Giant creatures, beads dancing on the details of massive fabrics, enormous pottery looking like temples, walking in the jungle of art.
All that I experienced dazzles me as I step out of Venice Biennale 2022. A full day without realizing how the hours pass.
As I am full of impressions, the city of Venice - a completely different work of art - greets me with the sunset. I take a walk along the beautiful Riva degli Schiavoni, I smell the sea, and I watch the shadows of the boats flirting with the waves.
What a feeling! What a day! Let me take a seat and admire this scene that has been the muse of many artists for hundreds of years. I take a sip of my famous Italian drink ‘Aperol-Spritz’, and I observe.
I see many colors. Different images harmonize in me. I imagine further.
Expressing all these images in my head as an experimental art - this has been probably the most inspiring part of the Venice Biennale for me.
Let me share with you the Biennale 2022 from my own experimental perspective:
Double print by me made with the artworks of Skuja Braden x Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil Pavilion).
Double print of my photo of Simone Leigh's artwork.
Double print of my photo of Myrlande Constant's artwork (Arsenale) and a poster in Venice.
Double print of my photos of the artworks by Paolo Fantin (Venice Pavilion) x backdrop of art installation at Lebanese Pavilion by Ayman Baalbaki and Danielle Arbid.
Looking at such vividness and patterns. Aren’t we all wondering, dreaming and creating in each second passing by? This is how the Venice Biennale and the central exhibition ‘The Milk of Dreams’ mingled in me.
Meeting the new, creating a new. Harmonizing, changing, growing.
In my mind, words, images and impressions touch each other further, and now, I go back to the time right before my Venice Biennale visit. I had a short stay in Milano and found the chance to visit my own exhibition ‘One Day I Will’ in San Donato Milanese, in Milan/Italy. The Festival of Ethical Photography (Festival della Fotografia Etica) was hosting this exhibition.
'One Day I Will', exhibited in San Donato Milanese in Milan/Italy.
'One Day I Will', exhibited in San Donato Milanese in Milan/Italy. Cascina Roma Fotografia.
Meeting children in transition and refugee camps; in crisis zones, and yet hearing their vivid dreams. The dreams and worlds that they set up despite the environment of difficulties. My mind... All these contrasts and layers. What else could touch and inspire me more than the way our youngest ones imagine the future?
"One day I will be a painter. I had a lot of challenges to face in my life. Through my paintings I want to show my difficulties and how I went through it. Painting brings me freedom. This is the way I can express my thoughts and beliefs. I want a very good grade at school to go to university and become a Painter. Then I want to have an art exhibition and famous people to come and see. At the beginning I know it will be difficult to make money with my paintings. So I will design dresses for a theater and actors. I already do it in order to support my family."
Fatemeh designed herself her outfits on this image.
- Fathmeh from Iran
Children and their colorful dreams will always be a part of my work and inspirations.
I hear the sound of seagulls whisper in my ears. Now the sun is on its way to other lands. What time is it? I notice the lights of San Giorgio Maggiore Church through the cloudy glass of my drink. Old Venice, new art, fresh breeze. And I find myself to agree that humankind celebrates his/her existence in this world through thinking, imagining and creating.
I have these classic Italian songs in my ears, as I continue my journey in the streets of Venice.
Venice, thank you for your inspirations. Until will meet again,
Vincent