You’ll be pleased to hear that I have lots to say to you tonight :D
Dr Rylands talk last night was more of a questions and answer thing but I learnt a lot. Here’s a few of the things:
· He told us about the relationship between Peggy’s collection and the rest of the Guggenheim’s which was quite interesting. New York always has the final say on loans, acquisitions and exhibitions held at the PGC. Dr Rylands doesn’t like the Bilbao Guggenheim because they never lend him works so he’s decided never to lend them any works!
· He didn’t have any previous experience of working in a museum before this but he knew Peggy and he basically helped her turn it into a gallery. He said “I didn’t have a degree in Museum Studies. It didn’t exist then! But I hear it’s quite fashionable now. Isn’t that right, Hailey?”
· He told us what each room was when it was Peggy’s home. I found this interesting seeing as I’m in those rooms everyday and it’s hard to imagine it being a house.
· He said how exhibitions are chosen. Mostly depends on the budget.
And yh other museum-y things which I’m sure you’re not interested in.
At the end he said “Has that answered all of your questions, Hailey? Was that enough?”
I hadn’t asked any questions so I was quite embarrassed. But he told me everything I wanted to know so I didn't feel the need to ask anything!
Everyone was very impressed that he knew my name which made me feel rather special :D (you know what a Teacher’s Pet I am!)
Here’s a little video I found of Dr Rylands talking about the exhibition in TES at the moment
http://www.youtube.com/user/VeniceGuggenheim?feature=mhee#p/f/0/hqVsmaZ8AJs
Look out for ‘Zerorose’!
And I found this virtual tour of the PGC http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/exhibitions/virtual_tour/vr_pgc/guggenheim.html You can see where I work every day!
Then we all went off to party at Holly, Velina and Noa’s house which is beautiful! Although it’s rather far away. It was a very good night :)
Today Nicole and I went to the Biennale. This is the 54th Biennale and it’s basically where countries from all around the world come to exhibit their work based on a theme which this years was ‘Illumination’. Each country has its own pavilion which was built when they started entering in to the Biennale. You tell which countries have been it in the longest because of the architecture. Great Britain and France were built in 1909 and 12 so they are really classical with columns and things whereas Korea joined in 1995 so have quite a weird modern building.
Each country can do entirely what they want in their own pavilion; knock walls down, fill it with water etc.
The Italian pavilion is the biggest and had the most varied artworks. There was a really good photography exhibition which had photos of criminals from Johannesburg standing in the spot where they had committed their crime. It was really sad but quite a powerful and moving piece I thought.
The PGC supports the American pavilion although they don’t choose what gets exhibited only has to curate and set it up. We spoke to the curator last week and she said it was quite a task this year! People from America just rang up and said ‘We need a tank. Can you put it upside-down and but a running machine on it.’
So yh the artwork is rather weird (it is contemporary art after all) and I’m not sure I understood what any of it meant but it was still really exciting seeing so much work!
I only saw half of it today in the Giardini but I hope to go to the Arsenale at the weekend. There are also exhibits all around the city in random places which is why me and Matt saw that Anish Kapoor in the church on Giudecca.
There were 30 pavilions at Giudeca which kept us very busy!
Here are some photos I took (I can’t be bothered to rotate some of them so I’m afraid you will just have to tilt your head)
It was 31 degrees today!
Scary head robot things who complimented each other. Scariest thing I've ever seen in an art gallery.
Tilt your head These fake pigeons were all over the Italian pavilion which made me giggle
Plasticine room
Outside the Italian pavilion
American pavilion (see what I mean about the tank!)
Something else inside the American pavilion
Swedish pavilion
German pavilion. I know it's a rubbish photo but I really did not like it in there so I ran back out. It was stupidly hot and stuffy in there and as soon as I walked in it felt like I couldn't breathe. For the couple of seconds that I was in there I saw that it was meant to look like a cathedral.
Tilt your head Greek pavilion. I liked this one! It was just full of water and you waked over it. It was nice and calming after all the weird things I had been through! Marina reckons it's bare because of the economic crises in Greece which I guess makes sense.
Japanese pavilion. This one was so cool! It had mirrors everywhere and was very dark so I got a bit confused and bumped into lots of people. It played an animation about something with leaves and watches and reflected all around us which was very pretty. Again, I have no idea what it was about. I picked up a pamphlet from there though so I shall read it tonight and let you know I can understand it! (I also got pamphlets from the French, American and Finish pavilions)
Great Britain Pavilion. It was really weird and claustrophobic. You had to go in these rooms which were very small with low ceilings and I guess it was a reconstruction of something but I have no idea what. Something else for me to google methinks.
French pavilion. I really really liked this one! It had photos of babies whizzing around like in a newspaper factory (my basis for that is what I've seen in films and on TV). It made a nice breeze which I enjoyed :)
Woman running on the tank and making the wheels turn
Walking home we went past the monument to the women who were killed fighting in WWII
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