National Glass Centre

On Wednesday 1 June Grainne Sweeney wrote:

I'm up early, it's started to rain! And I have no umbrella. Not a good start.

Yesterday - where do I start...

After sleeping on it, I finally decided on where to place the Flagrant Wisdom documentation film - in the main salon behind Flavio's table with Paul's ceramics. It makes sense to continue the story from Rose's installation downstairs, so this is the first work to your left as you enter the gallery.

When you're in the middle of the space you can see work by all the artists. I'm kind of cheating a bit here because the window in the second room has to be open so you can catch the reflection of Claire Fontaine's neon Dignity Before Bread. This still leaves something to discover...  Edmund de Waal's The Thing in Itself.

A few visitors came by, mainly some of Caterina's collectors. Alan Sykes was in, writing his piece for the Journal. Charles Darwent from the Independent called in briefly, Alan and I bumped into him in the street. Sarah placed the vinyl signage. Valentino has done a marvelous job buffing the floor. Caterina spent most of the day at the Giardini having a sneak preview and spreading the word.

Still have to finish the labels, Sergio will translate this morning and then we'll take to the printers. And we need to tweak the lighting.

James Bustard, James Beighton, Rachel French and Neil Brownsword all turned up around 5.30 so we had a full house. Caterina took us all for an aperitivo - a typical Venetian 'spreez' - prosecco, campari, ice and a twist of lemon in a long glass, topped with an olive. Alessandra Pace, who curated 'The Glass Delusion' with me came by just as we were leaving so she came too. A very pleasant start to the evening.

Caterina and Gabriele made a plan to take James to some of the evening's previews and Sarah and I guided everyone else to St Mark's to catch the Vaparetto. We waited for 45 minutes and nothing came. We spoke to some other people waiting and they had been there longer - our only option was to share a Water Taxi to get to the Lido. There were 5 of us so we roped in 3 more people (it's 80 euros). Settled in the taxi we introduced ourselves - they were with the Artsway party and had heard the interview on Front Row. It really is a small world here during the Biennale.