Venice from above, vertical, astronomical, paper-based, and in cinema
Between January and February 2022, several exhibitions open in Venice, marking the start of a dazzling spring season (Biennale (April 23 – November 27), Homo Faber (April 10 – May 1), Marlene Dumas at Palazzo Grassi, Anish Kapoor at Palazzo Manfrin, the opening of the Procuratie, and much more). Let us explore how to discover Venice through astronomy, drone photography, art, the Sacred, music, performance, and cinema.
Venice from Above
At T Fondaco dei Tedeschi, from January 14 to March 31, the exhibition Sguardi di Pietra: Venice Seen from Its Statues presents a significant vision of the city: 52 images captured by drone by Venetian photojournalist Marco Sabadin during the first lockdown.
“Wandering through Venice, imagining being a bird flying at a very low altitude over the city, caressing roofs and statues, bell towers and capitals,” the photographer explains: the silence of the empty city, the pattern of the white stones in the squares, the canals like rivers, the water like a mirror, the shape of the roofs. Viewing these large-scale photographs almost allows one to look the statues in the eye and brush past the roof terraces, masters of the air like seagulls. Not to be missed.
On January 14, from 3 PM to 6:30 PM, Marco Sabadin will be available to the public to discuss the photographs and sign his book, which features several of the images on display. The project is in collaboration with Agostini Group.
Sguardi di Pietra, photographs by Marco Sabadin
From January 14 to March 30, 2022
Fondaco dei Tedeschi, daily 10 AM – 6:30 PM, free admission
Giampaolo Babetto is one of the leading figures in contemporary artist jewelry. With the exhibition Segno e luce (January 14 – April 3), curated by Andrea Nante and Carmelo Grasso at the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, the Paduan artist engages with the Sacred.
The exhibition was initiated by the Benedictine monks, who for years have opened their sacred spaces to artistic experimentation, welcoming contemporary art from international artists such as Anish Kapoor and Michelangelo Pistoletto. The Great Choir, created in 1598 by the Flemish artist Albert van den Brulle, will host a previously unseen work by Babetto, opening an exhibition path that leads to the Sacristy, to “experience the encounter with the transcendent and the immanent,” as stated by Carmelo Grasso, director of the Benedicti Claustra non-profit organization.
Gianpaolo Babetto: Segno e Luce
From January 14 to April 3, 2022, 9 AM – 7 PM, free admission
Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, Island of San Giorgio
Info: +39 041.5227827, benedicticlaustra@abbaziasangiorgio.it
The Future of the Procuratie
The grand opening of the Procuratie Vecchie in St. Mark’s Square is approaching after 500 years: in the spring of 2022, they will become the home of The Human Safety Net, the global social movement by Generali. How these spaces will be made accessible to the public is detailed in an exhibition running until January 12 at the Serra The Human Garden, in the Royal Gardens, featuring the restoration project model by David Chipperfield Architects, and in the digital walk of St. Mark’s with historian Raffaele Dessì and designer Diego Paccagnella.
Vertical Venice
It is an experience of wonder to realize in Venice that solid stone architecture is founded upon the immateriality of water. Fulvio Orsenigo, a Milanese photographer who chose Venice as his home, guides us through his photographs in the Venezia Verticale exhibition held in the beautiful contemporary spaces of the Fondazione Wilmotte in Cannaregio: “..Venice is a mental space; traversing its bizarre and somewhat mad geography is like moving within those mysterious processes from which thoughts are born and where, from time to time, between roofs and narrow streets, a ray of light finds its way to illuminate a corner that had remained in the shadows until then, and so we feel we know the world a little better.”
Venezia Verticale by Fulvio Orsenigo
Until April 10, 2022, from 10 AM to 1:30 PM and from 2 PM to 6 PM
Fondazione Wilmotte, Fondaco degli Angeli
Fondamenta dell’Abbazia, Cannaregio 3560
Closed on Mondays. Tel. 041 4701160, free admission
Venice in Cinema
Every Wednesday from January 12 to February 16 at the Casa del Cinema di Venezia – Videoteca Pasinetti at Palazzo Mocenigo (San Stae 1990) – the series of encounters Cinema in Venice: A Story within a Story is scheduled.
The guests—Mario Isnenghi, Carlo Montanaro, Gian Piero Brunetta, Michele Gottardi, Paolo Lughi, Marco Caberlotto, and Lucio Scarpa—will cover topics ranging from the history of Venice to cinema set in Venice, local production companies, the history of the Film Festival, film sets located in the city, and reflections on contemporary cinematography.
Paper Venice
At Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, until Tuesday, March 1, 2022, the exhibition Paper Design: Two Months of Paper presents a series of events exploring the manifold creative possibilities of paper, featuring workshops and works from the Paper Technologies course at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, taught by designer Dario Cestaro.
Paper design has applications in publishing, giftware, decor, furniture, illustration, set design, and animation. In particular, the tradition of books equipped with mechanisms capable of creating three-dimensional and motion effects, which we call “pop-up books,” actually has its roots in the thirteenth century.
“Paper house 2021/22” and “Fantastic Bestiary” are a selection of works/compositions in tactile design, tableaux, and small sets created with paper objects and elements.
Paper Design: Two Months of Paper
Until March 1, 2022, admission included with the museum ticket
Ca’ Pesaro, Project Room
Astronomical Venice
The Academy of Fine Arts, until January 29, presents the art and science exhibition Stelle e Viaggi 2, curated by Gloria Vallese: celestial navigation and astronomy among the figurations of St. Mark’s Basilica.
The exhibition stems from the discovery that the main portal of St. Mark’s Basilica contains an extraordinary, early representation of the celestial sphere, with stars and constellations depicted not only according to Western tradition but through a wide range of languages, from Northern Europe to India and China.
An astronomical cycle in the central portal of St. Mark’s Basilica: new revelations shed light on the Cycle of the Months and the Chapel of Saint Isidore. Thanks to high-definition close-up photographs, sculptures, 3D models, video reconstructions, and holograms created by students and faculty of the Venice Academy of Fine Arts, this precious exhibition reveals surprising discoveries regarding the astronomical knowledge of 13th-century Venetians and the language of celestial navigation, which was common at the time to travelers and the entire civilian population as it was essential for travel, fishing, hunting, and agriculture.
Stelle e viaggi 2: Explorations, Iconography, and Astronomy at St. Mark’s in the 13th Century
Until January 29, 2022
Magazzino del Sale 3, Zattere
Thursday, Friday, Saturday 11 AM – 5 PM
Performance at Palazzo Grassi
Saturday, January 15, 2022, the Gestus series concludes at the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi with a performance by artist Driant Zeneli, titled In an attempt to get up.
At Punta della Dogana, the video installation exhibition Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies continues until Sunday, November 27, 2022, while at Palazzo Grassi, preparations are underway for Open-End, the solo exhibition of South African artist Marlene Dumas, which will open to the public on Sunday, March 27, 2022, and run until January 8, 2023.
African NFT Art
Opening Thursday, January 20, the NFT exhibition Tricolore 2022 at the AKKA Project Gallery features artist Luigi Christopher Veggetti Kanku, a painter and sculptor born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and raised in Italy.
A project created to raise public awareness on the theme of social change resulting from immigration. An encounter, a critique, and a contemporary vision of a multi-ethnic reality, balancing still-undervalued truths and social inclusion, identity and belonging, beyond ethnicity, origin, or religion.
Christopher Veggetti: Tricolore 2022
January 20 – March 10, 2022
Akka Project Gallery Venice, Corte del Duca Sforza
10 AM – 6 PM, free admission
Projections at the Scala del Bovolo
In the two exhibition rooms of Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, a rare hidden gem of Venice that also served as an astronomical observatory, the site-specific project by Roman artist Andrea Aquilanti, curated by Pier Paolo Scelsi and Francesca Mavaracchio, is on display until February 20.
V-A-C Zattere
The V-A-C Foundation at Zattere presents Non-Extractive Architecture: Designing without Depleting until the end of January: a year-long exhibition program featuring residency, research, workshops, conferences, and an editorial platform curated by architect Joseph Grima and the Genoese design and research studio Space Caviar.
Memories of a Mise en Scène
Until March 15 at the Palazzo Mocenigo Museum, Center for the Study of Textiles, Costume, and Perfume in Venice, the designs of Alberta Ferretti are on display: eight iconic gowns from the fashion show held last September at the Ca’ Rezzonico Museum of the 18th Century Venice, in support of the Civic Museums Foundation to celebrate the 1600th anniversary of the founding of Venice.
Romantic Music
Thursday, January 13 at Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française, pianist Gloria Campaner opens the 2022 concert season with Piano Party. The program aims to bring classical music into salons and introduce romantic composers and their most intimate works, particularly those written for the piano.
The Season Returns to the Theater
The Teatro La Fenice continues to captivate its audience with a musical offering of the highest caliber:
- January 15 and 16: concert conducted by Charles Dutoit featuring compositions by Ravel, Mozart, Debussy, and Stravinsky;
- January 17: Hilary Hahn & Andreas Haefliger in a recital featuring compositions by Beethoven;
- January 21: Mario Brunello conducts Mozart and Tavener in a concert dedicated to Global Hug Day;
- January 26 to 30: Marie Antoinette with the Malandain Ballet Biarritz, choreography by Thierry Malandain, music by Franz Joseph Haydn and Christoph Willibald Gluck;
Much more at the Sale Apollinee, Teatro Malibran, and a variety of opera, prose, and concerts also at Teatro Goldoni.
Article by Lucia Pecoraro and Laura Scarpa.
Photographs, in addition to the cover, by Marco Sabadin were provided by BCW Global.
Photographs of the Procuratie di San Marco and the exhibition model are by Marta Formentello.
The photograph of Giampaolo Babetto was kindly provided by Studio Esseci.
The photograph of St. Mark’s Basilica is by Igor Serdyukov.
The photograph of the Scala del Bovolo is by Lorenzo Cinotti. The photograph of the VAC Foundation is by Marco Cappelletti.
The photograph of Gloria Campaner is by Simone Fioriani.
Photographs of the artist Luigi Christopher Veggetti Kanku were kindly provided by the Akka Project Gallery.
Works by Marlene Dumas: Alien, 2017 – photo by David Zwirner and Losing (Her Meaning), 1988 – photo by Peter Cox.
Photographs from the Venezia Verticale exhibition are by Fulvio Orsenigo.
