Interviews

In Venice, a city often described as a place of conservation, the project “If All Time Is Eternally Present” chooses to interrogate the present. Realised as a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition, the project promoted by the Pier Luigi Nervi Foundation transforms for one month the façade of Palazzo Nervi Scattolin into a public projection space, accompanied by a sound intervention and a bench designed specifically for the site.

Curated by Marta Barina and Chiara Carrera, the project brings together works by Kandis Williams, Meriem Bennani & Orian Barki, and Tai Shani, setting the legacy of Pier Luigi Nervi in dialogue with some of the most compelling voices in international contemporary art. But the exhibition is also the result of a long process of negotiation with the city and its institutions, becoming an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between art, architecture, and public space.

We spoke with the two curators, retracing the genesis of the project, the challenges encountered along the way, and the possibilities that Venice continues to offer to those who try to imagine new ways of inhabiting and activating the city.

The interview with Caroline Corbetta takes place in the bedroom of Palazzo Molin Querini, one of the spaces hosting ”KUNSTHAUS PARADISO. abitare Venezia“. Seated in kimonos on the large bed that cuts across the domestic landscape of the exhibition, surrounded by works by Giorgio Andreotta Calò and by the 53 artists participating in the project, the conversation unfolds around memory, artistic communities, and the practice of inhabiting Venice.

In this conversation, Mara Sartore meets Amin Jaffer, curator of the Indian Pavilion, in his home in Venice to discuss the vision behind the national participation at the 2026 Biennale, “Geographies of Distance, Remembering Home”. Drawing from his own experience within the Indian diaspora, Jaffer reflects on migration, memory, and the emotional meaning of home through the work of five artists whose installations explore textiles, architecture, performance and landscape. The conversation also touches on Venice as a place of inspiration and cultural exchange, addressing the city’s fragile balance between international cultural growth and the preservation of its local community and identity.

From May 6th to November 2026, Il Teatro dell’Arte (NuoveFondamenta) in Venice presents Artocalypsa, a major exhibition by Czech artist David Černý, coinciding with the 61st Venice Biennale. Bringing together large-scale sculptures, political provocations, and dystopian imagery, the exhibition reflects on contemporary Europe through satire, violence, and technological anxiety. This interview explores Černý’s longstanding engagement with political contradiction, the aesthetics of conflict, and the enduring ambiguity between innovation and destruction, tracing how his work confronts the collapse of collective ideals in an increasingly unstable world.

In this conversation, Mara Sartore meets Cristiana Collu, Director of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, to reflect on Venice and the evolving role of cultural institutions within the city. Taking place against the backdrop of the Biennale Arte, the discussion focuses on Collu’s vision for the foundation and its ongoing transformation through “The Dreamer”, a project that reimagines the museum’s historic spaces as a dynamic narrative between memory, imagination, and civic responsibility.

From 9 May, the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore will present “The Shape of Time”, a major survey of the American artist Barry X Ball’s sculptural practice, which brings together technological innovation and Renaissance tradition within Andrea Palladio’s architectural masterpiece. This interview explores Ball’s practice at the intersection of art history, technology, and material experimentation. Using 3D scanning, digital modelling, robotic carving, and handwork, he develops a sculptural language that redefines the possibilities and legacy of stone.

Leo Frontini is a Los Angeles-based artist whose practice brings together classical draughtsmanship and oil painting traditions with an exploration of the subconscious. Yields of Fray, his first European exhibition, Presented by Private Waters at SPARC*-Spazio Arte Contemporanea on May 4, 5:30pm, running concurrently with the 61st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Amah-Rose Abrams, the exhibition brings together 10 paintings, 5 drawings, and three sculptures created in Los Angeles in 2025 and 2026.

In this conversation, Frontini reflects on unraveling as both process and metaphor, the subconscious as a generative space for images, and the role of imagination as refuge, resistance, and renewal in a time marked by unrest.

DL: Yes, certainly. But I do not wish to concern myself with politics, because I do not understand it...

Leading Italian artist working with sculpture and ceramics made from found and natural materials, blending art, craft, and collaboration, Camoni represents Italy at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Mara Sartore met Chiara Camoni and her team at the Società delle Api venue in Campo Santo Stefano, the Venetian site that served as a working studio for Camoni in the months leading up to the Biennale.

In this interview for My Art Guides, Nalini Malani reflects on "Of Woman Born", a major site-specific installation commissioned by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art as an Official Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Presented within the Magazzini del Sale, the work unfolds as a continually shifting 'thought chamber' where projections, sound, and memory converge around women, myth, and global conflict.

Through layered animations and immersive environments, Malani meditates on patriarchal violence, geopolitical accountability, and the suppressed agency of women, proposing empathy, interconnectedness, and the retelling of stories as necessary tools to imagine a more humane future.

Markus Reymann: “Nature Speaks. Listening for Rights of Nature in Venice and Europe” sits in the...

Creative director, designer, artist and storyteller, Marras has built a practice that spans fashion, visual arts, theatre and craft, producing a layered and highly distinctive visual imaginary. His work oscillates between memory and experimentation, between intimate dimension and collective narrative, always maintaining a strong drive towards the hybridisation of languages.
Today, with two projects underway in Milan – "Maria Lai | Antonio Marras: Paso Doble" at M77 Gallery and "Per filo e per segno. Percorsi di arte tessile in Italia" at BUILDING BOX – and one in London at Carpenters Workshop Gallery, this attitude is particularly evident. The show at M77 presents a dialogue with Maria Lai, a key figure in his artistic journey; at BUILDING BOX, his work is situated within a broader reflection on textiles as a critical and contemporary language.
Marras thus confirms a practice that eludes any single definition, weaving together different forms of knowledge and expression, and reaffirming the value of gesture, materiality and storytelling in an increasingly fast-moving and dematerialised present.

Mario Codognato – I would like this to become a place that is alive all year round, as far as logistical...

In this interview for My Art Guides, Wallace Chan reflects on a practice that transcends the boundaries between sculpture, jewellery art, and craftsmanship. Rooted in decades of experimentation with precious materials, his work moves seamlessly from the microscopic precision of jewellery to the monumental scale of “Vessels of Other Worlds” – a project unfolding between Venice and Shangai in which sculpture, space, and perception intertwine across physical and virtual dimensions.

The Venice exhibition opens on May 8, 2026, at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, while the parallel exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai will open July 18, 2026. Through this dual project, Chan explores themes of spirituality, transformation, and continuity, offering a vision of art as a space where material, philosophy, and perception converge.

Emilia Kabakov – We often become very involved in politics and worry about many things. But one thing...

Dries Van Noten – I hope to see a healthy hub of creativity, with many young people, and perhaps the...

David Hrankovic – Last year is a very good illustration of what we do at SMAC. As I mentioned, we had...

MK – Some images have accompanied me for years: they resurface, transform, change their weight and...

Daniela Ferretti: We will inaugurate in mid-April, on 16 April, slightly outside the main circuit yet...

EB: At the moment we are working on several projects to propose to the Board of Directors for the 2028...

NF: I see a continuous flow of arrivals: new foundations, new people choosing to live here, individuals...

Zélika García is the founder and owner of ZSONAMACO, the leading art fair in Latin America, which annually brings together international galleries, artists, and collectors during ZSONAMACO Mexico City Art Week in February, establishing itself as a specialised platform for the contemporary art market. In this interview, marking the 22nd edition of the fair, García reflects on the history of ZSONAMACO from its inception, exploring the motivations behind its creation and examining some of the key elements that have shaped its identity and sustained its relevance over time.

RN – Mexico City is one of the few cities where the layers of our country’s history remain visible...

ST–Yes—with CNES, the French Space Agency. I created an object that is now in orbit. It will stay...