Peggy Talk

 As an intern at the Peggy Guggenheim collection you are involved in telling the public about the museum. Among the many talks we give each month is a talk about Peggy Guggenheim ; her personal life and her importance in the history of modern art. I gave mine on the terrace today during 'Spritz Sunday' when the public can come and get a spritz for free. With the support of some interns I launched into it and hoped that people would listen, eliciting some vague nods of interest along the way. At the end a couple from New York approached me and the woman said, “We wanna thank youw for ya eloquent and beaoootiful speech: we'll go back to New Yooyk with our haaerts warmed” (my attempt at transliterating a thick Brooklyn accent). Her final thank you was lovely, if perhaps untrue:“You're a work of art in yourself”. Job done I think.

For the festa is sagra

On Thursday evening we went to a celebration called a 'sagra', which as far as I can work out is a week of open-air parties for charity. Much to my surprise Bernie had a visitor – James Roscoe! He just walked right into the square and I had no idea he was in town. Good to see an Oxford face.

On Saturday was Festa del Redentore, a festival that takes place every year to celebrate the end of the plague of 1576 which wiped out 50,000 Venetians. They built a temporary bridge over the Giudecca canal just for the event. It's a pretty special evening with Venetians securing spots early on the fondamenta, decked out with food and drink. The highpoint of the evening was a spectacular firework display that went on for almost a whole hour. Luckily fellow interns have an apartment that looks directly out onto where the fireworks were let off so we watched them all from the window. Diana taught me another great German word, 'Schlussbouquet' ('Closing bouquet') which refers to the final crescendo of fireworks just before a display ends.

Lovegame

Just to solidify my reputation as a Lady GaGa fanatic, here's a video of me playing a more downbeat version of 'Lovegame'. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcWUfHpNh90

When one door closes, another opens

Even though I'm working in an art gallery for over 40hrs a week at the moment, I was recently feeling a bit guilty about not getting out and seeing what other art the city has to offer. I settled on the double whammy of Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, which are both said to house staggering collections of modern art belonging to French billionaire, François Pinault. Arriving promptly at the doors of Palazzo Grassi, I was expectant and eager. However it appeared it was shut until the afternoon as they were holding a funeral for a professor that had recently passed away. Although irritated, it turned out to be the best thing that happened that day.

Determined to get my art fix, I plumped for the nearby pavillions. What I found was a real treat. The first show I came across was by two artists Daniel Glaser and Magdalena Kunz who live and work in Zurich and Turin. You enter the ground floor of the palazzo to find in a dingy side room which feels somewhat like a prison, two figures dressed like homeless people, sitting in the corner and speaking to the viewer. Only thing is, they're not real. They're just dummies and onto their faces is projected video footage of actors reciting poetry. They're strikingly realistic yet you're aware that they're just mimicking reality and it's this constant tension that makes them so fascinating.

Upstairs I found the Iranian pavillion featuring some strong photographic work and a memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives during the Iraq/Iran war. I was in a funny mood and had tears in my eyes as the guard of the gallery was just sitting in one corner playing Iranian music on a sitar. I approached him and said something about how it was similar to the ukulele because it only has four strings. Watch this space: Lady GaGa on the sitar coming up.

This was my pre-dinner warm up: a cicheto (sort of like a Venetian equivalent to tapas) and the ever-necessary spritz.

And here's a picture of the crazily huge cruise ships that pass by the island, totally dwarfing the buildings.

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...

For a city that is built on and surrounded by water it is frustrating that you can't just take a refreshing dip in the canals, that is unless you want some vile disease. With temperatures approaching 40 degrees the other day Andrew & I decided enough was enough and headed out to the Lido, a 12km long barrier island just to the south-west of Venice. It's most well known for hosting the film festival which is starting at the end of next month, and its beaches. We chilled with some beers while Andrew introduced me to some 80s Canadian music. So chilled. When it got too hot I splashed about in the sea which was glorious.

As any 'old' intern here will tell you, Monday night is Piccolo Mondo night, or 'Piccolo Monday' as they like to call it. We all have Tuesday off so the night before is obviously party time. Due to their stringent dress code (because I would obviously offend the empty sweaty room) I wasn't allowed in my tank top so a very nice intern lent me his rather interesting Helmut Lang shirt which had a texture somewhere in between plastic bag and silk. Oh, and it was semi-transparent. The 'club' consisted of one dingy room fitted out with all the tat you find in the stalls of Venice. It was good trashy fun and we ended it up at about 3 in the morning, sitting outside in the calle jamming on Sasha's harmonica. 

Island hopping

Having just eaten an entire packet of chocolate wafers as my breakfast I thought I should try to assuage my guilt by updating my blog.

One of the high points of this week was being mistaken for a German at the ticket office – brilliant. Another was discovering lambrusco; a fizzy red wine which comes in litre and a half bottles and is as quaffable as ribena. I was also very happy to discover that one of the Italian interns here is a big Patrick Wolf fan!

On Friday I left the main lagoon area for the first time , making the journey to Burano and Torcello with fellow intern from New Zealand, Chloe. Burano is a mad place. For no apparent reason (as far as I could find out) the residents of the island decided at some point that they should paint each of their houses a different, garish colour. It's sort of like Balamory minus the cretinous singing and dancing, with a whole load of Japanese tourists touting some serious photographic equipment instead.

It was a short vaporetto ride across to Torcello which had a cathedral with a beautiful Byzantine mosaic covering an entire wall depicting the Last Judgment. It was strange to see something so imposing and ornate on an island that is so out of the way and unassuming.  

Guggy's Got Talent

 Today was an awesome day. It started off ordinarily enough, cleaning the various sculptures in the Nasher garden. I still had 'Closing Time' in my head and so was singing it as I went about doing my thing. Later on I was on shop float which means I have to ask the shop if anything needs restocking and then go find the corresponding items in the store (just in case you wanted to know, the Italian for bubble wrap is 'Pluriball'. Win.). I ran into Valentina who asked me if it was me singing earlier and I said yes and of course mentioned my blog where I upload my uke videos. “Facci vedere!” was the response. So I showed her.

Later one of the capi got a call to the student room where we take our breaks. The shop wanted me to drop by when I had a minute. I'd only just been there rolling up posters. I arrived slightly baffled at the shop to find Valentina waiting with this amazing thing:

It's of the Mario Marini sculpture that is on the Gugg's terrace. It's such a sweet present and it now has pride of place on my desk. Grazie Valentina!

Other excitement was provided by various familiar faces dropping by the gallery. While I was guarding the Pollock room Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest casually strolled by. Amazing. Later on I was giving a fellow intern a 15min break from guarding in the wonderful temporary exhibition on the collection of Illeana Sonnabend. You can check out the exact room I was in by clicking this link which will take you to a virtual tour: http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/exhibitions/virtual_tour/sonnabend/. So I was studying the Jeff Koons, still trying to figure out if it was made from one block of wood or not when through the doorway came my aunt and uncle. I know it's a cliché but I really was so taken aback that I was speechless. Think X-Factor contestant just being told they've got through to the next round. It was so lovely to see them and good to hear that they liked the exhibition.

The day was rounded off by a trip to the Lido, one of the larger islands in the lagoon, where we listened to some late night jazz. A pretty sweet day.

Closing Time

At the end of each day at the Gugg we have to put the paintings to bed by putting them in their Pjs. They're absolutely adorable. I think I get way too excited over them:

When we finally clocked off at about 9 this evening Semisonic's 'Closing Time' popped into my head. I'll upload it when I've got a faster internet connection.