The Rule of Dreams


Site-specific installation in the new department store in Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, the old centre of the German merchants in the city, by Barnaba Fornasetti and Valeria Manzi.

Running throughout the store , the installation used black and white images to highlight historic aspects of the building. Women’s faces reference the portraits painted on the building’s façade by Venetian masters like Giorgione and Titian as well as the face of Lina Cavalieri, the opera singer, who famously inspired Piero Fornasetti, Barnaba’s artist father.

The images of monkeys refer to a 1670 marble plaque that recalled a law of the time about the activities allowed in the building: “no obscenities or insults, no gaming, uproar or brawling. Otherwise, do business as you will” and there were hands dropping ducats with the motto engraved on the door of the office of the manager of the Fondaco.

I loved the historic layers of the installation plus it looked great and pulled the space together.

Closes 24 November 2019

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