ParisDeluxe&Arty Blog –
What I like first with the Biennale in Italy is that I know I will always travel to my prefered city each 2 years at the minimum !
So here we are back to Paris after a fantastic trip, 12 days of artistic discoveries and marvellous meetings…
We started with La Punta della Dogana (Pinault Collection) where we liked the amazing installation by Ryan Trecartin and I especially loved James Lee Byars installation that looked like a self-portrait :
The day after we went to the Palazzo Grassi to admire Rudolf Stingel total art work. I really enjoy his abstract/figurative artworks , reflexion on creation based on reproduced/printed artwork after photographs and tension between decorative/ abstract/ firgurative. I liked also the dimension of unease and grostesque introduced in his figurative artworks.
If you want to sip one og the best Bellini in town, take advantage after your tour in Palazzo Grassi to stop at this new hotel (opened 2 years ago) next door called “Palazzina Grassi” designed by french famous designer Starck. Sounds like a mix of Royal Monceau and Le Meurice on a reduced scale. ! A very good bar and restaurant for rainy day more than a summer spot but the peaches in our cocktail were so tasty, heaven !
My favorite pavilion this year was Denmark with videos and installation by Jesper Just : “The project will consist of five films played simultaneously on a loop that examine “architectural pastiche and cultural dislocation,” no need to say more, I was mesmerized !
I was impressed also by the belgium pavillion with Berlinde de Bruykhere : amazing sculpture , a dramatic mix of nature and organic that haunts the place
In the american pavilion Sarah Sze organizes and arranges obsessionnally and in an extraordinary way, like in small universes, the chaos of little ordinary things that surrounds us.
The french pavilion -of course !-with Henri Sala and his Ravel-Unravel, because of Ravel for sure! I just would say : no Rival for Ravel !
Speaking about music I did enjoy very much the performance of DJ in Israelian pavilion.
You’ve got my top 5 for Giardini !
In the central pavilion there was another exquisite James Lee Byars work and I liked also Melvin Motti video very much.
The most impressive room was the works of Serra matching prefectly with Thierry de Cordier dark seascapes. Very dramatic (sorry I don’t have the Serras on pic ! ).
I liked very much the Arsenale this year which is rare ! The place is such a big challenge usually, for many reason, first of all its raw beauty trapping the gaze, not easy to hang works…then the number of work generally displayed ! but this year the curator (Massimiliano Gioni) made really an effort to offer an exhibition with a hanging “readable”, clearer, and accessible, despite a (too much) ambitious title : ”Il palazzo enciclopedico” !
Among the outstanding works we highly appreciated the video by french artist Camille Henrot “Grosse Fatigue’ , the artist was rewarded a silver lion and I discovered also the radiant work of Eugene Von Bruechenhein :
Don’ t miss room N°10 in the Arsenale, curated by Cindy Sherman ! a strange family air is floating around..
At Ca’ Pesaro, the museum of Modern Art famous for his gorgeous Klimt , “Judith or Salome” don’t miss too the exhibition of ( a part of) Sonnabend collection !
Illeana Sonnabend was one of the greatest art dealer and collector (1914-2007), she a been married to Leo Castelli. There is NO fault or mistake in this exhibition !
I loved the room showing Larry bell ‘s cube next to Dan Flavin, Peter Halley, McCracken (not on pic) : just perfect !
Without speaking of majestuous Keith Sonnier :
Venice is not a just a city turned towards the past as you can see and Peggy Guggenheim knew it too , choosing Palazzo Venier dei Leoni as her residence and then Foundation. I did enjoy the exhibition of a recent donation : Hannelore and Rudolph B. Schulhof. Even the works on paper or small size works were very well selected like Ryman or Bridget Riley :
If you go to Venice this fall, I do recommend also “Glasstress” in front of Academia, based on use of glass in contemporary art, always surprising and seducing ! One of my favorite this year : Mat Collishaw, “East of Eden” and Paul Fryer , “Nebula” :
Prada Foundation proposes this year a very challenging exhibition, curated by Germano Celant : the exact replica of an artistic milestone, shown in Bern in 1969 : “When attitudes become forms” . Well, for the generation born after this year, is the opportunity is see gathered in one place the foundations stones of what some would call “contemporary art”. This is there that we learnt the death of Walter De Maria a week ago and we were so sad he couldn’t call us on the phone anymore, as he used to do from time to time (he did it for the opening). We would have loved to tell him we were great fans of his work and we did liked the installation in the last room of the Corderie in the Arsenale…
One of my dear friend working with Prada Foundation has also an uncle in Venice who opened recently a wine bar called All’Amarone, calle del Lughaner in San Polo, not far from Rialto market. It was of course on my top list ! we went and loved the place : taditional wooden decor with a touch of crazy design (the bottles are refreshed in a glowing red bath tub!), excellent choices for italian wines of course and delicious cicchetti with tasty prosciutto, mozarella…the perfect vineria I now recommend.
In Venice you can change easily you perspective and point of view going to Giudecca island for example in Zitelle district, for a dinner at I Figli delle Strelle where you can enjoy a gorgeous view on the Palazzo Ducale. Trendy restaurant with 50′s touch inside and excellent sea food
And I ‘ve kept the best (kept secret) for the end : the recent openig -last june- of Aman Palace in Venice after 2 years restoration with the best craftmen ! imagine a traditional venitian palazzo offering 24 high end luxury rooms : the perfect balance between contemporary design- so refined and elegant with an asian touch in the sophistication- and the highest beauty of a typical venitain private mansion ! You just feel like beeing a guest of an aristocratic venitian family. Moreover you can have the privilege to enjoy a lovely dinner in a fabulous dinnig room overlooking Grand Canal, in an exquisite thai version or in original version with delicious venitian specialties revisited. We did appreciated the welcome, the service, the dinner, the decor…well it was absolutly Deluxe&Arty from the beginning to the end of our stay ! and that’s my favorite address now in Venice for sure I recommend to my clients. http://www.amanresorts.com/amancanalgrandevenice/theresort.aspx
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