Honey in the coffee

These days some of my friends are visiting Viva Arte Viva,  the 57th Art Biennale in Venice, that it closes in two days. As they ask for suggestions on what must to be seen, I found my mind going back to last May when I visited the Biennale during the preview days. My trip to Venice, every two years, to attend the opening days at the Art Biennale became a kind of a ritual! It's a real journey - by train, plane or bus - taken by a group of professionals (Artists, Curators, Art Critics and a Gallerist) coming from different cities such as London, Rome, Athens and Paris, sharing the same flat - rented by a lovely old lady from Venice. Ready to be surrounded by notes, catalogues, ferries, planning and, above all, a very deep immersion into the Arts from all over the world! I found this Biennale complex  as its meaning "of c onsisting of many different and connected parts". In fact, the Curator Christine Macel offers a journey through nine chapters representing each ...

I know it's extremely hot... I know you are planning a weekend at the beach... but please, please, please take some time off to pay a visit to the Brazilian Embassy in Rome (Piazza Navona). Artist Ernesto Neto is offering an exciting sensorial experience. The magnificent frescoes by baroque painter Pietro da Cortona (1596/7 - 1669), that are enhancing the vault of Galleria Cortona in Palazzo Pamphilj, are now closer than ever to the visitors. With his new installation, Olhando o  céu  (Looking at the sky), Neto is creating a pure dialogue between a contemporary artist, his audience and the past. Neto is offering the chance to lie down on a carrinhos (a wood structure with fabric and wheels), take a binoculars and start to admire Cortona's frescoes. A feeling of astonishment are pursued by both artists. As a spectator you will be more involved in the action of 'reading' with your eyes the stories of Aeneas from closer.  You will feel time stretching at ...

A recent journey to Central London is still in my 'visual thoughts'. My steps were intentionally guided to enjoy Ernesto Neto 's site specific installation at the Hayward Gallery, The edges of the world. In a gloomy summer day in London, the colourful fabrics, materials, scents, spices, softness, hardness and excitement in Neto's work allowed a sensuous feeling of warmth. Photographs by Steve White Only few steps away from the Hayward Gallery, in Trafalgar square, placed on the forth plinth, here appears the giant Nelson's ship in a bottle by Yinka Shonibare . I have been waiting to sail on this ship for long time. I stand still admiring the work. My mind goes to a quote by Nietzsche in the book I am reading, The Black Atlantic by Paul Gilroy: We children of the future, how could we be at home in this today? We feel disfavour for all ideals that might lead one to feel at home even in this fragile, broken time of transition; a...