trip day 12

 Trip Day 12:  Bienalle Giardini

I woke up naturally at 6:30 and went for my run.  It was gorgeous out.

Today's schedule was to visit the Biennale Giardini and so I decided to run in that direction to explore.  I found a couple of really cool sculpture gardens and decided we needed to come back to see those later. 

We had plenty of time to get coffee and breakfast and the coffee definitely made us happy.  It's so much easier to get reliably good coffee in Italy.

We gathered as a group and took a photo.

And I proudly displayed my artwork for the Biennale.  Maybe eventually I'll get an official invitation.

We started at the Central Pavilion and this was a completely new experience to Violet, Kennedy and Alayna.

I accepted the fact that I could not photograph everything that was interesting.  I tried to be present and really see the art.  It was tough.  Some things like these recycled Xray vinyl records just had to be photographed.  I needed to be able to show this to Blue back home.  

This was one of my favorite experiences from the entire Biennale this time.  In keeping with our lucking into things, we saw what appeared to be a ballet practice mirror and bar and a note indicating that there would be live performances at a few specific times during the Biennale.  We just happened to be about an hour away from the next one.  What luck!  We looked at a few more pavilions and then went back to watch.  The beautiful ballerina Oksana Serheieva performed a part of Swan Lake while we marveled.  It was a really moving and rewarding experience.  

The Biennale is like a marathon of art.  You just have to keep pushing through to get to the end.  I'm sure it shouldn't feel like that as an art appreciater, but it does.  You have a limited amount of time to take in the exhibits and you have an even more limited amount of head space to offer it. Eventually your senses are worn down and you can only respond positively to things that really grab you.  Things like color. 

Jefferey Gibson's vivid, colorful exhibit grabbed my attention.  

I had to keep my phone out for most of that pavilion.  

This exhibit was based on the death of a giraffe in captivity.  Very cool.  

I have no idea what this one was but I liked it.

After several hours of arting, this is how an artist feels.  We were beat.  

I found this behind a vending kiosk outside the Giardini and it could have easily been part of one of the exhibits. 

We all went to the apartments to rest.  After a good nap, we were refreshed and ready to explore.  I was the only on in our group who had been here before, but I didn't do much guiding.  We wandered over to St. Mark's and meandered while taking photos.  

This display promised hugs but did not deliver.  I walked for more than a 1/4 mile.  No hugs.

But I enjoyed every minute exploring with Violet.  She mostly kept me out of trouble.

We walked past this place but did not go in.  Pretty sure I got the gist of it from the door.  We found a cool pizzaria.  We had more limoncello (Alayna was my dedicated limoncello buddy) and of course we had gelato before turning in around 10 pm.  I had an early alarm for the next day.