Conceived by Ilya Kabakov and Emilia Kabakova, and now developed solely by Emilia Kabakova three years after her husband’s passing, Venetian Diary will occupy the Piano Nobile of Ca’ Tron, home of the Iuav University of Venice. Curated by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi and Giulia Abate, and organized by BAM, the exhibition will transform the sixteenth-century palace overlooking the Canal Grande into a vast narrative device, giving voice to a community. It is not an exhibition about Venice, but with Venice: a “total installation” in which individual stories intertwine to create a collective portrait of the city. The monumental, participatory work focuses on the lives of Venetians, developing a concept conceived by Emilia Kabakova with her husband in 1993 for the exhibition Rendez(-)Vous at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Ghent, based on collective writing. Today, the idea is reimagined for the lagoon city, taking a new form deeply rooted in the present and in dialogue with the local community.
This large collective narrative will be shaped by objects collected in the preceding months through a call to citizens, inviting residents of the metropolitan area of Venice to become co-authors of the work by contributing a symbolic object along with a short text describing their personal connection to the city.
