Biennale at Venice 2013

Like promised, I took a little trip yesterday, seeing as the weather didn't suck. Actually the weather was
amazing and we head out without wearing jackets (the guys were obviously in t-shirts because they're real men). And like you probably already guessed we went to Venice to see the Biennale.

What's Biennale then? Practically it's a huge exhibition of art from different countries spread all across Venice. Since we only had one day to spend, we went to see the exhibit at Giardini, a huge park about 1km away from the St.Mark Square. In the park there are about  20-25 pavilions (that's just a guess folks, don't sue me if that's not the correct amount), each one housing an exhibition from different countries in the world: Spain, Poland, Russia. Egypt, Greek, Austria, USA, Venezuela.... and of course my beloved Finland. If you still didn't get what it's all about, check out the link below!

Biennale 2013

Following is a "foto-vomit" from yesterday, so take a deep breath and jump in!

where to go..... ??

little streets near the university of Venice

if you want to look like a tourist,
take a ride on the Gondol...

.... or just walk around taking 1000 fotos like me :)

ah, here we are!

 It took us about 2 hours to get from the train station to the Giardini. Not because it's that long way away or because there were so many tourists that we couldn't walk faster, but because we stopped 2 times to get "a little something to drink". Obviously. Can't go to the Biennale if you're not a bit tipsy.

And here's what we saw!

Spain had rooms filled with gravel. 

If I remember right this was Holland...
it looked like they hadn't quite finished yet

The "general exhibition" had a room full of little German houses

Czechoslovakia?
A wall of little Mickey Mouse wannabees

still the same pavilion, a wall of tortoises

and again the same folk,
this time with a wall of little leathery animals

Now, this was Poland. Don't go in there, unless you want to
be stuck in a room for 20 min listening to church bells ringing
and some weird noise from the loud speakers.
Sometimes you just ask "why?" when you get out
of a pavilion. This was one of those times.

The Nordic Countries... always a mess

This was actually not in the Giardines,  but we went to see it anyway.
Chairs stuck in the ceiling.

Venezuela's theme was street art

....as you can see

The French had nicked the chair-idea from the dudes outside
the Giardini, but still, very cool

Of course we saved the best for last.... Finlandia!!!!!

some moron outside the pavilion
(copyright Erica Mononoke, all rights reserved)

the moron is also a tree hugger
"but it's a birch, we love birches!"
(copyright Erica Mononoke, all rights reserved)

Finland showed this video about a dude who had
decided to build an island in the lake from sandbags.
Only a Finn would do such a weird thing, so good job guys!

There were many other things to see as well, but a lot of them aren't worth photographing, in a sense that you can't transmit the emotions and overall experience through a photograph. Or I can't anyway. You have to be there in person to get it. 

Like true Italians we didn't go straight home from the Biennale, nooooooo. We took our time to get to the train station (4 hours this time) and did some more wine tasting and nibbling on local appetizers. Venice has some cool street art as well, so here's how the rest of the evening went.

local election

The Left Wing party in Venice is going strong,
and they're also great fans of Mr. Guevara

arrrrrrrrrrrright, moving on...

made me miss my cat...

laundry day...

laundry day part 2

when the night, has come... and we're starting to get
tipsy again...

St Mark's Square

St. Marks Square

Nighty night...

 So go see the Biennale, it's jolly good fun! And if you can, reserve also some time for the Venician traditions (= bar hopping) because it's jolly good fun as well. Just remember to check when the last train leaves and give yourself enough time to get from the last bar to the station, otherwise, well, you're up the shit creek without a paddle.

In this case, you're up the Gran Canal without a licensed Gondol-driver.