This painting, of big proportions, by Giacomo Favretto (Venice, 1849-1887) allows us to imagine how was life in 19th century Venice. They are daily-life scenes, where the artist portrays locals in their chores or spare time...

Both reflect a city which has endured the pace of time, and which remains, architecturally speaking,   intact in our days... only its inhabitants and their fashions have changed...
The Venice Biennale has started to reveal some of the Contemporary Art examples sent by the participating countries. The Spanish pavilion awaits its visitors with a mountain of rubble. They were pilled there by artist Lara Almarcegui (1972). "A mountain of aproximately 4 mts high occupies almost the entire space of the building, pilled as the ingredients of a recipe", she explained. The artists "deconstructed" the pavilion to bring in the materials used by architect Javier de Luque for its construction in 1922. Almarcegui discards double interpretations about the fact that Spain sent a ton of rubble to such an important occasions: "It's not a consideration about the real state bubble nor about the economic crisis in my country; unfortunately problems as these can be seen everywhere and not just in Spain", she argued.

Certainly, the search of the poetic meaning of the rubble has been characteristic, for more than a decade now, of the work derived of concepts such as the land-art (art with elements taken from Nature) developed by this artists actually living in Rotterdam. Her project cost Spain 400.000 euros.