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Our special Q&A series continues with another glimpse of Venice and the Biennale, courtesy of ARTH 380 student Elise Masotti:

What exhibitions/galleries/artworks stood out to you? 

Elise Masotti: "Out of all the exhibitions we visited, I have three favourites which really stood out and I connected with the most. The first is the Korea Pavilion in the Giardini, an exhibition titled Gyre by Yunchul Kim. Consisting of five kinetic sculptures as well as a poem, a piano and sketches on one of the walls, I was immediately in awe the first time I walked in and it became more interesting the more I learnt about it. If you are interested in science, like me, then I would highly recommend researching this artist because I could go on and on about how cool the sculptures were – especially after learning about how one of them was a muon particle detector working in real time, whose signals were then sent to two of the other sculptures to control their movements!

"Another favourite of mine was a collateral event titled Times Reimagined by Chun Kwang Young. This exhibition took place at the amazing Palazzo Contarini Polignac, containing forty intricate paper sculptures made of handmade mulberry paper which had been folded into triangular paper packages. The works were not only mesmerizing to observe, with their depth created from individual package sizes and colour, but they also had a representational significance within some of their abstracted forms.

"The third exhibition I’ll touch on is titled An Archeology of Silence by Kehinde Wiley. The curatorial choices fit perfectly with the title, and I was captivated by the hyperrealism in every painting and bronze sculpture (which ranged from small to life sized to larger than life).

"One of the huge benefits of being in Venice for a month was having the time to visit exhibitions more than once. I visited each of these at least twice and would go again if given the chance!"

What are some non-study related highlights of your time in Italy?

EM: "Going on walks and getting a bit lost! (Highly recommend Google Maps to find your way back). St Mark’s Square after dark once all the lights are on! But especially… take-out pasta for dinner and eating while watching the sunset! I did this so many times, the pasta was always amazing and so were the sunsets! The best sunset was on our second last night, and I decided to get the vaporetto (water bus) back so got an even better view from on the water!"