#VeniceBooks: "Simple Determination" - Burano Is a Neverland, Yet it Exists - Celebrating 30 Years of Martina Vidal Venezia

"Burano is a neverland, but it exists." From Semplice Determinazione by Andrea Bettini

(Venice, Italy) On Friday evening, July 30, 2021, I was whisked across the waters of the Venice lagoon to Burano -- the island of colorful houses, fisherman and lace -- in a boat taxi provided by the atelier Martina Vidal Venezia. The occasion was the launch of a book entitled Simple Determination, celebrating the 30 years that the family lacemaking company has been in business. 

"For visitors, the island of Burano became the natural backdrop for their dreams. For residents, it was the best place to live in the entire world. That's what Burano was. A happy landing. A beloved home. ...At exactly nine o'clock on the morning of July 31, 1991, the doors to Artigianato del Merletto da Martina were thrown open."

Martina Vidal and her brother, Sergio, were born into a close-knit family of lacemakers and are constantly finding ways to refresh the ancient tradition by hauling the past into the future. The siblings grew up on Burano watching their grandmothers, aunts and mother work together with needlepoint to create dainty masterpieces call "punto in aria" or "points in the air."

Sergio Vidal, Cat Bauer, Martina Vidal at Semplice Determinazione launch  

Photo: Roberto Rosa

Researchers have concluded that the ingenious inventors of needlelace or "merletto" -- working independently from a backing fabric, indispensable in embroidery -- were aristocratic women during Renaissance Venice. Surrounded by bold, refined ideas, the noble women and their intimate circles would spin their artistic urges into delicate lace while enjoying enlightened conversations.

Thanks to its exceptional quality, Venetian lace gained fame throughout all of Europe. Lace became the top fashion accessory for the ruling classes. As time went on, thousands of craftswomen were needed to keep up with the demand, providing work for the proletariat, with Burano as its center. 

Sergio Vidal, Federica Repetto, presenter, Andrea Bettini, author (on screen), Riccardo Petito, presenter, Martina Vidal at book launch for Semplice Determinazione

Next the French and Flemish got in on the act, and new technologies paved the way for mass production. Fashions changed; revolutions overthrew aristocracies, and lace was no longer in vogue. Needlelace became a domestic hobby, passed down from mother to daughter, going through periods of decline and revival.

Then, thanks to the efforts of Countess Andriana Zon Marcello and backed by Princess Margherita of Savoy, a lacemaking school opened on Burano on March 24, 1872, reviving the local economy -- which is where the Vidal's great-grandmother learned the art. Sadly, the rally was shortlived. By 1973, the school had closed and is now the Burano Lace Museum.

"Burano is a neverland, but it exists... Burano was the center of the universe for its inhabitants -- especially for its children, who left the island for Venice only when they started high school. Because Burano was their own fantastic world." 

The Vidals are at the forefront in keeping the art of merletto alive. Martina said, "The biggest problem is finding lacemakers."

The local population has dwindled to about 2400 residents, and these days the painstaking, intricate art is practiced by only a handful of older women, each excelling in one stitch, which is then put together to create the final product. Real handmade lace from Burano is precious and rare.

Atelier Martina Vidal Venezia supplements their handmade lace with contemporary, high-quality linens and luxury bespoke collections made from silk, cashmere and the finest cotton, and collaborates with top designers and fashion houses. They have a discerning clientele that includes celebrities and royalty, but the only name they were willing to reveal was that of Magic Johnson, who has publicly declared his passion for their fashion.

"

Garden of Martina Vidal Venezia, former home of artist Umberto Moggioli

Photo: Cat Bauer

Sergio said, "When the sun sets and the tourists leave, the Buranelli have the island back to themselves."

The atelier is located in the reinvented home of Umberto Moggioli, a member of the Burano School, a group of struggling artists who, in the early 1900s, found inspiration on the island, attracted by its haunting landscapes and modest way of life. Moggioli's wife Anna turned their home into a gathering place for artists like Gino Rossi, Arturo Martini and Pio Semeghini, members of the Burano School who would go on to find success, and whose work can be seen today in Ca' Pesaro, Venice's International Gallery of Modern Art.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Burano was a humble paradise where fishermen, lacemakers and artists lived side by side.

Trattpria Da Romano & Atelier Martina Vidal Venezia - Generations on Burano

Artists have to eat, and the local Barbaro family fed them at their small bottega. In return, the artists gifted the family with works of art. Around 1920, Romano Barbaro transformed the bottega into Trattoria Da Romano.

Da Romano is renowned today for over 450 paintings on its walls, and the names of celebrities like Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin, Maria Callas, Fellini, Robert De Niro and Keith Richards recorded in its 26 "Libroni." It's also a favorite haunt of designer Philippe Starck, who used a table at the trattoria as his office for more than ten years, and has maintained a home on Burano for decades. 

The book launch was held in the garden of Umberto and Anna Moggioli's former house and artist hangout, now headquarters for Martina Vidal Venezia and their friends and clients. And the food was provided by Da Romano, which is still owned by the Barbaro family. 

Inside Martina Vidal Venezia - Photo: Cat Bauer

"This book was born of a desire to rediscover ourselves, to focus on the path we have followed together, but above all from a desire to understand where we want to go from here." 

The subtitle of the book encapsulates the secret of the Vidals' success: Simple Determination. Because good people can do great things.  

Ciao from Venezia,
#VeniceBooks

Cat Bauer

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Portions of this article were originally published in a slightly different form in the Spring/Summer 2019 edition of Luxos Magazine.

A Tribute to Ismael Ivo the "Ebony God" at Ca' Giustinian, Venice Biennale Headquarters

Ismael Ivo

(Venice, Italy) On the evening of July 22nd, here in Venice we celebrated the life of Ismael Ivo, the dynamic and much loved Brazilian dancer, choreographer and director of Biennale Danza who died of Covid-19 on April 8, 2021 at the age of 66. 

 

The Body Is a Document of Today: A Tribute to Ismael Ivo was inaugurated in the Portego of Ca'Giustinian, La Biennale di Venezia's headquarters on the Grand Canal. The tribute reminded us of the power Ismael conveyed during the years that he was here in Venice, a force that still reverberates today.

The exhibition was curated by Wayne McGregor, the current Director of the Dance, who raided La Biennale's vast Historical Archive (ASAC) to organize a touching memorial for Ismael Ivo. According to McGregor, the tribute is:

A celebration of the adventuresome spirit and poetic humanity of Ismael Ivo in documents, photos and video from the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts of La Biennale di Venezia.

"Adventuresome spirit" and "poetic humanity" describes Ismael Ivo beautifully, and I am grateful to Wayne McGregor for putting together this memorial, and to La Biennale for inviting me to the opening. It was the closure I needed to accept that this wonderful spirit who impacted my life is no longer here on the planet.

Robert Mapplethorpe Adjusting Ismael Ivo for a Portrait (1984) © Gudrun Stockinger

Ismael Ivo was the director of the Biennale Dance sector from 2005 through 2012. But he first captured my heart several years earlier when I saw him perform Mapplethorpe at the Dance Biennale in 2002, a dance monument he created in memory of Robert Mapplethorpe -- a performance which is still burned into my memory nearly two decades later. 

 

The show began with a completely naked, astonishingly beautiful man on stage. He had luminescent ebony skin and a perfect body and was fearless, physically breaking down a wall accompanied by the music of Steve Reich while wading through calla lilies.

 

Ismael's performance created a sensation throughout Venice and the dance world, and an unscheduled repeat performance was quickly planned for the next night. I still have my agenda from 2002, and I have it written on both May 7 and 8, which makes me wonder if I saw it twice. 

 

Ismael Ivo in Mapplethorpe

The Inspiration for Mapplethorpe, the Dance

According to a 2007 article in La Repubblica, and an article in gay.it entitled I Neri di Mapplethorpe (The Blacks of Mapplethorpe) in 1984 Ismael, then 29, had accompanied Gudrun Stockinger, an Austrian photojournalist, to an interview at Mapplethorpe's home studio in Manhattan. She wanted to photograph Mapplethorpe, and he said he would only agree if Ismael would agree to be photographed by him. (Ismael had been transported to New York by his talent after being plucked off the stage in Brazil by Alvin Ailey, who had seen him perform while there on vacation.) It was agreed, and that is how a topless Ismael Ivo came to be photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe, an encounter that jolted Ismael to such an extent that he later would create a performance based on the experience.

 

In 1989, Ismael was in Germany (again transported by his talent) and read that Mapplethorpe was dying of AIDS. He called Mapplethorpe and told him that the day he was photographed was one of the most beautiful and intense days of his life, and he wanted to thank him for his kindness. Mapplethorpe replied that "you don't know how important it is to hear these words. The only thing I regret is that I will no longer be able to photograph you because for me you are the ideal model." Two weeks later, Mapplethorpe was dead.

 

Then, nearly two decades later, in the Italian interview with Il Repubblica, Ismael explained that he replicated the magical exchange of energy of that photography session when he conjured up Mapplethorpe -- the silence in the room, the way Robert Mapplethorpe choreographed Ismael's pose as he sat on a chair, his intense gaze:

 

"For me the show is an aesthetic dialogue with Mapplethorpe, a genius who had an obsession  

with the body. Mapplethorpe broke a taboo in American society by showing the black man's body  

and his personal fantasies about it in the sunlight. He broke an erotic and racial taboo."

 

 "The show begins with my naked body breaking a wall, the prison of taboos. I think that only a  

genius like him could break a taboo that went back to the colonial era. He succeeded because  

he was good and because he translated the erotic model into luminous, perfect images." 

 

"...Mapplethorpe not only stripped my body but also my soul. He forced me to open my interior...

           he was like an anthropologist. He studied that body for a deeper unveiling."

 

Like handing off the baton in a relay race, Ismael Ivo took Mapplethorpe's distinct images of the black male body, infused them with his own passions and transformed them into dance. He then passed this mystical conversation without words onto us, the audience. The performance went down in history.

By then, Ismael had co-founded the Vienna International Dance Festival and was head choreographer at the German National Theater in Weimar. He became Director of La Biennale Dance in 2005, and then created L'Arsenale della Danza, a company of young dancers from all over the world, who arrived in Venice for master classes with selected mentors, followed by live performances. The dances of the students were so popular that it became almost impossible to get a seat.

 

Roberto Cicutto, President of La Biennale & Wayne McGregor, Director of Dance

The Ebony God

While researching this post, I stumbled on an article in Black Brazil Today entitled:

 

Dancer/choreographer Ismael Ivo: The ebony god that Brazil didn’t know and the world revered dies from complications of Covid-19

 

I thought that "ebony god" described Ismael Ivo even better than his "adventuresome spirit" and "poetic humanity." (Can you imagine knowing such a man!?) About midway through the article, which seems to have more than one author, Kauê Vieira writes:

Ismael Ivo had the color of the night. A black man, with muscles defined by the work of a career of over 30 years abroad, Ivo was the perfect definition of an Deus do Ébano (Ebony God), as Ilê Aiyê sang so well.

The article is a fascinating recap of Ismael's life told from the perspective of his own country, Brazil, to which he had returned. He took over the direction of the Balé da Cidade de São Paulo in 2017 and was the vice president of the State Council of Culture of the Government of São Paulo when he died. 

According to the article, São Paulo Governor João Dória announced that he would create the SP Escola de Dança Ismael Ivo (Ismael Ivo School of Dance), which “will offer technical and artistic training, with a 100% focus on the formation and training of professionals in choreography and performance.”

May the memory and trajectory of Ismael Ivo serve to inspire Brazil to understand that there is no evolutionary possibility without art. But art that includes and fights against historical prejudices, such as racism. The rest, dear readers, is a sham and has a commitment to oppression.

“Culture is an element that transforms life,” Ismael Ivo.

To read more about the Ebony God go to Black Brazil Today.

Tribute to Ismael Ivo on the Terrace of Ca' Giustinian, La Biennale Headquarters - Photo: Cat Bauer

 

The Body Is a Document of Today: A Tribute to Ismael Ivo

 

Here in Venice, at the inauguration, Roberto Cicutto, the new President of La Biennale di Venezia said, "We are proud that the material gathered in this Exhibition today can indeed make us feel the presence of Ismael Ivo, who recently passed away, and brings his work to the attention of those who might choose to embrace it and those who might wish to disseminate it."

 

The images and videos of the tribute were deeply moving, and I became teary-eyed remembering the precious moments I had shared with Ismael, a man filled with passion and compassion, strength and kindness. He was a man who was as beautiful on the inside as he was on the outside, and who used his medium to challenge the world to its core and probe the depths of its foundation.

 

 Afterwards we all went up to the roof and continued the celebration on the terrace of Ca' Giustinian, a setting that has one of the most spectacular views in Venice. Surrounded by such magnificence, we could indeed feel the presence of Ismael Ivo radiating from the heavens. 

 

Addio, caro Ismael. Rest with the angels.

Cat Bauer at Ismael Ivo Tribute - Ca' Giustinian Terrace

 

The exhibition The Body Is a Document of Today - A Tribute to Ismael Ivo is open every day in the Portego at Ca' Giustinian from 8am to 8pm, and admission is free.The inauguration was the pre-opening of Biennale Danza 2021, the 15th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, which runs through Sunday, August 1st. Go to La Biennale di Venezia for tickets and further information.

 

Ciao from Venezia,

Cat Bauer

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Standing Ovation at Teatro Goldoni for Kae Tempest, Winner of Venice Biennale Theater Silver Lion

Kae Tempest at Teatro Goldini in Venice - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) Kae Tempest is a wordsmith wizard who spins thoughts into gold. Tempest's performance of The Book of Traps & Lessons at the Teatro Carlo Goldoni last night, July 10, was riveting and received a standing ovation -- which illustrates the power of the piece, since the Italian world premiere was a 45-minute spoken-word poem performed entirely in English. 

It was a COVID-distanced full house, with every other seat occupied all the way up to the highest balcony. The written program was in English and Italian, but it is nearly impossible to translate such a complex narrative from one language to another and capture the original meaning. Tempest said something like, "I don't know if you can understand the words, but maybe you will understand the feeling." Judging by the reaction of the audience, the message was delivered.

I've never heard Tempest perform before, either live or on record, so I don't know the journey the artist took to arrive at the Goldoni. I've read  interviews and listened to excerpts of previous performances, all of which included music. The performance last night was just Tempest with a mic. No music. The words were so compelling and the voice so pure, I didn't miss the music.  

Know the wolves that hunt you 

in time they will be the dogs that bring your slippers

Love them right

and you will feel them kiss you

when they come to bite

--- from Hold Your Own by Kae Tempest

Kae Tempest was born Kate Esther Calvert in Westminster, England on December 22, 1985 and came out as non-binary in August 2020, which means that I am supposed to use the pronoun "they" instead of "she," which I don't want to do because the grammar is too awkward in the English language (surely there must be another solution). So I am going to try to write this entire post by avoiding the whole thing.

In 2013, Tempest won the Ted Hughes Award for Brand New Ancients, and was named a Next Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society, an honor that only happens once in a decade. The albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos were both nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. The third album, The Book of Traps and Lessons, that we heard last night was released in 2019 and was nominated for the Ivor Novello Award.

I have seen the lions turn to cubs

And I have seen the hunters turn to prey

The lessons will come again tomorrow

If they're not learned today

---  from Lessons by Kae Tempest

Tempest said that last night would be the last time the words of The Book of Traps & Lessons would be spoken publicly. Italy holds a special place in the evolution of the work, and performing the piece in Venice seemed to give it closure. The piece had been written five years ago in Umbria, and went "very deeply in and very vastly out." 

She said - we are born of collision

We are divisions of a bigger vision

And yet we run around like hamsters

Spinning the wheel

Spinning the wheel

Spinning the wheel

 

I was on my knees then

Begging for pardon

I was old and clothed in white garments

 

In a vast red desert

Where the rocks were dark blue and varnished

 

And a voice said

This is the garden

 

Now you better start sowing

Or there won't be a harvest

--- from Holy Elixir by Kae Tempest

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors were having their summit here in Venice at the same time that we were watching Tempest perform at the Teatro Goldoni, which Tempest acknowledged, saying: "There is another gathering of people in this city tonight. Let's reach out to the unreachable."

Outside Teatro Goldoni, Venice - Photo: Cat Bauer

In addition to recording albums and performing live, Tempest also writes novels, non-fiction and plays.  Paradise, a version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes opens at the National Theatre in London on August 4th. The play's text published by Picador launches on August 5th. It is Tempest's work as a playwright that La Biennale di Venezia honors with the Silver Lion award. 

 

The Venice Biennale 49th International Theater Festival runs from July 2 to 11, 2021, and is directed by Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte (ricci/forte) who entitled this year's festival "Blue."

 

Pre-order at #VeniceBooks

 

Ciao from Venezia,

Cat Bauer

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Music in the Maze: The Borges Labyrinth on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice has its Own Soundtrack

The Borges Labyrinth on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) I remember when the magical Borges Labyrinth was unveiled here in Venice on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore a decade ago, back on June 14, 2011, to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of the renowned Argentinian writer and poet, Jorge Luis Borges, who died on June 14, 1986. 

The Borges Labyrinth is a reconstruction of the maze that Randoll Coate, the British diplomat, maze designer and Borges friend, designed in Argentina inspired by the short story The Garden of the Forking Paths. It was created at the behest of Maria Kodama, the widow of Borges, who wished to commemorate her husband's love of Venice. The aim of the project was to "create a garden full of spiritual meaning in memory of Borges" and generate public interest in his work. 

Renata Codello, Andrea Erri, Ilaria D'Uva, Antonio Fresa (not posing:-)

Now, 10 years later, we celebrate the opening of the Borges Labyrinth for the first time to the public with a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack composed by Antonio Fresa and performed by the Teatro La Fenice Orchestra, which was presented by Renata Codello, the dynamic new Secretary General of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Andrea Erri, the Managing Director of Fondazione Teatro La Fenice, Ilaria D'Uva, CEO and owner of D'Uva, and Antonio Fresa, the composer himself.

I have walked the maze before accompanied only by the sound of birdsong and silence. This time, as I wandered the maze with a handful of others, I actually felt like I was in a movie -- a real-life movie -- with Teatro La Fenice Orchestra playing the score. I became misty-eyed by the music wafting through the headphones and the gentle twists and turns of the path. Fresa said, "Walking the Labyrinth is a four-movement suite that tells the metaphor of existence flowing backwards, experienced through evaporation, solidity, chaos and the origin of life." 

And that is what it felt like -- that time was flowing backwards, and I was in the same labyrinth, starting in the present and zigzagging my way back through time, feeling the same way I felt back in 2011 when it first opened and then forward and backward throughout the years when it was open for special events, and now here I was in the labyrinth again in 2021 with the music of Teatro La Fenice in my ears, the theater which has burned and resurrected and burned and resurrected throughout time -- it felt so familiar and wonderful that these heavenly vibrations cannot be destroyed but resurrect and still hover in the air for more than a thousand years on the ancient Island of San Giorgio Maggiore and that I could bear witness.

The Borges Labyrinth - A Sountrack Experience - Photo: Cat Bauer

Everything about the Borges Labyrinth is loaded with symbolism and profound thought, including The Garden of the Forking Paths, the short story that inspired it, which, on the surface appears to be a spy thriller set during the first World War. Wikipedia says: "The story's theme has been said to foreshadow the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics." Here are some excerpts:

"The advice about turning always to the left reminded me that such was the common formula for finding the central courtyard of certain labyrinths. I know something about labyrinths. Not for nothing am I the great-grandson of Ts'ui Pen. He was Governor of Yunnan and gave up temporal power to write a novel with more characters than there are in the Hung Lou Meng, and to create a maze in which all men would lose themselves. He spent thirteen years on these oddly assorted tasks before he was assassinated by a stranger. His novel had no sense to it and nobody ever found his labyrinth."

"Under the trees of England I meditated on this lost and perhaps mythical labyrinth. I imagine it untouched and perfect on the secret summit of some mountain; I imagined it drowned under rice paddies or beneath the sea; I imagined it infinite, made not only of eight-sided pavilions and of twisting paths but also of rivers, provinces and kingdoms.  ...I thought of a maze of mazes, of a sinuous, ever-growing maze which would take in both past and future and would somehow involve the stars."

"An invisible labyrinth of time."

"At one time, Ts'ui must have said, 'I am going into seclusion to write a book,' and at another, 'I am retiring to construct a maze.' No one realized that the book and the labyrinth were one and the same."

"Differing from Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not think of time as absolute and uniform. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a dizzily growing ever spreading network of diverging, converging and parallel times."

Until now, it was only possible for the public to see the Labyrinth from the terrace of the Branca Center, not actually walk it. Seen from above, the Labyrinth looks like an open book with 3,200 box hedges arranged to form the name Borges forward and in reverse, dotted with references to the works of the Argentine writer: a walking stick, mirrors, two hourglasses, a huge question mark, a tiger, the name Jorge Luis and the initials of Maria Kodama.

After I twice journeyed through space and time inside the labyrinth, I joined the other travelers at the San Giorgio Café, which has also reopened, for drinks and nibbles with a view of the sailboats along the quay. And just like meeting a familiar acquaintance on a forking path inside the labyrinth, it turned out that I knew the new chef, Najada Frasheri, about whom I had written for LUXOS Magazine back in 2018 when she was cooking at Vecio Fritolin (which has sadly closed), and who has now manifested on the Island of San Giorgio. Najada assured us that visitors will leave the San Giorgio Café well-fed. 

Tomaso Buzzi exhibit in the Longhena Library - Photo: Cat Bauer

VISITCINI.COM

Antonio Fresa has also composed a soundtrack to accompany the tour of the Vatican Chapels which are located in the woods of San Giorgio Maggiore, which I have seen previously, but not heard. In addition, there is a tour of the Giorgio Cini Foundation itself, and a free tour of the whimsical sketches in the  Venezia è tutto d’oro. Tomaso Buzzi: disegni “fantastici”1948-1976 exhibition in the Longhena Library, as well as different combinations of all the tours. 

In order to visit the Borges Labyrinth and the other excellent offerings under the umbrella of the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, you must make a reservation. At the time of this writing, if you go to the English Visit Cini dot Com website, you will see that it says "Tour Temporarily Not Available." Actually, that is not true -- the tours are available, but only if you make reservations on the Italian website. So, for those who do not understand Italian, here are some clues to help you wind your way through the reservation labyrinth: First go here to the English website so you can see what tours are available (some are listed in English, but not all), then go here to book which tour you would like after you decipher the Italian site.

UPDATE 2022: You can now book directly on the English-language site.

 "I leave to various future times, but not to all, my garden of forking paths."

Ts'ui Pen 

from the Garden of the Forking Paths

by Jorge Luis Borges 

 

Ciao from Venezia,

Cat Bauer

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

They're Back... Visitors Embrace the 17th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition

How Will We Live Together? Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) Yes, the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale has actually opened. About the same time, Italy relaxed much of its COVID restrictions, and humanity suddenly appeared in Venice again, as if on cue. Where did they all come from?

Biennale Architecture demands an answer to the question: How Will We Live Together? That theme had been announced in July 2019 by Hashim Sarkis, the Lebanese architect and director of Biennale Architecture, way back when a global pandemic and worldwide lockdown sounded like the premise of a Hollywood film.

And just like a Hollywood film that had merely stopped rolling the cameras for a lunch break, Venice is back in motion, with tourists wheeling suitcases and snapping selfies on bridges; outdoor tables full for lunch; travelers perusing the shops; tour guides cluttering up the calli waving rubber duckies on sticks, surrounded by clumps of followers; day-trippers sitting on church steps munching on sandwiches -- thousands of extras moving through town as if the director had just hollered: "Action!" and set the background atmosphere rolling again.

How will we live together? Tourists on the traghetto - Photo: Cat Bauer

Yesterday on the traghetto at San Tomà some tourists actually told me to sit down! (I was standing -- which is something perfectly normal to do on the traghetto -- because I wanted to hop off quickly to go to an appointment.) I said, "Wait -- you are telling me to sit down on the traghetto? Why?" They said, "So we can take photos of each other." I burst out laughing, and the gondoliers grinned. I said, "You're back! The tourists are actually back! Venice has returned to 'normal.' I'm going to take a photo of you with your smartphones and put you on my blog."

How Will We Live Together? - Photo: Cat Bauer

HOW WILL WE LIVE TOGETHER?

 

The Biennale Architecture normally takes place in even-numbered years, and the Art Exhibition in odd-numbered years, so that is an another reset for the archives: 2020 - The Year There was No Biennale due to a Global Pandemic. There are more installations than architectural projects this year, which makes visiting the current Biennale more interesting for the average visitor without a background in architecture -- like me.

It makes me happy just to be able to stride through the Corderie inside the Arsenale once again and marvel at how the ancient shipyard has been transformed into a massive exhibition space with architects from all over the planet pondering How Will We Live Together? 

I love that dignitaries arrive in Venice from different countries to open their national pavilions, like mini embassies ready for diplomacy. (Unfortunately, there are no prosecco corks being popped as there are still many regulations in place -- wearing a mask inside and out is strictly enforced.)

 

Hashim Sarkis, Director of Biennale Architecture - Photo: Cat Bauer

If you read the articles that have been written about the exhibition, it seems to have gotten mixed reviews. Here are some of the diverse headlines, with links to the stories:

• Architectural Record - Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 Opens with Signs of Optimism

• Architectural Review - Outrage: the Venice Biennale makes a mess
  

• New York Times - The Venice Biennale, Twice Delayed, Takes on New Relevance

• Associated Press - From Gaza to Chile, Biennale Asks How We Will Live Together

• The Guardian - Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 review – a pick’n’mix of conceptual posturing

In conjunction with the opening of Biennale Architecture there has been a slew of other openings in museums, palaces, foundations, galleries and institutions -- so many that it will take some time to cover them all. 

Venice is bursting with art right now. Fortunately, many exhibitions will run for the length of the Biennale, until November 21; others even run into 2022. You could spend weeks in Venice this season and still not see everything, there is so much on show. It is impressive how much creativity occurred behind the scenes during the pandemic. 

ISRAEL PAVILION - Land. Milk. Honey: Animal Stories in Imagined Landscapes

Israel Pavilion - Photo: Cat Bauer

Israel was one of my favorite pavilions because it told a vivid story and packed an emotional punch. Following the lives of five different types of animals -- cows, goats, honey bees, water buffalo and bats -- Land of Milk and Honey - The Construction of Plenitude examines the impact that aggressive urbanization and mechanized agriculture had on the natural environment of Palestine-Israel when man literally tried to turn a Biblical promise into reality in the 20th century. 

From the Israel Pavilion Biennale description:

...the environment was reshaped by urbanization, infrastructural projects, mechanized agriculture, intensive afforestation, and the manipulation of animal bodies into food-producing machines. The preference of yield and the transformation of the land came at the cost of irreparable damage to natural habitats and to the local fauna and flora, as well as the disruption of human ways of living. 

Our zoocentric exhibition offers a sober look at a land radically transformed by the combined powers of ideology and technology, and emphasizes the need to establish a new contract between humans, animals and the environment, thus addressing the Biennale Architettura 2021’s key theme – How will we live together?

The Pavilion is divided into five acts: Mechanization, Territory, Cohabitation, Extinction, and the Post-Human, which tells the story of human impact on the land and the animals. The ground floor features art installations, models, videos and other documentation. 

I was riveted by the image of one of the last hunter-gatherers of the region before the agricultural revolution kicked in -- a young woman who died 14,500 years ago at about age 35 and was buried in a fetal position with a puppy curled up near her head. 

On the top floor, the full impact of the installation hits you as mechanized drawers open like those in a morgue, revealing bodies of the taxidermy animals from the region. What stunned me was when one drawer opened and revealed that actual skeleton of the 14,500-year-old woman and her puppy described on the ground floor. I asked if she had a name, and it seemed like she did not, so I called her "Anna" and the puppy "Toto." 

Anna & Toto - Israel Pavilion - Photo: Cat Bauer

From the Press Release:

Title: Land Of Milk And Honey: The Construction Of Plenitude
Commissioner: Michael Gov, Arad Turgeman
Curators: Dan Hasson, Iddo Ginat, Rachel Gottesman, Yonatan Cohen, Tamar Novick
Exhibitors: Dan Hasson, Iddo Ginat, Rachel Gottesman, Yonatan Cohen, Tamar Novick, Netta Laufer, Shadi Habib Allah, Daniel Meir, Apollo Legisamo, Adam Havkin

The exhibition investigates the relations between humans and animals: quoting a biblical line, “Land Of Milk And Honey” highlights the role of urbanization and technology in reshaping natural landscape with far-reaching environmental consequences in Palestine-Israel in the twentieth century. The exhibition aims to offer an overview on the matter and a call to action to establish new contacts between humans, animals, and the environment. 

LITHUANIAN PAVILION - Lithuanian Space Agency: Planet of People

Planet of People at Lithuanian Pavilion - Photo: Cat Bauer

Right now, a 3D scanned image of my body is floating around as part of a fictional planet made out of people over at the Lithuanian Pavilion, which is not in Giardini or Arsenale, but in the Church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti Church in Castello close to Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo. 

Julijonas Urbonas founded the Lithuanian Space Agency (LSA), to venture into a fictional outer space. I tried having a conversation with the man, but it was sort of like talking to an alien. Here is his background:

Julijonas Urbonas is an artist, designer, researcher, engineer, founder of Lithuanian Space Agency, associate professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts, PhD student in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art, London. Former Prorector at Vilnius Academy of Arts. Former Director of a Soviet amusement park in Klaipeda.

From the installation:

The LSA is an organisation for research into space architecture and gravitational aesthetics. It is an astro-disciplinary initiative that aims to advance the extraterrestrial imagination. 

...Instead of sending humans to colonise other planets, what if we catapult them into empty space to create a new celestrial formation from their bodies -- a planet of people? What architectural, cultural and socio-political implications would the realisation of the project have on humanity? 

...The prototype consists of a 3D scanner that scans the participants of the experiment and 'sends' them into space as animated simulations. As more and more people participate throughout the trial run in Venice, their scanned bodies begin to form a planet....

3D Cat - On my way to the Planet of People

You walk into the church and get a ticket from the machine as soon as you enter. The ticket is a sheet of paper more than three feet long with a number on it, as well as a description of the installation and several other projects that Urbonas has worked on, including an Euthanasia Coaster "engineered to take the life of a human being with elegance and euphoria."

You wait until your number comes up, then step into the center of the scanner and strike a pose. The next thing you know, you're floating into outer space to join other participants at the Venice Biennale in creating a Planet of People. 

From the installation:

PLEASE NOTE: by entering the scanner, you agree that your image will remain as part of the ongoing project Planet of People until the end of the biennial. Once scanned, your image cannot be deleted. Please talk to the agency's assistants for further information and instructions.

You are welcome to visit the installation without being scanned.

The 17th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition How Will We Live Together? sponsored by Rolex runs through November 21, 2021 and is closed on Mondays. Go to La Biennale di Venezia for more information.

Ciao from Venezia,

Cat Bauer

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo in Venice reopens with "It's Forever"

Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, Venice - Photo courtesy Gioielli Nascosti di Venezia

 

(Venice, Italy) One of the most unique and beautiful palaces in Venice is Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, with its circular staircase that spirals up to spectacular view of the rooftops of the city, the bell tower in Piazza San Marco on the horizon. Built in the 15th century, "bovolo" is the Venetian word for snail. 

 

Tintoretto Paradise sketch & Presenze/Assenze by Alberto Pasqual - Photo: Cat Bauer

 

A few years back, I featured the Tintoretto Room in Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo for Luxos Magazine. The palace had been closed for a long time, and had recently reopened. They wanted to publicize the room in which they claimed to have Tintoretto's sketch for the 1582 public competition to replace the Coronation of the Virgin aka Il Paradiso, a 14th century fresco painted by Guariento around 1365 that was destroyed in the 1577 fire which had devastated part of Palazzo Ducale.

 

Tintoretto actually did not win that competition -- Paolo Veronese did, backed up by Francesco Bassano, but Veronese died before he could start and Tintoretto then got the job. The result was Il Paradiso in the Doge's Palace, the largest canvas in the world. 

 

I did some research, and could only find two sketches for Tintoretto's Il Paradiso, one at the Louvre in Paris and one at the Thyssen in Madrid. Where had this sketch been for more than 400 years? I was told that someone on the jury of the public competition --  centuries ago -- was connected to the organization that manages the palace today, who thought it would be a good idea to put the sketch on display for the public. (Venetians have got all sorts of stuff stashed in their cupboards:-)

Laguna (dittico) by Mara Fabbro - Photo: Cat Bauer

 

Now Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo has reopened with a contemporary art exhibition in the Tintoretto Room entitled 'E Per Sempre or It's Forever, featuring the work of Friulian painter Mara Fabbro and Veneto sculptor Alberto Pasqual, curated by Alessandra Santin. 

 

Santin says:

The artists... document the existential void of today's man and the substantial fullness of natural space, now saturated with the remains of plastic materials that our consumer society has used and dispersed in a completely irresponsible way. This current drama, the accumulation of indestructible waste and the irreversible damage it causes to Nature, leaves indelible, permanent marks both in the environment and in the conscience of today's man....

 

Nothing lasts today, not knowledge, not feelings, not health, not faith, not relationships... Plastic, on the other hand, remains forever ... 

Origine by Alberto Pasqual - Photo: Cat Bauer

 

'E Per Sempre runs until August 31, 2021. There is a €7 charge to climb to the top of the Scala del Bovolo to see the view and visit the exhibition in the Tintoretto Room -- unless you are a resident of Venice. Then it is free. 

Go to Gioielli Nascosti di Venezia for more information.

Ciao from Venezia,

Cat Bauer

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog