From 29 March to 30 April, Maxxi-Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo in Rome will display Venetika, a tribute to Venice by Ferzan Özpetek, the director of Loose Cannons and Saturn in Opposition. His vision of Venice is encapsulated in a magic box filled with sinuous images in tenuous colours, filtered by the liquid lens of the water surrounding it. The video installation, which features Kasia Smutniak, curated by Giovanna Zabotti, produced by Faros Film and Fondaco, with Bulgari as a main partner, was created in 2019 for the 58th Biennale d’Arte in Venice.
Ozpetek describes Venetika: “Venice is a woman immersed in water (Kasia Smutniak). The moving liquid, opaque surface of the sea resembles a screen and moving over her body and face are images of the materials that formed the city when the liquid solidified and suddenly became marble, wood, rope and metal. Images of the city glide over Her, beautiful and eternal, as she lies beneath the water, possessed by everything and at the same time possessing everything. This woman is neither the Mermaid living in the water nor Ophelia dying in the water. She is the city in continuous renewal, feeding off images of herself as they reflect onto her in the moment when she generates them, protected by water which is practically an amniotic liquid”.
The installation takes the form of a red square, 7x7 m, and is positioned in piazza Alighiero Boetti: the mirrored walls recall the tradition of “Venetian mirrors”, they reflect the surrounding environment while they are submerged in it. In contrast, the atmosphere inside is dark and rarefied: like a game of Chinese boxes, a pathway unfolds around a central “room”, the heart of the installation where a short film (5 minutes) plays. The wooden planks of the flooring recall the piers of Venice while the huge images of the film accompany the visitor. The film is projected onto three walls and reflects on a pool of water on the ground. Surrounded by the smell of the laguna, music and the voice of Sezen Aksu and suspended on a pier, the visitor is completely immersed in the projection.