Venice Biennale
I've just made a visit to the Biennale in its final days, and this is definitely the time to go, when the crowds are gone and you can skip quickly past the more boring stuff (Germany). I recommend speeding things up by making straight for the Korean pavilion to see the cartoon skeletons and magnifying suit of Lee Hyungkoo. Go to the Belgian pavilion for Eric Duyckaerts' glass labyrinth (mind how you go there), the Russian for The Last Riot, a film by AES + F, and the Canadian pavilion for David Altmejd's mad, glass-splintered, squirrel-infested giant.
The best pavilions are those scattered through the city in grand palazzos - Mexico's has both an splendid setting and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's beautiful installation which transforms visitors' heartbeats into flickering lightbulbs.
The Arsenale has an endless stream of war-themed photographs, video art etc, which becomes almost immediately oppressive, but also some highlights such as Angelo Filomeno's beautiful embroideries (shown above), and El-Anatsui of Ghana's delicate wall hangings made of wire and foil and bottletops:
and Christine Hill of Volksboutique lightens things up with Minutes, an installation of steamer trunks containing the detailed trappings of different work personas.
You also get to see Venice with hardly any people in it.
