There will be works created specifically for this exhibition and others already existing, to tell the contemporary landscape by inviting us to recognize beauty even in waste. The purpose of the Italy Pavilion of the next Venice Art Biennale it will inspire wonder, dialogue, contemplation. With you and with everything is the title of the project hosted, from May 9th to November 22nd, in the Tese delle Vergini of the Arsenale, curated by Cecilia Canziani with the artist Chiara Camoni to represent Italy at the 61st. International Art Exhibition of the Biennale. The presentation in Rome where the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, he was present only with a video contribution: “Di Chiara Camoni, exceptional artist, I immediately loved his ability to make art and nature dialogue. THEand his quotations from the most decorative twentieth-century art, his ability to make the ancient present, but above all to "antique" the present".
Instead there was the President of the Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, which wanted to recall the theme chosen by the artistic director of this edition of the Art Biennale: «'With you with everything' It is a statement as intimate as it is universal. And it fully captures the essential spirit, a return to the origins, to the zero degree of humanity. In this sense, the 2026 Italian Pavilion confirms a special sensitivity for In Minor Keys, title proposed by Koyo Kouoh, Artistic Director of the 61st International Art Exhibition".
Controversy over Russia's participation
All this to stay on the theme of the Italian Pavilion, and keep the Controversy. The first concerns the absence of Italian artists at the international exhibition.. The second, more recent, on the reopening of the Russian Pavilion at the Giardini, closed since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. The reopening, wanted by Buttafuoco (“The Biennale must also welcome countries in conflict”), saw the opposition of the Italian government and of the minister Giuli, who nevertheless decided to respect “The free and autonomous choice of the Biennale”. Not to mention, the news came immediately after the press conference for the presentation of the Italian Pavilion, of the conviction of 22 European ministers (including Ukraine) who wrote a letter contesting Russia's participation because “Unacceptable under the current circumstances”And Brussels is threatening to suspend European Union funding for the Biennale.
With you and with everythingThe Italian Pavilion by Chiara Camoni and Cecilia Canziani
Il The Italian Pavilion, this year all-female, "It puts artistic creation back at the centre as a shared practice, where craftsmanship, relationships and responsibility intertwine in a profoundly contemporary language.“, explains the Director General of Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, Angelo Piero Cappello. In a unique installation, the First Tesa hosts a silent forest of figures adorned with shrubs, shells, stones but also fragments of plastic. They want to be in relation with the bodies of the visitors who in second Tesa find a world in progress, Composed of natural elements, artifacts, and recycled objects, the centerpiece is a plaza where visitors can pause and reflect. The vanishing point is the nearby garden, with its natural surroundings, the seasons, and the passage of time.With you with everything' – concludes the curator, Cecilia Canziani - It is structured as a single installation that involves the entire Pavilion. And it imagines it as a transforming landscape, in which the body of the sculpture and the bodies of the visitors are invited into a mutual exchange.“. And Chiara Camoni “She is part of a constellation of thinkers and artists committed to 'reenchanting the world'''.
(Photo credits: Francesca Paola.Manfredi)
