Events Venice

ARTEMPO Where Time Becomes Art

Venice, 9th June – 7th October 2007

Fortuny Palace

It examines the relationship between art, time and the power of display, representing a breadth of cultures and periods and featuring over 300 objects ranging from rare archaeological materials to contemporary installations. The work of over 80 artists will include Francis Bacon, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, James Turell, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. The work on show will be sourced from the private collection of Axel Vervoordt, from the Musei Civici Veneziani, from other public and private collections all over the world and directly from the artists themselves.

The idea of the exhibition was conceived by Mattijs Visser, Head of Exhibitions, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf and Axel Vervoordt, Antique and Art collector and designer from Antwerp. Artempo is organized by Musei Civici Veneziani and Axel Vevoordt and curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, international curator and former director of Centre Georges Pompidou, Giandomenico Romanelli, Director of the Musei Civici Veneziani and Mattijs Visser with Daniela Ferretti, exhibition designer, Musei Civici Veneziani.

Artempo will be housed in the Venetian-Gothic Palazzo Fortuny, the former home, studio, showroom and think tank of Mariano Fortuny Set across the entire building, it is hoped that this exhibition will re-establish the Palazzo as ‘laboratory of ideas’, sharing both the exhibition and living spaces with the public for the very first time. By staging Artempo in an intimate setting, Vervoordt and the curatorial team hope to highlight the interplay between everyday objects and works of art derived from every phase of artistic evolution thereby further adding to the visual impact of the show.

Artempo will include several specially commissioned exhibition installations: El Anatsui (Ghana) will create a tapestry of empty tins to cover the Palazzo's façade, Loris Cecchini (Italy) will create a tree out of reflectors on an additional façade, Anish Kapoor (India) will make a 12-metre mirrored wall. New works and installations will be provided by Berlinde De Bruyckere (Belgium), Klaus Münch (Italy), Tatsuo Miyajima (Japan), Jorge Molder (Portugal), Thomas Schütte (Germany), Dominique Stroobant (Italy), Shiro Tsujimura (Japan), James Turrell (USA).