ArtReview editor-in-chief Mark Rappolt spoke to the Fondazione’s artistic director Alessandro Rabottini and curator Leonardo Bigazzi in Venice about the trilogy’s concluding exhibition
In May, Fondazione In Between Art Film opened Canicula, a group exhibition at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto in Venice on the occasion of the 61st Venice Biennale. Curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi – the Fondazione’s artistic director and curator, respectively – Canicula is the third and final chapter of the ‘Trilogy of Uncertainties’, a series of exhibitions initiated by Fondazione In Between Art Film that has seen the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto transformed each time into a form of cinematic architecture.
Beginning in 2022 with Penumbra and continuing in 2024 with Nebula, each show in the trilogy has deployed a different atmospheric phenomenon in order to explore states of vision as metaphors for the human condition. Canicula premieres eight new site-specific video installations by artists Lawrence Abu Hamdan (1985, Jordan), Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti (1974, Italy/1972, Italy), Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk (1992, Ukraine/1993, Ukraine), Janis Rafa (1984, Greece), P. Staff (1987, United Kingdom), Wang Tuo (1984, China), Yuyan Wang (1989, China) and Maya Watanabe (1983, Peru). All eight works are commissioned and produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film, an initiative conceived by the President of the Foundation Beatrice Bulgari to promote the culture of moving images and to support international artists, institutions and theorists in their explorations of the dialogue between different disciplines and time-based media.
‘Canicula’, the Latin term that translates as ‘dog days’, is widely used today to refer to the hottest days of summer, a period of the year that, in various ancient Mediterranean cultures, was associated with either great abundance or terrible ruin. Following on from Penumbra (2022) and Nebula (2024), Canicula will mark the end of a narrative arc that, over the course of three Venice Biennale cycles, has gradually charted the transition from a lack of light to a surfeit. While Penumbra explored the ambiguous qualities of dim light and Nebula navigated a path through the disorientation of fog, Canicula looks at blinding brightness and scorching heat. These are conditions that, once again, deceive the senses and raise questions about the reliability of vision and the interpretations of reality that it yields.
The exhibition concept for Canicula is inspired by the phenomena of extreme light and heat as material and metaphorical frameworks, in which matter, people and ideas are put under pressure. Image overload, information distortion, memory saturation, abuses of power and oppressive temperatures are taking societies – and, indeed, the Earth itself – to the very brink of collapse. The works in Canicula evoke the sensations associated with the overwhelming atmosphere of the present moment in which our bodies, minds and politics are immersed. Within this context, the works engage with internal and external agents of consumption and erosion to ponder the irresolvable riddle of image production and its broader implications.
Canicula is on view at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto in Venice, through 22 November
Credits
Directed and edited by
Davide Rapp
Filmed by
Giorgio De Marco
Editorial Supervision and Project Coordination
Anna Castelli
Graphic Design
Lorenzo Mason Studio
Co-Produced by
ArtReview
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