EXHIBITION REVIEW: BORDERS ART FAIR 2021
Venice | June 14 – September 19, 2021
THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space | Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello

ITSLIQUID Group, in collaboration with Venice Events and ACIT Venice – Italian-German Cultural Association, is proud to announce the great success of BORDERS ART FAIR 2021, international exhibition of photography, painting, video art, installation/sculpture, and performance art curated by Arch. Luca Curci, held in Venice, at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space and at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello from June 14 to September 19, 2021.

BORDERS ART FAIR 2021 has presented more than 300 artists from more than 40 countries, with a great selection of paintings, photographs, installations, sculptures, video art, architecture, design, and performance art during its three appointments: BODIES+CITIES SKIN (June 14/15 – July 04), FRAGMENTED IDENTITIES (July 12/13 – August 01) and FUTURE LANDSCAPES (August 30/31 – September 19).

Never like this time, the concept of the exhibition seemed to be epochal: for several months, humankind coexisted at a distance to stay closer. The new invisible borders generated by the Covid-19 are creating new ways of living everyday life, new human connections, re-thinking common spaces and entire cities. Could the new “borders” be the solution? We have invited artists, architects, and designers to be inspired by this new era, exploring the connection between desires, needs, fears that brings humankind to change, transform and evolve our inner world.

The festival focused on the concept of “borders”, between the soul and the body, the human being and the city, the city and the ground. It analyzed the idea of human and urban borders, how people live them and how they are modified in contemporary society. Every human being lives in a world in which the limits, the borders, shape their attitudes and behaviors, limiting freedom and creating a sense of alienation. The human being reacts 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.

BORDERS ART FAIR 2021 opened its doors on June 14 at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space and on June 15 at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, with the exhibition BODIES+CITIES SKIN.

The city’s body is in constant evolution: it changes its skin and shows a renewed body. This mutation follows the direction of human being development and it is a clear and true statement of cities changing time. From borders as individual bodies and souls to boundaries of cities in which we live, each line delimitates a surface and could be the starting point to something new. Limits are everywhere, barriers keep us inside or outside spaces and societies. Their passing creates a crossover of identities and urban environment. The way we move, we relate to anything, to the world, makes us go beyond boundaries.

At THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space Cultura Orquìdea, an artistic and cultural collective represented by the Colombian artist and researcher Claudia Isabel Navas, presented the project “Beyond Borders”: 9 artists from the USA, France, and South America, expressed, through different media and techniques, the migration and survival in different types of environments both of various species of Colombian Orchids, and of the people portrayed in the photo-reportages of Wes Pope, John Lee, Christian McManus, Yvette Marie Dostatni and Nicolas Courbon. The room was pervaded by a unique atmosphere, with the video-sound flowers installation of Claudia Isabel Navas and Ramón Laserna as the perfect background of the history of humanity narrated through the portraits on the walls.

The concept of the exhibition was well interpreted also by Ania Freindorf with her magnificent photos of the research made on the glaciers of all seven continents, by Svetlana Konegen, who expressed the importance that languages and words have in our everyday life and by Melli Müller, a Berlin-based artist, who focused her attention on the tension that exists between life and the performing state, and between opposite feelings as arousal and pain.

At Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello Alessandro Cemolin surprised the visitors with his big prospective canvases, which represented dystopic artificial cities where the urban elements have overwhelmed the human ones. Violetta Sevostianova and Julia Kruse both reflected on identities even if in different ways. Elia Kleiber fascinated the guests with a strong tension between lines and colors, which is the transposition of the contrasts between individuals, and also between our inner and outer self.

The second appointment of the Fair, FRAGMENTED IDENTITIES started on July 12 at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space, and on July 13 at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

On both days, the artists were live interviewed by the Curator of the exhibition, Arch. Luca Curci, and they all left a part of themselves to the visitors. Maria Goretti Bello Serans spoke about her life through Australia, New York, and Spain, and how all these trips influenced the creation of her stained-glass pieces, while Liubov Bochkova explained that her big canvas reflected on the sense of disorientation and fragmentation of the self.

VaRu (Vanessa Rusci), from Italy, created portraits starting from her international experience in the research about Artificial Intelligence and learning machines; Friedhard Meyer seemed to reproduce the rhythm of the world in his huge and hypnotic works through colored lines that blend the ones with the others.

At Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello on the ground floor, we had the pleasure to present the solo exhibition of Fant Wenger, a Swiss artist who worked on a project about frequencies. Big canvases on the walls, mannequins with wires on their heads in the garden, and old-technologic stuff like a radio with headphones on a table and in many of his paintings, as well as telephone poles, parabolic antennas, and satellites. The photos of Robert Jaso, exhibited in the main room of the palace, represented injured bodies and displaced faces and fingers: his experimental and unique artistic technique fuses photographic imprints to paper, like strokes on a canvas, to drive the observer to an interrogative disorder that forces him/her to look in-depth.

The exhibition included also a rich video screening program, with talented artists such as Katarzhina Zakharova who talked about the need for an open dialogue in the modern world, in spite of cultural, social, and religious differences, and the idea of environmental and emotional noise that could generate modern humans. Finally, to end the great opening event, the live performance of Lilian Frei: she wanted the audience to reflect on how the current flood of information, above all during this pandemic period, infected all of us, and on what will be the consequences on everyone’s perception of self and others.

FUTURE LANDSCAPES was held from August 30 to September 19, 2021, at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space, and from August 31 to September 19, 2021, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

The last appointment of BORDERS ART FAIR 2021 hosted a wide variety of artists, which works aimed to generate future landscapes without mental and physical borders, in which the human being is completely free.

Beste Ozcan and Valerio Sperati, a creative duo of artists and scientists, showed it to us through their diorama project that reproduced a utopian temple on the planet Mars. When life conditions will be no more sustainable, there will be the need for an alternative world. This way, they wanted to raise awareness about collective consciousness and the environment, and they imagined a new strong connection with Mother Nature on the other planets. The paintings of Eric Hubbes connected the human being with the infinite Universe: figures and faces made by lots of small fractals, hidden on the surface, that led to a deeper meaning. The “Girl with turban” photo by Nicola Ducati, representing a young girl from the Kyrgyz minority of the Pamir region, in Afghanistan, welcomed people on the wall at the entrance of the venue. The girl’s face stares at the visitors with her deep gaze and expression, remembering us that borders are something very subtle, especially in this historical moment. 

At Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello Michaela Ortner-Moosbrugger presented her project focused on the theme of Nature: for the artist, plants are our great grandparents and forests are our living ancient families – their shapes look like human bodies and gestures – so she invited us to connect with the life of the woods to find our inner roots and accept life’s circumstances. Bianca Boros mixed her feelings and emotions to the context around her, and this way she created a series to capture Venice and its relation with the water using fluid shapes and techniques in order to better describe the city’s landscapes.

The whole event was delighted by a video screening projection, and by a site-specific multichannel sound sculpture by Chelidon Frame, an experimental electronic musician from Milan, that broadcasted an algorithmic composition made from the numbers included in UNITED Against Refugee Deaths’ List of Deaths. We also had the pleasure to host live performances, like “Quarks” by Claudia Hilda Rodriguez Pozo, a choreography dialogue on social isolation, intimacy, and the reinvention of real and imaginary spaces.

The 2021 edition of BORDERS ART FAIR represented a cultural hub dedicated to the exchange of ideas and visions, where artists, photographers, designers, performers, video artists, and art professionals were inspired by this new era, and challenged to explore the connection between desires, needs, fears that brings humankind to change, to transform and to evolve our inner world.

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THE SOLO EXHIBITION PROJECT
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ITSLIQUID Group, with more than 20 years of experience in art exhibitions, is pleased to offer you a new exclusive opportunity: the Solo Exhibition Project, an immersive experience for artists and art galleries to present the latest production to an international audience of collectors, editors, publishers, designers, and art professionals, in the most influential capitals of the world.

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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 selected. ITSLIQUID has already built a readership of more than 250.000 qualified subscribers. Among them 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, media partnerships 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 no-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, to connect artists working in every part of the world.

ITSLIQUID Group manages a variety of art spaces all over the world; among them THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space in the heart of San Marco Square in Venice and different historical buildings, THE LINE Contemporary Art Space in London city center, and other different partners worldwide. Since its beginning, the group has organized more than 250 events all around the world, involving more than 5.000 artists, in more than 60 international venues in Italy, the USA, Canada, the UK, Spain, France, etc. Most of the last events have been realized in museums (CCCB – Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona in Spain, NCCA – National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow, etc.), galleries and private foundations.

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OUR LOCATIONS

THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space, located in San Marco square, in the heart of Venice is available to host solo shows and group exhibitions of the most talented emerging and established artists, designers, and architects selected by our professional team among the numerous show participation requests.

Overlooking the unique San Marco square, THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space presents a rich program of exhibitions, talks, meetings, workshops, and courses about art, architecture, design, and fashion with architects, designers, artists, collectors, art critics, curators, dealers, and other personalities of the International art, architecture and design world. Being part of our program is an exciting opportunity to improve your network and get new inspirations.

THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space is a fascinating and prestigious venue where our professional team will be at your disposal to assist you, offering a unique exhibition experience, giving you the opportunity to display your artworks in Venice, one of the most suggestive cities in the art world, and broadening your artistic career and exhibition background.

Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello is one of the most known palaces of the Renaissance in Venice. It is a historical building dated 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 enrich 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 unceasing cultural activity, Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello has nowadays 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, 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, as MORPHOS Festival and FUTURE IDENTITIES Festival, both in 2014.