The Venice Biennale or the Tate Liverpool?

If you possibly can you must get to Venice for La Biennale this year.

Venice is the most romantic and beautiful city in the world, and visiting La Biennale is a must, at least once in your life. We celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2013 and plan to celebrate it in Venice at the 2013 Biennale with a few days in Rome thrown in. The Vatican is a little special too!

Now this is a first on this blog, I'm about to recommend something in Liverpool rather than being typically Mancunian and slagging it off. If you can't get to La Biennale why not get to see an exhibition of the work of Rene Magritte at the Tate Liverpool?

Ok, the Albert Dock isn't quite the Lido di Venezzia, but times are tough.

Tracey Emin Forger and La Biennale di Venezia

In 2007 we visited La Biennale di Venezia. The experience was unforgettable with artists from around the world displaying in national pavilions, unforgettable outdoor areas and some unusual buildings in the grounds.
The lowlight for us was the British Pavilion.

Now we don't claim to be 'art experts' Mrs B and I, but let's face it, it really boils down to what you like, and what you don't like. The problem for us was that Tracey Emin had been responsible for the British Pavilion and she seemed to be obsessed with drawings of male and female genitalia in the style of a 4 year old. It wasn't good, and certainly not dignified, sums up Tracey Emin really.

So I was shocked to read today that somebody called Jonathan Rayfern has just been found guilty of forging Tracey Emin's work. Worse than that he has been sentenced to 16 months in chokey.

I can only think that the sentence was punishment for wanting to forge Tracey Emin's work.

Banksy Or The Biennale?

Sadly won't be back to Venice this year so will have to visit Bristol to see the Banksy exhibition instead of the Biennale.

Following is a quote from an excellent article on OpenDemocracy.net by Tina Beattie :

I was walking past a Marks & Spencer store towards Edgware Road tube station in central London recently when a security-guard rushed out of the shop and ran past me. As I drew nearer, I saw that he was going to help his colleague who had apprehended a shoplifter. It was an old tramp who had, it seems, stolen a quarter-litre of milk. I joined a small group of onlookers as the guards wrestled the man to the ground, pulling off his shirt in the process, while the rest of us urged them to leave him alone.The guards ignored us, manhandling the man for several minutes and then finally letting him go, leaving him lying half-naked on the ground. One of the onlookers paid for the milk, and the guards went back into the shop while the dazed old man struggled to sit up, still clutching his meagre prize.

I went into the shop and complained to a manager. He was well-trained in the art of placating customers, giving me a smooth-tongued response. Yes, the guards were perhaps a little over-enthusiastic, but the man was a persistent offender who was well-known to them, and they have a duty to stop shoplifters. I protested and eventually left, but the incident has continued to haunt me.

A Bristol homecoming

Banksy understands that haunting perhaps better than any other contemporary British artist. His new exhibition at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery - Banksy Versus Bristol Museum - is defiant, witty and courageous. It is a triumph of dissenting liberality over the increasingly authoritarian regimes which seek to control our diminishing spaces of democracy and freedom.

If that doesn't tempt you to get to Bristol then watch the following trailer:

53rd Biennale-Venice

We visited the 52nd Biennale in Venice and can't believe it's now two years ago, but it is. The only problem was that in 2007 Tracey Emin was responsible for the British pavilion. We enjoyed the rest though.

Today sees the start of the 53rd Biennale and if you are fortunate enough to be visiting Italy, Venice particularly, then you really must get to la Biennale before it finishes in November.

Below is a link to the official website.

53rd Venice Biennale