When Glenna says it’s time to plan another trip, I’m right there with her. Once again Uzbekistan got shelved (this time because I wasn’t sure I could take the long flights and the walking because of back issues which, as it turned out, resolved and I was fine), and, after some back and forth, we settled on Venice for Biennale and Albania with a first day in DC. We both love the planning, so we make parallel itineraries and merge them. By the end of the trip, we knew that we had made good choices.
Tuesday-Wednesday. Very early, we flew separately to DC and met at Reagan. We planned to spend the day in DC before flying out in the evening. We didn’t want to haul our luggage around, so the first stop was a hotel near Metro Center for luggage storage (nice service they offer). The ride seemed to take forever because of the going-to-work traffic which seemed way worse than when I was doing it. As soon as I started walking I felt the breathing issue which had so plagued me at Christmas time in the Netherlands coming back (probably partly due to the humidity—rain was promised), so I started being very conscious of my in and out breaths—breathing in very deliberately and then breathing out very deliberately. It worked! I continued this regimen throughout the trip, and I did a darn good job of keeping up with Glenna—at least until we got to the Albanian Alps towns.
We got Metro passes and rode to Judiciary Square and then walked to the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. It was a nice day and a pretty walk. The exhibit we were there to see was called Woven Histories, and it was quite wonderful. It focused on the history of textiles as art, beginning in the 1940’s with Anni Albers. In the last several years, I have come to appreciate woven pieces as art—art that I really like. It was a huge exhibit with room after room on the lower level filled with woven items from mostly very well-known artists such as Ruth Osawa, Jeffrey Gibson, and Sonia Delauney. There were all kinds of items, but I particularly liked the wall hangings.
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| A Sheila Hicks hanging made of wool |
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A Jeffrey Gibson helmet made primarily of reed.
Gibson is the artist chosen for the US exhibition
at Biennale which you will see later.
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An Olga de Amaral hanging made of wool and cotton--loved the color
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Ed Rossbach hanging made of
braided raffia |
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| Closeup of Rossbach hanging |
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| Ruth Osawa ink on paper |
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| Osawa detail |
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| Lillian Elliott jar made of coconut palm and hog casings |
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| Andrea Zittel garment made of hand-felted wool |
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| Liz Collins silk & linen hanging |
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Liz Collins detail
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Next stop was lunch at Thai Chef where Glenna had eaten before. Very good start to our culinary adventure (which we always have along with the other aspects of a trip).
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| Colorful Thai Chef restaurant |
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| Delicious lunch choices |
The restaurant was near our next destination—which was the reason we came to DC in the first place though the NGA exhibit was a wonderful addition. Glenna wanted to see the Pierre Bonnard exhibit at the Phillips Collection, a museum housed in the Phillips’ former home with extensions. And we got in free with Glenna’s museum badge. Always nice when they extend that to me. The Phillips were patrons of Bonnard, so they own a number of his works. This exhibit was very extensive and nice in that it gave a very good sense of what his art was all about. He painted what he saw. He was reacting to the Impressionists whom he followed in wanting to paint in a realistic manner rather than giving an impression of an image—whether landscape or interior shot. He painted many, many pictures of his wife Martha, lots of indoor shots but some outdoors also—but always wherever he was. Glenna approved that every piece had an explanatory label (a chat label), not just artist, date, materials, etc. label (a tombstone label). I had never heard her use those terms before, so I learned something.
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| Nude in an interior. But it is, in fact, Martha. |
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| Woman with Dog. Another Martha. |
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| The Riviera |
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| Young Woman in the Garden |
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| The Terrace |
As we walked back to the metro to retrieve our bags, we admired the beautiful flowers and greenery, so healthy looking because of the rain that had occurred while we were inside. We ubered back to Reagan Airport. Uber was expensive! |
| Pretty flowers on our walk back to the metro |
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| Love these lacy flowers |
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| Dupont Circle escalator, longest in the metro system, I believe |
We were soon on a plane for the first leg of our journey—to Montreal. We wandered around a bit, got a phone cord and a bite to eat and then boarded a plane for Munich. On this flight we had the always-offered pasta or chicken dinner. Gets boring. I tried to sleep on all the legs and did get some, but it’s always fitful. We were in Munich for about 2 hours; I was sooo tired. All I wanted to do was get on the plane and put my head back. I did get some rest, so I felt better when we got to Venice’s Marco Polo airport.
We got a bus to Piazzale Roma (where all the buses come) and then a vaporetto to Piazza San Marco after buying a 48-hour vaporetto pass. Our hotel was quite close to the San Marco stop, and we were soon in our very nice suite--bathroom and two bedrooms.
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First view of San Marco area with its
distinctive Campanile from the vaporetto |
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| View of rooftops and Campanile from our hotel room |
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| Another view from our hotel room |
When we go east and arrive in the morning, we always continue on with the day so as not to waste it. It was pouring rain, but you have to keep going. We made our way, winding through several alleys and pontes (bridges over the canals) to San Marco. There was some sheathing, but mostly we could get decent pictures, albeit with rain in the picture. We took a vaporetto and a meandering walk to the Nigerian exhibit. |
| View of a canal near our hotel |
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| Piazza San Marco in the rain |
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| The beautiful Doge's Palace |
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I was intrigued by this line of figures though I don't think
they had a purpose. They are called "Las Meninas a San Marco"
after the famous painting in The Prado. |
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| View of some gondolas in the harbor |
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| Canal scene |
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| It's hard not to get an interesting view in Venezia |
I need to back up for a moment. When we were deciding where to go, we were thinking southern Italy. Glenna did some more research and thought Albania (where we had not been) would be pretty. I started researching flights and found that ones through Venice were less than through most other European cities. Then Glenna remembered that 2024 was a Biennale year. Biennale is the every-two-years exhibit of art from artists chosen by the Biennale committee and of country exhibits. Since it happens so often, many countries have built their own exhibit halls. Others exhibit in one of the two main areas, Arsenale and Giardini, or in other Venetian buildings. They are spread all over the city. Biennale is something Glenna has always wanted to see, and I also was up for it. So Venice it was!
On the way to the Nigerian exhibit hall on the Palazzo Canal we passed a university where tents were set up and signs displayed for the Palestinian cause—just when all that was going on in the US.
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| Encampment for a Palestinian protest |
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| A lovely little street |
The Nigerian exhibit was typical of ALL the others—very political and with labels and panels with loads of what Glenna calls ‘curator-speak,’ the pedantic (my opinion) language of the art world. I first encountered this way of writing when I reviewed a paper Glenna wrote for her Art History master’s degree. I personally don’t like it, so I had to get past all those words to get to the essence of whatever piece of art a label was associated with.
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Now what the heck does all that mean?
(from the Romaninan exhibit)
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The young Nigerian exhibiting artists see themselves as remaking their country—oh the optimism of the young! A docent explained the exhibit by Fatimah Tuggar which really helped in understanding it.
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This structure is a replication of many of the objects that were
taken from the Kingdom of Benin by British soldiers in 1897.
The artist calls it a "theft of heritage and memory of a people".
There is a current and ongoing effort to return these objects to Nigeria,
particularly what are called the Benin Bronzes.
We saw an installation including this incident in the
Mauritshuis in den Haag in December. |
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| A closeup of some of the objects in the pyramid |
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This ceiling painting with Nigerian images
is meant to mimic the decoration in the palace
where the Nigerian exhibition is housed. |
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This was one of a series of architectural-like
drawings with human and animal figures added.
I thought they were interesting. |
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The label was virtually unitelligible to me,
so I just see it as a slice of Nigerian life. |
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| I just thought these were beautiful. |
Afterward Glenna led us to our first cicchetti bar. Cicchetti (pronounced ‘chee-KET-tee’) is more or less the Venetian version of Spanish tapas, small plates of food taken with a glass of wine. You choose the ones you want at the counter (this time cod, potato and mortadella), and they bring them to you. We liked that idea and did it several times.
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| Our first cicchetti selection |
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| Another canal scene |
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| Of course there are many many bridges in Venice |
We got one more as we walked and then found a nice restaurant for pasta bigoli (a Venetian specialty) with duck and tagliatelle with seafood and a wonderful panna cotta with caramel sauce for dessert. And wine, of course. Glenna slipped out to see if there was a sunset (one of her passions). No luck, but the skies were at least blue as they had not been all day (according to Glenna this is called the Blue Hour which happens every day rain or shine).
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| Our pretty and delicious dessert |
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at San Marco again for some rainy night shots. To bed about midnight. Long day!! And 12,675 steps.
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| Piazza San Marco and the Campanile at night |
Thursday. This was Arsenale and Giardini Biennale day, but first we visited a church with a really nice cloister, San Francesco della Vigna. Of course, it was pouring buckets.
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| Interior of San Francesco della Vigna |
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| Beautiful but rainy cloisters |
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| Another view of the cloisters |
Nearby was the Chilean exhibit in an old military building--which meant that in our walks we were following the beautiful arsenale (a cognate of the English word arsenal) wall.
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Titled "Mother Mountain" this textile sculpture represents the
artist's "desire to experience her Andean horizon in Nordic lands". |
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| Detail of "Mother Mountain" |
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| Another detail of "Mother Mountain" |
Next door were wonderfully colorful paintings by the Japanese artist Tomokazu Matsuyama though the panel mentioned Turkey. The theme of this year’s Biennale is Strangers Everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque) which focuses on artists who are working in other than their native countries (which makes sense of the caption of the "Mother Mountain" image above). But, more importantly, many, maybe most, of the exhibits used the theme of migration and displacement.
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The panel on Matsuyama's works was another curator-speak one.
What I got from it was that this is all about our global world
where all is jumbled and nothing is local.
But I thought his paintings were beautiful. |
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| Another Matsuyama piece. |
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| And another. |
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This enormous work made reference to loads of famous works of art, which
Glenna enjoyed pointing out to me. Sorry I can't make it big enough for that
to be clear to you, dear reader. |
We followed the wall and walked to the huge Arsenale (so named because it also is a former military building). Here were displayed the works of artists chosen by the Biennale committee. Before going in we visited the Azerbaijan, Mongolia and Hong Kong exhibits. There were lots of appealing art works and some I liked less so. Some exhibits were videos or with sound.
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| The arsenal wall which extended a long way |
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We always stop for kitties!
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The Hong Kong exhibit was a series of water tanks
exhibiting the relationships between humans
and aquatic ecosystems |
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This sculpture from the Mongolian exhibit
represents body parts, indicating the impermanence
of life on earth and the search
for enlightenment in Buddhism
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Here we walked through a maze of tall walls in the Azerbaijan exhibit
and only at the end, while looking up at a mirror, knew what this
piece was about--the artist's statement of his existence. |
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Biennale sign outside the Arsenale building
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| The shimmering ceiling of the Arsenale lobby |
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This painting by Emmi Whitehorse, an
indigenous artist from the US Southwest,
shows the interconnectedness between
land and people to achieve harmony. |
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From a distance this Greta Schodl painting
looks like rhythmic vibrations in the sky |
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In fact, it is words written horizontally with only certain letters
highlighted in gold leaf. |
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Marlene Gibson's works are meant to highlight
the ordinary lives of Australian aboriginal peoples
so that they won't be forgotten or neglected. |
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I liked this piece because from a distance
it looks like a painting of an explosion in Beirut... |
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| ...but up close you can see that it is a mosaic |
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This work from Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, with the white bars
in front of each of the domestic images, represents
the metal railings that surround (to this day--we saw them in
Johannesburg) homes "which are a prevalent feature in big cities
in the Global South with significant disparities amongst their populations". |
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Libyan artist Nour Jaouda's piece consists
of torn dyed fabrics meant to convey, among other
things, rootlessness and resilience |
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| Closeup of Jaouda's work |
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This interactive piece from Bouchra Khalili,
a French-Moroccan artist, depicts the
Mediterranean migration routes of stateless
peoples from the Global South who are
"excluded from citizen membership". |
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Argentinian artist Claudia Alarcon worked with Silat women
to process and dye fibers from a native plant and weave them into
textiles meant to invoke the cycles of nature. |
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| Closeup of the Alarcon textile |
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I just thought this Anna Zemankova
work was beautiful... |
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| ...especially up close. |
After Arsenale we were hungry and needed a sit-down. Glenna found another cicchetti bar where we shared 7 pieces (I liked the tuna best) and each had a Select spritz. Spritzes are really big in the US also, the most popular I think being Aperol, but Select (which I really liked) is unique to Venice.
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| Lunch at Basego cicchetteria |
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| Looking back toward San Marco and San Giorgio Maggiore |
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| Another nice old canal house |
The afternoon was devoted to Giardini (gardens) which has a large pavilion and many smaller country buildings. Many of these exhibits had sound or video, some very interesting. Most of the country exhibits showed the work of one artist. In the case of the US, it was the indigenous artist (first time) Jeffrey Gibson whose work we had seen in the National Gallery two days earlier. His pieces were really colorful. I had read that it wasn’t reviewed very favorably, but I liked it. Many artists focused on indigenous populations and how they had been mistreated. Some of the exhibits I can’t say I understood. Good thing there were panels of explanation amidst the curator-speak.
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The wonderful ricotta-stuffed zucchini--
melt-in-the-mouth good
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Our pretty dessert of chestnut mousse
with chocolate crumbles |
It had poured the entire time we were having dinner and was still doing it when we left. Glenna’s socks were soaked through her water-proof shoes; even her underwear was soaked. And we only had a four minute walk to our hotel! Our hotel clerk told us that this weather was EXTREMELY unusual, and this was Water-City. This day was 14,743 steps.
Friday. Of course, this day was beautiful. We got out early to take advantage of the sun. We wandered the tiny streets and bridges east of San Marco, enjoying popping into shops and markets.
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| At least we saw the nice sign |
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Our delicious waterside lunch--one
of our favorites |
That’s all the time we had for Venice. We hurried back to the hotel to consolidate our things and took a vaporetto to Piazzale Roma and a bus to the other airport Treviso for our flight to Tirana, Albania. While we waited we ate the yummy strawberries we had purchased at the market.
End of Part 1 and the art part of our adventure. Go to Part 2 for Albania and the landscape part.
