Cultural
ANISH KAPOOR AT GALLERIE DELL' ACCADEMIA
Venice, 2022
The exhibition design for Anish Kapoor’s retrospective at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, on occasion of the 59th Venice Biennale, is a silent intervention which moulds the spaces of the old Chiesa della Carità of the Gallerie dell’Accademia to focus attention on the unique and varied oeuvre of works presented by the artist.
Throughout the sequence of rooms, visitors were confronted with a number of completely diverse experiences of the artist’s works which spanned from his painterly sensibilities to sculptural prowess always inviting wondrous and sustaining interaction.
Whilst In the first gallery visitors were greeted by Kapoor’s most recent paintings which instantly set up a dynamic dialogue with both the Gallerie’s art historical collection, and his own sculptural language, the works exhibited in the second gallery stretched and violated the architectural dimension of the space. Whereas Pregnant White Within Me (2022) distended the architecture of the gallery, suggesting a re-drawing of the boundaries between body, building and being, Art Cannon committed a violently sacrigious act, shooting red wax into a small side gallery, turning the very fabric of the gallery inside out.
In the third, and last, main gallery, podiums punctuated the space presenting work from Kapoor’s seminal body of early pigment sculptures 1000 Names and void works – through to never-seen-before sculptures created with Kapoor Black, a substance so dark that it absorbs more than 99.9% of visible light which deceive both object and space allowing for forms to both appear and disappear before our eyes.
Image credits all photographs © Anish Kapoor © Attilio Maranzano
Throughout the sequence of rooms, visitors were confronted with a number of completely diverse experiences of the artist’s works which spanned from his painterly sensibilities to sculptural prowess always inviting wondrous and sustaining interaction.
Whilst In the first gallery visitors were greeted by Kapoor’s most recent paintings which instantly set up a dynamic dialogue with both the Gallerie’s art historical collection, and his own sculptural language, the works exhibited in the second gallery stretched and violated the architectural dimension of the space. Whereas Pregnant White Within Me (2022) distended the architecture of the gallery, suggesting a re-drawing of the boundaries between body, building and being, Art Cannon committed a violently sacrigious act, shooting red wax into a small side gallery, turning the very fabric of the gallery inside out.
In the third, and last, main gallery, podiums punctuated the space presenting work from Kapoor’s seminal body of early pigment sculptures 1000 Names and void works – through to never-seen-before sculptures created with Kapoor Black, a substance so dark that it absorbs more than 99.9% of visible light which deceive both object and space allowing for forms to both appear and disappear before our eyes.
Project Title: | Anish Kapoor at Gallerie dell'Accademia |
Location: | Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy |
Year: | 2022 |
Status: | Completed |
Program: | Exhibition |
Scale: | M |
Surface: | 780 sqm |
Client: | Anish Kapoor |
Partner: | Giulia Foscari |
Team: | Federica Zambeletti (Project Architect), Alessandro Gatti, Olympia Simopolou. |
Collaborators: | Know How Productions (Installation), Mtec (Logistics and transport), TTE (Structural Engineer). |
Image credits all photographs © Anish Kapoor © Attilio Maranzano