Proportio

Proportio features specially commissioned works by leading artists such as Marina Abramovic, Anish Kapoor, Massimo Bartolini, Rei Naito, Michael Borremans, Izhar Patkin, Maurizio Donzelli, Otto Boll, Francesco Candeloro, Riccardo De Marchi and Arthur Duff which will be exhibited alongside existing pieces by Ellsworth Kelly, Sol Lewitt, Alberto Giacometti, Carl André, Agnes Martin, Fausto Melotti, Mario Merz and Ad Ryman, as well as some Egyptian artefacts, a series of Dutch Old Master architectural paintings, a splendid portrait by Botticelli and a monumental sculpture by Antonio Canova.

Five large architectural pavilions, designed by Axel Vervoordt and architect Tatsuro Miki in collaboration with the engineer Jorgen Hempel and built using solely organic materials, will transform the Sala Gondola on the ground floor of the Palazzo. Each pavilion will be designed according to ‘sacred’ dimensions, providing a physical embodiment of proportional features for visitors to experience as they walk through the empty spaces.

The room leading towards the next level will be filled with an installation and performance by Shuji Mukai’s “Space of Signs Selfie Studio” examining how visitors experience artistic spaces in the age of ubiquitous self- representation and social media. The piano nobile, or “Fortuny Floor” will be filled with many architectural works, including models by Le Corbusier and Richard Meier, amongst many forms of artistic investigations of proportions by minimalist artists and ZERO artists from the 20th century, but also by Old Masters.

The four side rooms of the main room will be very silent, dedicated to James Turrell, Anish Kapoor and Fred Sandback,, the last being dedicated to proportions in the body with a newly commissioned work by Marta Dell’Angelo and a video by Henri Foucault. The second floor will present mainly white works, some large installations like a series of drawings by Massimo Bartolini and a mural drawing by Sol Lewitt, a commission by the German Otto Boll and a neon work by Francesco Candeloro. The top floor, with its wabi-pavilion, will concentrate on proportions in the cosmos and intergalaxies, meditation and silence, featuring some Korean SUNBI art e.g. Chang-Sup Chung.

For the top floor, with its Japanese wabi-inspired pavilion, will concentrate on proportions in the cosmos and intergalaxies as well as meditation and silence, Marina Abramovic will create a sound installation in collaboration with science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson.