Staying in Cologne, Germany has been very different from my time spent in Venice, Italy. While Venice in July assailed its tourist with sweltering temperatures and stifling humidity, early August in Cologne has been consistently cloudy, cool, and rainy. Venice was crowded with tourists at any hour of the day, and Cologne (without the international…

In thinking about cities to visit during time off I had while staying in Cologne, Germany, Brussels became a top priority due to the current location of Jacques-Louis David’s painting The Death of Marat (1793): the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in downtown Brussels. David’s political involvement in the French Revolution has fascinating…

Documenta 14 was, among other things, an exploration of place and history. Artist, teacher, and curator Arnold Bolde established documenta in 1955 as a modern art exhibition in the wake of the fallen Nazi Regime, where modern art was branded with the title “Entarete Kunst” and banned due to its alleged un-German, Jewish, or communist…

The Venice Biennale has occurred every two years since 1895 during the summer and early fall of odd-numbered years. The concept of a Biennale as an institution is a controversial subject, as temporary exhibitions have many advantages and disadvantages. The impermanent nature of these contemporary art exhibitions presents the curators with a task quite unlike…

The vast white interior of the Belgian pavilion at the Giardini site of the Venice Biennale has a calming, almost hypnotizing, effect on those who enter. For the 57th Venice Biennale The Flemish Minister Sven Gatz commissioned the photographer Dirk Braeckman to represent Belgium at the 57th Venice Biennale. The curator of the exhibit is…