Pope’s Visit to Art Exhibition in Prison Is a First for Venice Biennale
Giovanni Russo, the head of the Department of Penitentiary Administration in the Italian Ministry of Justice, told reporters at a Vatican news conference last month that the women who participated in the project were entitled to unspecified benefits. While the Vatican Pavilion was unique, he said, nearly all of Italy’s 190 penitentiaries had “artistic projects” of some kind or another, involving more than 20,000 volunteers.
It’s not the first time that the inmates at the prison have participated in major art projects. Two years ago, the French artist Pauline Curnier Jardin worked with inmates to make a film and paint a large common room where the women meet visitors twice a week. The walls are now a soft purple, decorated with stylized leaves and figures designed by the inmates during a series of workshops with the artist.
After the Biennale closes in November, the artworks in “With My Eyes” will be removed, Mr. Racine said. But Ms. Curnier Jardin’s soothing additions, which are unrelated to the Biennale, will remain.
After the prison, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Mark’s Square.
Praising Venice’s “enchanting beauty” during the homily, he added that the city was also threatened by issues like climate change, overtourism and the “the fragility of constructions, of cultural heritage, but also of people,” which risk fraying the city’s social fabric. City officials this past week began charging an access fee to the city, hoping to deter day visitors from coming on especially busy days.
Many tourists hoping to visit St. Mark’s Square on Sunday were stymied by dozens of blockades around the area, part of the increased security for the pontiff’s visit.
“I’m not upset,” Julia Suh, visiting from Augusta, Ga., said at one of the blockades while watching the Mass on her cellphone. “I’m very honored — it’s what they’re supposed to do because of heightened security.”
