EXHIBITION REVIEW: BORDERS ART FAIR 2025
ITSLIQUID International Art Fair
Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello
Venice | May – Aug, 2025

ITSLIQUID Group in collaboration with ACIT Venice – Italian-German Cultural Association, is pleased to announce the great success of BORDERS ART FAIR 2025, from May to August, 2025, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, during the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture.

BORDERS ART FAIR 2025 featured more than 200 artists from more than 50 countries presenting a great selection of painting, photography, installation/sculpture, video art, architecture, design and performance art during its three appointments: HYBRID IDENTITIES (May 23 – June 06), SECRET SPACES (June 26 – July 10), and FUTURE LANDSCAPES (July 25 – August 07).

In three months, BORDERS ART FAIR 2025 has been a liquid cultural hub between creatives, exhibition spaces and art lovers, visited by an audience of hundreds of visitors.

The festival focuses on the concept of “borders”, between the soul and the body, the human being and the urban space, the city and the ground, analyzing the idea of how people live these “confines” and how they are modified in contemporary society. Every human being lives in a world in which the limits shape their attitudes and behaviours, limiting freedom and creating a sense of alienation. Humans react by breaking the limits and finding a new way of life. We imagine a world of “liquid cities”, where differences create new possibilities instead of being social barriers.

We invited artists, architects and designers to be inspired by this new era, exploring the connection between desires, needs, and fears that brings humankind to change, transform and evolve our inner world.

BORDERS opened with HYBRID IDENTITIES, the first event of the festival, held at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello in Venice on May 23, 2025. This powerful exhibition brought together international artists reflecting on the ways cultural, social, and personal influences shape our sense of self, opening a space of reflection, encounter, and re-imagination.

Within this setting, Samantha Rebrovich’s emotionally charged oil paintings, rooted in symbolic language and spiritual transformation: her paintings are not only visual experiences but energetic fields, portals through which the viewer is invited into a deeper connection with the self. With a similar visceral, mythological energy, Nagy Anita’s paintings unfold as spiritual battles, opposing forces of light and darkness clashing across her canvases. Inspired by Japanese Oni folklore, her dynamic compositions, marked by raw acrylic textures and vivid colour contrasts, channel inner conflict and transformation.

In a striking sculptural installation, At Castelo invited the audience to confront the fragmentation of identity through “Reflection”, a composition of angular, mirrored surfaces that disrupt any single image of the self. The work resists unity in favour of multiplicity, embodying the idea of identity as something fluid, fractured, and ever-evolving. Grigoriy Ponomarev’s “Snow in Delhi”, a delicate sculpture in carved flint, bridged natural history and human story. With flint as its medium – a stone formed over millennia – the work became a meeting point between geologic time and artistic intention, reflecting on transience, resilience, and the echoes of past worlds within contemporary life.

Marie Puybaraud offered a moment of meditative stillness with her black clay sculptures, shaped by hand and polished with wax into serene, elongated forms. Evocative of ancient orants and votive figures, her installation stood like a silent chorus, grounding the exhibition in ritual, memory, and a subtle yet profound sense of presence. Finally, Gabriele Monte offered an unexpected reflection on time, attention, and care. His installation refused immediacy, instead inviting the viewer to slow down, to wait, and to simply be. In a world of speed and distraction, the work became a quiet rebellion, a space in which slowness is sacred, and presence becomes a transformative act.

BORDERS continued with SECRET SPACES, the second chapter of the festival, held at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello in Venice. This immersive exhibition explored the interrelation between body, identity, and perception, inviting viewers to navigate a layered space where the boundaries between inner and outer realities dissolve. The artists involved offered distinct yet interconnected perspectives on the hybridization of human experience and the hidden architectures of the self.

Elia Bechtel’s organic sculptures acted as physical manifestations of subconscious terrains, drawing viewers into a silent dialogue between inner visions and external forms. His use of fractal geometry and symbolic structure creates tactile, hybrid environments that speak to emotional and philosophical dimensions of being. Echoing this inward journey, Alexandra Gorev’s enigmatic paintings unfolded as dreamlike mythographies – fluid, layered surfaces where memory and emotion entwine. Her luminous compositions present archetypal figures suspended in surreal, symbolic ecosystems, offering portals into personal and collective psychic space.

This intimate exploration of interiority continued through the deeply affective work of Karolina Sávolt, whose emotionally charged pieces blend aesthetic beauty with ethical urgency. Rooted in nature and guided by compassion, her works become spaces of care – acts of resistance and healing that advocate for a more empathetic relationship with the planet and each other. Christina Neukäufer complemented this sensibility with her distinctive blend of abstract painting and figurative drawing. Her background in design informs her methodical yet intuitive approach, producing works that oscillate between structure and spontaneity, emotion and form: charting the emotional rhythm of human experience with a deliberate visual language.

Wesley Edwards expanded the exhibition’s scope into visionary and metaphysical realms. Blending digital art with traditional media, his works function as dream portals, inspired by travel, psychedelia, and shamanic archetypes. Each piece becomes a vehicle for inner transformation, spiritual inquiry, and symbolic rebirth. Similarly attuned to transformation, Aurora De Crosta’s photographic series captures the human body as a narrative vessel. Drawing from dance and fashion history, her images embody gesture, style, and motion as expressions of identity, turning the camera into a witness of evolving selfhood.

With FUTURE LANDSCAPES, BORDERS 2025 culminated in a meditation on the relationship between humanity and environment, an artistic investigation into new aesthetic, emotional, and spatial ecologies. The participating artists envisioned landscapes of the future not as distant utopias, but as intimate, sensorial spaces where human presence and natural systems intertwine.

Christopher B. Fowler opened this chapter with a solo exhibition curated by Luca Curci, presenting photography as a quiet act of revelation. Eschewing digital manipulation, Fowler’s disciplined, minimalist approach captures the subtle essence of everyday scenes. His works invite the viewer into a pure encounter with the visible world – poetic landscapes shaped by light, time, and presence. Mira Vujanic extended this meditative quality through expressive abstraction: her brushstrokes pulse with immediacy, channeling raw emotion into vibrant, intuitive compositions. Vujanic’s canvases become emotional landscapes, tracing the contours of inner truth and shared resonance.

In a similar vein, Véronique George‘s Waves series examined the emotional rhythms of loss and healing. Her fluid, almost musical visual language evokes the tidal nature of personal transformation, where grief and peace coexist within the same flowing form. Ilir Lluka, working at the intersection of sound and image, expanded the temporal dimension of these emotional spaces. His audiovisual installation Réflexions weaves field recordings, ambient textures, and real-time processing into immersive mental landscapes – soundscapes of memory, presence, and becoming.

Through charcoal and pastel, Bela Gutman captures the weight, balance, and tension of the body in space, emphasizing the emotional and physical contradictions that lie within every form. His work invited viewers to explore the complexities of human presence and engage with the layered textures that bring these figures to life. Finally, Carrie Martin infused the exhibition with vivid, electrifying landscapes that transform everyday moments into powerful emotional statements. Martin’s use of neon-like colors breathes life into scenes that might otherwise be overlooked, capturing the transient beauty of the world around us. Her work, much like that of Vujanic and George, reflects the fleeting nature of time and the emotions that flash through us in an instant. Martin’s landscapes pulse with energy, offering a dynamic counterpoint to the more contemplative works in the exhibition and urging viewers to appreciate the ephemeral beauty of the world.

BORDERS ART FAIR 2025 offered a vibrant platform for creative and talented artists from around the world, giving space to diverse voices, media, and perspectives. The exhibition fostered an environment of total freedom where experimentation, dialogue, and personal expression were not only encouraged but celebrated. By breaking down conventional barriers, BORDERS became a space of true artistic exchange, reaffirming the power of art to connect, transform, and envision new possibilities beyond borders.

organized by ITSLIQUID Group
in collaboration with ACIT Venice – Italian-German Cultural Association | GOETHE INSTITUT
curator Luca Curci
general manager Giulia Tassi
project manager Amaride Ferrante
project coordinator Annachiara Recchia
artist coordinator Maria Elena Apollonio, Chi-Chin Hu, Ilaria Parlato
collaborators Helena Gomez, Gianna Poloniato, Vittoria Vallebella, Marianna Violante
graphic designers Marina Caracciolo, Alberto Grimaldi

VENUE
Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello
Associazione Culturale Italo-Tedesca (ACIT), Cannaregio 4118, Venice
Opening hours | Monday – Friday . 09.30 AM – 05.30 PM

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ABOUT US

ITSLIQUID is a web-based information platform, founded in 2001 by Luca Curci, dedicated to the worldwide distribution of information about calls for entries, exhibitions and events at some of the world’s leading art galleries, museums and foundations. ITSLIQUID has already built a readership of more than 300.000 qualified subscribers. Among them are architects, designers, artists, collectors, art critics, curators, dealers, and other personalities of the International art, architecture and design world. It provides advertising services, press office services for events and projects, articles and specials published on the website, and media partnership services.

During the last 20 years, ITSLIQUID Group has become a cultural hub between creatives, exhibition spaces and art lovers. Among our international partners, Art Now Fair, Art Vancouver, Design Tokyo, INDEX Qatar, INDEX Saudi, The Big 5 Construct Dubai, The Big 5 Construct Qatar, Photo LA Los Angeles and international magazines like Art Style. ITSLIQUID Group supports some of the most important non-profit organizations, like UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, SSCS – Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, One Tree Planted, The Ocean CleanUp and Plastic Oceans, with the goal to increase public awareness about environmental issues. Click here to find out more.

ITSLIQUID GROUP includes a section dedicated to the organization of international art events, managing exhibitions of painting, photography, video art, installation and performance; it organizes solo and collective shows, art residencies and international contests. Its object is to use new technologies to globalize the language of art, and to connect artists working in every part of the world.

ITSLIQUID Group manages a variety of art spaces all over the world; among them Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello in Venice and different historical buildings, ELEMENTS Contemporary Art Space in the London city centre and other different partners worldwide. Since 2001, ITSLIQUID Group has organized over 350 international events, engaging more than 10,000 artists across over 60 global venues. Its initiatives have featured prestigious museums like the CCCB – Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona in Spain, the NCCA – National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow, the MuMo – Museum Montanelli in Prague, and at the MUST Museum in Lecce, in addition to numerous galleries and private foundations. Thanks to its partnership with Sedition, ITSLIQUID has presented masters such as Bill Viola and Refik Anadol, offering high-level opportunities for young, mid-career, and renowned artists.

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OUR LOCATION

Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello is one of the most well-known palaces of the Renaissance in Venice. It is a historical building dating back to the 16th century, and it has been owned by several noble Venetian families, as demonstrated by the frescoed ceilings, the artistic stuccos and the fine furniture that enriches its rooms. The Palace welcomes visitors with its beautiful private garden on the ground floor, and then it gathers the guests in its large first-floor salons, in which past and present dialogue together. The restored Old Masters’ frescoes and the contemporary art masterpieces that are periodically shown in the exhibitions hosted here make Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello the perfect location for the balance between old and new, between ancient environment and contemporary art, architecture and design.

Today, the building is managed by ACIT Venice – the Italian-German Cultural Association – which is considered one of the most important intercultural associations in Europe. Thanks to the ACIT’s unceasing cultural activity, Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello nowadays has frequent collaborations with the Goethe Institute and with other local and international institutions, maintaining its ancient reputation. Because of these relations, it presents a huge program of memorable art exhibitions, conferences, congresses and concerts. Among the last institutional exhibitions, is its participation in the 58th Venice Biennale with the Guatemala pavilion, the Dominican Republic pavilion and the Grenada pavilion. ITSLIQUID Group already had the pleasure to hold some festivals and exhibitions in Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, such as MORPHOS Festival and FUTURE IDENTITIES Festival, both in 2014.