One week in the most beautiful city in the world, very Deluxe&Arty : Venice !!

Ciao amici ! we just come back from Venice and it was sooo fantastic I would like to live there 6 months per  year ! This is really the most beautiful city in the world and 20 millions people do agree with me !

Moreover this is the 54th Biennale of contemporary art this year, so many exhibitions and artists to discover in a unique atmosphere…

     

We stayed at The San Clemente Place hotel and resort, this is THE place to be in summer ! Located on an island, 15 min boat ride only from Piazza San Marco (free shuttle service each 20 min), the 5-star hotel opened in 2004, after immense works in a former convent. Today it offers a marvellous garden with several hundred years old trees, a golf, two tennis courts, a refreshing pool, 2 restaurants… I take advantage to thank Melissa who helped us to improve our stay and make it memorable, grazie mille carissima ! Below : our bedchamber (we were upgraded with a junior suite), the bar, the pool.

           

The Biennale of Art 2011 :

We loved the austrian pavillion in the giardini with Marcus Schinwald.In the same time an installation, video and paintings, creating a white hanging maze with strange and unquiet meetings : anonymous portrait who received new proesthetics on their faces, minimalist sculptures hidden in corners with hangers and great video , closer to contemporary dance with body trapped  and contortions.Fabulous !

    

We also loved Sigalit Landau in Israel pavillion with shoes recovered with salt from dead sea falling down slowly in the sea.

Don’t miss the british pavillion by  Mike Nelson, you fell like visiting a taliban house…very impressive.

Are you a fluxus fan ? Visit the german pavillion, a flux oratorio (winner pavillion this year) by Christophe Schlingensief. Total success.

Art around the clock : in the Arsenal (globally very disappointed according to me this year) don’t miss Jean-Luc Mylaine and his fabulous birds,

James Turell for a space and light experience, and the great winner is (golden lion) : Christian Marclay with “The clock”, a video lasting 24h, a fantastic collage of movies excerpts evoking each minute of the day and night !

Want to have fun ? visit the narrow house by austrian artist Erwin Wurm (in Palazzo Franchetti’s gardens).Wurm was  famous for fat objects, here is some picture and there is no special effect !

      

Next to the house the exhibition “Glasstress” : master of contemporary art using glass in their work. Beauty still exist in Art if you ever doubted and you can find it here. Javier Perez crown of thorn is a good example as well as Zaha Hadid  futurist flowing like desk or Charlotte Gyllenhammar ‘s Alice in wonderland world :

    

Am a great fan of Pinault’s collection but photographs are not allowed…Nevertheless I do recommend Punta della dogana for Koons’s big red heart, Tatiana Trouvé drawings , Julie Merethu works … In Palazzo Grassi you cannot miss Joanna Vasconcelos  (next year in Versailles !) with a textile sculpture, a proliferating assemblage on  all the height of the building  : spectacular, decorative and a tribute to minor and folk art on a giant scale. after Wurm, great fun too with Francesco Vezzoli video : a pastiche of Hollywood true story, a kinf of hilarious self-portrait !

Prada exhibits its own collection in a fabulous 18th century palazzo Ca’ Correr della Regina : the place is great first for architecture, and  frescoes influenced by Veronese, then the collection with Pino Pascali (see below), Anish Kapoor (early work), Francesco Vezzoli again (works after famous Bernini with my friend Eva Mendes, we went to Louvre and Pompidou center together some year ago, fabulous and adorable girl !).

        

Do you know Axel ver Voordt ? a man of taste for sure then a famous belgium art dealer who loves to mix antique, modern and contemporary art , creating connoisseur cabinet. Each two years my great pleasure is to visit his new opus at charming Palazzo Fortuny (first pleats please inventor !). Among the treasures this year  (Op Art, Arte Povera, James Turrell, Lygia Pape …) , my favorite artist : Anthony Gormley !! I looove the dynamic energy emanting from this inner body… by the way, is this a centrifugal or centripetal strenght ? actually it’s working  in both way…

(Some of) My favorite restaurants in Venice :

1) da Forni

Spaghetti vongole is my sin in Venice ! I can eat them each day ! the best I’ve ever had  are there. Without forgetting another venitian specialty : le canocie (sea cicadas ).The waiters are just perfect, they make me think about italian movies in the 60’s, I can imagine them  twisting on Adriano Celentano…

             

2) the best Bellini ? At Gritti !!

How romantic  ! a dinner at Gritti Palace hotel (remember “Everybody says I love you”by Woody Allen ?) : we started with a glass of Bellini, our table facing la Salute …we had the tasting menu and we finished with an exquisite and incredibly light Tiramisu :

    

3) last day in Venice ritual : a dinner on Danieli terrace

It’s a ritual now, a way to say goodbye-but never farewell- to the Serenissima : we have a lunch with a view in legendary  Palace  Hotel Danieli, on the top roof.

That night the sky was so spectacular, we had a a marvellous table  and I enjoy so much my lobster salad !!

         

Shopping in Venice :

I’m so happy, I’ve found THE perfect gift from Venice you can wear each day at home !! I was so excited to find “Furlane”, these elegant venitian slippers originally  used by gondoliers and customized today with coral motifs made of beads. It is said that courtisans worn them when they went out, late at night, in venitian street …Mine furlane were embroidered by this charming lady, owner of a shop called “Venitian dream” (3805A, calle de la Mandola) I do recommend you.