No, this reference isn’t to me or to my (or anybody else’s) oarage, or steerage, or careenage. I am referring to a modest work of Biennale art that I happen to LOVE— just in case anyone thought that I was against everything that had the slightest connection with this event. This little creation makes me smile.
Yes, it’s a little boat, 15 feet/5 meters long and made of plastic by Marco Tracanelli, a 57-year-old artist from San Vito al Tagliamento. It bobs around in the waves and is just as jaunty and blithesome as it can be.Hardly the battleship “Potemkin,” even if it does bear the famous name on its hull. I don’t know if this reference is intended to carry metric tons of deep significance, but I have to say that somebody who can think up something like this (and make it) can’t be up all night brooding on the unfairness of life, not to mention its deeper profundities. But what do I know.
It’s art! Peasant! In fact, it’s a statue entitled “The Partisan” (as in freedom-fighter, guerrilla, etc.), dedicated to the Italian/Venetian women who fought against the Nazis in World War II. The sculptor’s concept was that it should float on a platform, but the platform almost immediately became estranged from the concept and quit floating, so the statue lies there, sometimes high and dry, sometimes half-submerged. Lino calls it the “drowned rat.” I can give you more details if you care. But no, she is not a victim of the theoretical shipwreck of the paper-hat boatlet.
Yes, it’s by the Partigiana and evidently will be staying there for its brief sojourn. According to the Gazzettino a few days ago, it had been tied up in front of the Biennale, a few steps along toward the Adriatic. But the Biennale refused to give the artist permission to keep it there. He had gotten permission from the Port Authority — considering that the lagoon waters don’t appear to me to be under the jurisdiction of the Biennale — but when he went to discuss the matter with the submayor for transport, he was told “Go talk to the Biennale.” It’s not in anybody’s way, but I guess he didn’t do whatever you have to do to be allowed to put your handiwork before the public. As in: Whatever Marc Quinn did to put Alison Lapper in front of San Giorgio.
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Excuse me, but is that a corpse in the foreground? Or did I just miss that post.
It’s art! Peasant! In fact, it’s a statue entitled “The Partisan” (as in freedom-fighter, guerrilla, etc.), dedicated to the Italian/Venetian women who fought against the Nazis in World War II. The sculptor’s concept was that it should float on a platform, but the platform almost immediately became estranged from the concept and quit floating, so the statue lies there, sometimes high and dry, sometimes half-submerged. Lino calls it the “drowned rat.” I can give you more details if you care. But no, she is not a victim of the theoretical shipwreck of the paper-hat boatlet.
I, the great unwashed art critic, also like that boat.
Is it moored by La Partigiana, or does it get moved about?
Yes, it’s by the Partigiana and evidently will be staying there for its brief sojourn. According to the Gazzettino a few days ago, it had been tied up in front of the Biennale, a few steps along toward the Adriatic. But the Biennale refused to give the artist permission to keep it there. He had gotten permission from the Port Authority — considering that the lagoon waters don’t appear to me to be under the jurisdiction of the Biennale — but when he went to discuss the matter with the submayor for transport, he was told “Go talk to the Biennale.” It’s not in anybody’s way, but I guess he didn’t do whatever you have to do to be allowed to put your handiwork before the public. As in: Whatever Marc Quinn did to put Alison Lapper in front of San Giorgio.