Curated by Luiga Lonardelli, the exhibition currently on display in the Sala delle Colonne at Ca’ Giustinian represents the second chapter of “The Wind Makes the Sky. La Biennale di Venezia on the Traces of Marco Polo”, a special project of the Historical Archives of the Venice Biennale celebrating the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death. Following the first chapter at the CAA Art Museum in Hangzhou, China, which explored the art of the latest generation of Chinese artists, this section focuses on the lesser-known journeys of Niccolò and Matteo Polo, Marco’s father and uncle, who crossed the steppes of Kazakhstan on their way to the East.
Kazakh-born artist Gulnur Mukazhanova, now based in Berlin, transforms the space through her textile art, weaving wool, silk, and ancient fabrics. Her work offers an organic reinterpretation of the room, where the columns become part of a fluid environment inspired by the infinity symbol and the dragon-serpent, a motif of energy in Asian culture. Mukazhanova skillfully manipulates color, texture, movement, and space using felt made from dyed wool and silk—a craft she has practiced for decades. The laborious and physically demanding act of felting fabric takes on the meaning of a ritual of liberation or purification for the artist. At the heart of her practice lies an exploration of Kazakh society. Mukazhanova has personally experienced the abrupt transitions from the Soviet collapse to the embrace of capitalism, as well as the resulting migratory shifts. After emigrating to Berlin, she refined her creative perspective on post-nomadic identities, investigating the tension between rootedness and displacement while observing the visual practices developed within Kazakhstan’s nomadic communities.
As in Hangzhou, the Venetian stop is also accompanied by the stage of Istanbul-based artist Cevdet Erek, commissioned by La Biennale to follow this journey. In Venice, Erek redesigned the stage presented at the Laboratorio delle Arti in Ca’ Giustinian, drawing inspiration from the boat storage space in which it is housed. Its architecture has been disassembled, exposing its construction elements and leaving its basic components bare and resting within the space.
The third and final stop of the artistic tour It Is the Wind That Makes the Sky will take La Biennale di Venezia to Istanbul in the fall of 2025.
