French fashion designer Pierre Cardin's billion-euro (dollar) plan to build a giant tower on an industrial site in the Venice lagoon is causing a stir in a city with a proud architectural heritage.

While Venice mayor Giorgio Orsoni has given the project the go-ahead, some residents are up in arms and say the initiative is part of a set of policies that are increasingly turning Venice into a playground for wealthy foreigners.

Venetian canals transformed through a camera obscura, intimate snapshots of a prisoner's life and a hall of whispers are among the installations on show at a new exhibition at Venice's Palazzo Grassi.

Around 30 works by 27 international artists, borrowed from French billionaire Francois Pinault's private collection, explore how the medium of video has been used to capture and challenge sensory expression and perception.

A series of autographs of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, will go under the hammer this week with auctioneers wondering if the sky's the limit for the prized signatures.

Interest is likely to be intense, following Armstrong's death last weekend at age 82, according to the Los Angeles auction house behind the sale.

Architects from around the world have converged on Venice for the Biennale show which opens on Wednesday, showcasing designs aimed at bringing urban designs more in touch with the general public.

The renovation of working class areas, designs for times of economic crisis and the reconstruction of cities following natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis have taken center stage at the world's largest architecture fair.

As the sun begins setting over his mountainside dwelling, Miki Cohen takes his position under a wrought iron gazebo and slowly begins to spin in the meditative dance of a Whirling Dervish.

With his arms folded across his chest, he slowly picks up tempo in time with the mystical Sufi music playing on his mobile phone. Then, lifting his arms above his shoulders, he continues to turn, his eyes tightly shut in contemplation.

Stockholm's Museum of Modern Art is pitting Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, two of the 20th century's modernist greats, against each other in a new exhibition opposing their contrasting approaches to art.

"Picasso/Duchamp: He was wrong" opened Saturday, the title based on Picasso's reputed laconic remark on learning of Duchamp's death in 1968.

French designer Pierre Cardin outlined his plan on Monday for a 255-meter (837-foot) tower called the Palais Lumiere that he wants to build in an industrial port area on the famous Venice lagoon.

"I want to offer Venice a big garden for eternity," the Italian-born Cardin told reporters in the city, where some locals are horrified by the project.

Sprouting out of the corn fields of western Mexico rises a hill crowned with two arches and four towers, marking the gates of an improvised "holy land" that farmers built brick by brick over nearly four decades to mark the only spot they believe will be saved in the coming apocalypse: Nueva Jerusalen, or "New Jerusalem."

The faith of the people who live here is built on messages purportedly passed from the Virgin Mary to a defrocked Catholic priest, an illiterate old woman and a clairvoyant who passed messages from beyond the grave.

Participants in the 10th edition of the International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (Abu Dhabi 2012) are preparing to promote their innovations and creativity at the event that will be launched in September.

The Exhibition is labeled on the agenda of competent international events as a popular, quality family event, and as an artistic, heritage, environmental and cultural occasion that assimilates the economic aspect where major deals are concluded and large contracts and sales are sealed.

With oyster, tobacco and watermelon flavored brews; Italy's craft beers are flourishing despite a punishing recession that is putting thousands of other businesses out of work.

From just seven craft breweries in 1996, there are now more than 445 challenging wine's traditional dominance and experts say there is scope for more growth in a country where tastes for beer are still being shaped.