Japan pavilion at Giardini

The Japan pavilion was captivating. Chiharu Shiota's installation The Key in the Hand was ambitious in its execution - the entire room was enmeshed with keys and yarn hanging from the ceiling over and around 2 boats. There were also 2 videos of small children talking about their earl memories. The keys represented the passing on of links and memories across time. They had been gathered by the artist from around the world. This installation won the 'wow factor' ward in my opinion.

Kay Hassan

"Everyday People" by Kay Hassan were made up of shredded scavanged  advertisement posters which had been collages and reassembled. They were portraits of people whom Hassan had met. The works were thick and almost sculptural and quite powerfully direct.

Chris Marker & Kutlug Ataman at Venice Biennale

Two striking examples of portraiture
The first - Chris Marker's extensive display of passengers on public transport were wonderful. He managed to capture an inexplicable expression in many of these portraits. Sensitive and timeless images from a master.
The second set of portraits by Kutlug Ataman was displayed in the form of a wave suspended from the ceiling. They were small LED images of people who knew a Turkish philanthropist Sakip Sabanci. A novel way of presenting the images, to good effect I thought.
Both exhibits had a very direct human appeal and were a relief after lots of intense conceptual works.

Highlights from Arsenale at the Venice Biennale

Having 'done' the Giardini part of the Venice Biennale on day one, on the second day at the Biennale we went to Arsenale.
There we saw an astonishing range of works, and the theme of the Biennale began to strengthen. 'All the World's Futures' is asking how artists can bring the public to understand and make sense of the upheavals we are witnessing in our  political and social lives. Artists responded more or less directly. The curatorial hand of Okwui Enwezor was directive and evident. More of that later. Here are some works I enjoyed on day 2.
The first - by Katharina Grosse... I had seen images of her work but never seen them first hand. The color in the installation was ambitious. This was one of the works that I could not see a strong link with the curatorial theme, but it was good to look at!
The second - at the other end of the scale from Grosse's  flamboyant installation was a series of  incredibly delicate works by Tiffany Chung from Vietnam. Her breathtakingly beautiful drawings which at first appear to be floral themes, are in fact maps of statistics relating to terrible facts such as war casualties and displaced persons applied to maps. The colors and sizes of the dots indicate the intensity of the crisis.
Ricardo Bray' work was a series of miniature worlds - installed in a series of glass cases - a cross between reliquaries an treasure troves of items including found objects, artist books and drawings.