At a Glance: The Stand of the Phoenix

Things Discussed: Cathedrals; Phoenixes; Xu Bing; St. John the Divine; Uptown Manhattan; Jim Woodring; Frank.

written by f



I saw them and photographed them on February 28, and they still weren't fully accessible to the public. But the two phoenixes by Xu Bing surely made for an impressive view.

Beautiful Boxes: Custom Space, 2

Things Discussed: Marlene Dumas; Thomas Schütte; Roni Horn; How to be Liquid in Many Forms.

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The aim of these posts is not to review every sigle work or exhibition choice of a visit. That's the job of more competent eyes. The thing I do feel like doing is simply mention here a couple more things. 

Like most shows based off the François Pinault Collection, there's a strong tie to the past. The past is here the Arte Povera+Mono-ha rooms downstairs and a couple of other works scattered around the Dogana space.

It is also true, though, that among the artists living and working today, there are almost no new names here. And it's not really surprising to find two of contemporary art's sweethearts: Thomas Schütte and Marlene Dumas. 

Beautiful Boxes: Custom Space, 1

Things Discussed: Punta della Dogana; Prima Materia; Perks; Collections; Light; Holes; Bricks, Wood, Textures; Exhibitions Built to Last.

written by f

One of the perks of being a resident in Venice, Italy, is that you get to go places for free. Musei civici, that is: those directly dependent from the municipality. An impressive array of institutions that goes from the Doge's Palace to the Correr Museum, from Ca' Pesaro to the Museum of Natural History, from Ca' Rezzonico to Palazzo Fortuny. 

The deal is: you pay taxes to keep us alive, in turn you can come visit us whever you please. Gallerie dell'Accademia, alas, is not one of those, because is state-owned and it's not run by the city. And so aren't the famous private ones: the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, and the two venues of the collection of François Pinault.

But wednesday is a special day. Wednesday is the day you go to Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana for free. If you're a resident, of course. That's still part of the perks.

Beautiful Boxes: Up to Tate

Things discussed: Tate Modern, guilt, Surrealism, dream, poetry, good ideas, bad seats

written by e

Talk of the Tate without being boring, redundant, repetitive?



The Tate Modern is great in so many ways: accessibility, richness, beauty and vastness of space, variety and value of works, selection of exhibitions. The permanent shows to enjoy for free and the temporary ones to see for a fee. Not to mention common areas, toilets, and a bunch of accessory services. It’s hard not to fall in love with it.

Beautiful Boxes: Giacomo's Sense of Space

Things discussed: Giacomo Manzú, sculpture, Rome, boxes, scary cardinals, fighting lovers, Inge Schabel, muse, captions, forgotten museums, obsessions.

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Museo Manzú, via Isola Verde

Giacomo Manzú (born Manzoni: Manzù is Manzoni in the Bergamo dialect), was born in Bergamo in 1908. From 1964 he chose a hill close to Ardea, 40 km from Rome, as his home. The hill was later called after him. He is one of the great Italian sculptors of the twentieth century, working, exhibiting and teaching in Italy and abroad.

From 1981, ten years before his death, the Manzú Collection, in Ardea, is open to the public and is also the burial site of the artist himself, since 1991.

Beautiful Boxes: A Boxful of Impressions

Things discussed: Ara Pacis; Impressionism; boxes; captions; collectors; red hair; wag artists.

written by e

I happened to be in Rome during the last Christmas holidays, and I visited Gems of Impressionism at the Ara Pacis exhibition space (December 23, 2013 to February 2, 2014). The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and presented a collection of 68 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works.

courtesy: Museo dell'Ara Pacis © 2013

Right. Done with the institutional info. The reason why this is the subject of this post is not much the need or desire to speak about the content.

We are all pretty familiar with Impressionism. I will make some considerations about the box that contains the exhibition—and the way this box is lined and padded, as the venue can influence greatly the final perception of a visit, in a way or the opposite. And this goes from how far the ticket desk is from the entrance door (you will notice the importance in a rainy winter day) to the dimension of the font in which the details of the works are written under them.

Beautiful Boxes: A City of Two Tales

Things discussed: Mart; Rovereto; radial patterns; catching up; Antonello da Messina; L’altro ritratto; different ways of missing the same exhibition; dinosaurs; the things you never learn.

written by f

I’d been to Rovereto twice, with the same friend I now came to visit. Both then studying in Venice, we came here for the International Festival of Archaeological Film. That was eleven years ago. And a full six years have passed since I last saw her, in Rome, the day of my birthday, before I went back to Saudi Arabia and she took off to Spain.

So why are we here now? Rovereto is a rather sleepy, pretty small town in the Autonomous Province of Trento—itself a small town. 

Scattered in a valley enclosed by the Alps, Dante talked about it, dinosaurs used to walk here, and now there’s a Museum of Modern Art.

My friend is from around these valleys. After a lifetime of travelling, she settled here with boyfriend and daughter about a year after I saw her last.

A year before that, in 2006, when she was living in Rome, we both missed the grand and beautiful—or so they all said—Antonello da Messina exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale. We got there the morning after it closed. She was confused, and I was pissed off.

When we learnt that, once again in her town, another massive Antonello exhibition was taking place, we decided that nothing and no one could stop us this time. We said it before it opened: we have all the time in the world. And that’s why I went to Rovereto the second-to-last day. A Saturday. Because, you know, you never learn.