_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

Feedback release: VISIONS – ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL
It’s LIQUID International Art Festival
Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, September 14 – November 26, 2017

VISIONS, the third appointment of ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL, has been inaugurated on September 14, 2017 at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi and presents the relevant and amazing artworks of 174 selected artists, coming from 42 different countries.

The exhibition VISIONS introduces the amazing selected artworks of painting, photography, installation, video art and performance and it is daily attended by many national and international visitors, opened until November 26, 2017.

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ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL, curated by Luca Curci and Andrea Chinellato, is presented in Venice at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, in the months between May and November 2017, in the same period of the 57th Venice Art Biennale, titled VIVA ARTE VIVA.

curators: Luca Curci, Andrea Chinellato

project coordinators: Domenico Fallacara, Carmela Loiacono
collaborators: Vittoria Biasiucci, Gabriella Damascelli, Serena Gollini, Francesca Risi, Ilaria Zaccariello

venue: Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, Cannaregio 4132 – 30121 Venice, Italy
dates: September 14 – November 26, 2017
From Monday to Friday – 10:00 AM – 06:00 PM (free entry)
Closed on Saturday and Sunday

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

Click here to read more about the press release

_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The third appointment of ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL, VISIONS has been a stunning and extraordinary success, a lot of visitors and many selected artists attended the opening party at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi. The courtains of the exhibition have been opened by 9 international performers, Anitta Toivio, Alex Côté, GB Group, Anastasija Kadiša, Grace (Katharine Meynell, Mx Demonic Desire, Teresa Albor, Kate Walters, Caroline Friedman, Catherine Herman), Federico Moccia & Sergio Patricio, Fermín Martínez & Tonalli Villalpando, Johanna Hamm and Pax Vaira. Each performance had a single concept that attracted the attention of many visitors and artists involved.

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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.

The French artist Angel Fernando Badillo Almazo presents his print artwork “An Energy Periscope“, that expresses the different energies in 3 Metropolis, Latin-American (the case of Mexico City), European (the case of the Upper Rhin) and Asian (the case of Shanghai).

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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. “

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Cecilia Kaoru Saito, artist from Japan exhibits the video work “Nature and Blessing“, that is impression of Poem of Cycling of Nature and Art work. The Motif are Nature which she has met in her heart deeply dimension in 2016-2017, and put into the video what her Paintings with Energy Nature and what her conscious & body works. She recognized “All Human are belonging to Nature.” Then, Humans Body and Mind have driving with 5 Element (essence, basic of Nature power), human could not drive anything on our life with only human’s mind. According to her idea: “If we human remember everything about power and essence of Nature, this world would be stand up Happiness all corner of this world. Because I am feeling This Amazing Nature will be making only Beauty and Harmony on Mother Planet.”

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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.”

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Simona Lombardi, Italian artist represented by Rita Calenda – Art Ouverture, shows the painting “Kind of blue“. Since her artistic beginnings, firmly convinced that art consists of the human need to communicate with others, Simona Lombardi is basing her research around the relationship with nature as a process of mutations of primary shapes, stones, seeds and branches, graphic sign to the pictorial and in recent years, bright objects and cards.

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“.

_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

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.
According to the concepts of this serie, the artist wrote: “The hippo in the living room: When a child grows up in a dysfunctional environment, that is like having a hippo in the living and its existence must be ignored. But everybody knows its existence because of its size and because of the fear it creates.”
“The hippo in the living room: When a child grows up in a dysfunctional environment, that is like having a hippo in the living and its existence must be ignored. But everybody knows its existence because of its size and because of the fear it creates.”

From Soth Korea the video artist Tae Eun Ahn shows the video “A Pot“, a video performance piece that is about wheeling a pot by embracing it. Accepting all the movements and rebounds from the whole process, the pot becomes a metaphoric object which represents one’s existence.

Koshi Kawachi, artist born in Japan, lives and works in Tokyo exhibits the installation work “A dialogue: Daedalus and Icarus“, maked by canned juice, that scraps out part of a can printing and spins out words. The artist imagined “Daedalus and Icarus” by Antonio Canova, a legendary
sculptor from Venice, which is the exhibition place this time.

_{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.

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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.

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The Argentian multidisciplinary artist, Natalia Belén Forcada presents her video art work “Serching for Big Fish“, in which she parodies reality shows, with the starting point of a fish beauty-contestreality show. A fish, a former participant on the reality show “Big Aquarium” talks about being on the show and returning home.
For 7 years, she worked as a teacher and as production coordinator and teacher at the Universidad del Cine. Worked as producer and assistant director on full length films that won national and international awards.

_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

Daniella Fishburne, American photographer, is a self-taught artist who transforms her self-portrait into dreamlike hallucinations, using a combination of carefully staged photo shoots and digital manipulation. During the event VISIONS exhibits 2 works “The Magpie and the Raven“, inspired by a combination of the old magpie mentioned in the pool of tears and the Mad Hatter’s riddle, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” In this portrait, the magpie sips her tea while she longingly awaits her husband’s return, the raven whose portrait hangs on the wall behind her; and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat“, inspired by the Mad Hatter’s poem recited during the infamous tea party. In this portrait, a young woman opens her imagination, freeing the little bat that was caged in her mind.

_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

Istvan Brach-Balogh, a Budapest-based, emerging artist, also a practising architect and designer, attends the event VISIONS and shows 3 photo works and 1 painting work. His presented works are “simbolical ‘landscapes’, spiritual spaces, visualizations of the macro and micro world. Depict the natural laws, the unwritten rules of collectiveness, the timelessness and the absolut existence of Anima Mundi, beyond the mankind, build up from fundamental elements of existence.”
Each work has a concept, “X-Light XXXII. – Birth of Creativity” represents The energy, the light, the creativity of the mankind flash somewhere in the ‘space’ when the ideas are born.
“X-Light XXIX. – Birth of an Angel” is the essence of the moment of birth, the germ of conception of any kind of life, fact, structure, system, act, thought, soul, existence and so on.
“X- Light XIII. – Energy in Interior” is the vivid energy of life fill in the space inside and outside.
“Galaxy of Art“, work on canvas, represents beyond reality, on its spiritual level, symbolical pieces of fruit of the creation orbiting in the universe: This limitless power and potency keep our world alive.

_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

The festival focuses 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.

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The festival aims to discover these multiple forms of hidden connections between the soul and the body, the mankind and the natural elements, the natural spaces and the cities. We invite artists to show their reflections about the various ways in which the ANIMA MUNDI expresses the relationships among all the existing entities and the natural and cultural systems, and to represent by their artistic works the processes of the evolution of the world in which we all live. Artists, designers and architects are invited to talk about ANIMA MUNDI through photo reportage of cities, hidden places, photographic documentaries, personal experiences, presenting their works of photography, painting, sculpture/installation, design and architecture, video-art and live performance.

ANIMA MUNDI festival is organized and curated by Luca Curci (architect, professor of Urban Planning and Interior Design at the Bahcesehir University BAU in the department of Rome, founder and director of LUCA CURCI ARCHITECTS and It’s LIQUID Group) and Andrea Chinellato (director of Ca’ Zanardi).

_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

How to reach us:

Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, Venice

Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi is a residential palace dating back to the 16th century which, over the centuries, has been added on to by various noble Venetian families and is one of the most evocative and beautiful palaces in the city of Venice; the Serenissima. Sumptuous and possessing particular charm, Ca’ Zanardi is located in a most peaceful setting and has its own delightful private garden as well as a magnificent terrace full of sun and colour. Ca’ Zanardi is located close to the Ca’ D’Oro, the splendid 15th century gothic palace along the Grand Canal. It is located off the main tourist drag but is still easily reachable by foot, after a two minute walk from the Ca’ D’Oro water bus stop, or by boat using the palazzo’s private pier positioned along the fetching Santa Caterina canal. The refined elegance of the palazzo’s halls and common areas and the delicacy of its original 16th century furnishings create a fascinating setting.

ITS LIQUID GROUP
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 33
70122 Bari (Italy)

Santa Croce, 1116
30135 Venezia (Italy)

+39.0805234018
+39.3387574098
lucacurci@lucacurci.com
www.itsliquid.com

_{Image courtesy of Luca Curci}

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