Posters, events and Titian
Walking from the Arsenale to Chiesa Maddalena (which is almost on the opposite, the Eastern end of the city) you pass by a church called San Salvador, the Church of the Saviour. It was early and the doors were open. So I walked inside without having any idea what to expect. And then there was this incredible Transfiguration by Titian – an absolutely mind-blowing piece, exaggerated, wild.
Unless you are really a specialist in Titian, it seems you can never be sure what you get from him.
Not far away the next epiphany was waiting for me: Carla van Zon, Manager International of the CNZ team. It is fantastic to have her here on the ground: welcome, Carla!
Surprisingly there is not much advertising for the Biennale in the city, probably for the same reasons why junk food restaurants like McDonald’s or Burger King are almost invisible: to keep the look of the streets intact. Only on some special spots you can find posters. And their number is increasing.
The general design of the poster for the main exhibition in the Arsenale is particularly dry: Some little coloured forms or the title of the exhibition in many languages and alphabets (no German, though).
Some designs seem to follow that strategy:
Others not: Yoko Ono’s one is not very subtle, the Thailand one is funny but sadly invites people to make the wrong assumptions.
The Singapore pavilion, which is in the same building as the Icelandic pavilion, next to Francis Upritchard’s venue, tries to catch the eyes with even two different advertisements.
But the biggest hit is certainly the advertisement for the Ukrainian pavilion on the façade of the Gallery Accademia. It looks like Wladimir Klitschko (is he still world boxing champion?) has expanded his field of expertise.
It became finally clear, what the mystic construction was that we had seen a couple of days ago: an artwork by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye.
His exhibition opened tonight at the Peggy Guggenheim collection.
In the shop window of the collection they sell any kind of merchandise you can think of, from colour books to toilet paper.
It was an enormous pleasure to meet at the Guggenheim Winsome Wild. She had worked for Gary Langsford in Auckland and has now an internship at the collection. We certainly will see her at our openings.
During the opening week of the Biennale, other institutions will take advantage of the enormous amount of art lovers, artists, curators, writers and critics coming to Venice for this event from all over the world. One institution is the Vedova foundation at the Zattere, in the south of the city, opposite to island of Guidecca and the church Il Redentore.
Emilio Vedova (1919 – 2006) was a leading figure of Italian non-figurative painting after the Second World War, a fantastic painter and a very articulated artist, who was never shy to express his political opinions.
It will be an exciting opportunity to become familiar with his work, which is – compared to the works of his American contemporaries – not known enough.
The official opening of the Vedova Foundation is scheduled for June 4. The interior of the huge building on the canal is designed by Renzo Piano.
Another huge event will be the opening of the collection of French billionaire François Pinault at he Punta della Dogana, next to Santa Maria della Salute, on June 6.
Similar to the building of the Vedova foundation, the exterior of the historic building of the Dogana will remain unaltered, while the interior was modified by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Monsieur Pinault has owned the Palazzo Grassi at the Grand Canal since 2006, where he exhibits his collection.
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