Part 1 Biennale Arte - Arsenale

Tuesday 5 September

Last night's film 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' was a beauty!  If you enjoy watching Frances McDormand, if films like In Bruges and Fargo are in your top 10, if you like Sam Rockwell (who is outstanding in this film)...and I think everyone I know falls into at least one of the above categories...then this film is for you.  Loved it!  Frances McDormand is awe-inspiring as a "rage-filled grieving mother".  There is one scene where she lets the local priest have a verbal what-for, and there were audible gasps from the crowd.  I thought our mostly Italian Catholic audience might have been close to leaving at that point...but they stayed to the end, cheering on Frances' character and applauding.  Everyone enjoyed it!

Today was spent at the Biennale Arte exhibitions at Arsenale.  One part of the Biennale Arte is situated at Arsenale, the other at Giardini (public gardens).  Arsenale is the former naval shipyards and is a series of huge brick and concrete sheds, which are the perfect neutral backdrop for the art displays.

One of my favourites was 'A Stitch in Time' by David Medalla, the Philippines exhibit.  This installation was a cloth sling where you were invited to pull up a stool and add your contribution - clip, pin or stitch something onto the cloth.  He sees sharing embroidery as a creative act.  "The audience is invited to work on a cloth hanging on the wall, contributing to the creation of the work and thus transforming into performers."  And so, my Criss Crossing Paris family, we are all performers!

We loved also the work by Canadian Inuit artist Kananginak Pootoogook - pencil and ink drawings on paper.  The artist died in 2010 and the works were from the last four years of his life - political and social commentaries around the life of the Inuit people.

And the China exhibit.  This included 12 images of water surging by Yao Huifen which were stitched in silk thread - so fine it was hard to believe they were stitched - they looked like ink or watercolours.

Exhausted but happy in our art overload, we headed back to the apartment for a rest before the boat ride to Lido to see the Darren Aronofsky psychological horror film 'mother!'.