Venice August 13-15

Wed. August 13 -15

The Dogana Museum

The Dogana, or customs house, is at the end of the Grand Canal facing San Marco.  Following restoration designed by Tadao Ando in 2007, it is now a contemporary art museum.  It houses part of the collection of Francois Pinault.  

Like many contemporary art museums, it leaves patrons enthusiastic about the building, ...

but the works can leave the patron confused, provoked to anger, or wary of being the naked emperor.  Or wondering what the museum is thinking of.  For example, Rickshaw for Fossilized Soul Wares by Theaster Gates:

Decor by Adel Abdessemed (detail of one of four, life-size, identical crucifiction Christs in razor wire):

Untitled (Invest in Art Make Money) by LLyn Foulkes (2001)  is at least overt in its cynicism:

There were some items Bruce enjoyed:

Six Colors Sun Vertical Stack by Diana Thater

Untitled (Turkish Forest) (detail of one of seven paintings)  by Marc Grotjean:

Clearing our minds of the contemporary stuff, we went to the Basilica of Santa Maria Della Salute, a "plague" church completed in 1681 and designed by  architect Baldasse Longhena.  It is dedicated to the Virgin of Health as a votive offerings for the end of a plague of 1630 that wiped out 1/3 of Venice's population. 

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8/14/14  Thurs

Our neighborhood.

Bruce went out to shop for breakfast, expecting to get to the Simply supermarket at Teatro Rossini.  I thought I would record some local features.

We live at 3289 San Marco for a few more days.  From our door, we enter briefly into a dank alley with a big name (Calle Mocinego Ca’ Vecchia) and emerge on Salizada San Samuele.  Salizada means one of the earliest paved roads, brick or stone rather than dirt or mud.  Venice started paving in 1264.

Our recent location is a bit upscale compared to our first place, and we pass some interesting shops.  There is a gallery carrying the ceramics of Allessio Tasca.   

Others:

with selfie:

The pigment store

Soon we arrive at P. San Stephano:

We have dinner here most nights.  It fills up with hundreds of tourists.

Turning around, we see Chiesa San Stephano (Michelin *):

There are a couple of small memorial plaques to men from the parish lost in WWII, with their ranks.  This one says “Resurrecturis”, which had us puzzled. Actually, it means those about to be resurrected.  Does that help?

The church has a cloister attached.

In former times, it would have been occupied by nuns or monks; today it serves as offices for some bureaucracy.

After crossing a canal, we come upon another piazza.  A news stand is a fairly common feature of a larger piazza.  The photo captures a couple of dogs, also fairly common here.  There does not seem to be wide use of the pooper scooper.  Venice must have the world’s ugliest dogs:

Another canal and another piazza, and I reach the Daniele Manin Statute.

I am lost.  I buy a pastry for breakfast and return.

After breakfast, we go to several less-visited churches:  S. Sebastiano (restoration in progress) ….

Angelo Raffaele (no pictures), San Nicolo dei Mendicoli (closed).  

Also the Scuola Grande dei Carmine, a late, smaller effort with a lot of Tiepolos.  Nice floor in  the side rooms:

We have a light lunch of bruschetti and fried stuffed olives and spend the late afternoon

at the Ca’ Persaro, which houses Venice’s public modern art collection.

It is amusing. You are a modern art museum because you buy art at the Biennale.. Of course the first Biennale was 100 years ago.  There were works that the City purchased at the early Biennales, including  Sewing the Sail by Joaquin Sorilla y Bastida (1896):

Angelo Morbelli, a Spanish Divisionist, had a technique that merits a search for more of his work.  This is The Christmas of Those Left Behind:

This is a blowup of about 2 square inches:

There are also collections of contemporary art and Far Eastern artifacts at Ca’ Pesaro.

We had dinner at “Da Mario” Alla Fava.  Squid and pasta, both quite good.  Leslie was given a menu without prices!  Another throwback.

After dinner we went to a small chamber concert at Santa Maria dei Miracoli.  Two pretty good musicians doing duets from Bach, Beethoven, and Haydn.  And we revisited one of the most beautiful churches in Venice.

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Friday, Aug 15.

This morning we went to San Marco and found that the church was closed most of the day for mass.  Today is the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin.  Who knew?  This marks the beginning do Feragosto, when Venetians go on holiday.  We should expect to see more closed stores and restaurants. We are told that in August most of the tourists are day trippers anyway.  

We walked around a bit and located the supermarket.  After lunch, we saw more contemporary art at Palazzo Grassi, a huge 18th century building with suitably opulent 20-foot high ceilings:

The exhibit was The Illusion of Light.  The first piece D-NSF 12 PG by Doug Wheeler managed to give the experience of a white out.  It was quite unpleasantly discomforting to Leslie.  No pictures were allowed and it is dubious that one could catch the effect.

The most pleasant piece was a play of white light lines moving randomly, very much like some of the old screen savers.

We went back to the San Stefano. Excellent lasagne and good roast chicken. Indifferent wine.