Melissa McGill: Aquae

Rooted in a deep and specific relationship with the Venetian context, the exhibition brings together a core group of works that develop the artist’s research around water as a medium, a living presence, and a means of storytelling.

The title – the Latin plural of acque – immediately evokes a material that is never singular, but rather mobile, layered, and multiple. In Melissa McGill’s practice, water is not merely an object of observation, but an interlocutor with which to engage in dialogue – an element from which to draw knowledge and with which to act in synchrony.

In this sense, Venice – a quintessential water city, now emblematic of the pressures of climate change and mass tourism – offers itself as a necessary place for both listening and response. For McGill, who lived in the city in the early 1990s and has returned regularly since, Venice also represents a space of enduring relationships. Taken together, the works presented in “AQUAE” outline a coherent trajectory centred on water as a relational, ecological, and imaginative material.

Concurrently with the exhibition, the artist will present “Marea”, a participatory public art project promoted by the Water Projects Association, in collaboration with the residents of Corte Nova in the Castello district, from 30 April to 10 May.