Numerous reports have predicted the benefits on productivity, but the devastating effects on employment, that AI and robotics may have in the future, some of which is necessary for UK plc to increase its productivity which is poor against our competitors, for all sorts of reasons. Creative professions such as artists and composers have generally […]
The Austrian Pavilion for the Biennale in Venice was designed by Josef Hoffman for the Giardini in the 1930′s on a commanding and elevated site, in part for impact but also perhaps being aware of the threat (even then) of potential flooding, there having been serious floods in November 1927 and December 1933. This gallery […]
The Punta della Dogana which sits discretely alongside Baldassare Longhena’s great Baroque masterpiece, the Santa Maria della Salute, in Venice was built as a Customs House in the late 17th century when Venetian trade and prosperity was at its height. Times have changed and, having been empty for years, the art collector Francois Pinault […]
I have to admit that the Palazzo Fortuny is one of my favourite palazzi in Venice, its grand facade hiding the decaying interiors bursting to overflowing on the main floors with the personal collections of a family who never seemed to have thrown anything away. This is a home in which you can feel comfortable […]
A hidden gem in Venice, five minutes walk from the Palazzo Grimaldi and roughly half way between Rialto and St Mark on a route tourists don’t follow, the Fondazione Querini Stampalia is easy to miss even when you are in the square in front (Campo S. Maria Formosa) due to its discrete entrance from a […]
One of Venice’s most prominent families, the Grimani family’s palazzi is one of Venice’s hidden gems, not least because it is difficult to find unless you go by river taxi, but also because it is Venice’s only Roman style palazzi, with an astonishing Googlemaps was totally defeated by the unique street and canal layout of […]
One of the great joys of visiting the Venice Biennale is exploring the national pavilions and collateral events scattered across the city. The Biennale has grown into such a large international art fair that it long ago sprang out of its two main bases at Arsenale and Giardini and churches, warehouses, palazzi, libraries and other […]
What if the Egyptian pharaohs lived today? What might archaeologists find in their tombs several thousand years from now? Would the sphynx be enigmatically holding an ipad? Would the Pharaoh be buried with his most valuable property – his mobile phones and computers that have all his life’s history on them? This is one of […]
As much a symbol of Venice’s power and wealth as a trading nation as the Doge’s Palace, the Arsenale was the engine house, the shipbuilding centre, a massive series of buildings and docks hidden behind fortified walls that at one time was the largest industrial complex in Europe, supplied with wood from a dedicated forest […]
Perhaps the Biennale anticipated something when it picked the theme for 2019 ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’. We certainly do in Britain with politics that seem to change by the hour and, today, sadly the Biennale is closed and Venice is flooded following the highest water levels in 50 years while, in Yorkshire and […]
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