Arch Hades: Return | Ritorno

“Return | Ritorno” presents new large-scale works by Arch Hades across three floors of the Scoletta Battioro e Tiraoro di Venezia, a decommissioned church on the Grand Canal. The exhibition combines site-specific painting, immersive sculpture and a sound installation, forming an environment that explores the human condition through states of vulnerability and restraint.

Drawing on Classical, Surrealist and Romantic traditions, the project expands on earlier experiments with the integration of spoken word and visual art. At its centre is “Return” (2025), a 22-panel painting extending over 13 metres and composed of sixty-three life-size figures. Installed across three walls, the work references the structure of an altar triptych and recalls Gustav Klimt’s “Faculty Paintings”, tracing a spectrum of human experience through figures that appear both isolated and interconnected.

“Sphinx” (2026), a mirrored sculptural installation, introduces a dialogue between historical and speculative forms. Works from the ongoing “Confessions” series (2025–) present enlarged fragments of handwritten diaries transferred onto surfaces resembling concrete and marble, foregrounding the relationship between text, memory and material.

Across the exhibition, painting, sculpture and language intersect to examine the transition between private and shared experience.