Venice on display

It's photo essay time!   Here's one way of walking to the Biennale.  I wish this were blown up into an 8' x 6' piece - then you'd see that the man on the right hand side is wearing an eye patch, which perfectly complements that disconcerting eye to the left ...

Here various shows, Biennale related and not, are advertised opposite the Accademia;

Here - well, I don't know.  But I like the giraffe.

Close to the Biennale Giardini - but not actually inside - is the Museum of Everything (this year's official Biennale theme is "The Encyclopedic Palace");

and here is someone feeing desperate.  Or not - maybe just performative ...

and here is an installation shot of the Biennale itself - the Arsenale part - which was notable for the section that Cindy Sherman has curated, which was very, very strange and disturbing indeed.

Then there are so many other kinds of display, from upscale windows reflecting other windows opposite;

to decidedly funkier store windows;

to windows that are just downright strange;

and then windows that are shuttered over, and decorated in a whole range of ways.  In other words, I did a very, very great deal of walking today ...