In Venice it is time for the Biennale, but also outside the Biennale, a whirlwind of openings and vernissages. Once you get off the Santa Lucia train station you can head towards Cannaregio, where the historic building has opened to the public Diedo Palace, inaugurated with the exhibition «Janus», site-specific works by 11 international artists dedicated to the traditions of the art professions of the Lagoon (until 24 November). These include a glass chandelier walled in a concrete cube by Piero Golia and an installation of sloping drops of blown glass by Urs Fischer.
Continuing towards Santa Croce you can reach Ca’ Pesaro which dedicates a monograph to the creative genius of Armando Testa, until September 15th. On display are the sketches and his first lithographs of some famous advertisements for Borsalino, Pirelli, Antonetto, social campaigns such as the one against abortion and for Amnesty International, the posters of major sporting events such as the 1959 Olympics and Turin 1990, and then Carmencita, Papalla, Pippo, the characters created for the Caroselli that have entered our imagination, the chair with pencil, his homages to Mondrian, his crosses and his paintings.
In the new location of the gallery Lorcan O’Neill Richard Long he entered into a relationship with the city with a sculpture made with the white and red marble typical of the construction of Venetian buildings, in dialogue with some of his paintings. In Piazza San Marco, after having walked around «Las Meninas», the twelve bronze damsels by Manolo Valdes, you can visit the Correr museum which until November 24th hosts Francesco Vezzoli with «Museums of tears», a new hybridization between memory and history of art with contemporary languages. On the one hand, Vezzoli dialogues with the picture gallery, placing alongside the masterpieces of the collection, which range from the 13th to the 17th century, 37 of his works (historical, recent and some created for this occasion) which undermine the sign of tears, embroidered with small stitch on his pop images. On the other hand, he was influenced by the exhibition spaces designed by Carlo Scarpa in 1960. The famous Venetian architect also designed the historic Olivetti shop, under the porticoes of the Procuratie Vecchie in San Marco, which hosts «Tony Cragg. The shapes of glass”, a selection of drawings and 27 glass sculptures made in Murano by the British artist.
In the small sixteenth-century church St. Gallen Until September 30th the works of the Spaniard Jaume Plensa are on display, who returns to «Janus», the two-faced Janus, with a site-specific installation with 3 large alabaster blocks from which 3 women’s faces and 3 portraits of young people emerge Murano glass girls with their index fingers resting on their lips as a sign of silence.
Still on the subject of glass, by taking a vaporetto you can reach the island of Murano, where the Berengo Art Space Foundation until November 24th it hosts «Glasstress 8½», curated by Umberto Croppi, a biennial exhibition of works by contemporary artists and designers created in collaboration with the master glassmakers of Berengo Studio. In the old furnace transformed into an exhibition space there are around 30 unpublished works by artists on display, including those by Monica Bonvicini, Thomas Schütte, Alfredo Pirri and Emilio Isgrò.
So there is time to visit both Biennial that the outside Biennale, remembering that from 25th April just passed to 14th July (on 29 specific days of large attendance) the “access contribution” will be active, i.e. the payment of an entry fee of 5 euros which has the objective to regulate tourist flows in the historic center of Venice. If art continues to attract tourists and travellers, will this token be able to regulate attendance?
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