A new space dedicated to research at the intersection of contemporary art and new media: CIRCUIT opens in Mestre. The venue occupies over 100 square metres of exhibition space, created by renovating and repurposing four commercial units that had long remained vacant. The project aims to function both as a physical and conceptual space for exploration, critical reflection and resistance to the pervasive transformation brought about by digital technology.
Exhibitions, editorial projects and educational initiatives form the core activities of this interdisciplinary platform, founded in 2025 by Herwig Egon Casadoro-Kopp (HECK), an Austrian artist and philosopher known for his work on the impact of new technologies on society and contemporary art. As artistic director of CIRCUIT, he is supported by an organisational committee coordinated by Elena Casadoro Kopp, Francesca Fungher and Andrea M. Campo. Conceived as an ongoing laboratory, the project examines past and present currents of digital culture, with the goal of becoming a meeting point for those interested in digital cultures while promoting awareness and education around the effects of the digital realm on everyday life.
CIRCUIT also intends to serve as a hub for the local community, contributing to the revitalisation of a central area of the Venetian mainland. Plans include a specialised bookshop, offices hosting the editorial team of the magazine and publishing house art-frame, and an evolving programme of initiatives such as book presentations, talks, screenings and training courses focused on contemporary art.
The space inaugurates on 11 April with SUNBURN, the first exhibition entirely conceived and produced by CIRCUIT. The solo show by Federica Di Pietrantonio (Rome, 1996), curated by Laura Cocciolillo, brings together nine works offering a broad overview of the artist’s practice. Through the interplay of painting, video and installation, the exhibition reflects on forms of connection and isolation that shape contemporary experience. In Di Pietrantonio’s work, the digital emerges as a regime of experience that passes through bodies, gestures, objects and spaces.
The title SUNBURN evokes an ambivalent condition: exposure and vulnerability. The “sunburn” of skin no longer accustomed to sunlight becomes a metaphor for being online today–constantly exposed, connected and irradiated by screens that illuminate and consume at the same time, yet distant from natural light.
The exhibition unfolds as a journey into subcultures and communities that have emerged or intensified within the digital ecosystem–from Hikikomori to gold farmers, from those who choose social withdrawal to those inhabiting parallel virtual economies. Rather than a sociological investigation, the project offers a sensorial passage through states of suspension, wakefulness, latency, dependency and invisible productivity.
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication SUNBURN, released by art-frame books in the CIRCUIT series.
