Coffee and fragile glass barrels

La Renaissance courtyard

The French Cafe Patisserie La Renaissance has good coffee, French pastries and a charming back courtyard. It is also near the Museum of Contemporary Art which I visited on Friday to see the Sydney Biennale.  I had an hour to kill before the 10am opening time and I spent the time at La Renaissance, drinking coffee in their wet and  almost deserted courtyard. It was meditative and peaceful.

Ten Liquid Incidents, by Roni Horn

The item which stood out for me in the part of the Sydney Biennale housed at the MCA was Ten Liquid Incidents, by Roni Horn.

They were glass barrels that looked for all the world like glass tubs full of water but are solid glass and very fragile. Much as is our life on this planet right now.

Artists and politics

The conversation about artists and politics has been re-ignited by the boycott of Sydney Art Biennale by artists who felt compromised by the contract that sponsor Transfield Holdings holds providing detention center facilities in Papua New Guinea's Manus Island (where asylum seekers are sent, then held with no hope of having their asylum claims heard) and by subsequent comments by Australian Government politicians and others who seem to want artists to be seen and not heard.

Politicians discussing global warming. Sculpture by Isaac Cordal.

But politics is life and art is about life so it is no wonder that art and politics are intertwined. Isaac Cordal comments on life/politics in a thoughtful manner. The photo shows a clever sculpture by Isaac Cordal exhibited in Berlin.  Waiting for climate change is another of his works, shown in Nantes last year.

(More comment about Transfield.)

The Sydney Biennale is now open and I think it is a 'must visit' year.