Among the many benefits of attending Opening Week of The Venice Biennale are invites to fabulous parties, a chance to behold Venice in full flower, free drinks (so very many), lots of gratuitous swag in the form of printed canvas bags, art books and t-shirts…and, well, more parties. As we see it, these perks alone would have made the trip worthwhile. But even more then the material booty that we so love, The Venice Biennial gives us a chance to catch up with old friends, and make new allies with the other world famous artists in attendance. Through these encounters, new ideas are grappled with, collaborations are formed, and sometimes we ‘the creatives’ even get laid. Oh, and there is also some art to look at.

The Biennial Project is so excited by some of our newer associates that we wanted to share with our fans a few snapshots of our new playmates.

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  Anna is pictured here with Navin Rawanchaikul , who originally represented Thailand at VB 2011. Navin has now started  his own nation populated by other citizens named Navin. The Navinland Pavilion is a multifaceted situational environment that challenges perceptions of identity and nationhood. We just loved it, and are planning to request official recognition as a national entity from Navindland  as soon as possible. Also, Navin rocks a plaid blazer better than anyone we know!

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  Here Eric poses with the representative from his ancestral country of Latvia. The Artist is Kristaps Gelzis - who Eric fantasized to be perfect husband material. Much to Eric’s disappointment he found out that Kristaps is married - to A WOMAN. Anyhow, life must go on despite such truly sad news.

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• Kristap’s work on display at VB 2011, entitled Artificial Peace, was executed in watercolor technique. Using beautifully luminescent water-based acrylic paints, the works introduce the large format series "Contemporary Landscape". The day glow paints under a black light happily reminded us of toking up the teenage basements and the dorm rooms of our youth - but Kristaps did it much cooler. We’re still holding out hope that Kristaps comes to his senses and realizes that he and Eric are meant for each other. [In Latvia the oak and the linden tree are characteristic elements of the landscape. Both trees are still widely used for medical purposes.]

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  Here Anna and Laura are caught hamming it up with Princess Lateefa bin Maktoum, representing the UAE. Lateefa’s does not show her face in her beautiful self-portraits nor does she for our snapshots.

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• Maktoum’s work is largely based in digitally manipulated photography depicting enhanced realities that draw upon her experiences and surroundings. These images contain a strong sense of narrative and often feature solitary female figures set amongst landscapes, which juxtapose nature with urban developments. Lateefa is an avid twitter user so follow her. [Before 1971, the UAE was known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in reference to a 19th-century truce between the United Kingdom and several Arab Sheikhs.]

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• It’s always good to celebrate important occasions with friends. Here is Anna with Fernando Prats at the opening reception for The Chilean Pavilion in The Arsenale.

                        Our pal Fernando, in his show entitled Grand Sur, showed three pieces of work: an intervention around the impact of the volcanic eruption in Chaitén (2008); a series of works alluding to the earthquake in south-central Chile (2010); and an installation in neon lettering that reproduces the ad that the Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton  posted circa 1911, calling for men for his expedition to Antarctica. We loved the cool pill-like cage that brought the trapped Chilblain miners back to their loved ones near the entrance of the Arsenale. Fernando, however, didn’t show this. [Just over 3000 species of fungi have been recorded from Chile but this number is far from complete.]

You can see by the the wetness on our faces it was hotter than two rats making love in a wool sock during the reception, but we endured because as the Whitney’s auntie says ‘that’s what friends are for’. That and because we were entranced by the condensation on the hundreds of bottles of fine Chilean wine we were eyeing during the long hot speeches. Why must people talk so much before getting to the drinking?

Now don’t think for even a minute that these are all the famous artists who we hobnobbed with in Venice!  So many more, but that’s a story for the next installment….