Some Days are Missing to my Eyes

In this Biennale time, let’s today visit Ca Zanardi, in the north of Venice, with this artwork by Silvano Escarole : Mancano Giorni ai Miei Occhi. Resin, wax, industrial colors and iron. Sofa 75x201x85 cm. Carpet 163x270 cm.

Grand Canal

What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things... it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface.

Constantin Brancusi

Summer

Looking for some shade in San Giacomo dell Orio...

Ok, one last pic and I go...

Difficult to leave Venice isn't it? Always something more to do, to discover, to admire, to visit or to photograph... As does this young canadian boy, member of a party of ten or twelve, on the Scalzi bridge, two steps from Santa Chiara train station "Come on guys, just let me one or two minutes more!"

Palazzo Zenobio

Palazzo Zenobio, in Dorsoduro, one of the most beautiful expressions of the seventeenth century Venice.

Last days of class

Last days in June... Summer is there yet. Kind of a holiday atmosphere in the Carmini Cloister, nowdays the Instituto Statale d'Arte di Venezia.

Morning Delivery

Some hours before the Grand Canal becomes the territory of vaporetti and gondolas, of tourists and visitors, it is the domain of all those who set the stage as these delivery men fulfilling each day their early and essential work.

A Spritz with Alain

Friday night... or was-it Saturday morning? At Susana's bar, a cosy and friendly little place on Campo San Giacomo, right near the Rialto. With my friend Alain. You know him as he participates from times to times to this Venice Daily blog, posting his great pictures. Alain is himself the author of a Venice blog : Destination-Venise. Be sure to have a look on it!

Reflection on a Canal

As social beings we live with our eyes upon our reflection, but have no assurance of the tranquillity of the waters in which we see it.

Charles Horton Cooley

The Redentore at Dawn

The Redentore, masterwork signed Palladio and Da Ponte, built between 1577 and 1580, to glorify the Redeemer, after the end of the plague that killed forty thousand Venetians some years before.

Artwork at San Stae

Fabrice Gygi. Swiss artist born in 1965. He represents Switzerland at the 53rd Venice Biennale. He is the author of artworks made from industrial raw materials as plastics and stainless steel. "Simple structures to ask complex questions"...
I must say that I have observed a little bit of perplexity on the visitors' faces... But it's the function of art to make us cogitate, isn't it? And... It's the Biennale after all!

Caffe

A little caffe in the Dorsoduro, to order your first cappucinno in the morning while reading il Gazzetinno...

Artists at San Rocco

San Rocco. Right near the Frari, in the Dorsoduro Sestiere. The Church, on the right of the picture, the Scuola on the left. The scuola was built from 1485, some years after the 1477 plague epidemic. As in many other places in Venice, artists like to gather here to imortalize this perfect venetian Renaissance architecture on their sketchbooks.

Onda di Calore on Campo San Stin

So hot these days... Summer seems to be here already. Trees are scarce in Venice. And if most of the streets are narrow and shady, to cross a campo, like this Campo San Stin in Sestiere San Polo, lets you feel the heat of the day, strengthen, as if it was'nt enough, by a soft wave of sirocco...

Still life

Two in the morning, behind la Fenice, in San Marco Sestiere. I' don't feel like coming back home. Venice is amazingly still and silent...

Corte Sconta

In Venice, some places are overcrowded. Everybody knows them.
Some other places are off the beaten tracks, far from the historical center, but easy to find anyway for the visitor who likes to wander a little in the side streets.
And there is a third kind of places : the hidden courtyards or "corte sconte" places that are not seen from the street. One have to take some hidden and winding passageways to arrive there. You will hardly see them, even if you look for them. But if, by any chance you happen to discover one, it will make your day. You'll keep the direction in mind and will just reveal it to your best and more trusty friends.

A new way of seeing things

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

Henry Miller

Trafic on the Grand Canal

So much people those days, in Venice...

Image Alain Hamon - Destination Italie

I will not make anymore boring art...

A banner on this beautiful palazzo of the Grand Canal, la Ca'Giustinian.
I'ts a quote by Californian conceptual artist John Baldessari.
Boring, art? A matter of point of view probably...

The Awards and Opening Ceremony of the 53rd International Art Exhibition took place on 6th June 2009 in the Giardini. The Board of the Venice Biennale has this year awarded two Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement to Yoko Ono and John Baldessari.

There is the Official comment of the Biennale about John Baldessari :

"John Baldessari one of today's most important visual artists. Often named the most important art teacher of our times, he has above all developed a visual language entirely his own. Since the 1960s, he has worked in many disciplines and has produced an outstanding body of work that has inspired several generations of artists."

Image Alain Hamon - Destination Italie

Submarine on the Grand Canal

A submarine attack on the Doge's City? No, no... Just the 53rd Biennale di Venezia coming soon.
The artwork is SubTiziano by Sacha Ponomarev.

Image Alain Hamon - Destination Italie

La Pieta

On the busy Riva degli Schiavoni, in front of St Mark's basin, the church of La Pieta, Vivaldi's church.

About man's ingenuity

I'm always amazed, when I happen to observe - as here in the Doge's palace museum - the diversity of weapons invented by men throughout their history. Such a display of inventiveness just in order to destroy...
"The most persistent sound which reverberates through men's history is the beating of war drums" once wrote Arthur Koestler.

Sunday's little treat

Some little delicacies, or at least the idea of them, for your mid-afternoon sunday snack...

Gabriel Bella (1730-1799)

A fascinating room, in Querini Stampalia Fondation is dedicated to vedutist* painter Gabriel Bella (1730-1799). Altogether, sixty sixt paintings that depict Venetian life in the 18th century and, these paintings being mainly landscapes, that give us an idea of how Venice looked like some 250 years ago.

*Veduta (pl. Vedute) : Italian for "View". Large-scale painting of a cityscape.

Visiting the Redentore

Across the Giudecca Canal, right in front of the Fondamenta delle Zattere, la Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore.

Longing for the sea...

With the return of the beautiful days, I know what I would do if I were lucky enouhg to be the owner of one of these dream machines : I would scour the beautiful coast of Adriatic sea, from Venice to Trieste and from Trieste to Split, instead of let them spend night and days here on San Giorgio Maggiore Island, just in front (even if it's a prestigious berth) of the Piazzetta and the Doge's Palace.

Ferro

At the prow of the gondola, the characteristic and traditional "Ferro" the "Iron". This element in shape of a large and heavy comb with six teeth in the front and one in the back, act as a counterbalance to the gondolier's weight. Some say, according to the tradition, that the six front "teeth" represent the six "Sestieri" of Venice, while the back tooth symbolise the Giudecca.

Campanile

A postcard to you, to apologize for these nine days without posting. A campanile? Yes in some way : the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building in New York, where I spent the eight last days for my greatest pleasure. For his fifty-story tower built in 1908 (the highest in the world until 1913) architect Napoléon Le Brun draw his inspiration from... St Mark's Campanile in Venice.

I'm Back

Hello dear readers and friends.
I'm back again in the Old Countries after a too short nine days off, across the Atlantic sea...
Next post, next pic, tomorrow morning without fail.
All the best.
Pierre

Wooden Toys

Maybe the only motorbike in all Venice! A great place from a present to bring back with you. You can't miss this shop, it's right on the Rialto Bridge, on the inside steps...

Giant's Stairs

The Scala dei Giganti, in the Doge's Palace. A monumental starcaise of 30 steps, dominated by two statues, work of Antonio Rizzo, portraying Mars, god of the trade, and Neptune, god of the sea, both of them symbols of the Republic of Venice's power in these two domains.

On top of the Campanile

From one of the main landmarks of Venice, the Campanile, which stands in the heart of the city, on the Piazetta, almost in front of the Basilica. The first one had been built in the 10th century and was used as a lighthouse as well as a watchtower. It collapsed in 1388, 1489, and in 1511... The last colapse dates back from 1902. Ten years were necessary to build this one, almost similar to the former one.