The Cloud of Unknowing in Venice

Most of the fun in being at the pavilion comes from the visitors and the strange things they say. Usually, the questions are pretty easy to answer: is it free? How long is the film? Can we use the toilet? (Yes, 30 minutes, no.) It gets harder when the occasional tourist who hasn’t much time to spare asks impatiently, what’s this about? To answer the question literally makes me sound stupid (a half-naked man howls CLOOOOWWWWDDDD and appears in a bunch of apartments), but offering an artistic interpretation makes me sound like a certifiable douche (well, it’s an allusion to a fourteenth-century text about spiritual enlightenment and the discovery of God in the midst of a banal existence...). One time a girl asked me that question, to which her friend chidingly snapped, it’s an Art Film! It’s not about anything! Wish I could say that to people.

The post-film reactions have been equally entertaining. Sometimes people come downstairs and nod confusedly at us as they leave, scratching their heads. Sometimes they stay up there for hours, like a pair of English artists who watched the film six times straight. Sometimes they burst into applause at the end. Once a child ran out screaming, probably at the point when the cloud-man comes bursting into everyone’s rooms with his diapers and swirling smoke. I try my best to save other kids from this fate, telling the parents of the timid-looking ones that they might get a leeeeetle bit scared. I’m not sure whether I should be amused or horrified when Italian mothers drag their terrified sons upstairs anyway, laughing at them and calling them chickens. Tough love.

At the end of the day, it’s nice to flip through the guestbook and see what people have written. Amidst the random drawings of googly-eyed clouds and Italian phrases there are always a few gems. The best ones are those with that unmistakable tinge of Italianized English, ranging from the comical (Wow! Good night!) to the oddly philosophical (I never knew the cloud was there...but now that you say it...). Oh well. I guess good art always provokes diverse reactions.

- E-Lynn