Merchant of Venice

Flew out to Venice last Friday & arrived there ever so slightly sedated by the anti-anxiety pills I'd taken before the flight. By the time I stepped off the canalboat, I was morosely grinning at just about everything & everyone. Which is a pretty nice entrance to make, methinks. Venice is currently holding the 65th Mostra FilmFestival as well as the Biennale Art Expo so there were a lot of funky things on the go.


Dad&Mona were there for the nomination of a film Mona has editted and we were invited to join them. Although we were fairly preoccupied by the cheeky 11-month old they had brought along, we managed to get some cultural experiences under our belt, starting with a screening of Mona's film. From a perspective I've tried to keep as unbiased as possible, "Working Man's Death" is most definitely a little gem of a documentary film. It sets out to bring into focus 21st Century manual labor. Although this in itself is a seemingly dry topic, I felt they managed to portray each of the five subfeatures without being moralising. By merely documenting, the makers allowed the people in focus to bring a sense of reality to the topic which any attempted discourse would have failed to grasp. So, if the film ever makes it to a theater nearby, I would most certainly recommend a viewing.


The Biennale Art Expo itself was good fun. The Belgian pavilion seemed to have resorted to the old trick of getting its visitors slightly tipsy on free beer (Duvel) prior to the viewing of the art exhibition. A stroke of genius! :-) I was most amused by the German section though. They took a very silly take on "Contemporary Art" and it was definitely the only pavillion people walked out off in giggling fits. But the pavillion I went back to thrice, was the Australian one. They kept it simple, with an exhibition of the work of Ricky Swallow, who is a master at fine wood carvings. The pieces just screamed out: "TOUCH ME. I'M REAL"... But I managed to behave.

The highlight of the weekend by far, though, was Little Miss Shorthausen (pictured below), who managed to drag our attention away from just about anything by bursting out into highly self-satisfactory unapparent giggling fits. I shall refrain from coo-ing ;-)