Filmmaker
and artist Gerry Fox invites us to explore a private
Renaissance palazzo to reach the heart of VENICE IN VENICE, a
site specific installation that captures the rituals, drama
and traditions of Venetian life.
Gerry Fox,
Venice in Venice, 2009
Courtesy Gerry
Fox
Visitors can wander
through the rooms of Palazzo Donà delle Rose, a late
Renaissance Venetian palace that is still owned by the
original family, to discover Fox’s filmed vignettes of
Venetian life. These are either projected onto screens
in the rooms and halls, or directly onto the walls, so that we
encounter them like vast paintings.
Fox has been
visiting Venice over the last three years to capture the
rituals and pageantry that are still very much part of its
life today. He shows us the pomp and circumstance: from
the Regata Storica, with its flotilla of stunning Venetian
boats and traditional costumes, to the stately priestly
procession of the Festa Della Madonna Della Salute, with local
churchgoers descending the steps after the festival service
there; then the explosion of fireworks that light up the water
for the Festa Del Redentore, the thrill of masked revellers
appearing in the streets during Carnevale who we follow to a
private ball in the Doge’s Palace, where some
un-mask.
Then we see the less public side of
Venice: as though lying on our backs in a gondola, we glide
down canals, watching the endless shape-shifting of roofs and
walls that line the way; at night, these same eerily empty
waterways are illuminated by ghostly lights that play off
bridges and houses. Back to the working city, we see the
fish and fruit sellers of the Rialto market, the industrial
wasteland of Marghera, the city underwater during the floods
of December 2008, contrasting with the frenetic pace of the
Art Biennale and Film Festival.
Fox alternates slow
motion, to reflect the sense of gliding across water that so
characterises life on this island city, with speeded-up film
to capture the frenzied pace of the festivals. The image
sequence takes us through the many different places, moods and
sights that make up life in this surreal city. We experience
the paradox of this permanent yet transient city: a city where
costumed ceremonies still have the power to transport us to
the sixteenth century, yet where the flooding of the streets
is a very contemporary reality.
Gerry Fox, Venice in
Venice, 2009
Courtesy Gerry Fox
Gerry
Fox’s art documentaries have won BAFTA, Royal
Television Society, Grierson Best Arts Documentary, Festival
of Films on Art in Montreal Grand Prize and Prix Italia
awards. He was the first artist in residence at 176 in Camden
from 2007-2008; the resulting exhibition, Living
London, was Exhibition of the Week in Time Out and
Critics Choice in The Times and The Guardian. His installation
Favela Descending, part of the Concrete and Glass
festival in Shoreditch 2008, was also a critics’ pick in Time
Out and The Guardian. Venice in Venice is made in
collaboration with Researching Movies and
Synergy Films.
For further information please contact
Theresa or Julia at Theresa Simon & Partners:
+44 207
734 4800
