Heledd Evans, First Year Fine Art student and Wales in Venice Invigilation Plus Programme member:
On the day after I arrived I went off to explore. I had just finished my first day invigilating so I went off for a gander around Venice to familiarise myself.
I got horrifically lost, which seems to be a talent of mine, but I did find my way eventually. I popped into a few garden exhibitions en route… nothing awe inspiring (I did question the purpose of casted swimmers on beach balls a bit) but there were a few gems.
In the Seychelles gardens there were tortoises which had been painted by different artists. It wasn’t the sculptures themselves that piqued my curiosity, but the descriptions next to them.
Very different to most descriptions you see of art. They were unusually personal to the artist. A strange sort of poetry, entertaining in its prose.
After some more wandering I found the Frari Church where Thomas, the current Wales Pavilion lead invigilator, had found a free concert of Monteverdi was taking place! I’ve studied Monteverdi and Gabrieli in the past, so to hear his music where it was written and next to its composer’s tomb was quite something.
I understand better now his and Gabrieli’s use of antiphony and counterpoint. I could hear the way alternate choirs of instruments and voices interacted within such an elegant building, their melodies resonating skyward. It made me think about how different qualities of sound react with different spaces.
