Whim Wanders

Sunday in Venice was so squally we didn't go out at all, but stayed in cooking, reading, composing music (a Toog commission which must remain secret for a while), and watching DVDs of Wim Wenders' truly awful film Till The End of the World. Luckily we also found a DVD of the excellent Belleville Rendez-Vous, as sharp, observant and funny as the Wenders film was waffly, rambling and portentous (we've nicknamed him Whim Wanders as a result).



On Saturday we caught more of the scattered national pavilions, the ones that fall outside the established ones in the Giardini. Hussein Chalayan's four-screen sci-fi film starring Tilda Swinton was a bit Whim Wanders for my taste, but I liked some folk dolls being displayed downstairs in the Armenian pavilion. These turned out of rhyme nicely with a display of oversized dolls by Laura Ford in "Somewhere Else: Four Artists from Wales" out on the island of Guidecca, so I've made a photo compilation of oulandish folkloric costumes for you today. I wish street fashion paid more attention to this sort of stuff — tell you what, next time you're about to pull on jeans, T-shirt and trainers, pull on clogs, a striped poncho, or a suit made of coffee sacks instead. Promise?

Off to Turin on the train, arrivederci!