Ca' Pesaro Galleria Internazionale di Arte Moderna - Gianni Fabbri - Sguardi sulla Vita, sull'Arte e sul Mondo

photograph courtesy Gianni Fabbri

"His gaze spans the history of art and architecture, embracing subjects that blend high and low, current events and memory, the passing of life and the memories it leaves behind."

Elisabetta Barisoni

curator

Ca' Pesaro Galleria Internazionale di Arte Moderna

Gianni Fabbri - Sguardi sulla Vita, sull'Arte e sul Mondo

At Ca’ Pesaro – Galleria Internazionale di Arte Moderna, the exhibition Gianni Fabbri. Sguardi sulla Vita, sull’Arte e sul Mondo - curated by Elisabetta Barisoni - until January 25. - the drawings also presented an opportunity to renew the museum’s Project Room, now adapted to host Fabbri’s drawings and future exhibitions. 

Ultima Cena di Silvio Berlusconi

free interpretation of the scenic impact of Tintoretto's Last Supper

The drawings on display were largely created in recent years but originate from Fabbri’s long experience as an architect and professor of Architectural and Urban Design at IUAV. In that academic and professional context, freehand drawing served as a crucial tool for both the interpretation of past and present architecture and the development of new design ideas. Over time, this practice evolved to include the use of collage, incorporating figures borrowed from painting and sculpture to function simultaneously as symbolic elements and spatial references.

Exhibition View

photograph courtesy Gianni Fabbri

"His personal and intimate reflections on the dimensions and events of life, delivered with energy and imagination, and at times a healthy dose of irony, underscore how fundamental the utopian and visionary dimension is to architectural practice."

Elisabetta Barisoni

After concluding his academic and professional career, Fabbri’s drawings acquired a fully autonomous expressive role, becoming a means to reflect on the passing of time, personal and emotional states, the history of art - particularly the representation of the female body—and contemporary issues such as politics, religion, and environmental crises. These works form a series of - glimpses - onto life, art, and the world, often filtered through a gently ironic gaze.

Donne di Rubens sotto un Cavalcavia

inspired by the poem Le Donne di Rubens - Wislawa Szymborska

"Freehand drawing has always been my key tool, and over time 

I began adding collage elements from 

painting and sculpture."

Gianni Fabbri

photograph courtesy Gianni Fabbri

The exhibition catalogue includes a section titled - Testimonianze -  in which six figures from different cultural and professional backgrounds offer brief personal interpretations of the drawings. The contributors are Alberto Ferlenga, Domenico Luciani, Giandomenico Romanelli, Giovanni Soccol, Manuel Orazi, and Renato Bocchi -  together with an introduction by Elisabetta Barisoni - they underscore the multidisciplinary nature and interpretive richness of Fabbri’s work.

 

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Venezia - Ca' Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna - Terry Atkinson - The Artist as a Semantic Engine

"The exhibition explores the tension between 

thought and vision, between concept and image"

  Ca' Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna   

Terry Atkinson - The Artist as a Semantic Engine

The exhibition at Ca' Pesaro - Terry Atkinson - The Artist as a Semantic Engine - curated by -  Elisabetta Barisoni and Elena Forin - until March 1 -  presents some crucial phases of the work of Terry Atkinson, one of the most important English artists of recent decades. Recently added to the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, his work belongs to the strand of International Conceptual Research. It's uniqueness, however, consists in having interpreted profound theoretical contents in a vocabulary with a very strong visual value.

Terry Actor - Enola Gay - 1992

...from "We" to "I"

In 1968, Terry Atkinson co-founded Art & Language with David Bainbridge, Michael Baldwin and Harold Hurrell to question entrenched artistic practices and representations. Their critical stance attracted nearly fifty artists between 1968 and 1982. Over time, Atkinson distanced himself from the group’s evolving ideology, feeling that conceptualism had become “calcified", and in 1974 he abandoned the group's approach to return to that of a solo artist - from "We" to "I".

The Russell Series -1995

Curators - Elena Forin and Elisabetta Barisoni

"A profound reflection on the central theme of war and on role as a means of awareness and engagement."

When he left Art & Language he was thirty-five years old and already had a solid and fully aware artistic career behind him. The field he explores is that of the present in which he lives and whose dynamics he questions. Wars, which he considers forms of political action conducted by other means, are one of his fields of research, but the urge to examine the language of art itself has always been at the centre of his interest.

Goya Work - Letter from the Artist - Series 2 No. 6

Family-map modernist surface tourer. Foreground/background Xeroxes.

Ruby and Amber in front of the incinerators at the preserved

Natzwiller-Struthof Memorial Camp - August 1985.

Background/foreground surface mutant. Dear Modernism - 1986

"A study of the value of time and of humanity’s aptitudes 

as engaged with time itself."

For over sixty years, Atkinson has linked the dynamics of human history to those of aesthetics, intertwining acts of composition with human actions. His work forms a map of images, symbols and texts, none of them neutral, each exposing the power structures embedded in messages. It is a sustained inquiry into time, its value, and humanity’s ways of engaging with it.

Draped Head - 1986  

Easter Lily Booby trap connected to iradiating inscriptions of the names of some votaries x-rayed into the wall of the bunker... - 1986

"A study of the value of time and of humanity’s aptitudes as engaged with time itself."

A large painting on paper dedicated to the Vietnam War opens the narrative concerning Atkinson's use of painting as a form of political and moral analysis.

In rock n'roll consumership "working class" is a null class ... 

Private Caprichos no.73-Face, Vietcong, South Vietnamese Ranger, 

Private Buddy Holly-Face, Vietcong, South Vietnamese Rangers, 

The Plain Reeds -1976

The exhibition presents some of his best-known series: Enola Gay - Grease Works Goya Series - American Civil War - the very powerful papers of the - Russell Series - and a large body of drawings from the 1960s.

This - 1996

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Venice - Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Mani-Fattura: The Ceramics of Lucio Fontana

“Between suicide and travel, I chose the latter because I hope to still make a series of ceramics and sculptures that give me 

the pleasure or feeling of still being a living man.” 

Lucio Fontana

Peggy Guggenheim Collection  

Mani-Fattura: The Ceramics of Lucio Fontana

At the Peggy Guggenheim Collection - until March 2 - Manu-Facture: The Ceramics of Lucio Fontana is the first museum exhibition devoted exclusively to Fontana’s ceramic work. Known for his iconic slashed canvases of the 1950s and ’60s, Fontana - 1899-1968 - also created groundbreaking clay pieces - an essential yet lesser-known part of his oeuvre which began in Argentina in the 1920s. Curated by art historian Sharon Hecker, the show offers the first in-depth look at of his ceramic production.

Exhibition View

Featuring over seventy works - many never before exhibited - the exhibition illuminates the full scope of  Lucio Fontana’s sculptural vision in clay. Spanning his early years in Argentina, his return to Fascist-era Italy, and his postwar explorations during reconstruction and the economic boom, the exhibition traces how he transformed clay into a site of radical experimentation. It invites viewers to see Fontana not only as a pioneer of Spazialismo and Conceptual Art, but as a tactile, materially engaged artist whose collaborations with figures like ceramist-poet Tullio d’Albisola and the Mazzotti workshop in Albisola revealed a more intimate and exploratory side of his practice.

Figure Nere - 1931

Giuseppe Mazzotti and Lucio Fontana - Crocodile and Snake - 1936

"An entire petrified and shining acquarium."

"The material was shaken but firm."

Lucio Fontana - 1938

Coccodrillo - 1936-37

In 1927, Lucio Fontana returned to Italy from Argentina to study under Adolfo Wildt at the Accademia di Brera but soon broke from academic conventions. By 1931, he was exhibiting small, raw terracotta sculptures—unglazed, minimalist pieces that balanced figuration and abstraction. Some were flattened like reliefs; others explored volume and depth. With minimal decoration—incised lines, touches of color, or gold—his solemn female heads and abstract forms reveal an early search for expressive simplicity.

Studio di testa - Busto Femminile - Ritratto di Bambina - 1931

Cavalli Marini - 1936

Donna Seduta - 1938 - Nudo Femminile Seduto - 1940

After World War II, Lucio Fontana created intimate ceramic portraits of women close to him. Portrait of Teresita - 1949 - captures his wife with tender intimacy. Portrait of Milena Milani - 1952 - writer, artist, and the only woman to sign his Spazialismo manifesto, reflects both intellect and shared artistic vision. Portrait of Esa -1953 - niece of ceramist Tullio d’Albisola, honors a fellow artisan, marked by the rose-shaped pendant in clay. Together, these works reveal Fontana’s evolving, personal vision of the feminine, blending memory, affection, and artistry.

Ritratto di Esa - 1953

Lucio Fontana’s dynamic crucifixes and depositions from the late 1940s and ’50s blend stasis and movement. Created for Milanese homes during the economic boom, they begin with a simple cross form, yet each Christ is reinvented through abstract shapes and unpredictable glazes. Between repetition and variation, Fontana transforms religious intensity into aesthetic ecstasy, suspending the finality of death.

Exhibition View + Crocefisso - 1955-56

“You had to model and in the modelling you gave all the life, all the form.”

 Lucio Fontana - 1968 

In his final decades, Lucio Fontana’s ceramics embrace the slash gesture as a defining, expressive act. Stripped-down terracotta pieces, often pocked, slashed, or cleaved, reveal the imprint of his hands and primal gestures. Works like the Pane panels and the spherical Nature series evoke beginnings - eggs, seeds, or clay balls transformed through tossing, kneading, and splitting. These late works celebrate the ritual of making, blending matter, gesture, and creation in their simplest, most elemental form.

Exhibition View

Concetto Spaziale - 1962-1963

Concetto Spaziale - 1957

Director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection -  Karole Vail with Sharon Hecker

Art Historian Organizer of the exhibition

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Venice - #BiennaleArchitettura2025 - Pavilions - Architects - Curators - Exhibitors - Designers - Artists

#BiennaleArchitettura2025 - Pavilions

People - Architects - Curators -  Exhibitors - Designers - Artists

The International Biennale Architettura 2025 - curated by - Carlo Ratti - till 23 November - takes place in the Arsenale and in the Giardini.  This year’s Exhibition - entitled - Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective - explores how diverse forms of intelligence—human, natural, artificial, and collective—can shape a more adaptive built environment. "Intelligens," meaning "people" in Latin, calls for collaboration beyond AI and digital tools. With over 300 contributions from 750+ participants—architects to artists, scientists to chefs—serves as a living lab for interdisciplinary experimentation. In times of adaptation, architecture must be inclusive, dynamic, and deeply collaborative.

Golden Lion for best National Participation

Kingdom of Bahrain - Heatwave 

 

Golden Lion for best National Participation went to the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Pavilion offers viable proposal for extreme heat conditions. As the designers explain, “Architecture must address the dual challenges of environmental resilience and sustainability". The ingenious solution can be deployed in public spaces and in locations where people must live and work outdoors in conditions of extreme heat. The pavilion uses traditional methods of passive cooling typical of the region and reminiscence of wind towers and shaded courtyards.

Curator and Exhibitor -  Kingdom of Bahrain Pavilion - Andrea Faraguna

Seen in the Arsenale

Fashion Designer - Diane von Furstenberg - President of La Biennale di Venezia 

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Carlo Ratti - curator - Biennale Architettura 2025

Italia Pavilion

TERRÆAQUÆ. L’Italia e l’intelligenza del mare

TERRÆAQUÆ. L’Italia e l’intelligenza del mare brings the Sea back to the center of cultural reflection—extending the Mediterranean’s reach to neighboring oceans—and presents Italy as Earth, both shaped by and embraced by the sea. In the fragile balance of our environment, the sea is among the first to suffer the effects of climate change. Viewing Italy from the sea offers a fresh perspective and urges a rethinking of the boundary between land and water—as an integrated system of architecture, infrastructure, and landscape. This vision draws on a maritime culture rooted in ritual, exploration, and the deep connection between land and sea.

Curator - Guendalina Salimei

Italia Pavilion

Seen in the Italia Pavilion

Adriano Berengo

Republic of Uzbekistan - Pavilion

A Matter of Radiance

The National Pavilion of Uzbekistan explores the Heliocomplex - Sun - a modernist solar furnace built in 1987 near Tashkent, one of only two such structures globally. Initially part of Cold War scientific rivalry, it mirrored France’s Odeillo facility. Once a symbol of utopian progress, the furnace now sits in a suspended future, oversized for its current context. Instead of viewing its obsolescence as failure, the pavilion sees it as a space for critical reflection. It questions the structure’s contemporary scientific and cultural relevance. This opens pathways to reimagine its purpose beyond mere preservation.

Ireland Pavilion

Assembly

Assembly in the Ireland Pavilion is both a gathering of people and the act of constructing a whole from parts—central to architecture. Created by architects, a composer, poet, and woodworker, it’s a circular, modular structure for non-hierarchical dialogue among strangers. Meant for public spaces, it invites civic participation. Inside, soundboxes play music, poetry, and interviews, forming a polyphonic soundscape. The pavilion is both instrument and reflection—on how we come together and what we build when we do.

co-curator and co-exhibitor - Louise Cotter

Sultanate of Oman Pavilion

Traces

Traces draws inspiration from the traditional Omani Sablah—a communal space where stories are shared and bonds are built. More than architecture, the Sablah embodies cultural memory, resilience, and sustainable design. The pavilion reimagines this space, blending past and present to inspire future connections. Each corner tells a story of authenticity, creativity, and intergenerational continuity.

The Jury - Seen at the Arsenale

Hans Ulrich Obrist - Paola Antonelli - Mpho Matsipa

Kingdom of Morocco Pavilion

Materiae Palimpsest

Materiae Palimpsest is a manifesto exploring the future of traditional Moroccan know-how through an immersive, multi-sensory installation. Composed of 72 varied-height columns made from diverse local materials, the pavilion evokes Morocco’s landscapes and construction cultures. It serves as both a tactile glossary and a call to [re]think, [re]use, and [re]adapt ancestral techniques for future innovation.

co-curator and co-exhibitor - El Mehdi Belyasmine

Latvia Pavilion

Landscape of Defence

What does it mean to live on NATO’s external border during conflict? This exhibition explores Latvia’s military defence from the perspective of its border residents. It highlights how geography creates a constant threat, shaping both daily life and the landscape. The aim is to examine the link between defence and spatial conditions, contributing to global architectural discourse.

Co-exihibitor - Manten Devriendt and Co-curator - Co-exhibitor Liene Jakobsone

 Pavilion of the Applied Arts 

La Biennale di Venezia - Victoria and Albert Museum London

On Storage

The Pavilion of the Applied Arts, presented for the ninth consecutive year by La Biennale di Venezia and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is titled On Storage. The exhibition explores the global architecture of the storage spaces used to move goods and presents a new six-channel film titled Boxed: The Mild Boredom of Order, directed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). The work was commissioned in view of the public opening of the V&A East Storehouse in London, a new operational warehouse and free admission visitor centre of the V&A designed by DS+R. Curated by Brendan Cormier, Chief Curator of V&A East, in collaboration with DS+R.

 Curator - Brendan Cormier

V&A East Storehouse - Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Seen at the Arsenale

 Designer - Margherita Palli and Trendsetter - Alan Journo

United Arab Emirates - UAE - Pavilion

Pressure Cooker

Pressure Cooker explores how architecture can support food security, using the UAE as a case study. The project reimagines greenhouse models to suit the region’s climate and context, integrating them into urban life. It examines existing, often hidden, food-growing systems and proposes adaptable, climate-responsive structures. Through this, the exhibition envisions architecture as a tool for sustainable food futures.

Curator - Azza Aboualam

United States of America Pavilion

Porch: An Architecture of Generosity

Porch: An Architecture of Generosity reimagines the American porch as a symbol of hospitality, democracy, and community. Serving as both structure and gathering space, a new porch frames the U.S. Pavilion and hosts performances, dialogue, and social exchange. Inside, the exhibition showcases 50+ American designers and architects whose work addresses urgent social, cultural, and environmental issues through the ethos of the porch.

Exhibitor - Russell Brown

U.S.A. Pavilion

Spirit House - Plywood Prototype - 2025 

Stepehn Burks Man made Objects of Belonging

Seen in the U.S.A. Pavilion

 Artist - Anish Kapoor

Great Britain Pavilion 

GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair

GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair explores how architecture is implicated in ongoing “empires of geology” defined by forms of extraction that are complicit in inequality, injustice, and environmental degradation while also recognising that architecture also offers opportunities for repair, reparation, and renewal. The exhibition transforms the British Pavilion into a site for reinventing and reimagining the relation between architecture and the earth.

Great Britain Pavilion - Jury Special mention 

GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair

The Jury's Special Mention went to Great Britain for the dialogue with Kenya on reparation and renewal, the pavilion reveals architecture’s ties to extraction, inequality, and environmental harm. The Jury highlighted the efforts to reimagine architecture’s relationship with geology and commends the Venice Fellowship for fostering knowledge exchange between Venice, Great Britain, and Kenya.

Seen in the Giardini

Author, design writer - Annie Kelly and Photographer - Tim Street-Porter

Germany Pavilion

Stresstest

The German Pavilion immerses visitors in the reality of the coming urban climate. Divided into Stress and De-Stress, it contrasts extreme heat with solutions for resilient urban planning. A windsock installation by Christoph Brech illustrates climatic forces, while the pavilion itself runs on solar power with all materials planned for reuse.

Co-curator Nicola Borgman

Germany Pavilion

Stresstest

Japan Pavilion

In-Between

The Japan Pavilion explores a new form of intelligence emerging from the “in-between”—the space between humans and architecture. Drawing on the Japanese concept of ma, it suggests intelligence exists not in humans or machines alone, but in their dialogue. As generative AI evolves, the exhibition invites us to rethink intelligence beyond human boundaries, embracing a more fluid, relational perspective.

Japan Pavilion

In-Between

 

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