Tag: Art

Pre-Anniversary Museum Visit – Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna

So as our fifth wedding anniversary approached, we considered almost every idea under the sun for how to celebrate: Puglia, Tuscany, the Amalfi; but eventually we decided to take it easy, stay in town, take a couple days off work and do the kinds of things that we never seem to be able to squeeze in, like visiting museums.

So we dropped Aleksander at daycare, played hooky for the day and headed towards the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderne

The museum was a welcome reprieve from the ongoing summer heatwave and provided much food for thought, with exhibits ranging from the inspiring to truly bizarre.

We walked, observed, chatted, laughed and reflected. Five action packed years of marriage had passed by quickly, and especially after Aleksander’s birth, taking stock of the days, months and years has become a luxury of time that we’re just not afforded anymore.

We meandered as though we were simply back to being a couple in love, masters of their own schedules! We fought back some parental guilt for being without our little one but washed that away with a glass of wine before lunch and another one with it.

The date was exactly what this couple needed and proved to be a great way to begin our weekend of celebration.

Venice Biennale Architettura 2021

The rains finally moved in on our last day in Venice. This gave us a chance to do some indoor exploring with a visit to the Palazzo Ducale and the recently opened Biennale Architettura – taking place across the city but with permanent headquarters at the Arsenale complex. The exhibition’s tagline for this still unusual moment in history was ‘How will we live together?’

I’ve long dreamed of being in Venice for the Biennale events and the timing during our visit was complete happenstance. It took a while to find the main entrance and then even longer to ‘safely’ buy our own tickets online, but once inside, we were inspired, impressed and occasionally, as with all great art, perplexed.

The themes of ecology, togetherness and inequality seemed to infuse almost all the installations. The pandemic clearly pushed the intensity of these contemporary concerns even more to the forefront and led to engaging, challenging and hopeful visual statements.

We putted around as Aleksander napped and discussed the subjects presented, realizing that we really should have carved out some more time for this event. Eventually he woke up and we double-stepped to the exits as the daily opening hours were winding down. We hustled home as the rain clouds darkened overhead, all the architectural insights almost as top of mind.

It would be great to get back to Venice over the rest of our time here in Italy and even greater if it coincided with more Biennale exhibitions. Either way, it’s nice to see large global events that have become marginalized or cancelled returning to some semblance of normal. I suppose, in answer to the Biennale’s theme, we just all want to live together ‘normally’ again.