A highly immersive experience in which the barriers between artist and observer tend to thin out and become almost impalpable, in the discovery of contemporary sounds and the most current research on choreographic movement.
Built between 1748 and 1772 on a design by architect Giorgio Massari, Palazzo Grassi is the last palace built on the Grand Canal before the fall of the Republic of Venice. Its history changed in 2005, when French tycoon and art collector François Pinault. Renovated by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, the building re-opened in 2006 with exhibition Where Are We Going?, the first public exhibition of art from Pinault’s collection.
On February 3 and 4, Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana will open their 2023 programme with the fourth edition of Set Up, a site-specific format produced in cooperation with independent curator Enrico Bettinello that will partner with festival Terraforma, an experimental music programme to be held on June 9 to 11 in Bollate (Milan). Set Up will be produced in Punta della Dogana, Palazzo Grassi’s second exhibition site, and will include two shows of music, dance, and performance art. This short programme will soon leave way for the staging of a new upcoming exhibition, Icônes, curated by Emma Lavigne and Bruno Racine and opening on the next April 2. Icônes will offer new, original perspectives on Punta della Dogana thanks to the cooperation of international artists of different generations, inspirations, and influences.
The experience at Set Up will be immersive, and the barriers between audience and artist will shrink to a minimum as we discover new modern sounds and the latest trends in choreography. Set Up is a precious initiative to guide us in the rediscovery of architectural spaces in a city as particular as Venice. Flexible atmospheres foster dialogue and help overcoming formal rigidity. Collective, non-predetermined processes will be carried on by free streams of ideas. Theatre, choreography, and activism will be conveyed in the language of body, mysterious arpeggios, and extreme experimentation. Afro avant-pop, innovative musical suggestions, the relationship between body and voice, motion and strength in performative signs: all these elements are there to be explored at Punta della Dogana to renovate our perspective in perceptual and emotional terms. Preview what’s coming on Spotify, where Palazzo Grassi maintains the playlist of the upcoming show.
