'It's not a film, it's a work of art'

Art from 77 countries can be an intimidating prospect; every couple of years, the Venice Biennale tries to outdo itself as the most important gathering of the art world.

This year's British Pavilion - which has hosted the finest of artists from Henry Moore, Lucien Freud and David Hockney - champions a man who although garlanded with awards, is far from a household name.

Steve McQueen has won the Turner Prize (for his homage to Buster Keaton) and the Camera D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his first feature film, Hunger (about the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands). At the Biennale, he is showing a short film (though he was quick to correct me when I asked him about it: "It's not a film, it's a work of art", he said.) It's about the Giardini, Venice's public gardens which house the international pavilions where much of the art is shown every other year.

Not much happens in the film, but it is a slow contemplative film full of love and longing, lingering as it does on rain failing on stones; a snail; greyhound dogs circling each other and an old woman with a trolley wandering around looking for cats to feed. It also seems to be a comment on the ordinariness of the public gardens which every two years are opened to the air kissing art world and its hangers-on, transforming the space into a carnival of art.

While the film has had the art world and critics in raptures, I did wonder about its appeal beyond that, let's face it, small, privileged group of people. Once they have disappeared, the Biennale will open to the public until November. Would love to hear what they make of it.

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