The other day I overheard a conversation in which one tourist commented to another, "It is all just so fantastic that I have no way of knowing what's real or deciding what to believe." Poor soul, clearly destined to fall in love with Venezia, doesn't know yet that the only possible reply to that statement is that everything and nothing are what's real and what you can believe in Venezia. Once you come to terms with the physical reality of the city, you'll have to face up to the ghosts and even after that you'll still be trying to distinguish what's really Venetian from what is only pretending to be Venetian in Venice.
So, when I say that things in Venice jump out from walls and windows to speak to passers bye I am being completely serious in both the literal and figurative senses.
When I first saw the mask pictured here, it was really hard to say whether she was behind the window or suspended in space. She's neither a ghost, nor a reproduction of a mask about a ghost. And, she's so unique that one can tell instantly that she is real in the sense of having really been made in Venice. She's part of a series of contemporary sculptural masks based on mythical characters created by Giorgia De Carla and Paola Zennaro at Decima Musa, the amazing shop that is taking the top spot in our Artisan Shops section today.
Once or twice a day for five days I wandered past the windows of Decima Musa, not only to enjoy the view and try to "read" the stories that these artists have inscribed on their work, but also just to admire Paola and Giorgia's work. They are two contemporary Venetian artists who have taken the traditional craft of mask-making and given it both continuity and originality by turning it into something all their own.
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