Venezia, 8 May. (askanews) – The island of San Giacomo, in the Northern Lagoon of Venice, is the new headquarters of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundationa non-profit institution for contemporary art founded in 1995. It joins that of Turin and Guarene, with Palazzo Re Rebaudengo and the art park between the hills of Langhe and Roero, and that of Spain, which does not yet have a permanent headquarters but is present with exhibitions promoted in the capital by Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Madrid.
As was the case for each of these locations, the identity of San Giacomo is also born in close relationship with the place in dialogue with the territory and open to the international art scene and to the cultural routes that intersect in Venice thanks to the Biennials and the rich exhibition offering of the city’s public and private institutions. Located between Murano and Burano, the island was a female monastery and a resting place open to travelers and sailors crossing the lagoon. Under Napoleon, the monastery was demolished and the island of San Giacomo was transformed into a military garrison, then passed over time to the Austrian and Italian armies. Religious architecture gave way to powder magazines, weapons depots and defensive structures. After 1961, when military use ceased, the island entered a long state of abandonment. Isola di San Giacomo 2022-2026, A Story in Images in the Project Space shows a selection of shots from the photographic campaigns by Giovanna Silva and Antonio Fortugno dedicated to the restoration site.
Purchased in 2018 by Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and Agostino Re Rebaudengo from Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, San Giacomo has been transformed into an innovative laboratory of art and sustainability.
On the occasion of the inauguration, the president of the Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation spoke to askanews about the future of the island: San Giacomo will now become a space for residencies and exhibitions, a meeting place for artists, scholars, researchers, art audiences, townspeople and citizens. Visitors were able to attend Fanfare/Lament: a multidimensional site-specific installation born from Matt Copson’s relationship with the Island of San Giacomo and from the desire to work with the natural agents of the place. In particular, the artist chose to interact with the air currents, imagining a choreography directed by the wind and composed of three elements: a series of flying sculptures that soar above the roofs of the two Polverie, indoor laser projections and a fanfare played by a group of musicians. Inside the Polveriera Est four laser animations dance on the walls and complete the choreography. In the Polveriera Ovest there is an exhibition of works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection Don’t have hope, be hope!, taken from a painting by Walter Price from 2024: an invitation to connect the exhibition itinerary to the new identity of the island, a former military garrison, rethought as an artistic, cultural and ecological garrison. In the garden there are six permanent works: the luminous writing Patriarchy = CO2 by Claire Fontaine, GONOGO the gigantic rocket by Goshka Macuga, Old Tree (Pink Seas) by Pamela Rosenkranz, the bronze sculpture Nixe by Thomas Schötte, the inclined chapel by Hugh Hayden and Mario Garcìa Torres’ homage to Alighiero Boetti.
San Giacomo is a truly “isolated” island, that is, it is not connected to external electricity, gas or water networks. Energy is now produced 100% on site thanks to renewable resources, through a photovoltaic system integrated into the architecture, combined with storage systems and intelligent consumption management. A well from the military era was also recovered, which intercepts a fresh water aquifer under the island, restoring a historical source of water supply and necessary for the supply of water for domestic purposes. The design of the greenery and new plantings was oriented towards criteria of environmental sustainability and containment of water consumption, through the selection of species consistent with the lagoon context and with low water requirements.
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