Aurora Fonda on the Practice of Curating
For more than three decades, Aurora Fonda has been a distinctive presence in Venice’s contemporary art scene, working across curating, education and exhibition-making. Since taking over the direction of A Plus A in 2003, she has developed the gallery into a space that combines exhibitions with the training of new generations of curators through the School for Curatorial Studies Venice, founded in 2004. Her practice is rooted in research and dialogue, connecting emerging artists from the local scene with international practices and ideas. In this conversation, Fonda reflects on her long relationship with Venice, the evolution of its art scene, the role of education in curatorial practice and the collaborative processes behind exhibitions.
Aurora Fonda
Mara Sartore – I'm delighted to be here today at A Plus A, during the exhibition We All Need the Same Sun, with so many artists close to my heart who have studied, worked and, in some way, still live and work in Venice. You arrived in this city in 1985: how has Venice changed, and how has your relationship with the city changed?
Aurora Fonda – Venice has changed enormously over these decades, and I have to say some things have stayed the same: the presence of artists, the Accademia di Belle Arti, the IUAV. Perhaps we have a few more galleries, and at the same time a few fewer, but we hold our ground.
MS – A Plus A is a gallery, but it also hosts students from the School for Curatorial Studies Venice, which you founded in 2004 and which has been gaining ever more success, now with international recognition. Could you explain how, over the years and through the changes and the move to this space – which has now been stable for quite some time – your profession has evolved?
AF – I began my career as an independent curator, often working on cultural exchange projects between Slovenia and Italy. I regularly brought Italian artists to Slovenia, into public institutions; among various initiatives, I also curated an exhibition together with Chiara Bertola at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Maribor. At the same time, I invited Slovenian artists to Italy, organising events both in this space and in alternative venues. The main difference compared with today was that back then it was easier to find funding to support this kind of project. In 2001 I curated the Slovenian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with the project Absolute One. In 2003 I took over the direction of Galleria A Plus A, at the time still under the aegis of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, when the space functioned both as a pavilion for architecture and for art. During the year we also organised other exhibitions, always maintaining a steady dialogue with the local area: we promoted events in collaboration with various players in the city, including sound events, video screenings and performances. Many artists – from Thomas Braida to Nebojša Despotović, to name a few – took their first steps here. This was also made possible thanks to the curatorial course launched in 2004, through which we constantly try to map the local scene and identify artists who are currently active and engaged in their research. When we put together exhibitions – always centred on a particularly topical theme – we bring them into dialogue with international artists, as is also the case in this exhibition, which includes the participation of Jonathas de Andrade from Brazil and Glenda León, a Cuban artist. Each exhibition, then, brings together a number of artists recognised by what is known as the contemporary art establishment.
MS – On the subject of mapping, you recently curated A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art, and Models of Our World for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture, an exhibition on geographies and maps, still on view in Venice until the end of the Biennale, at the Abbazia di San Gregorio. Could you tell us how this project came about, and about the work that went into putting it together? It's an extremely layered and erudite exhibition, and you can tell a great deal of research lies behind it.
AF – We began work on it about two years before it opened. I was contacted by the Saudi Ministry of Culture to lead this project, and I was joined by a Saudi curator, Sara Almutlaq. We also had two assistant curators: Zaira Karrer and Amina Diab. We were asked to build a dialogue between historical maps and contemporary artists. It wasn't a simple task, because we couldn't create a historical trajectory within the Abbazia di San Gregorio, nor had we been asked to. So we tried to understand what the maps meant to say and how they came about. The idea was that the map represented a necessity, as the title also suggests, to create models of the surrounding world, of the unknown world, and this is an approach that artists, too, take time and again. The one thing you notice, though, following this route through the Abbazia di San Gregorio, is how maps – even the oldest ones, with all their almost artistic qualities – become obsolete. Contemporary artists' maps, on the other hand, I think have a certain continuity and universality. So we addressed a whole series of subjects, such as the emergencies afflicting the world, while also offering a message of hope with one of the final works, by Yoko Ono, in which we ask visitors to construct their own map as they leave the exhibition. The curatorial approach is reinforced by the exhibition design, conceived together with Bianca Pedron and Ibrahim Kombarji, who devised an original and dynamic route through the show.
MS – In this exhibition too you managed to include two Venetian artists, Matilde Sambo and Giorgio Andreotta Calò, and Matilde Sambo also features in We All Need the Same Sun. How do the dots connect? There are thirteen curators and ten artists: how do you put together such a complex project, bringing so many different personalities and approaches into dialogue? What's the hardest part, and what's the most interesting part, of this process?
AF – Our usual approach involves choosing a shared theme. This year, for example, we tackled the theme of a vision of nature and the world around us freed from an anthropocentric outlook. To develop the theme, we select texts ranging from ancient philosophy, starting with Plato, through to contemporary authors, writers and thinkers. Each student reads a different book and presents it in class, so that the whole group can explore the theme in depth as a whole, without everyone having to read every text – time, unfortunately, is limited. At the same time, we organise various study visits around the city for the students and point them towards artists and places of interest relevant to the path they've taken, to enrich their thinking with first-hand experience of the local scene. The students themselves can also propose authors. Glenda León, for example, was proposed by a Cuban student of ours. After that, we work together to define the concept and the exhibition design. It's not a straightforward operation – as you rightly noted, thirteen different personalities represent quite a challenge. However, working in the art world usually means engaging with others, mediating, listening and collaborating. Whether it's a curator or a member of staff, dialogue with others is an integral part of the process regardless. Somehow, we always manage to find a synthesis and produce concrete results – and this exhibition, I think, is the clearest proof of that.
MS – How has this journey developed and grown, and what has been your greatest satisfaction in this process?
AF – The greatest satisfaction is managing to put together quality exhibitions that are the result of a genuine process of research. It certainly isn't easy: as I mentioned, time is tight. The Italian-language course lasts five months, which gives us a somewhat wider margin; the international one, on the other hand, runs for three months, and everything necessarily has to move faster. In reality, an exhibition should emerge from a gradual process, in which you take time to absorb the theme, select the artists and study how they'll be positioned within the space. Although we can draw on a certain amount of experience, a little more time would certainly be welcome. Even so, with each edition we try to raise the quality bar. And that's precisely my main source of satisfaction: managing to create something that, year after year, represents a step forward compared with previous editions – without in any way belittling what was done in the past, because I believe we've achieved excellent results in recent years too. The final verdict, of course, rests with the public.
Credits:
1. Aurora Fonda and Mara Sartore, A Plus A, Venice, 2026. Photo: Maxim Dosca. Courtesy My Art Guides, Lightbox.
2. Matilde Sambo, Sogno Lucido, 2025, lost-wax bronze casting. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro.
3. We All Need the Same Sun, exhibition view, 2026, School for Curatorial Studies Venice, A Plus A Gallery. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro.
4. Simone Carraro, Il bambino con le branchie: ricognizione sentimentale nella prossima palude, 2026, drawer, shelf, organic specimens, sketchbooks, drawings. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro.
5. Simone Carraro, Il bambino con le branchie: ricognizione sentimentale nella prossima palude, 2026, drawer, shelf, organic specimens, sketchbooks, drawings. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro.
6. Anna Marzuttini, Komorebi, 2025, ceramic, variable dimensions. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro.
7. Anna Marzuttini, Komorebi, 2025, ceramic, variable dimensions. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro.
8. Sebastiano Zafonte, Nidi, 2026, cigarette butts, empty eggshells. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro.
9. Sebastiano Zafonte, Nidi, 2026, cigarette butts, empty eggshells. Photo: Clelia Cadamuro.
