Yoko Ono Dreams in Venice - June 10, 2013

Yoko Ono at Palazzo Badoer

(Venice, Italy) Yoko Ono turned 80-years-old on February 18, 2013, which makes her seven months older than my mother. Here is how Wikipedia describes Yoko:

Yoko Ono (born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese artist and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking and for her marriage to John Lennon (1969–1980). Ono brought feminism to the forefront in her music. She is also known for her philanthropic contributions to arts, peace and AIDS outreach programs. Lennon called her "the most famous unknown artist in the world."

If you ask me what one of Yoko's greatest contributions has been, it would be the influence she had on John Lennon with respect to women. By demanding that one of the most powerful, individualistic men on earth -- and a rock star, at that -- create an equal partnership with a individualistic Japanese woman, well, that was a rare occurrence at a time when wives her age were still ironing their husband's handkerchiefs and sending them off to win some bread. Yoko changed John Lennon's attitude towards women, and by doing that, helped to pioneer a new era in women's rights.

Photo: Rolling Stone - Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage

Yoko Ono attends the opening of a David Croland exhibit  

at Artworks Gallery in New York City  

on November 13th, 1973

Yoko spoke at Palazzo Badoer yesterday, June 10, 2013. The invitation says I was invited by Fondazione Bonnotto, Università Iuav di Venezia and Fuoribiennale to attend "a special lecture by Yoko Ono at 5pm, the opening of I'll be back at 6:30pm and A DREAM hour with Yoko Ono by Gianni Emilio Simonetti from 7pm." Yoko did, indeed, speak, and I did listen, so I will summarize what she said:

"Venice is a place that when I come here I always learn something. It's incredible. Incredible. You are standing in a difficult situation, in front of the sea. Maybe you enjoy the challenge. Maybe your ancestors enjoyed the challenge. I always get inspired when I come here. We have similar ways of working.

I allow people to work on my work. You allow the whole world to come here to participate. If you don't open yourself up you start to shrivel. People go to all the big countries. This is a very small island. The town is artistically perfect.

I would understand if you didn't let people come in here -- Don't touch! We want to preserve! -- You are trusting people not to destroy it. I do my art work in the same way. I do my project and call it unfinished, then ask people to add themselves to my work.

In the beginning, I was just a normal artist, wanting to protect my work. Then I thought, what if I ask people to add themselves to my work? Oh! I don't like that feeling! It was an artistic revolution, so I thought I must do it. 

My artwork is a form of giving. 

Yoko Ono at the 

Museum of Contemporary Art 

of the U of São Paulo, 

Brazil in 2007

I am getting so many more people to add to it, it was getting so powerful. I never imaged it would be so powerful. 

There are so many things I am understanding now that I've turned eighty. Don't be frightened to add years to yourself. There are so many things you didn't know.

Word is how we express ourselves. Word is very powerful. When you say "I love you" to someone, you say "I love you" to the whole world.

When you say, "I hate you," things will shrivel up. 

When the whole world was hating me, sending me letters, I survived because I was in love with life. 

When I was a young girl in elementary school, I saw a picture of an old Japanese warrior praying to the New Moon -- in the West you pray to the Full Moon, but in the East we pray to the New Moon... The old warrior said, give me Seven Troubles and Eight Sufferings so I can be a strong person and help the world. I said, my God, he's so courageous, I want to be like him. Then I forgot about it.

As I got older, my life was full of troubles. When my husband, John, passed away, I thought: I'm doing something wrong. I thought I was doing everything right. Then I remembered what I asked when I was a young girl. I thought: I have to change. 

There is a word in Japanese that is in between lucky and happy. So I asked for Seven Lucky/Happy things and Eight Treasures. 

I thought maybe you could use that in your life, too. 

On behalf of all the foreign people, thank you for allowing us to show our work here. Your generosity is starting to make a dialogue, and it is a very healthy dialogue. So many countries are doing Biennales. But this was the first. It started here."

Someone then asked Yoko what her dream was.

"My dream is to have the world become better and better for all of us."

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Imagination Back in Vogue at 2013 Venice Art Biennale

Carl Gustav Jung

The Red Book [page 655], 1915-1959

Paper, ink, tempera, gold paint, red leather binding

40 x 31 x 10cm

© 2009 Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung, Zürich. First published by W.W. Norton & Co., New York 2009

(Venice, Italy) Massimiliano Gioni, the curator of the 55th International Festival of Contemporary Art, anchors his exhibition The Encyclopedic Palace on two formidable bookends:  the esoteric Red Book by Carl G. Jung, and Marion Auriti's I Palazzo Enciclopedico, a physical model of an imaginary museum meant to house all worldly knowledge. At age 39, Gioni is the youngest artistic director in the 118-year-old history of the Venice Biennale, which was the very first international art event in the world back in 1895. In terms of earth-years, Gioni may be the youngest, but it is clear that he is a very old soul.

Photo by Vincenzo Latronico

Until September 2009, only about two dozen people had ever seen the contents of The Red Book, the mysterious 205-page manuscript written and illustrated by the renowned Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung, in which he attempted to give conscious voice to his unconscious mind. Until 2001, Jung's heirs had denied even scholars access to the book until persuaded by the historian Sonu Shamdasani that the time was right for the information to make its way into the public's domain. Now, at the 55th Venice Biennale International Festival of Contemporary Art, the entire world can have a gander at selected pages of the book Jung composed back in 1914 to about 1930, when he was 40-55 years old. I've had the great honor of hearing Shamdasani speak, and it was clear that he was the right man for the job of releasing Jung's precious research into the collective consciousness. You can read what I wrote about that experience three years ago here, about half-way down the page:

Oxygen - Finally a Breath of Air!

Marino Auriti

Il Encyclopedico Palazzo del Mondo or Encyclopedic Palace of the World, ca. 1950s

55^th International Art Exhibition, Il Palazzo Enciclopedico, la Biennale di Venezia

Photo By Francesco Galli

Courtesy la Biennale di Venezia

When I saw the actual model of the Encyclopedic Palace by Marino Auriti erect in the center of Arsenale, I was moved to tears, thinking of the long journey it had taken for it to finally reach Italian soil. Auriti, a self-taught Italian-American artist had registered the patent for his museum of knowledge on November 16, 1955. From his statement of purpose:

The building would have twenty-four entrances, 126 bronze statues of “writers, scientists, and artists past, present, and future” and, on the piazza, 220 Doric columns with more statues of writers, scientists, artists.  At each corner would be domed laboratories, topped by statues of allegorical figures representing each of the four seasons, much like the Ponte Santa Trinità. 

It is amazing that Auriti believed in his vision so fervently -- a 2,300-foot-tall skyscraper to house all worldly knowledge to be built in the mall in Washington, D. C., the capital of his adopted country -- that he had the incentive to register his design at the US Patent office! After being left to crumble in storage after Auriti's death in 1980, the 11-foot-tall model Auriti built of the Encyclopedic Palace was resurrected by his loving granddaughters and the American Folk Art Museum in 2004. You can read more about the amazing journey at a post I wrote here:

The Encyclopedic Palace Inspires the 2013 Venice International Exhibition of Contemporary Art

Now the Encyclopedic Palace is here in Venice as the star of the 55th International Contemporary Art Festival, a prime example of one man's imagination brought to life. Marino Auriti has achieved his goal of creating a space to house all worldly knowledge, although not exactly in the way he envisioned it. The physical space is the ever-expanding Venice Biennale, a powerhouse of ancient and contemporary knowledge that coexists in space and time; the seed of intelligence that has gathered like-minded thinkers together is Auriti's imagination, enhanced by Gioni's imagination, enhanced by the imaginations of the human beings that make up the Board of La Biennale that chose Gioni as curator.

From the New York Times: 

Paolo Baratta, the longtime president of the Biennale, said that “after 14 years of having traditional curators I thought it was time to ask a man of the next generation.” 

“At a time when contemporary art is flooding the world,” he added, “it seemed to make more sense to present a show that doesn’t just include a list of artists from the present but rather looks at today’s art through the eyes of history.”

Massimiliano Gioni

Curator of the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia

Installation view Il Palazzo Enciclopedico

Photo by Francesco Galli

Courtesy la Biennale di Venezia

Massimiliano Gioni stated: "The Encyclopedic Palace is a show that illustrates a condition we all share: we ourselves are media,  channeling images, or at times even finding ourselves possessed by images."

Personally, I have always believed that we are indeed, media, channeling and projecting images from our unconscious minds. Most people simply regurgitate the images they have been fed by the mass-media machine, too afraid or uninspired to project an original thought on their own.The brave artists, scientists, writers, and musicians who are not afraid to stand alone have worked with the unconscious mind for millennea, often far ahead of their time, and often subjected to ridicule.

This year, the brilliant imagination of a man once considered an eccentric Italian immigrant -- Marino Auriti -- reaches us from half a century ago, just a wink in time, inspiring the oldest (and wisest) art festival in the world.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Vogalonga 2013 in Venice - La Serenissima

(Venice, Italy) Today is Vogalonga here in Venice, and every year it reminds us how peaceful and serene the city is without motors, an ambiance that gave Venice her name, La Serenissima Repubblica, or The Most Serene Republic. What is Vogalonga?

From Wikipedia:

"Vogalonga is a rowing "competition" in the Italian city of Venice.

On November 11, 1974 a group of Venetians, both amateur and professional rowers, had a race in the island of Burano. They came up with an idea of non-competitive "race" in which any kind of rowing boat could participate, in the spirit of historical festivities. The first Vogalonga began the next year with the message to protest against the growing use of powerboats in Venice and the swell damage they do to the historic city.

Participants gather in St Marks Basin in front of the ducal palace. They sing hymns to San Marco (Saint Mark) and begin the "race". The racecourse is scenic route 30 kilometers long along the various Venetian canals and historical buildings....

 
...The numbers of participants has swelled to thousands over the years from all over the world. Some locals have founded new rowing clubs and build their own boats based on real, historical watercraft. Some participants have brought their own kind of boats like the Chinese dragon boats. Some have also chosen to swim through the route instead of rowing...."

To me, Venice would be the perfect city to go "green," with hybrid boats that operated on solar/electric energy while inside the lagoon that could switch over to gas when more power is needed. And the roofs of the vaporetti, or water buses, seem like they are begging for solar panels!

This year's Vogalonga set a new record with 1,700 boats and as many as 7,000 rowers armed with oars.

Photo: la Nuova di Venezia

For more images and information, please visit the Vogalonga Official Site, which you can switch over to English by clicking on the right.

The silence is... awesome.

Ciao from La Serenissima,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Venice Renews her Vows to the Sea - Festa della Sensa 2013

The Return of the Bucentaur to the Molo on Ascension Day, 1730 by Canaletto

(Venice, Italy) In one of the world's longest marriages, today Venice once again tossed her ring into the Sea, cementing a relationship that has endured for more than a thousand years. Oh, sure, there have been some quarrels, as in any intimate relationship, but Venice and the Sea have managed to endure century after century. Despite a few storms, floods and other shows of temper, Venice and the Sea always work out their differences and arrive at a state of equilibrio. It is a beautiful day here in La Serenissima, full of sunshine and good feelings -- perfect weather for a wedding. 

Last year the Festa della Sensa fell on the same day as the America's Cup, and I would like to take a moment to remember the Olympic gold medalist, Oliver Simpson, who died at the age of 36 on Thursday, May 9, 2013 after being trapped under the Artemis Racing catamaran when it capsized in San Francisco Bay during a routine training exercise for this year's America's Cup. May he rest in peace. Last year I wrote a detailed post about the holiday:

Venice Marries the Sea and the America's Cup!!!

Here is a long excerpt:

Festa della Sensa

The Ancient and the Contemporary, the Sacred and the Profane merge once again in Venice. Today is Ascension Day, the day that celebrates the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. In Venice, it is known as the Festa della Sensa; "sensa" is the word "ascension" in the Venetian language. Whenever Venetians get their hands on a special day, they like to pack as much power into that day as possible. So, in the morning there is the traditional Festa della Sensa celebration, and in the afternoon -- the America's Cup!

Festa della Sensa -- even without the America's Cup in town -- traditionally commemorates two different, important events in Venetian history. The first took place on May 9, 1000 when Doge Pietro Orseolo II rescued the Dalmatians from the Slavs.

The second event took place in 1177. Back in those days, the players involved were:

1. The Holy Roman Empire with the German Frederick I Barbarossa (aka Red Beard aka Kaiser Rotbart) as the Emperor.
          a) Anti-pope Callixtus III, backed by Red Beard
2. The Republic of Venice, with Sebastiano Ziani as the Doge.
3. Pope Alexander III, backed by the Lombard League

Federico Zuccaro - Barbarossa Pays Homage to Alexander III

Frederick I Barbarossa (Red Beard) was the German Holy Roman Emperor, and he had his own anti-pope, Callixtus III. Red Beard was going around conquering everybody, as emperors have a tendency to do. He was particularly eager to conquer Italy, and was not fond of Pope Alexander III, who had excommunicated him for his bad behavior. The only force with any hope to stop Red Beard was the Lombard League, which was backed by Pope Alexander III. The Battle of Legnano was fought and the Lombard League won.

Just WHO was God's vicar on Earth? The Pope or the Emperor? That was the question. It is not easy to get an Emperor and a Pope together in the same town, but Venice managed to do just that. Pope Alexander III came to Venice. Red Beard got as far as Chioggia, but was not allowed to land in Venice herself "until he had set aside his leonine ferocity and put on the gentleness of the lamb." Barbarossa became lamb-like, and was allowed into Piazza San Marco, where he found Pope Alexander III surrounded by the Doge, the Patriarch, a host of cardinals and other luminaries. The Emperor prostrated himself in front of the Pope, and received the kiss of peace. 

So, the Treaty, or Peace, of Venice in 1177 is also celebrated during the Festa della Sensa. From Old & Sold:

The astute Venetians extorted valuable privileges both from the Pope and from the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa as their reward for the part which they had played in the historic reconciliation.

During his stay in Venice Alexander III was present at the famous ceremony which was later known as the wedding of the Adriatic, a rite which had been inaugurated by the great Doge Pietro Orseolo II, the conqueror of Dalmatia. As a token of Papal approval of the ceremony the Pope handed the Doge Sebastiano Ziani a consecrated ring with the words: "Receive this as a pledge of the sovereignty which you and your successors shall have in perpetuity over the sea."

For over 600 years this magnificent ceremony was enacted annually. The Doge, surrounded by the Patriarch of Venice, the great officers of State, and the foreign ambassadors, embarked on the large gilded barge, the Bucintoro, and sailed through the Porto di Lido to the open Adriatic. Here the Patriarch blessed the ring and gave it to the Doge, who threw it into the sea, pronouncing the time-honoured formula: "Sea, we wed thee in token of our true and perpetual dominion over thee." The ceremony only came to an end with the extinction of the Republic in 1797.

Festa della Sensa by Canaletto

Venice began celebrating Festa della Sensa again in 1965. The tradition continues to this very day when Venice marries her husband, the sea, except these days it is the mayor who throws a symbolic "ring" into the sea in the waters off Lido. Then there are traditional regattas, a high mass at the Church of San Nicolò, and a market on the grounds outside the church.

Click HERE to continue reading.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

NOT VITAL: 700 Snowballs

Snowball, 2001, Murano glass, 18cm Ø. Courtesy the Artist, copyright Eric Gregory Powell

(Venice, Italy) There was some discussion about the lack of a Venetian presence at the exhibition Fragile? at Le Stanze del Vetro, which is a joint initiative of the Giorgio Cini Foundation and Pentagram Stiftung to promote 20th Century Venetian glass. This press release from Le Stanze del Vetro is so well-written that I am going to publish it in its entirety. The Not Vital 700 Snowballs exhibition is a collaboration between the Swiss artist (with a very cool name) and the glassmasters on Murano, and will be opening at the same time as the Biennale International Contemporary Art exhibition.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

 On 1^st June 2013, the exhibition Not Vital: 700 Snowballs, curated by Alma Zevi, opens to the public on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The exhibition is sponsored and promoted by Pentagram Stiftung, a Swiss private foundation dedicated to the study of glass. In 2012, the foundation launched Le Stanze del Vetro in partnership with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, also on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

The exhibition is on show in the left wing of the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore and will be open until 29th September 2013 from 10 am to 7 pm (free admission, closed on Wednesdays).

This presentation of Not Vital: 700 Snowballs, alongside the exhibition Fragile? concurrently on view at Le Stanze del Vetro, brings the visitor through a comprehensive mapping and understanding of the use of glass in contemporary art.

700 Snowballs is an installation consisting of 700 individually blown glass balls which bear striking resemblance to snowballs suspended in air. The snowballs rest directly on the floor, evenly and randomly spread. As each snowball is hand-blown by Vetreria Pino Signoretto in Murano, no two are identical – just as natural elements are never exactly repeated.

The installation creates a place of meditation, evoking the metamorphic, transformative and cyclical processes of nature. The luminous and reflective qualities of glass simultaneously reflect both the dense and yet ephemeral nature of snow. This mirrors the tension between the organic form and the inorganic material, between the durability of the artwork and the fragility of the elements it evokes.

As stated by curator Alma Zevi: "These balls remain, suspended in a moment, creating something that is fundamentally beautiful, and disconcertingly permanent in the world. This work is about human experience, a primary and universal encounter with nature and its physical substance".

700 Snowballs becomes an environment, a tranquil place of awe and contemplation. Inspired throughout his career by a childhood spent in the Swiss Alps, Vital has explored the contradictions of the harsh climate and vast landscapes that he knows so intimately. Indeed, the iconography of snow and its context has recurred throughout Vital's oeuvre – he has for instance used plaster to mould mountains that appear to be covered in snow, and has fabricated sleds from marble.

In 700 Snowballs, Not Vital succinctly and poetically presents to us the duality of water’s form when it freezes. It also makes us think of water’s importance in Venice: both in its attractive picturesque quality, which has long been symbolic of the city’s opulent history, and its more recent role as a serious threat to the city. 700 Snowballs explores the ever-rich potential of Venice glass-blowing tradition, despite our being in an era of industrial mass-production and cultural globalization. The installation is an unprecedented technical feat, and a fine example of the fruits that can be borne of an intimate and intellectually stimulating collaboration between a highly established artist, and the most skilled of Murano craftsmen.

On the occasion of the exhibition Not Vital: 700 Snowballs, artist Not Vital, in collaboration with glass master Simone Cenedese, will design a special limited artist edition glass artwork available for purchase at the bookshop of Le Stanze del Vetro. For more information, please contact info@lestanzedelvetro-libri.it

Concurrently, Not Vital will be presenting a selection of works on paper at Giorgio Mastinu Fine Art  (San Marco 3126, 30124 Venezia) from 28th May 2013. For further information please visit www.giorgiomastinufineart.it or contact +39 347 1828553.

With thanks to Abbazia di S. Giorgio Maggiore, Ruch & Partners Architects St. Moritz, and those donors who wish to remain anonymous

Biographical notes

photo: Eric Gregory Powell

Not Vital (b. 1948, Sent, Engadin, Switzerland) is at the international forefront of contemporary sculpture. A nomadic lifestyle has brought him to live and work periodically in every continent over the last 40 years. Currently he has a studio in Sent and Beijing, and ongoing relationships with craftspeople in Venice, Lucca, North Africa, Rio de Janiero and Patagonia. Not Vital took part in the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), curated by Harald Szeemann, with his work Plateau of Humanity. Since the mid 1970s, Not Vital has exhibited extensively and with international acclaim in galleries, museums and institutions.