the Venice Bienalle
September 07, 2006 by Chris | permalink
Arriving by boat at sunset. Wow! Venice has not lost a bit of its charm, even though it is overrun by an ant army of tourists. Took the water bus all the way to the end. Then, walked around for 45 minutes as each person I asked for directions assured me that they knew the location of the Pensione…..not. finally called the front desk who walked me there. Room 60 is what was once the attic. Pine tree rafters occupy the gabled ceiling space. Suspicious gaps between a few of the members make me wonder if they are as old as the house, or as old as the air conditioner.
Arup and SIIC sponsored the opening party of the biennale. The Drivers of Change was chosen as the theme. It looked GREAT! Spent a good bit of time with Mr Ma, who is the Chinese partner behind the Dong Tan project, chatting thru an interpreter. The ex-mayor of Bogota joined us. The conversation was really interesting – especially about how we evaluate happiness. He spoke about the impossibility for Columbia to reach monetary parity [GDP] with the US or China. And posed the question ‘how can I tell the young people of my country that they will never be a rich as the Americans?’ he answered with ‘we have to look at other ways of achieving, and measuring, happiness’. Naturally, I had to pepper both of them with lots of questions.
Spent the wee morning hours at the foot of the Rialto Bridge with a subset of the team that is helping to make Dong Tan a reality. An international, passionate, group. Jason King and I decided that we would work together to try to make sustainable urbanism a reality in Africa as well.
Took the water taxi back to the airport. Ridiculously expensive [100 Euro], but the ride was glorious and worth it. The water bus [12 Euro] is clearly the vest value if time is not an issue. It is a slow tub that meanders along the main waterways. The ambiance unique. The taxi takes a much more direct route along some of the ‘back alleyways’ which gives one a view of a totally different Venice.
