Touching the Edge

Italian designers seek to redefine consumers' relationships with objects

by Stefano Caggiano A few years ago, Giovanni Delvecchio and Andrea Magnani worked together on a thesis project in Product Design in Faenza—a little northern Italian city famous for a long tradition of ceramic manufacturing. What the two up-and-coming art designers were doing, however, had nothing to do with ceramics. They were actually conceiving their Resign project, which continues to attract people interested in repurposing …

The Encyclopedic Palace at Venice Biennale

The Book of Genesis as a graphic novel, plastic human sculptures, "Apollo Ecstacy" and more in our look at the 55th international exhibition

Since 1998, the Venice Biennale of Art and Architecture is no longer a traditional exhibition of national artists, but is instead a real international showcase where the single invited countries are accompanied by a main exhibit, which has a different curator for each edition. The main theme of the 55th International Art Exhibition is “Il Palazzo Enciclopedico” (“The Encyclopedic Palace”) and it’s the biggest proof …

Danaë by Vadim Zakharov

Installation at the Russian Pavilion makes it "rain" coins for the 2013 Venice Biennale

Greek mythology is the inspiration for the Russian Pavilion at this year’s 55th Venice Art Biennale, which is seen in “Danaë”—a provocative installation conceived by conceptual artist Vadim Zakharov and curated by Udo Kittelman, under the supervision of commissioner Stella Kesaeva. The rooms of the building (designed and built in 1914 and situated in the area of the Giardini) have undergone some structural changes to …