Venice Biennale
Went to Venice last week for five days. It is only now, six days later, that I feel OK about being back in England. Venice is so extraordinary. I went to see the Biennale but the whole place is a living artwork which for me, never disappoints, unlike some contemporary art which can be very repetitive..
Best thing for me at the Biennale? Sophie Calle at the French Pavilion. I have always like her work and enjoyed the edges and boundaries of good taste that she plays with. This installation has been written about a lot already in the press, so I won’t go into it here, but it is very funny and rather bitchy..a good combination.
And also loved Bill Viola’s video work ‘Ocean without a Shore’ especially after having seen some enormous thunderstorms in Venice a few days before, and having to walk on planks of wood above the flooded streets around St Mark’s Square. Bill Viola is not particularly ‘fashionable’ to like in the contemporary art world as he is very much a romantic who deals with the elements - life, death, fire, water, air. But in a world full of conceptual art and ideas I embrace this emotional connection to his work - well, it made me cry…more water!
