Faenza

On the Friday after the Australian Party I was off to Faenza with the Waka Huia group.

Up nice and early, on the train at 07:15am.

Faenza was an experience like no other. Visiting the cemeteries to show respect and to warm the cold graves of those in the Maori Battalion, something changed that day.

Lost whanau were found and were embraced in astounding waiata that made created tears of the Tipuna that rained down every time a waiata was sung.

Wind blew strongly but warmly and my guts and body were filled with a very, very strange sensation. For many of those in the Waka Huia this part of their journey was the most important, understandably…to put those who had been lost at peace.

Each and everyone of us who entered the two cemeteries that day let out their own personal grief for people they had lost, a moment where each and everyone of us was their to support each other and to connect with the otherworld.

 

One week ago

One week ago…the most memorable week of my life. It really began for me heading off to the airport with Muriwai and Venus standing next to the 100% pure NZ sign whist waiting for the Waka Huia group to arrive. As the doors opened the public became stunned in overwhelmed synchrony as the Venice Rugby team and the Waka Huia group parted in either left or right files to greet their fellow leaders. Many kisses, many hugs and a formal welcome to their new home for that week.  This was then followed by the march to the water taxis in which that in itself was a spectacular for the Venetians who tried to cram 26 people plus and ridiculous amount of luggage into two water taxis, which meant I was literally holding on to half of the side of the water taxi for dear life on the journey to Venice.

We were greeted by Anne-Louise and Carla van Zon at the dock; Tanea was quietly waiting at the Hotel. Matteo the Hotel man understood at their arrival why it was specifically requested that the breakfast menu be changed. The day after was a sip of stress and a box of magic at the same time.

Waiata practice commenced outside the Maddalena drawing in the crowds leaving people absolutely gob smacked. In meantime, backstage we had the bag problem. All of which was resolved with a paid truck speeding constantly for 3 hours, a boat, 2 installers, Miller, myself and a few kind Waka Hui boys who in an awesome combined effort saved the day.

Tuesday - Last practice before the big day, this had taken place in Arsenale where shivers ran up and down my spine as well as of hundreds of other spectators whom witnessing a constant display of talent and a shift in energy remained stupefied.

Even the Police were into to it, demonstrating their tattoos and offering to protect the Waka Huia group for the proceeding performance the next day. The evening was begun by the patron’s drinks, which took place in a beautiful bar looking out onto the Grand Canal. Much conversation was met. The team decided to play sleeping lions that night in the knowledge that the next day was it.

 

 

 

  

Venus and her new Venetian friend.

The Big Day – 04:30am Veronica wakes up to run down to the Hotel where the moko is being applied before the performance. 06:00am photos are being taken outside on the fondamenta, sift through the streets of Venice heading towards the Maddalena with people who had just woken up opening their windows to see Maori’s in full costume bedazzled in share amazement.

At 7:30 there was the blessing. I then was to guide the group to the Buziol where it was also blessed and then lead them through to San Marco’s square. I have never done that before! They lead a powerful performance sending shivers up and down the bodies of everyone in sight.

At 10:00 speeches started as well as a surprise stand up translation for me to do with Moana.

At 10:40 I was boosting it down the small streets of Venice with the Waka Huia in single line, trying to get them back to their hotel without any more problems from the police, who had had a bad day and were concerned about the men with no tops! Day soon became night and Private Openings took place.

Thursday held the official opening night and I will let the photos do the talking.

 

 

 

Australian Party – I tried my best to convert them.

Diego promoting the NZ exhibitions at the Australian Party

Terry Urban surely missing NZ

 

Reflecting the Day – Tommorrow off to Faenza

Where do I begin?

These last weeks have been a whirlwind of stupendous events, memorable in absolutely everyway. For me, a remarkable new concept of time well spent.

 

In these last weeks water taxis and buses have been shipping in incredible New Zealand talent:  Artists, Creative NZ, Curators, Installers, Venue Attendants, Media, Waka Huia, Ambassadors and Commissioners, a team that worked together to represent New Zealand in the Venice Biennale 2009. A team that successfully accomplished what it had set out to do and a team that can only smile whilst seeing the famous blue bag accompanied down the streets of Venice in masses, lead off to be dispersed around the world.

Tanea Heke – with the infamous blue bags

 

I would like to take the opportunity now to say what a privilege it has been to work with these people and this fine team, each and every one of them has left their own personal mark of brilliance on to this event and has left their own personal mark in a place in my heart. These people I could never forget. I think It’s important to say this not in any disrespect to normal formalities however I feel this needs to be addressed.

 

Katrina Smit, Anne-Louise Wirth, and Tanea Heke - at the private opening of Save Yourself at the Buziol.

 

Simon Glaister, Bruce Edgar, Leonard Emmerling, Catherine, at the farewell for Judy and Bruce.

 

Judy Millar

Carla van Zon embracing Ria Hall after excellent performance on Opening Night.

Diego Carpentiero, Katrina Smit, Venus & Muriwai and Simone

Waka Huia arrive at Faenza to remember the Maori Battalion

 

Leonard Emmerling, Alastair Carruthers, Judy Millar, Jenny Harper in the presentation to Judy Millar’s work the night of the opening.

I think NZ should be very proud that the artists and the entire crew were not only selected on merit but were selected on their promising personalities. Good personalities are what I believe makes the work essentially work. All of the team faced many challenges, faced many fears and through the support of fellow company challenged each challenge, confronted them, overruled them, and then eliminated them all together using supporting strength. What I have seen in these last few weeks and what I have seen people endure leaves me speechless.

I faced many of my own fears just in this last week and even my biggest. I certainly couldn’t have chosen a better situation or better support from such talented people who would help me overcome it. Thank you. 

 

Now, let’s go back to 3 weeks ago….

Three weeks ago was when the main introductions began. The previous crew was reunited (those who had already been in Venice) with those who had never met before. These events and as many others took place around the dinner table, usually catered for by Simon or myself and at times by Tanea's imaginary friend Consuela. Consuela became a key person on the team and it is genuinely surprising how long she stayed in all of our heads…considering she wasn’t real. I suppose she was the person everyone could blame if something didn’t work, if something wasn’t clean and I think most importantly a deflection from blaming team members in stressful times. I can’t believe imp going to say this… but she was a vital part of our team.

Three weeks ago was the beginning of many meetings many discussions and many visits to the so called petrol shop (plastic wine bottle store) which helped us after a hard day of conjuring plans leading up to the events of this last week. There was also the beginning of the installation as you have seen on other blogs and my role, as liaison became metamorphisized into many roles.

This kept me busy…very busy, so busy going back home for the 2 hours you were going to use to go to sleep didn’t really feel like home anymore. In fact I loved it in a sick, stressed out way in which some people thrive on, appreciating every second, every minute to the point where you finally appreciate life. I disappeared for the last three weeks from many peoples lives outside the biennale environment, but when you love what you do and you have an opportunity like this, you absorb yourself into a sort of osmosistical state where art and you are constantly at one.

George Nuku on opening night

Drying of Nuku’s work to go into “The New Zealand Room”

Bruce, Judy and Simon working on the stretching.

 

Two weeks ago started to get very interesting, more people arrived and more dinners were made. Everyone was starting to be very comfortable and very excited about the team and the week ahead. The installation was successfully coming to its end thanks to Bruce whom I now calling dad (sorry real dad – you still are the best) and Simon (Princess).

My most memorable moment out of that week was helping with the install and being on the 6 metre scaffold with Judy adjusting the top of the inner rim of her work whilst being offered brioches from down below. That day was a great demonstration of the word team; eight people were involved in moving the huge works to their final destinations, others shooing of curious tourists who seemed to be taking the Di Vinci Code to the next level, peering into the Maddalenato see if they could find some clue in the search for the Holy Grail. I thought Millar’s work was sufficient enough. The week was then tied together by a wonderful potluck dinner, transported by foot through San Marcos square

Visitors to the New Zealand exhibitions

Here are some images of people who were happy to have their photos taken for our blog. I wanted to show a range of the wonderful people we get to meet every day. Unfortunately I didn't get all their names. Lots of people have come to Venice specifically for the Biennale, but there are also a substantial number of tourists who are excited to stumble across it.

Many visitors have never heard about it before. The Biennale opens up many spaces and buildings in Venice which would otherwise be inaccessible or closed to the public. We are also very much enjoying  the Venetians who are active in making sure they get to the huge number of exhibitions currently showing in their city. We continue to get excellent feedback on the exhibitions and regularly get told that the shows are being recommended.

 

Two sisters (one from Venice one from Florence) visit Francis Upritchard's Save Yourself, and later find their way to Judy Millar's Giraffe-Bottle-Gun.

   

The parents of Susan MacWilliam, the artist for Northern Ireland, enjoy visiting some other events and exhibitions.

 

Gondola drivers. These guys work on the traghetto gondola which often ferried Francis, Heather and Hannah across the Grand Canal. Their apartment was on the opposite side of where the Palazzo is located so  they were using this service often - sometimes three times a day. The drivers got to know Franics well and are now big fans. They have been popping in quite often and are enjoying the catalogues- they love the show.

New Zealander Cat Simpson, one of Francis' studio assistants, visit's Giraffe-Bottle-Gun.

 

A visit to Venice for the day from Bologna.

 

Anna & Noemie viewing Save Yourself.

 

A couple from the south of the Netherlands.

A Venetian man aged 80 is happy to see inside the Palazzo Mangilli Valmanara for the first time in his life. He stands next to caterer Margo Henderson.

 

American art history students visit Giraffe-Bottle-Gun.

 

Jeremy Thomson and Sashil Dayal from New Plymouth, New Zealand. Francis Upritchard stayed with Jeremy and Sashil during her residency at Govett-Brewster Gallery.

 

Two students from Chicago visit Giraffe-Bottle-Gun.

 

Modesto Covarrubias from San Francisco.

  

New Zealander Jeff Allen, a Tour Director in Italy, visit's Save Yourself.

A family from New Zealand enjoys the NZ Room.

Leaving Venice

by Leonhard Emmerling

 

The last days some of us had finally the chance and time to see the Biennale more extensively, checked out the Pinault collection or visit the fantastic Vedova foundation, which opened last week. But of course, the pavilions in the city and in the Giardini were in the centre of our curiosity.

 

It is not quite like that – that you want to reach for your gun, when you hear the word Art, as an artist in the exhibition Distortion in the Castello, opposite to the Australian pavilion proclaimed; but there is definitely some stuff that makes you wonder why you should spend some time with. This is not the place to start any kind of art bashing, but I definitely think, that Nicolas Schafhausen tried in vain to convince his audience about what great work Liam Gillick’s installation in the German pavilion is.

 

And you stare a bit surprised at the installations in the Egypt pavilion.

Or the Taiwanese Temple of Sublime Beauty.

 Or the Venetian pavilion.

Or Austria: Elke Krystufek indulges herself in post-Freudian neuroticism and late-feminist gender politics (“dripping is male") while Franziska and Lois Weinberger dream about unicorns.

  

Never mind – it is supposed to be contemporary. Australia’s Shaun Gladwell certainly left an impression with his fantastic video piece Interceptor Surf: Daydream Mine Road and France’s Claude Lévque’s comment on nationalism couldn’t be darker and clearer – very haunting.

Elmgren & Dragset definitely deserved their award; the pavilion of Denmark and the Nordic Countries, called The Collectors, was designed with so much attention for detail, with such a great sense of humour, so stylish and elaborated that it was a pure pleasure to visit.

  

This is something you actually want to see – that curators, artists and all the other people involved put an extraordinary effort into their Venice contribution to make a dream come true. And it is a bit sad, when you walk through the pavilions and see works that definitely do not convey this feeling – to mention only one, Bruce Nauman’s pavilion in the Giardini and in the Palazzo Foscari. A lame, uninspired All Time Greatest-And-Not-So-Greates-Hits show without any power.

Completely different our friends from Iceland: Ragnar Kjartansson will stay in Venice for six months and paint one painting every day. He certainly deserves the Award for the Most Enduring Artist.

Surprising as always the Russion pavilion with strong political works – among others, sculptures by Andrei Molodkin, representing the Nike of Samothrake, a symbol of victory, filled with blood and oil.

Compelling Teresa Margolles´ What Else Could We Talk About? in the Mexican pavilion: Fabric drenched with blood from shootings in Mexico, buckets full of a mixture of water and blood to wipe the floor with.

 

Touching the very beautiful video-works in the Dutch pavilion by Fiona Tan.

And there was a lot of stuff to discover in the Arsenale show Making worlds: Paul Chan with a fantastic animated video, called Sade for Sade’s Sake, Elena Elagina and Igor Makarevich with a paraphrase on Tatlin’s monument for the Revolution or Natalie Djurberg’s stop motion films. And so much more.

 

When you got tired you could have a coffee at the pseudo-sci-fi-hyper-kitschy-pseudo-cool restaurant by German artist Tobias Rehberger or have a look at the collateral events like the exhibition Unconditional Love or exhibitions by Jan Fabre and Bernard Venet.

 

 

Or have a walk through the city, find some good books, meet some friends like Andreas Bee, the Vice-Director of the MMK in Frankfurt or visit the opening of the exhibition of our Girl-On-The-Ground, Veronica Green, which was sold out the same evening. Congratulations!

 

And there are still the famous blue bags – you can spot them everywhere in the city, even at the Lido carried by Germans, by visitors from Greece or from Colombia. Thanks to all of those who gave permission to be photographed.

 

 

The Biennale goes on until November 22, and I hope that many New Zealanders use the opportunity to see the exhibitions by Judy and Francis, see the Giardini and the Arsenale, visit this fantastic and unbelievable city – it is worth every single cent! I am very proud to have worked for New Zealand here in Venice, and I want to thank everybody who has put money, confidence, and trust into the exhibitions, the artists, the curators and the amazing people from Creative New Zealand. Noho oro mai ra and see you soon.

Aqua Alta

High waters affected Venice last week which is unusual for June. My first clue was seeing two young guys who visited Francis Upritchard’s Save Yourself exhibition in gumboots. On my way home I took a different route as the shortcut was flooded. The sixth image is of my street. I had to take off my sandals and wade to my front door.  Later that night in San Marco square the musicians started playing the theme to the Titanic. The piazza is positioned on the edge of the lagoon and is particularly vulnerable to high waters.

 
Visitors to 'Save Yourself' in gumboots


My shortcut home is flooded

 
Watery streets


The street where our apartment is located

 
Piazza San Marco, a sight of reflected lights

A storm through the Biennale

I had three hours free and my friend Kate Woods in town. We thought it might not be enough time to look around the Giardini (when entry costs 18 euros you want to be able to get around everything) but I was thrilled to have the company and so we decided to go anyway. It was excellent to finally get some context for the wider Biennale. On the way we stumbled across some other projects.
Here are some highlights, the ones that will perhaps provoke further reading when I have some time. 

Finland
The national institution of the Finnish Fire & Rescue Service is the subject of the Finnish pavilion. This small pavilion, designed by Alvar Aalto, has been transformed into an amateurish collection of memorabilia such as you might find in a small town commemorating local heroes. 
  

Denmark
The Danish pavilion is a modernist archetype in the early style of Oscar Niemeyer. The challenges of this loaded space have been met by the curators Elgreen & Dragset by their conversion of it into a Wallpaper magazine-like fantasy modernist home. The audience is implicated in a plot, entering the home of an erotic novelist who appears to have committed suicide. On our way out (gates to the Giardini close at 6pm) we happened upon the assistants removing the model cadaver on a stretcher. I thought they possibly could have waited until 6.10pm to ensure the illusion was kept in intact for departing visitors but I was glad to get these shots. 
       

Some Russian paintings
Watercolours of futuristic monuments by Pavel Pepperstein. All I need to do is include the titles: 
The Big Will of Reincarnation. (3033)
The Attack of the Old Houses
The Planet Mirror in the Year 2158
The Great Red Flag 2500

   

  
Mexico
Set in an exquisitely painted but eerily empty palazzo in the area of Castello, the Mexican artist Teresa Margolles presents ‘What Else Could We Talk About?’. A homeopathic quantity of blood mixed with water is used to wash the floors every hour. We missed the performance but were still affected by its residue. The wet floors and the slow passage through the residence was a powerful evocation of civil violence in contemporary Mexico.
  
 
Australia
Kate stands next to the 'Pursuit Special' from Mad Max, outside the Australian pavilion. Shaun Gladwell’s dystopic MADDESTMAXIMUS frames man’s dislocation with the landscape and is set in the Australian outback. Dead kangaroos and motorbikes.
 
   
Iceland
Our neighbouring pavilion. A work by the artist Ragnar Kjartansson consists of a live performance of a clichéd artist, replete with palette and painting smock, who will continuously paint canvases of his speedo clad model. This will happen for six months. There is also a lot of alcohol littered around the space. 
  
 
Macedonia
Unfinished(?) but looking good.

Take a virtual tour with Waka Huia through the streets of Venice

Watch as Te Waka Huia file through the streets of Venice towards Piazzo St Marco.

An unexpected audience

 

I’m learning to relax about people bringing their animals into our exhibitions. I can’t imagine this happening at a biennale back home. In Venice, as long as dogs are on a leash or ‘in arms’, it’s absolutely fine. Welcome pooch!

Our conspicuous blue bags in demand

 

  

The bright blue giveaway bags prove popular on their first day in Venice and quickly make their way around the city. Several Italian women were very keen to get their hands on some and were willing to pay for them too. Next, a Scottish journalist asked for one. Somewhere in Venice, an Italian fashion writer is wandering around with her NZ at Venice bag too.  They are equally useful for catalogue laden Biennale visitors and as grocery bags for Venetians. I took photos of some particularly complimentary outfit/blue bag combinations. It's a smart and effective promotion for the New Zealand exhibitions.

An Italian fashion writer is extremely pleased with her free bag.

Michael Lett and Hamish Morrison

Carla van Zon and Moana Maniapoto