Biennale Arte, Homo Faber, the opening of the Procuratie Vecchie, the new foundation of Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Fabrizio Plessi, Damiano Michieletto, Marlene Dumas, Sabine Weiss, Joseph Beuys, Federica Marangoni: the spring of 2022 in Venice is the Renaissance of the city.
From Anselm Kiefer to Anish Kapoor, from the post-human body of the Biennale to oceanographic research, from neuroscience to craftsmanship, from contemporary art to great architecture: Venice is the Place to be, it will host the most important international events in 2022.
The Biennale of Post-Humanism
The opening of Il latte dei sogni (The Milk of Dreams), the 59th International Art Exhibition that will take place from April 23 to November 27, 2022 (pre-opening April 20, 21 and 22), is highly awaited. It will be chaired by the Director of High Line Art in New York Cecilia Alemani, the first Italian woman to be curator of the Biennale. The Chief Curator of MAMBO in Colombia Eugenio Viola is the curator of the Italian Pavilion.
Archèus: La Biennale and Mozart by Damiano Michieletto
To celebrate the 1600th anniversary of Venice, on the occasion of the 13th International Kids’ Carnival (February 19 – 27, 2022) La Biennale di Venezia together with ASAC, the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts, presents Archèus. Labirinto Mozart, an installation by Damiano Michieletto with the creative workshop Oφcina (Ophicina) and the collaboration of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
The artwork, created in Forte Marghera (Building 29), will be visible for free from February 18, 2022 until June 5, and it will pass the baton to the Theatre and Dance festivals.
Archèus, from the alchemical term representing the primordial force of the world from which everything comes, and everything returns, is a perceptive space with a fairy-tale nature composed as a labyrinth of five rooms, joined by five dark tunnels, where the element of discovery and guidance is given by the musical theatricality of Mozart’s Magic Flute.
Fabrizio Plessi at the Academy of Fine Arts
Once a student and then a teacher, this great artist who lives in Venice, has dedicated to his Academy of Fine Arts an exhibition-event on the theater concept, born from his collaboration with the School of Scenography and New Technologies of Art.
Fabrizio Plessi. Trilogy is a site-specific installation created from the artist’s drawings, at Magazzino del Sale 3, from March 5 to April 2, 2022.
Homo Faber, artisan value
On the island of San Giorgio from April 10 to May 1, 2022, 15 exhibitions, 22 curators and designers, 12 treasures from the Rising Sun (Japan is the guest of honor), more than 400 unique pieces made by over 350 creatives and artisans from 30 countries, as well as itineraries to discover artisan workshops and events in the city: this is the spectacular image of Homo Faber: Crafting a more human future in its Living Treasures of Europe and Japan edition.
An international event to promote contemporary artisan talents; it will highlight how “handmade” work creates added value to the individual and to the society. It is a steering wheel for a sustainable and inclusive future existence, organized by Michelangelo Foundation in partnership with Cini Foundation, Cologni Foundation of Artistic Crafts, Japan Foundation and Fondation Bettencourt Schueller.
High fashion In Venice between art and craftsmanship
As a preview of the lively month of April, the Spring Edition of Venice Fashion Week (March 23 – 27 and April 2022) is a tribute to the 1600 years of Venice between fashion, art, and craftsmanship: fashion shows and cocktail parties inside palaces, ateliers, and artisan workshops, in a program that extends back to the days of Homo Faber.
Part of the official program of Homo Faber In Città is the exhibition A dress for Venice, a project of Veneziadavivere about craftsmanship, sustainability and haute couture with Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua and Eco designer Tiziano Guardini. Numbered art works to be worn, to talk about Venice and sustainable fashion in a connection with nature and the value of Life.
In partnership with Homo Faber, from April 12 to 30, artisan stores will light up with cocktail parties, walks, and events with Atelier Aperti, an event created to discover the value of craftsmanship and meet creative people at work.
New life to the Procuratie
Spring 2022 in Venice marks an important date for the city and the Venetian community: for the first time in five hundred years the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco will open to the public. A great event thanks to a major restoration supported by Generali, where The Human Safety Net, the global initiative in support of the most fragile people, will have its operational headquarters.
The restoration of the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice is a project of enhancement and revitalization for which Generali has chosen the David Chipperfield studio. The intervention, told through a large plastic model and a cultural walk, will reorganize the building accessibility, renew all the floors with an auditorium, workstations, exhibition spaces and cafeterias, and will be a new step in the reorganization of the usability of Piazza San Marco, which started with the restoration of the Giardini Reali.
The entire restoration was designed to recover the original materials through traditional crafts and involved sustainable businesses and local artisans.
Federica Marangoni. Memory: the light of time
A new installation exhibition by this Venetian artist; her art uses technological media in dialogue with Sansovinian architecture, and it will illuminate and color the rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana from April to November 2022 as part of the opening of the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco.
Memory: the light of time, Federica Marangoni‘s Glass Video and Light sculptures are large installations in which video and neon light meet the transparency and fragility of glass.
As a continuation of “The Leading Thread”, an installation in cracked red neon on the facade of Ca’ Pesaro on the Grand Canal; a work that is a tribute to Venice, to its vitality and energy.
Great openings
In the world of contemporary art, many personalities of the international scene have chosen Venice as their home to live and work in: Anish Kapoor, the British sculptor of Indian origin, during the opening days of the Biennale Arte opens the doors of his Foundation with an exhibition at Palazzo Manfrin, near the Ponte delle Guglie.
Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the palace that belonged to Count Girolamo Manfrin was an art gallery with paintings, sculptures, books and prints, visited by Antonio Canova, Lord Byron, John Ruskin, Edouard Manet, who gave masterpieces such as Giorgione’s La Tempesta and La Vecchia and Andrea Mantegna’s San Giorgio to the Gallerie dell’Accademia.
It is because of this historical link and artistic legacy that the Gallerie dell’Accademia, with curator, Dutch art historian Taco Dibbits, pay homage to Master Anish Kapoor with a solo exhibition from 20 April to 9 October 2022. On show are some representative works from the artist’s career alongside new and innovative works created using carbon nanotechnology.
Humanist photography
The Poetry of the Instant arrives on 11 March (until 23 October) at the Casa dei Tre Oci: the largest retrospective ever mounted on the shots that immortalise the emotions and feelings of the French-Swiss photographer Sabine Weiss, who left us just a few days before the end of 2021.
More than 200 photographs, some of them never published, such as those dedicated to asylums in France in the 1950s, retrace Weiss’s entire career, from the beginning to the 1980s. The exhibition, curated by Virginie Chardin, is a tribute to French humanist photography. It is not just a style but an approach to photography, as the artist has explained on several occasions: “To be powerful, a photograph must speak to us about an aspect of the human condition, make us feel the emotion that the photographer has felt in front of his subject“.
More than just the Biennale
At Palazzo Grassi, preparations are underway for Open-End, the monographic exhibition by South African artist Marlene Dumas, which will open to the public on Sunday 27 March 2022 until 8 January 2023.
An exhibition, part of the program of major contemporary artists, curated by Caroline Bourgeois and the artist herself, with more than 100 works on display, including paintings and drawings, some never been published, dating from 1984 to the present day.
Electronic music and art with Nu Fest
Electronic and experimental music in the spaces of art with Nu Fest, the festival of electronic and contemporary music in collaboration with VenetoJazz, where the poetry and experimental and “heretical” rock of Anne-James Chaton and Andy Moor, the folk jazz of Erlend Apneseth and the sound and visual explorations of Franck Vigroux meet in a programme of three evenings at the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi and the T Fondaco dei Tedeschi, with free admission and booking required.
Saturday 19 March at 8 pm
Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi and Franck Vigroux live a/v
Saturday 9 April at 6:30 p.m.
Fondaco dei Tedeschi for Erlend Apneseth Trio with Erlend Apneseth (Hardanger violin), Stephan Meidell (guitar and effects), Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums, percussion)
Meanwhile, at Punta della Dogana the exhibition of video installations Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies by Bruce Nauman, one of the fathers of performance, as previously mentioned in our Instagram stories, is on until 27 November 2022.
Classics Out of the Festival: restored films on Thursdays
Until 26 May at the Cinema Rossini in Venice the film festival Classics out of the Exhibition is on schedule. Permanent Festival of Restored Cinema: third edition organised by La Biennale di Venezia in collaboration with the Circuito Cinema of the City of Venice and the teachers of Cinema at Ca’ Foscari University and IUAV in Venice.
Presented in the original language with Italian subtitles, 14 classic films (and a “behind the scenes” feature) have been restored by leading film archives around the world. Each screening will be presented by an expert and followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity
A deeper dive into the world of surrealism, dream, unconscious and irrational, very much in theme with this year’s La Biennale: from 9 April to 26 September 2022 curator Gražina Subelytė brings to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the exhibition entitled Surrealism and Magic. Enchanted Modernity.
From 22 October 2022 to 29 January 2023 the exhibition will move to the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, the elegant Baroque building built on the banks of the Havel River by architect Carl von Gontard in the second half of the 18th century, modelled on the Barberini Palace in Rome.
The Human Brains
The Human Brains exhibition curated by Udo Kittelmann is the third stage closing the program, which started two years ago of exhibitions, online activities and public meetings focused on the study of the brain from an anatomical-functional point of view, ageing and neurodegenerative diseases.
It will open in conjunction with the Art Biennale at the Venetian headquarters of the fashion house at Ca’ Corner della Regina.
Danh Vo, Isamu Noguchi and Park Seo-Bo in Querini
The Fondazione Querini Stampalia and the White Cube in London present a major exhibition from April to November featuring the works of three important artists: Danh Vo, who is also co-curator, Isamu Noguchi, one of the most significant artists of the 20th century whose works are based on nature and the concept of human play, and Park Seo-Bo, one of the leading figures in Korean modern art, father of the Dansaekhwa movement.
Spring at the Cini
The highlight of the Giorgio Cini Foundation‘s spring program is The Shaman of Animal Fat and Felt, an exhibition of 40 works dedicated to the master of conceptual art Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) at Palazzo Cini, from 19 April to 31 July 2022. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero with the organisation of the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, the exhibition is a confirmation of the German artist’s timeless work with its focus on social and environmental commitment and the political role of the artist.
Venetian glassmaking in the 20th century
Le Stanze del Vetro on the island of San Giorgio is hosting two exhibitions: L’illuminazione alla Venini, from September 2022 to January 2023, and Fontana Arte: vivere nel vetro, from 4 April to 31 July 2022. A project of the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the Swiss Pentagram Stiftung, the exhibition curated by Christian Larsen is a rendezvous for lovers of Italian design, with glass furnishings by FontanaArte, the Milanese company founded in 1932 by Luigi Fontana and Giò Ponti.
Magnificent Duse
At the Giorgio Cini Foundation the Institute for Theatre and Melodrama under the direction of Maria Ida Biggi, theatre activities will carry on with La Stanza di Eleonora Duse, a photographic exhibition of the great actress entitled Se mi dura questo entusiasmo finirò come Narciso (If this enthusiasm lasts, I will end up like Narcissus) and workshops for actors To play or to be. Eleonora Duse o l’arte di esistere in collaboration with Sonia Bergamasco and A lezione da Eleonora Duse. From archival heritage to the practices of art.
Anselm Kiefer in the room where the Doges of Venice were elected
Born shortly before the end of World War II, the German Anselm Kiefer is considered one of the greatest contemporary artists. His works deal with the great themes of history in a continuous poetic quest that addresses the strongest and most painful aspects of life.
‘These writings, when burned, will finally shed some light’ is the extensive exhibition that will run from 20 April 2022 until 29 October 2022, on the Art Biennale, in the Sala dello Scrutino of the Doge’s Palace, where Venetia 1600 is on until 25 March. Births and Rebirths.
The exhibition takes its title from the writings of the Venetian philosopher Andrea Emo, and it will feature an installation of site-specific paintings in dialogue with the spaces of the Doge’s Palace, which have welcomed generations of artists such as Giovanni Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio, Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto.
The exhibition, explains Gabriella Belli, director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, is committed to recognising how necessary art is, how public spaces have the task of witnessing our times and “constructing an epiphany of our contemporary era, staging the present time and universal values”.
The expanding ocean of the soul
Ocean Space from 9 April to 2 October presents solo exhibitions by South African artist Dineo Seshee Bopape and Portuguese artist Diana Policarpo. The exhibition at TBA21-Academy – the former Church of San Lorenzo – is part of a two-year exhibition program of ocean travel and research entitled The Soul Expanding Ocean, curated by Chus Martínez, Ocean Space‘s curator for 2021 and 2022.
The Fondazione dell’Albero D’Oro presents Bosco Sodi
Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, the residence on the Grand Canal that once belonged to the 89th Doge of the Republic of Venice, home of the Fondazione dell’Albero D’Oro, will host the Mexican artist Bosco Sodi from 28 February to 7 March 2022.
The exhibition, curated by Daniela Ferretti and Dakin Hart, will be an artist’s atelier, a special opportunity to talk to and meet the artist at work as he transforms the spaces on the ground floor of the Palazzo.
Theatre for children
Fishing for dreams is the program at the Teatrino Groggia promoted by the Centro di Produzione Teatrale La Piccionaia for children aged 4 to 6.
On Saturday 19 February and Saturday 5 March, from 4 to 6 p.m., there is OplàLab, organised by Aurora Candelli: a playful workshop to learn about and develop individual talents and skills in communication, relationships, expression, and creativity.
Registration for the workshop is by e-mail to: apescadisogni@piccionaia.org and the cost is 30 Euros.
Christian Fogarolli at the Alberta Pane Gallery
A Form of Delusion is the title of Christian Fogarolli‘s solo exhibition at the Alberta Pane Gallery, in Calle dei Guardiani 2403H in the Dorsoduro district.
Curated by contemporary art historian and critic Pier Paolo Pancotto, the exhibition is open to the public from 12 February to 2 April 2022, and offers the chance to interact with the specially created environmental installations, sculptures and photographs inspired by the psychiatric disorder Glass delusion, which was widespread in Europe, especially between the 15th and 19th centuries, and which causes patients to believe they are made of glass and therefore feel extremely delicate and vulnerable.
Happy Birthday Ferruccio Gard
Until 10 April 2022 the Piazza San Marco Gallery (civic no. 71/c) of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, chaired by Bruno Bernardi and directed by Michele Casarin, celebrates the eightieth birthday of the artist Ferruccio Gard with an anthological exhibition, Il Gard kinetico. It’s only 4 x 20.
Born in 1940, Gard is one of the leading exponents of neo-constructivist, programmed and kinetic art, an active protagonist of the optical-constructivist line of Italian painting. His most significant works are on show: from the first kinetic works of the 1970s, to the informal, geometric, and abstract works of the 1990s, up to the most recent optical works.
A great heritage rediscovered at Ca’ D’oro
150 years of sculpture from the Republic of Venice are on display from 22 April to 30 October 2022, with Da Donatello a Alessandro Vittoria, 1450-1600 curated by Toto Bergamo Rossi, director of Venetian Heritage, and Claudia Cremonini, director of Galleria Giorgio Franchetti.
Set up on the piano nobile of Ca’ d’Oro, the exhibition is a tribute to Venetian sculpture between the 15th and 17th centuries with works on display, some for the first time to the public, by great masters such as Donatello, Antonio Rizzo, i Lombardo, Jacopo Sansovino and Alessandro Vittoria.
Soon at Ca’ Pesaro
At Ca’ Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art, the exhibition dedicated to one of the most important Italian artists of the post-World War II period, Afro Basaldella, will be on display.
Until 27 February 2022, the exhibition will be open:
Conversations, the seven site-specific works placed in some crucial points of the museum by the young Belluno artist Gabriele Grones.
An Atlas of Persistence the photographic exhibition by Claudio Gobbi presenting two projects: the iconography of the interiors of 20th century European theatres and the typological immutability of Armenian churches.
Until March 1, 2022 Due mesi di Carta (Two months of paper) in collaboration with the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, an exhibition dedicated to the world of paper with its many creative possibilities.
While for the Carpaccio exhibition we will have to wait until 2023.
Palazzo Fortuny’s restoration
There is much anticipation for the reopening of Palazzo Fortuny, a splendid architectural example of Venetian Gothic architecture, thanks to the restoration done by architect and set designer Pier Luigi Pizzi.
The restoration will allow the recovery of the ground floor, damaged by the 2019 water flood, the first floor dedicated to Mariano Fortuny’s house-museum, the second floor with Fortuny’s former photography, textile printing production, set design and women’s fashion workshops, and the third floor which will house photography and textile workshops.
The article is by Lucia Pecoraro.
Anish Kapoor, Symphony for a Beloved Sun, 2013 (cover) ph. Dave Morgan. Portrait of Anish Kapoor ph. George Darrell.
Portrait Cecilia Alemani ph. Marco Paris.
Gaggiandre and Arsenale – La Biennale ph. Andrea Avezzu.
The Borges Labyrinth ph Matteo De Fina – Courtesy of Fondazione Cini.
Some photos are by Marta Formentello.
Works by Marlene Dumas: Alien, 2017 – photo by David Zwirner and Losing (Her Meaning), 1988 – ph. Peter Cox.
Porte de Saint Cloud, Paris, France (1950) and New York, USA (1955) ph. Sabine Weiss courtesy of Marsilio Arte.
The photos of the Procuratie Vecchie are: Third floor – Restoration on windows in progress ph. Martino Lombezzi Contrasto and Laying of the Venetian terrace ph. Martino Lombezzi – Contrasto.
Portraits by Anselm Kiefer ph. Georges Poncet.
Bosco Sodi ph. Alex Krotkov.
Diana Policarpo, image of the research trip to the Wild Islands in Portugal. Courtesy of the artist. “The Soul Expanding Ocean #4: Diana Policarpo” is commissioned and produced by TBA21-Academy.
Works by Ferruccio Gard courtesy of Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa.
Works by C. Fogarolli courtesy of the artist and Galleria Alberta Pane (Paris-Venice).
The photo of Palazzo Ducale is by Settimo Cannatella.
