I wanted to introduce the exhibition with a quote from a personality recently passed away who in some aspects may be controversial or hated by many: the eminent magnate and remarkable art collector David Rockefeller; for two reasons: the first one is because an artist, when he creates a work of art, he could never decide who can love it and who can not, in which collection it will end up one day: the artist with his artwork does an unconditional act of altruism.
The second reason, regardless of the merits or the demerits that one may have to live in this world, is that a thought, a phrase, a statement, is something absolute, it is a meaning that must be read for what it reads per se, and maybe it represents the most profound ideal, the true dream of who is expressing it.


With the title “Viva Arte Viva” (viva means either alive or hurray) the 57th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia launches once again a message of optimism, or more sceptically of illusion, secluding art into a no man’s land, an enclave where to set it free from the responsibilities and the troubles of reality.
Let us welcome with pleasure this optimism, but with a grain of salt, since the Biennale still seems wanting to ignore the contemporary social context. It is not possible to alienate from the international socio-political and economic situation: the unrest of entire countries perpetrated with wars or rigged monetary crises do not hit the headlines more than the umpteenth summer gossip scandal, incommensurable disparities between super-rich and oppressed people, constant erosion of human rights and freedom both in new capitalism and in the regimes of developing countries, dictatorship of this as an alternative to the dictatorship of that. It is unacceptable that the art world sticks its head in the sand, isolating itself in a sugar-coated elitism, into a soap bubble, just to offer tourists an amusing festival; that is not the purpose of art, it is not the carefree diversion: art served since ever to reflect on reality, in order to imagine another one.

VITA TUA, VITA MEA is an antithesis of the famous Latin motto “mors tua, vita mea” (your death is my life), precursor of the opportunistic and egocentric model where the modern socio-economic world has been founded on, in order to propose instead a model of personal wellness as a consequence of the wellness of the society, which is a textile of relations: if you stress them beyond measure, the textile tears, causing epochal crises like the ones we are witnessing.


(Continues on the catalogue)

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Access to this Calle de Mezo (in Venice there are other calli with the same name) from Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio, the square right behind the apsis of the homonymous church, passing under the sottoportico Calle de Mezo.

By foot and by train: Calle de Mezo in Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio are 500 metres from the railway station of Venezia Santa Lucia, starting from Ponte degli Scalzi bridge, passing by Fondamenta Garzotti that runs along Rio S. Giacomo da l'Orio canal, about halfway going toward Ponte di Rialto bridge.

By boat: get off at San Stae stop and walk along Salizada San Stae following signs toward railway station and turning to Calle Colombo. Distance by foot from the pier: 400 metres.

By car and bus: from the parking of Piazzale Roma square reach the nearby railway station then follow the indications above.

By airplane: from the Marco Polo airport, reach the railway station of Venezia Santa Lucia with a shuttle bus, then follow the indications above.