108th Collective Exhibition of Young Artists – Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa

The selection process for the 108th Collective Exhibition of Young Artists by the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa has been completed. This event is dedicated to the discovery, promotion, and enhancement of emerging contemporary art.

The selected works, chosen from those submitted by March 16, will be featured in the group exhibition scheduled from May 5 to June 28, held in conjunction with the Venice Biennale 2026. The exhibition will take place in the Sala del Camino, within the monumental complex of SS. Cosma e Damiano on Giudecca, one of the Foundation’s institutional venues.

Open to artists under 30 who live in or have chosen to reside in the Triveneto area, the Collective Exhibition embraces all contemporary artistic languages – painting, sculpture, installation, video, performance, and process-based practices – alongside a dedicated section for the competition to design the event’s visual identity.

The works were evaluated by a jury appointed by the Board of Directors of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, composed of Elena Forin, independent curator and Lecturer in Museology at the Accademia di Belle Arti Santa Giulia (Brescia) and the University of Parma; Gaetano Mainenti, Lecturer in Decoration at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia; Angela Mengoni, Lecturer in Semiotics at Università Iuav di Venezia; Stefania Portinari, Lecturer in Contemporary Art History at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia; and Giovanni Turria, Lecturer in Printmaking at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.

The selected artists are: Gaia Agostini (Nel giorno della Madonna della Neve); Michele Azzalini (Dispositivi Minerali); Elena Baggio (Aspettando la settimana dei tre giovedì; Io alla tua età saltavo i fossi per lungo); Elisa Bersano (Lillà e Cannella); Paola Bianco (Impermeabile; Altitudini); Daniel Bresolin (Eterno Ardente); Davide Busato Danesi (Nelle città di rame); Duccio Cappelletti (Play Ground; Fine Corsa); Beatrice Cera (Pa(e/s)saggio, Blu; Pa(e/s)saggio, Bianco); Caterina Ciliberti (La mia bimba bella...cresce!); Alex De Bastiani (Piove sul bagnato; Horse 2); Silvia De Vicari (Archivio segreto); Davide De Vivo (Cipria); Tali Dello Strologo (L’ora lunga); Gabriele Edomi (Anemografie); Giacomo Fumagalli (Sotto pallide vele); Sergio Gagliardo (Pandemonio); Filippo Locatelli (Unusual Dialogue); Alice Lot (Nel mio giardino); Flora Maffezzoli (Ode a niente; Riposino sentimentale con complicazioni); Rovers Malaj (Rue Philippe); Jessica Mendicino (Prima soglia); Massimo Munich (Can I Help You?; Grew Up); Sebastiano Pallavisini (Eruzione cutanea); Lorenzo Piazza (Procession); Francesca Pieropan (Il cuore caldo soffre sempre il freddo); Gioele Provenzano (Jenga Logistics; Niente da dichiarare); Fanchang Qu (Feng); Matteo Ragazzini (Untitled); Pietro Romano (Pogo); Anna Ronchiato (Lettere a me (1); Lettere a me (2)); Camilla Salvagnin (Il paradosso del paraculo); Maurizio Segato (Cantabile); Irene Stellin (45.303372, 12.185134 (Bio-tracce)); Stefano Tolusso (Ratto Magnetico Ford Fiesta); Tommaso Viccaro (Pick Me Up on Your Way Down); Simone Zanchin (Iekk).

Through three acquisition prizes worth €3,000 each and two acquisition prizes worth €2,000 each, the winning works will enter the Bevilacqua La Masa Collection, officially recognized by the Italian Ministry of Culture – Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity.

The three main acquisition prizes will be announced during the opening ceremony on Tuesday, May 5 at 12:00 pm.

The jury members

Participation in the Collective Exhibition is conceived as both a formative and an exhibition experience: artists are involved in the entire process, from the submission of their work to the selection phase, through to installation and the production of the catalogue.

The works were presented in the presence of the Foundation’s curatorial staff between March 16 and 18, 2026, fostering direct dialogue between artists and the institution—one of the defining features of this historic event. The jury evaluated the works in person on Wednesday, March 25.

Alongside the selection of artworks, particular attention was given to the event’s graphic design project. The winning proposal was submitted by Alessandro Durighello, who will be responsible for developing the visual identity of the event. Projects by Alessia Ottaviani, Marta Mancuso, Clelia Cadamuro, Chiara Cunoci, Virginia Follo, Lucia Bortolus, Etienne Dal Ben, Bianca Francesca Serafin, and Erika Verlato were also selected. The competition represents an important professional opportunity for young creatives, offering a €1,000 prize and the implementation of the winning design across all communication materials, both digital and print.

For the second consecutive year, the Collective Exhibition is also part of the European project CreArt 3.0 #stringing_together, funded under the Creative Europe Programme, providing selected artists with access to an international network spanning 13 European cities and promoting the exchange of experiences and best practices.

The SS. Cosma e Damiano complex is confirmed as a vibrant creative hub within the city of Venice, hosting 9 of the 15 Artist Studios of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa and engaging in dialogue with local cultural organizations, including CTR – Centro Teatrale di Ricerca, Pantakin Circoteatro (PTK), the Compagnia de Calza “I Antichi”, and the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono.

The publication accompanying each edition constitutes an important documentary tool and contributes to the Foundation’s historic editorial series which, since 1908, has been an essential resource for research on contemporary art.

Established in 1908 as the Permanent Exhibition of Venetian Arts and Industries, based at Ca’ Pesaro, the Collective Exhibition of Young Artists of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa was created in accordance with the will of Duchess Felicita Bevilacqua La Masa, who in 1898 designated the palace to support artists excluded from the academic and elite circuits of the early Venice Biennale.

From its earliest editions, under the direction of Nino Barbantini, the Foundation provided working spaces—the Bevilacqua La Masa Studios—and exhibition opportunities for young artists in the region. Among those participating in the first exhibition were Gino Rossi and Arturo Martini; in subsequent years, artists such as Cagnaccio di San Pietro, Felice Casorati, Vincenzo Eulisse, Bice Lazzari, Guido Marussing, Armando Pizzinato, Giuseppe Santomaso, Raoul Schulz, Riccardo Szweizer, Tancredi (Parmeggiani), Giovanni Soccol, Emilio Vedova, Vittorio Zecchin, and Carmelo Zotti exhibited their work.

Over more than a century of activity, the Collective Exhibition has established itself as a key platform for young creatives working in the Triveneto area, offering an open environment for engagement with the professional art system. Many artists who developed within this context are now represented by leading galleries and institutions nationally and internationally. Among the names that have emerged in recent years are Giacomo Bianco, Ludovico Bomben, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Luca Clabot, T-Yong Chung, Nebojša Despotović, Roberto Fassone, Enej Gala, Riccardo Giacconi, Veronica de Giovanelli, Kensuke Koike, Rachele Maistrello, Arianna Marcolin, Serena Nono, Fabio Roncato, Michele Spanghero, Jacopo Valentini, and Emilio Vavarella.

IDENTITIES BEYOND BORDERS. The dialogue between human beings and nature in the works of the Farnesina Collection

On April 9 at 6:00 PM, the exhibition Identities Beyond Borders will open at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris. The exhibition is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Farnesina Collection.

Carla Accardi, Accondiscendi a contatti, 2005, Vinyl on canvas, 120 x 160 cm. Foto © Giorgio Benni. Courtesy Archive Accardi Sanfilippo, Rome Farnesina Collection

Originally conceived as a traveling exhibition across Berlin, Vilnius, and Valletta, the project has continued its international journey, first arriving in Belgrade and now in Paris, within the historic spaces of the Hôtel de Galliffet. In a city deeply shaped by revolutionary tradition and European cultural debate, the exhibition offers a reflection on how individual and collective identities evolve over time through historical memory, mobility, and processes of cultural translation.

The exhibition path opens with Fibonacci by Mario Merz, a symbolic work of the Farnesina Collection that introduces an organic and interconnected vision of the world. Around this nucleus, three thematic sections unfold: Roots of Resistance, Geographies of Detachment, and Unstable Ecologies.

In the section Roots of Resistance, the body and language become tools of emancipation through the works of Tomaso Binga, Carla Accardi, Ketty La Rocca, Maria Lai, and Elisa Montessori, in dialogue with artists from later generations such as Elena Bellantoni, Silvia Giambrone, Marinella Senatore, and Loredana Di Lillo.

The section Geographies of Detachment explores identity as a mobile and ever-changing condition. For the Paris edition, it is enriched with new works by Marta Roberti and Paola Gandolfi, specifically selected to engage with the spaces of the Institute. In this perspective, geographies are not only physical territories but also inner, psychological, and relational landscapes - emotional terrains in which memory, experience, and imagination continuously redefine the sense of belonging.

Roberti presents for the first time works drawn from the animated video A Bee on a Crying Face (2025), where human and animal figures evoke a relationship of listening and metamorphosis between species. Paola Gandolfi exhibits two photographic series derived from the video In tempo per modifiche temporali e Chiamata urbana urgente, in which the artist stages herself at different stages of life, transforming the body into an archive of memory and identity.

The section Unstable Ecologies addresses the relationship between human beings and the environment through works by Letizia Battaglia, Silvia Camporesi, Elena Mazzi, Laura Pugno, and Iginio De Luca, investigating the landscape as a fragile and constantly evolving ecosystem.

The exhibition concludes with the sound installation of the poem Io sono carta (1976) by Tomaso Binga, which intertwines language, body, and politics in a poetic gesture of resistance. In the Parisian context - marked by the memory of social transformations and 1968 - Binga’s voice resonates as an invitation to rethink identity as a critical and generative space.

Finally, on the occasion of the opening, Paola Gandolfi will present a performance titled À temps pour des variations temporelles, conceived specifically for the exhibition. She will be joined by actress Cristina Spina, in the role of her mother, and Dominique Smersu, portraying her father. The performance stages three generations in dialogue, exploring the complex and layered relationship between family memory and identity.

Maria Lai, Fili di pietra, 1997, thread, tempera, fabric, 24 x 38 x 4,5 cm. Photo © Modestas Endriuška. Courtesy © Archive Maria Lai by Siae. Farnesina Collection

As the artist states, the bond between mother and daughter is “a material difficult to hold, to shape, to understand: it slips and burns at once… a material that devastates and captivates.” Through the language of performance, Gandolfi transforms this relationship into a symbolic and theatrical gesture that intertwines autobiography, memory, and representation, opening a space for reflection on how identities are constructed through dialogue.

Through the encounter between artists of different generations, Identities Beyond Borders builds a narrative that connects history, memory, and imagination, opening new perspectives on the role of contemporary art in interpreting the transformations of the present.

Guernica: the dialogue between Picasso and Dumile Feni

The show is framed inside History Does Not Repeat Itself, but it Does Rhyme, a new series of interventions in the Museo Reina Sofía Collections which involves juxtaposing an equivalent of Guernica from another time or geopolitical sphere, an endeavour contextualised through academic work rooted in art history as an interpretive framework.

View of exhibition History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Does Rhyme. Dumile Feni: African Guernica in room 205 of Museo Reina Sofía, March, 2026. Photografic archive of Museo Reina Sofía. 

Curated by Tamar Garb, a professor of Art History at University College London, Picasso’s emblematic work is juxtaposed with African Guernica, a work by artist Dumile Feni (Worcester, South Africa, 1942 – New York, 1991), who was a key figure in African modernity.

The Museo Reina Sofía sets in motion a programme of exhibitions which, entitled History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but it Does Rhyme, seeks to initiate a dialogue with Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937) and other major works which reveal parallels in their modes of representation or thematic concerns, despite hailing from different historical and cultural contexts.

The series title refers to a phrase which, although traditionally attributed to the writer Mark Twain, is apocryphal and never actually appears in work by the American author. In this opening show, curated by Tamar Garb, Picasso’s emblematic work is juxtaposed with African Guernica, a work by artist Dumile Feni (Worcester, South Africa, 1942 – New York, 1991), who was a key figure in African modernity.

Alongside Feni’s monumental drawing are five other works by this artist which arrive from major South African institutions, including the University of Fort Hare, the Norval Foundation and the Wits Art Museum, in addition to private collections. Furthermore, they are displayed with four of Picasso’s preparatory drawings from Guernica, works which are part of the Museo Reina Sofía Collections.

Dumile Feni, You Wouldn’t Know God if he Spat in your Eye, 1975, detail. Ink, pencil, crayon, plastic laminate, 26 × 5.300 cm. Wits Art Museo Collection, Johannesburg. ©Estate Dumile Feni and Dumile Feni Family Trust 

As Museo Reina Sofía director, Manuel Segade, explained: “African Guernica represents a significant time in the crisis of modernity, the time of Apartheid in South Africa, one of the limits of the modern project”. Meanwhile, the show’s curator, Tamar Garb, was keen to stress how Dumile Feni “is a modern artist who used drawing materials on an almost unprecedented scale worldwide at that time”. “If we observe drawing practices globally in the 1960s, very few artists worked on such an epic, monumental scale as Dumile in that period”, she added.