Giacometti; Venice Biennale 2017

Giacometti at Tate Modern; Venice Biennale 2017

Giacometti

One can understand why the existentialists liked Giacometti. His schtick is stick people; and what art could be more eloquent about the fragility, almost Nothingness of Being (Le Neant in Sartre’s phrase), yet still suggesting movement and thereby human potential? Survivors of concentration camp and gulag, but striding rather than staggering.

VENICE MISCELLANY

VENICE MISCELLANY

The Selfies of Venice

If it is true that to photograph someone is to capture a bit of their soul (as some societies have believed), then Venice metaphorically has had its soul sucked out many, many times over. But these days, it is tourists’ souls which mass in forlorn invisible pieces in the City’s main thoroughfares and sites.