Exhibition Review: CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2022 – 11th Edition
ITSLIQUID International Art Fair
Palazzo Bembo | October 21 – November 10, 2022

ITSLIQUID Group, in collaboration with EGO’ Boutique Hotel is pleased to share the outstanding outcomes of the 11th Edition of CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2022, an international exhibition of photography, painting, video art, installation/sculpture and performance art, that took place in Venice, at Palazzo Bembo from October 21 to November 10, 2022. 

Click here to read more about the press release
Click here to see the photo full reportage

The 11th Edition of CONTEMPORARY VENICE analyzed the relationship between body and space, and the hybridization between identities and cultural/physical/social/urban settings in contemporary times, through two main sections: MIXING IDENTITIES and FUTURE LANDSCAPES.

MIXING IDENTITIES analyzed the hidden parts of our identities, through an immersive experience inside the fascinating universe of the complex labyrinths of our consciousness, while FUTURE LANDSCAPES explored the concept of the borders and the structures between body, mind, and soul, the human identity and the city, the space and the ground.

Visitors could experience the themes of MIXING IDENTITIES and FUTURE LANDSCAPES through the art of the 11th Edition of the CONTEMPORARY VENICE at Palazzo Bembo, in Venice. Human beings are a dynamic mechanism linked to other bodies and environments through which they comprehend the world around us.

We have been very pleased to receive many visitors and artists in Palazzo Bembo, on the Grand Canal, during the opening event on October 21, which was opened with the live performance of Claudio Davio, in collaboration with Manuel Ramirez Arjona. “UMANO (MANDATO, IL PESO DELL’UOMO)”, is the political reflection in action: the physically vibrant performance is about abuse, guilt, shame, denial and resilience. Conceived by Claudio Davio, “UMANO” tells how the patriarchal system doesn’t allow a man to express his emotions, causing him a suffocating load that denies and makes his pain invisible.

Javier Serrano Alix uses his photography to show the strong clash between the richer outer areas and the subway galleries that become alive only at night, in cities where people’s identities are mixed with a decadent reality, where walls are walled up, serving as a mural for all kinds of graffiti. Correspondingly, in his sculpture “Smog,” Vietnamese artist Tran Van An combines smoke and fine dust that is currently mixing with urban residents’ daily lives.

Sung-Ji HUH uses a limited color palette in “Shining Chance” to create a distinct and vivid sense of space and shape. By doing this, the artist conveys in a realistic manner the cold, repetitive attempts at solving the problems that frequently create distress and lead to the emergence of other anxieties that are typically prohibited in the context of repentance. The digital artist Stephen Parè, on the other hand, uses computer and mobile devices to create artworks aimed at being textile designs. Stephen Parè’s ‘digital paintings’ use captured and appropriated images that are re-surfaced with digital means, altered and augmented with virtual brushes, and then blended with other digital images that have undergone similar treatments. 

In this connection, Oliver Stamp’s works’ genesis mostly happens digitally. He estranges and manipulates the digital photograph with his forgery-proof algorithm in a set and secret sequence. In the future, he wants to create completely new faces by means of artificial intelligence. In this way, Oliver superimposes layers of information in the same way glazes are applied in classical portrait painting. Only in this case, it is the orchestration of software programmes with which Oliver produces the highly complex image.

If FUTURE LANDSCAPES focuses on the concept of the borders and the structures between body, mind and soul, the human identity and the city, the space and the ground, people’s cultural idiosyncrasies have always captivated Lidia Arrigada-García. She likes to believe that art, particularly photography, has the potential to transform the world for the better by bringing about social change and raising awareness of issues. To combat cruelty in all its forms, she thinks that people’s thoughts and emotions need to change. Mutual respect and cultural sensitivity are crucial, and they go hand in hand. Rika Maja Duevel from Norway has encapsulated the theme of FUTURE LANDSCAPE in her work “Be true to yourself”, in which she manifests her everyday experiences, allowing the artist to embrace or let go of them by sharing a piece with others. 

On the other side, the visual-oriented urban artist Christoffer Bukh uses art as a tool to represent abstractions and observations. Forms, vibrant hues, and generally a harmonious blend of mechanical and organic expression. The majority of paintings and visualizations are motivated by a keen interest in the small details that we humans find difficult to appreciate. It can be the allure of deterioration, the violent seas off the west coast, or just the animals in our immediate environment. 

Images of mystical, emotional mental and visual projections connect to and appreciate landscape inspirations, as well as other varied psychological states of the body and soul, in the delicate and soft sensitivity of Radka Vom‘s eyes. They contain magical lights, hues, and vibrations. They also contain secrets and mysteries, restlessness and meditation, and painting contemplation. They are reflections of emotions, intuitions, and premonition, as well as knowledge and consciousness of the painter’s presence and “participation” in the landscape as well as the painter’s relationship to the landscape. The plastic artist Christine Coënon also focused on emotions, presenting her video entitled “A”, which is a journey between dream and reality, earth and sky, water and air. The scene takes place in Venice. Reflective images alternate with other images of flooded Venice creating wavering, doubt and uncertainty.

The eleventh edition of CONTEMPORARY VENICE has created a strong communication system by giving the opportunity to creatives to inspire and express themselves, and this is also the case of PGM (Pedro Gutierrez Montejo), inspired by the fluidity of the human form, the Spanish artist takes photographs of the nakedness of the human body to explore the fleeting space between our world perception and the many warrens of our subconscious.

organized by ITSLIQUID Group
curator Luca Curci
in collaboration with EGO’ Boutique Hotel
project manager Giulia Tassi
project coordinators  Maria Teresa Cafarelli, Amaride Ferrante
collaborators Marcella Bellifemine, Maria Vittoria Furlan, Manon Lequertier, Giulia Morroni, Cristiana Pisano
graphic designer Marina Caracciolo
supported by  3DAI LTD | AGIC GROUP | ARM TECHNOLOGY S.R.O. | HELENE NIKELE | JAK | TERRAL CONSTRUCTORA | WATER.ORG

VENUE
Palazzo Bembo
First floor
Riva del Carbon, 4793 – 4785, Venice, Italy
October 21 – November 10, 2022
09:30 AM – 05: 30 PM | Monday – Friday

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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 centre, 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, 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.

ITSLIQUID is based on fluidity, motion, connection, and accessibility. Making things easy to do. Welcome.

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OUR LOCATION

Palazzo Bembo, located in the historic district of San Marco, 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.

Palazzo Bembo is one of the late Gothic Venetian buildings built in the right middle of the famous Canal Grande, a few meters from the renowned Rialto Bridge. Its name comes from the humanist and literary cardinal Pietro Bembo, known for the so-called “linguistic question” during the Italian XV century.

The facade of the building, with all its gothic pentafore, is as fascinating as the interior which is divided into three floors and characterized by large salons. The seventeenth-century staircase overlooks the internal courtyard that leads to the noble floor, where decorations are dating back to the same century, in Baroque style. The exhibition space, on the first floor, overlooks the Canal Grande and the Rialto Bridge, giving a suggestive view both day and night.