ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL
Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi
May 13 – Nov 26, 2017

ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL, organized and curated by Arch. Luca Curci (founder and director of THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space, ITS LIQUID GROUP and LUCA CURCI ARCHITECTS), and Andrea Chinellato (director of Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi) has been hosted in Venice at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi in the months between May and November 2017. The festival is composed by three main exhibitions RITUALS, CONSCIOUSNESS and VISIONS, the collateral events ELEMENTS – FROM SHAPE TO SPACE and Venice Experimental Video and Performance Art Festival.

ANIMA MUNDI festival has been an amazing success and has been presented more than 700 works of painting, photography, installation/sculpture, video art, architecture, design and performance art, realized by more than 250 artists and architects, coming from 40 different countries.

ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL has been organized during the same period of the 57th Venice Art Biennale 2017,  titled VIVA ARTE VIVA, curated by Christine Macel and organized by La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, hosted at the Giardini and the Arsenale venues.

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The period of Venice Art Biennale is considered one of the most important period in whole city of Venice, hosting international investors, designers, collateral art events, conferences and summits, and we have given a great opportunity to artists and architects to share their art, experiences, ideas, expressions, thoughts, based on the concept of ANIMA MUNDI.  During the six months of ANIMA MUNDI, the festival has been visited by an audience of hundreds of people, artists, curators, art collectors and art and architecture worlds’ professionals and personalities.

At the end of ANIMA MUNDI, it has been published the catalogue of  the festival, that consists in 300 full color pages with English texts, enriched with impressive pictures, regarding more than 250 International architects and artists that took part in the festival, selected with their works of painting, photography, installation/sculpture, architecture, design, video art and performance art.

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

ANIMA MUNDI festival has begun on May 13, 2017 with the first appointment RITUALS, the collateral events: ELEMENTS – FROM SHAPE TO SPACE and Venice Experimental Video and Performance Art Festival. The festival exhibits the selected artworks of video art, painting, photography and installation of important and emerging artists, coming from more than 20 nations, opened until July 02, 2017.

Supported by
Dsdgroup – Building Culture | LASALLE | NAC – Singapore | J White Framing | Sentir Penafiel | Shairart

Christine Heitler, a professional painter from Austria, exhibits the selected work: Oyster, an “explosion of colors” on canvas, her work contains intuitive and experimental fine art; mostly influenced by her experiences from worldwide travel. For Christine, painting means liberation from strictly following rules; there are no regulations or parameters, her artworks show her openness to new experiences.

The Italian artist Giacomo Bevanati, bachelored in Product design with a Master’s degree in Architecture, presents a installation-mask: Plague, created by steel wire, it shows its lightness and particularity of the plot of the material, that could be worn as a mask. Since an early stage he felt interesting in the visual perception of the volumes, light, transparences, light materials, and how the eye treat the mind with a toughful use of them.

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The selected artists from Philippines/France Allanrey Migz Salazar & Joe Datuin attend the opening of ANIMA MUNDI festival, and they present the great artworks: Anting-anting (Charm), The ring and Kababalaghan (Phenomenon), created in the year 2017.

The German artists Amalia Gil-Merino and Astrid Charlotte Wintgens are also presentes during the opening at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi. Amalia Gil-Merino shows her oil on canvas: Ritual of Jade and Astrid Charlotte Wintgens exhibits her photography work: Deep Sense.

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The Art Historian Ursula Radel-Leszczynski, coming form Poland and living in Austria, presents her acrylic on canvas: Waiting for the Summer, Silver Sailing and Sending Postcards from L.A. No.5. At first, she realized abstract paintings, and recently she started a series of figurative paintings, which deal mostly with people and their perception of arts. One of the art critics wrote about her painting: “..The paintings do not have formal geometry, but they certainly don’t lack structure, which comes from the twists and turns of the brush strokes. Each touch of the brush, contriving both breadth and synthesis, brings to the whole a character of unusual weight. It has a life of its own, and giving off an individual radiance it goes towards bringing about that overall harmony which can be likened to that of a musical symphony..”

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

Ewout van Roon, coming from The Netherlands, displays his films: Magical Spiral Wonderspiraal and Kringels. The abstract of Magical Spiral Wonderspiraal is part of a film clip of ink in water 43 seconds long that has been reworked into a film where the images have been slowed down to 1% of the original speed. The movement is then barely noticable and it looks like an abstract painting. The film Kringels looks like a slow moving abstract painting, mainly, in black and rose tints. The images are of the water and shadows of ships in the harbour of Marmaris in Turkey. They are close ups which were then slowed down. Through a change in speed and the length of the film each copy can be made unique.

The Chinese artist Sze Wai Wong presents her works, from the series Oasis: Not Explored and Dehydrating, in which there is a reflection of the images that Sze Wai Wong observed in her mind. According to her idea: “This series took off when I waslost and depressed. Thus, it performs as my unique way to seek comfort from my heart. From time to time, images came to me. I captured and depicted them in the artworks. Sometimes, my consciousness becomes an outsider and it looks back on the reflections of herself hiding in prohibited places, solitarily.”

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

CONSCIOUSNESS, the second appointment of ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL, the collateral events ELEMENTS – FROM SHAPE TO SPACE and Venice Experimental Video and Performance Art Festival, have presented at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, from July 13 to September 03, 2017 the relevant artworks of 91 selected artists, coming from all over the world.

Supported by
RT Harris & Son

From Slovenia, the artist Darja Stefancic, graduated from the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana, exhibits her oil on canvas: “Fountain” and “View“. “She researched painting on her own for twenty-five years, away from the public eye, and she did not exhibit during this period. Alongside she delved into the heritage of the humanities – literature and philosophy, which were helpful in her search for a visual language of her own. After her first public reappearance in 2007, she has had 27 solo exhibitions home and abroad.”

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The Thai artist Somsak Chaituch, coming from The Netherlands attends the event CONSCIOUSNESS and he presents the acrylic on linen work “Red 3“. He is an abstract and figurative expressionist painter that combines both eastern and western art. Warm melodies and traditional rhythms blend in abstract expressionistic themes of nature that refer to the warmth and colours of his origin. Brilliant and flat colours give his paintings that joy the observers need to see in art, that feeling of sparkling excitement that every powerful artwork must give at first glimpse. Chaituch received several international awards and had many solo and group exhibitions in museums around the world.

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The Czech guitarist David Wurczel and the Dutch video-artist Ewout van Roon show “Videoconcert Universe Suite“, a beauty of sound and images. During the guitar performance by David Wurczel, Ewout van Roon projects video images on the white wall. David Wurczel is a fantastic young guitarist and composer who has developed a unique guitar technique which he has named Rotando. Ewout van Roon wishes to capture beauty and is fascinated by moving images. He creates painting-like films, often inspired by nature or people. He has also made films that are created from a few droplets of ink in water.

Maria Cristina Ortiz Catedra, graduated in Fine Arts by the University of Granada, Spain, exhibits her 3 digital artworks: “Cuerpos y almas prueba acoplada“, “Silencio lo mas puro es cierto” and “Se desvanecen en el aire” during the event CONSCIOUSNESS. “She likes to express herself through art as a form of personal liberation, creating things and at the same time releasing emotions and transmitting ideas…”

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The artist from Russia, Anna Budnikova shows “Urban consciousness. Eiffel Tower“, that reflects the theme of the event. Her artworks is connected by one common idea that artificial is based on natural. According to her ideas: “Photos of different world places demonstrate the possibility of natural phenomena to affect our consciousness, emotions, spirit, and mood. Like a meditation, they cause us to feel freedom and pacification, Holy Spirit abiding. Metaphysics and philosophy of historical architecture and religious buildings are demonstrated by drawings and painting.”

Saye Architects from Iran, represented by the Team Leader Babak Baharestani and his Team Members Mohammad Forouzandeh, Navid Tavallaei, Reyhaneh Aslanbigi, Nadia Shayesteh and Mahtab Gharleghi exhibit the installation work of their architectural project “Sirjan multifunctional complex“, composed by a panel and a model of the project.

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

Frédérique Nolet de Brauwere, drawer and painter from Belgium, presents her photo works “33 millions de lapins” and “La Pâques des lapins“. “Her works has always been the search for the Essence. She has experimented various techniques, looking for the best means to reach her goal, until the point she has been “creating” material (barks) to dematerialize it by digging, scratching, tearing. Her art pieces are usually smaller to feel the inwardness and stimulate the meditative concentration. They are characterized by lightness, emptiness, distance, and dancing signs. Working on a nearly translucent paper, sometimes on both sides, Frédérique invites the spectator to come at the heart of the work.”

The artist from Israel Yoav Brener shows the 5 works on canvas: “Manipulation“, “Its all fake“, “Stay asleep“, “Tell me lies” and “You are that“, ispired by nature in all the scales through his eyes with modern science. According to his idea: “he has always been a strong believer in self learning as the key for pure art and original thought. His vision is to create original and innovative ways of visual expression. ” His style is very expressive, his paintings are characterized by flawless brushwork, vibrant color ,strong compositions, and bold forms that convey an alluring sense of depth, dimension and expansiveness, “provide the viewer with infinite opportunities to imagine and explore.”

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

VISIONS the third appointment of ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL, has been a stunning and extraordinary success, presenting the relevant and amazing artworks of 174 selected artists, coming from 42 different countries, and opened on September 14, 2017  at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi until November 26, 2017.

Supported by
BBAM Gallery | Clinimetrics | Gallery Kos | Ontario Art Council | Sheila Johnson

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The ground floor of Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi hosts the solo show of the England artist Marilia Elstrodt, who attended the event. She exhibits the series “As Nereides” – “The Nereids“, Janira, a Sonhadora, Nemertes, a Fecunda, Lissianassa, a Libertadora, Eunice, a Vitoriosa, Halimede, a Soberana. In Greek Mythology, “The Nereids” are sea nymphs or goddesses of the sea. Daughters of Nereus, also called “The Old Man of the Sea”, they represent, each one, one aspect or particular state of the Sea Waters. Fun and happy, they also represent the manifestations of the feminine, the receptive, loving and fertile element that lives inside of each of us. On the artist point of view, mythology, as Art that come from the Soul, take human beings to a deep journey that connects us to Nature and the power of the Divine in us.

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The sculptures “Chanting: Rosary” by Kumari Nahappan, a conceptual artist based in Singapore, are exhibited as a train of 50 large rosary “beads” meanders throughout the Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi. Another 9 saga seeds from this work, are retained and inaugurated in Singapore at the same time, “establishing an imaginary cord that crosses waters and boundaries to enjoin two physically separate sites”, creating a connection, a link. “The humble saga seems emanates with a reservoir of latent energy, speaking of capacities and magnitudes. The seed embodies internalised energy that transcends space and time. Chanting: Rosary is the culmination of different preoccupations and distillation of experiences discernible in Kumari’s life and artistic practice – her interest in ‘the metaphysical and spiritual’ and successive ventures to introduce ‘the spiritual’ into the secular context of contemporary art platforms. “

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

From Singapore, artist Gloria Keh exposes her recently 3 paintings on canvas “Birth of A Star“, “Ruach” and “Waves of At-onement“, and each selected work has deep concepts. According to Gloria’s thoughts “Ruach means the breath of God in the Hebrew. Like the yogic prana, the chinese chi, the japanese ki, Ruach is this powerful energy that is the source of all things. The blue Enzo (japanese circle rendered in one breath) symbolises wholeness”. About the artwork “The Birth of A Star”, “Stars have often been associated with deities. Polynesians believe that stars are the eyes of heaven, observing happenings on earth, whilst the Chinese attest that stars directly affect the events on our planet. Very few things can rival the beauty of a star-filled sky, and through the ages, countless poets, artists, and music lovers have continued to romanticise the stars.”
In the painting “Waves of At-onement” “all of life is interconnected.  And there’s a powerful energy that permeates all living things.  This energy, unseen by human eyes, connects all that there is.  I envisage that this energy moves in wavelike patterns, and thus connects all life into that ONENESS.  But man has abused, and raped Mother Earth, and until man realises that he must make amends, and atone for his misgivings, sufferings will never cease.”

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

Coming from Barzil, André Nóbrega Maia Souza attends the event VISIONS at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, presenting 3 works, from his series “Liquid Beach“, inspired by a recent urban study on Salvador’s most desirable public space, the beach, which emerges the tale of a land which struggled since it’s beginning with conflicts of interest. “As hut owners were expelled from the sand by government authorities, the local beach culture, which thrives on a tight relationship between beach goers and bars along the shore, was deeply wounded in exchange of a spectacular sanitized image of the coast for tourist attraction.” In fact the resistence of hut owners takes form in umbrellas and plastic tables made sculptures by the sea, as a visual dictionary of the country’s social-economic history. Each title “Freedom, Order and Progress“, “Castle” and “The Cross” refers to an issue yet to be resolved. In 2014 he received the special prize at the Salão de ArtesVisuais da Bahia for “Castle“, part of the “Liquid Beach” series.

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

Albert Janzen, the winner of ITS LIQUID INTERNATIONAL CONTEST 4TH EDITION 2017 attended the show and presents his print work, digital drawing “279“, and Jan Waterston, the winner of Product Design category of ITS LIQUID INTERNATIONAL CONTEST 4TH EDITION 2017 exhibits “Velo Rocking Stool, 2015“.

Independent Norwegian photographer and teacher of photography in Oslo University, Nina Staff presents 2 photo works: “The hippo in the living room” and “The scary child“, in which her goal is to create scenes that show emotions and feelings on how it feels like for a child to grow up in a dysfunctional environment.

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

From Switzerland artist Marlo-Marianne Charlotte Mylonas-Svikovsky shows the artworks “Hope for peace between different worlds“, “Lampedusa…” and “Syria…World’s madness…“.
Each work exhibited during the event VISIONS has a deepness and emotional concept. “Hope for peace between different worlds” represents the artist emotion created by the repeated desolating news about the blocked situation in Syria by the two main opposing worlds. The Abstract deathly precision and bloody horror of war are expressed in this painting as well as the deadlock of the situation.
“Lampedusa…” is created when the news broke out on Television about Syria’s people leaving everything behind, fleeing war with hope for safety but so many then dreadfully disappearing in our sea before their arrival at Lampedusa. The painting is a sort of exodus that hit her emotionally having experienced war situation and leaving when a child.
“Syria…World’s madness…” is a emotional canvas maked the emotional experience of her living in Tunisia, where her father was a UN delegate.

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The festival focused on the concept of ANIMA MUNDI, that according to several historical cultures, religions and philosophical systems, is an intrinsic connection between all living entities on the planet, which relates to the world in a similar way as the human soul is connected to the human body.

Plato expressed his thought about the ANIMA MUNDI in the Timaeus, “this world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence… a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related”.

ANIMA MUNDI is the invisible energy behind all the natural and the artificial elements that allows the planet to live. Thanks to the hidden connections of ANIMA MUNDI, all the ecosystems of the Earth, before and after the appearance of the mankind, found their equilibrium, their ways to live and to develop themselves, to transform and to evolve. All the beings of the planet, plants, minerals, animals are permeated by a secret force that has always stimulated the human thought and research.

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of RITUALS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on May 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of CONSCIOUSNESS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on July 13, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Exhibition opening of VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi on September 14, 2017 | Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

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