Slashstroke Magazine  invited  resident Art Critics  Helen Nisbet and Rebecca Bell to be our eyes, ears and essence at this years Venice Biennale.

I approached the Venice biennale this year with a small amount of trepidation. I found myself thinking that I might prefer to sit by a canal and drink a bottle of wine than to trek up to the Giardini and Arsenale, not to mention finding the other pavilions dotted around Venice. However, I was a fool and was pleased when Rebecca hit me over the head with a tuna from the rialto fish market and dragged me by the feet onto a vaporetto. The Venice biennale, when this good, is like a really really good degree show– we travelled from pavilion to pavilion, room to room seeing beautiful, humorous, sharp, disappointing, typical and varied works in an array of media: Helen.

I felt keen to return to Biennale – in one city the identities of individuals, nations, social and cultural history are pulled together for display. And to see art from all over the world is fascinating, as are the methods used to exhibit work which varied widely. It is good to be dislocated from the art and curatorial approaches to which you become accustomed without even realising : Rebecca.