part of the exhibition.

Every inch of this large exhibition space is as purple as its back door.

The glow of a painter's lamp seems to promise all the significance of a video installation.

A graffiti plant thrives among real ones; a real shirt hangs among paintings.

2 comments:

  1. These are great photos; thanks for the glimpses of the preparations. I've only been in Venice once when it was happening and I didn't visit any of the pavillions. I really enjoyed running into some of the satellite exhibitions scattered around town though.

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  2. Thanks for your kind remarks, Annie. Seeing everything being readied for the opening(s) seems nearly as exciting as the shows themselves might prove to be. There's one satellite show (from Zimbabwe, I believe) in the large deconsecrated church at the end of Fondamenta Misericordia (whose name I forget & that I'm sure you know better than I) whose elaborate preparations, glimpsed from the outside, have me very intrigued.

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