Inti Ligabue on Venice’s New Renaissance
Founded in 2016 by Inti Ligabue in memory of his father, the researcher and collector Giancarlo Ligabue, the Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue spent a decade staging exhibitions across Venice before opening Palazzo delle Arti e delle Culture in 2026, in Ligabue's own home, where ancient artefacts sit alongside contemporary works. In this conversation, Inti Ligabue discusses the dialogue between ancient and contemporary art, the foundation's artist residencies and its exhibition programme for the years ahead. He also reflects on Venice's current renaissance and the need for the city to produce art, not just display it.
Inti Ligabue
Mara Sartore – Venice has changed profoundly, especially over the past twenty years. That is why I am interviewing people who have played an important role in the city’s transformation, or who have arrived more recently, such as Dries Van Noten and Nicoletta Fiorucci: people who have chosen to live here and invest in culture by opening foundations or spaces devoted to contemporary art.
In your case, I’d like to start with the history of the Fondazione Ligabue. In 1973 your father founded the Centro Studi Ligabue; in 2016, the year after his death, you established the Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue, and in 2026, ten years later, you opened Palazzo delle Arti e delle Culture to the public, in your own home. How did this journey unfold?
Inti Ligabue – It was a natural evolution. My father, Giancarlo, devoted thirty years to research, through studies and expeditions. It all began with the famous dinosaur that is now in the Natural History Museum.
For me, the turning point came in 2015, the year he died, with the exhibition Il mondo che non c’era, devoted to pre-Columbian cultures, to which I am also connected through my origins: my mother was Bolivian, and my name, Inti, comes from that culture. Walking into the Archaeological Museum in Florence, where our collection was on display, I realised that those objects had to become part of a different project – no longer closed and private, but open to the public. That is how the Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue came about: as a tribute to my father, but also out of a sense of responsibility towards his legacy, and with the wish to reach a wider audience of curious visitors, enthusiasts and specialists. A decade of exhibitions followed at Palazzo Loredan and Palazzo Franchetti, which gave me enormous satisfaction. I particularly remember Prima dell’alfabeto, on the birth of writing: we produced it entirely ourselves and saw huge numbers of schoolchildren come through. Since then we have organised more than ten exhibitions, ranging from the iconography of idols to caricature and Oceanic clubs, which were true status symbols.
In 2026 this journey led to the opening of Palazzo delle Arti e delle Culture. The name expresses our vision: to tell the story of the diversity of cultures, showing that behind their differences lies one single, great humanity. Here we can offer more intimate, immersive visits, continuing to kindle the spark of curiosity that has always been at the heart of our work.
MS – Your father was a great researcher, archaeologist and collector, and you grew up in a world bound up with antiquity, with origins. Yet I see a great deal of contemporary art here: Emilio Vedova in the main hall, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Mimmo Jodice. This year you also launched your first true artist residency, with Marta Spagnoli, a young artist who has lived in Venice. When did you begin to engage with contemporary art, and how do the residencies fit into the Foundation’s programme?
IL – All art was contemporary at some point in its existence. What we now regard as archaeological was, when it was made, an expression of its own time. Breaking off this dialogue would make it dusty.
Human impulses are always the same: fear, life, death, the miracle of existence. Bringing ancient and contemporary works together lets us look at them from different perspectives, making them more accessible and opening up new possibilities. Here, for example, we have Thomas Struth, Jacopo Migoni, Giorgio Andreotta Calò and many others.
As for the residencies, we plan one for every Art Biennale, so every two years. Marta Spagnoli was our first true artist in residence: she had a space within the Foundation where she could work, engage with the pieces and explore the essence of the collection in depth. A first experiment had taken place during the previous Biennale with Domingo Milella and his series of photographs of Palaeolithic and Neolithic cave paintings.
MS – Coming back to Venice: over the past twenty years we have seen major collectors arrive and many private foundations open. You know many of the people behind this transformation. What is this phenomenon bringing to the city?
IL – I believe Venice is going through a period of great renaissance, and I am very optimistic about its future, while recognising the difficulties around housing and many other aspects of daily life. I am a father, and I know how important it is, for instance, to have schools and the right conditions in which to raise children.
But Venice is going through an extraordinary season, and we need to know how to nurture it. Art has always been its vocation. From the fifteenth century onwards it has been an artistic crossroads, thanks to its light, its architecture and its ability to welcome and inspire.
Today, though, I think it is essential not to stop at exhibiting art, but to start producing it again. And I include craftsmanship in that, which I consider an art form in every sense. Venice is already enough of a showcase. Artistic production, on the other hand, generates a different kind of economy: it creates relationships, it involves skills and trades. That is the direction I would like the Foundation to take too.
MS – It is a subject close to my heart. On the one hand, we are seeing many palazzi brought back to life by art foundations, which I think is extraordinary; on the other, artists are finding it increasingly hard to find studios and homes in the city. I am thinking, for example, of the artists’ studios on the Giudecca in the former Dreher brewery, which also housed Galleria Michela Rizzo and Spazio Punch, and which have been sold. Many artists have been forced to move to the mainland. It is a shame, because it is important for Venice to remain a place of creation, not just of display. When you talk about artistic production, do you imagine the Foundation might one day also offer studios, workshops or training spaces?
IL – It is certainly a direction I would like to explore. For now, artistic production happens mainly through the residencies, but we already have a programme in place for the next five years and, once this cycle is over, I would like to find a larger space in the city that can host a range of activities. I am thinking of studios, schools, places of learning. In my life, an entrepreneurial side, which is my professional vocation, coexists with a cultural side, tied to the Foundation. I would like to develop an increasingly constructive role towards the city, contributing to its civic growth. And I believe that growth has to start with education, with schools and with our relationship with younger generations.
MS – I am also very optimistic about the moment Venice is living through, but I would like this new cultural vitality to involve more of the people who live and work in the city. I am also thinking of Antares in Marghera, the large space opposite VEGA where the Accademia holds an exhibition every year. It is a beautiful place, but as a Venetian I would like artists to be able to keep finding space in the historic island city too.
IL – I wouldn’t overlook any part of the Municipality of Venice. Marghera has enormous potential too. Our company is based between Via dell’Azoto and Via dell’Idrogeno, in an area that may seem neglected, but where a wonderful artistic project has been carried out, with murals and graffiti authorised by the city council. Luca Massimo Barbero is also based round there, in what he calls Gotham City – and it really does look like it.
Venice has an extraordinary tradition of training artists, starting with the Accademia. It is an area in which I would like to become increasingly involved, trying to make a concrete contribution to cultural production.
MS – Returning to the Foundation, have you already set the programme for your upcoming exhibitions? And what direction do you envisage for the years ahead?
IT – We work on a five-year programme. The current exhibition, Collecto, tells the story of sixty years of passionate collecting. The next will be De Urna Mundi, devoted to the birth of the vessel as an artefact, an object that runs through many different cultures and civilisations. I am fascinated by finding similar forms in very distant contexts, from Africa to Indonesia, from the Americas to Europe, even where there was no possibility of contact between those cultures. It is as if there were a universal language of humankind.
These will be followed by exhibitions on masks, ancestors and deities, leading up to Manimal, planned for 2028-2029, which will explore the transformations between anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms across cultures, from Egypt and Rome to the Olmecs.
Once this cycle is complete, I would like to find spaces that allow us to broaden our activities, not only cultural but also educational and, why not, sporting. We have already begun to reach into other fields, such as scientific research, through Venezia Sound, a charity concert in support of Humanitas and VIMM.
My father’s vocation was above all archaeological and anthropological research; mine has so far been mainly one of public outreach. I see the Foundation’s future as increasingly multidisciplinary.
MS – How do you build the programme? Do you rely on a scientific committee and external curators? And when it comes to contemporary art, do you mainly follow your own taste, or do you consult advisors and other experts?
IL – We have a scientific committee of around sixteen to eighteen members, and for each project we bring in specialist curators and scholars. I always try to rely on the leading experts in the field. The themes of the exhibitions, however, stem mainly from my own curiosity and passions. Take the vessel, for example: a seemingly simple object, yet extraordinarily rich in meaning, including philosophical meaning. Or masks and ancestor worship, which allow us to explore human impulses shared by very different cultures. As for contemporary art, I have always had a preference for Venetian artists. If you look at the collection, apart from photography there is relatively little that is foreign or non-Venetian. We have Vedova and De Luigi – artists who are more modern than contemporary – but also Marta Spagnoli, Chiara Enzo, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Laura Macì and several others. I like supporting contemporary Venetian art, because I think it is particularly inspired.
MS – I’d like to finish by returning to the city where we started. How do you imagine Venice in twenty years’ time?
IL – I imagine it even more hospitable, a city where life will keep getting better, at a different pace from the rest of the world. We have an extraordinary quality of life here, a sense of safety we often take for granted, a human scale and a cultural offering comparable to that of New York, London or Milan. It is so rich that you cannot even keep up with all of it. Venice has an unbeatable geographical position and is culturally open. It is already the world capital of art, and I believe that in future it could also become an international symbol of sustainability. I imagine it increasingly international, yet able to preserve an authentic soul, made of traditions and a way of life that belongs to this city alone. Even more unique than it is today.
Credits:
1. Inti Ligabue and Mara Sartore at Palazzo Ligabue Erizzo, Venice, 2026. Photo: Maxim Dosca. Courtesy of My Art Guides and Lightbox.
2. Palazzo Ligabue Erizzo, Venice.
3. View from Palazzo Ligabue Erizzo, Venice, 2026. Photo: Maxim Dosca. Courtesy of My Art Guides and Lightbox.
4–5. Marta Spagnoli during her residency at Palazzo Ligabue Erizzo, Venice.
6–11. Views of Palazzo Ligabue Erizzo, Venice, 2026. Photo: Maxim Dosca. Courtesy of My Art Guides and Lightbox.
