Sometimes we, The Biennial Project, get so caught up in the lives of being an artist, or caught up in the organized mind of being artists we forget to share with you some of the stuff we have already written about. Here is a review we did of some of the art we saw at The Venice Biennale 55 in June of 2015. Yes, too late for you to actually see it, but hopefully you can get a sense of it from our look back……Here is some of the shit The Biennial Party and our entourage liked when went to Venice Biennale 55 during the opening week.

In this blog we will talk about the art works, not hockey, of our countries of heritage, Latvia and the Czech Republic.

The little country of Latvia became little engine that could because the
whole entire city of Venice were impressed with their Pavilion entitled
North by North-East. This site-specific work  explores the artists'
relationship to the natural and ever-shifting man-made world. The project
also investigates the concepts and conditions of identity, uncertainty, and
the 'in-between.
Kriss Salmanis' presented a large tree that swings upside down from
the ceiling, creaking from the sheer force of movement and slowly dropping
limbs to the floor. We saw this tree hit one or two inattentive people in
the ass as well. It also smelled divine. A good place to pass gas if you
have to while touring the Biennale. Too many Biscotti can be a bitch on your
digestive track. We ought to know. We spent plenty of time covering up our
human odors at the Latvian Pavilion.
http://vimeo.com/67229511
Kaspars Podieks hung  large-scale black-and-white photographic  and video
portraits of residents of Latvian village of Drusti standing emotionless in
the snow. Podieks feels strongly about Drusti. He is active in the social
and political activities as a member of its town council. Looking closely
the perspectives seem a wee bit askewed somehow floating above the
landscapes (much like Latvia and The Biennial Project). That is because he
hangs his subjects from a crane. Oh those Latvians!!

On a personal note we had a great time at The Baltic Bash, or Latvian
reception. Two of The Biennial Project's entourage  are of Latvian descent.
This stoke of cultural luck caused quite the stir with Eric Hess being
interviewed by Latvian news and Markus Blauss resembling Kaspars Podnieks.
The gene pool in Latvia isn't that big.  Anyhow with the insider genetics
mixed in with the abundance of Janu siers (caraway cheese) Bauskas Alus
(Latvian Beer) all of the members of The Biennial Project and our vast
entourage started to feel Latvian. So Latvian in fact that when it was time
for the actual presentation we sort of forgot to step out of the way and we
posed for photos and answered press questions. What a pleasure to be Latvian
for an afternoon. Eric said what he liked best was that everybody smelled
like his grandmother which he now realizes is from her daily consumption of
Latvian beer and cheese. No wonder she was always singing.

In addition to the two Latvian in our touring group  we had three Czechs. Bo
Petran and Sonia Domkarova were born and raised in Kolín, Czech Republic.
Kolín is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic some 55
kilometres (34 mi) east from Prague, lying on the Elbe River. In spring 2005
a new automobile factory was opened in Kolin by the TPCA consortium on the
northern edge of the town. It employs 3,000 people.
Also included in trio of Czechs is  Anna Salmeron who Czech by years of
insertion. Its really not a party without one or two rowdy Czechs. We had
three!!

In the Giardini we fell in with Czech artist Zbynek Baladrán. Our new friend
'Z' presented a film entitled 'Liberation or Alternatively'. In this flick Z
conceptualizes the relationship between the mental map of Venice, in his own
critical reading of the collected material and the context of the Venice
Biennale as an institution. Subjective comments of the montage of images
take the viewer through distant and close, personal, social and political
contexts of Venice as a contemporary art centre, without which the Biennale
would not be what it is - a joyous apocalypse of meanings and values. This
is exactly how the Biennial Project experiences Venice. No wonder we are all
somewhat Czech. Zbynek was so cool that he didn't even get too pissed at us
when we went to grab his photo when he was taking a much needed cigarette
break after a full day of press interviews and parties.