VENICE . O1 . We won’t always have Venice
We were in Venice twice in a month, for the Biennale and with Select Aperitivo for Venice Cocktail Week. Here is our travel chronicle from a city we love.
IF
it may be true that we will always have Paris, the same cannot be said about Venice. Because, as sad as it may sound, we won’t always have Venice.
As soon as you cross your first bridge you understand that Venice is anyway an impossible place. Not lonely enough to be an Island and not grounded enough to be called a City, Venice floats, both metaphorically and literally, on the Adriatic sea, careless of time and indifferent to the inelegant comforts of modernity. No cars, little bikes, forget scooters, Amazon orders are delivered by boat.
When you first arrive, you discover Venice walking out from one of the most spectacular railway stations of the world, and it’s a shock. You see everything at once: boats, churches, palaces, bridges, everything you saw in Canaletto paintings is already there, everything you expected to see over a weekend is already there.
San Simeon Church is the most beautiful little church you ever saw, the Saint Lucia Dome peeks behind the Ponte degli Scalzi, and water is literally everywhere.
You start walking, accepting that getting lost and taking eight bridges to reach a point that Google said was two minutes away is part of the game and that getting rid of your phone is the best way to “navigate” the water city. We came here twice in a month, to visit the Biennale and for an event with Select Aperitivo at Palazzo Experimental during Venice Cocktail Week.
BIENNALE
The best way to enjoy the Biennale is to forget about it.
WALK
around and scout for the “Off” exhibitions hidden in some of the city’s most beautiful palaces. No tickets, no queue, just walk in Palazzo Franchetti (built in 1565), climb a luscious marble stair overlooking the Canal and discover Vampires in Space, an exhibition by the portuguese artist Pedro Neves Marques that brings you to a melancholic exoplanet through video and poetry installations.
Vampires, Marble and outer space: welcome to the Biennale.
VITAMIN
A universe
Without
Days
Is a symptom:
Even
Vampires
Need
Vitamin D.
Cross the Canal to reach Palazzo Contarini Polignac (late 15th century) where you can wander through the monumental sculpture of Time Reimagined by Korean artist Chung Kwang Young. Kwang Young (probably a serial killer in his free time) folds thousands of ancient mulberry papers and turns them into giant origami-sculptures that create a dystopian dialogue with the Palazzo’s furniture. The process is as impressive as the result:
The artist used disassembled paper from discarded books that were about 100 years old to make reliefs, sculptures and installations. In this sense, the paper used in his works has a previous life that existed in the form of book as a storage of knowledge and information, and was resurrected this time as artwork through the hands of the artist Chun.
Some artists were fed up with all the hassle of looking for a new exhibition space every two years … and decided to buy their own. It was the case for Anish Kapoor, who chose Palazzo Manfrìn as his permanent Venetian gallery. Mr. Kappor has a passion for the red color, more specifically for the fleshy red wax that he uses in abundance to create overwhelming installations filling the Palazzo’s decadent rooms.
If you are more into shiny things, start from the end where laminas of glossy metal are folded into a series of funhouse mirrors for grown-up-contemporary-art-geeks.
A lot of folding at this Biennale ! Trend or fad ?
Now it’s time for a Martini at Caffé Florian ! Dodge the penguin-waiters and head straight to the bar, where the bartender, the tall guy who can’t fit under the door that was built 300 years before he joined, will serve your cocktail with a side of snacks.
Come for the Martini, stay for the Tramezzini.
