GIORGIO ANDREOTTA CALÒ
Scultura lingua morta

15 November 2024 – 4 March 2025
Venice, Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art, Dom Pérignon Rooms, second floor

Curated by Elisabetta Barisoni
Special thanks to Studio Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Ipercubo

In March 1944, Arturo Martini began writing his famous text “Scultura Lingua Morta” (Sculpture Dead Language) which was published in Venice in fifty copies in 1945. The work is a heartfelt declaration about the inability of sculpture to be alive and universal. During the terrible years of World War II, Martini, as Italy’s foremost sculptor of his time, criticizes sculpture and questions its potential to be redemptive.

A dialogue emerges – almost a face-off – between Giorgio Andreotta Calò, a Venetian artist recognized as one of the most authoritative voices in contemporary Italian art, and the city of Venice, renowned for its rich plasticity and physicality. This conversation comes from Martini’s reflections, as a founding member of the group of artists who gathered around the first director of Ca’ Pesaro, Nino Barbantini, in the early 20th century.

The current, small but valuable, exhibition represents a journey into the lingua morta (dead language) through masterpieces created by Calò over more than twenty years. From the renowned Clessidre, Pinne Nobilis, Carotaggi to an extraordinary series of Meduse, including the one that entered the civic collection of Ca’ Pesaro thanks to the PAC2021 – Plan for Contemporary Art, promoted by the General Directorate of Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. An unpublished Medusa, very dear to the Venetian artist, is presented in an intimate dialogue with Martini’s Testa di Medusa, a piece from the deposits of Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art.
From this dialogue between the two artists, we perceive how language has never been more alive and present.

Along with these works are exhibited the materials that initially sparked the artist’s dialogue with the Palace on the Grand Canal. The second room features drawings and core samples resulting from investigations conducted by the Municipality of Venice’s Public Works professionals on the facade of Ca’ Pesaro. The relationship between contemporary sculptural production and the city of Venice is captured through Calò’s sensibility, complemented by the sculpture collection of Ca’ Pesaro and the monumental architecture of the Palace. This connection is further enriched by the insights drawn from the invaluable documents in the Gallery’s Historical Archives. These materials include traces of photographic campaigns focused on the collections, reflections on the display of artworks, on Longhena’s architecture and on the façade. Together, they weave a narrative that intertwines with Calò’s production, explored through the interdisciplinary and dialogic perspective of the collective Ipercubo. Plastic arts, but also museography, architecture, restorations, the static and scientific investigations of materials and of the Palace, all become elements of a lingua viva (living language) that testifies to the uninterrupted dialogue between Venice, the protagonists of its glorious past and the interpreters of its articulate present.

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Giorgio Andreotta Calò (Venice, 1979) lives and works between Italy and the Netherlands. He studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and at the Kunsthochschule in Berlin. Between 2001 and 2007 he was assistant to Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. In 2008 he began a collaboration with Galleria ZERO… (Milan). In 2008 he moved to the Netherlands and was artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (2009-2011). In 2011 his work was presented at the 54. Biennale directed by Bice Curiger. In 2012 he won the Premio Italia for contemporary art promoted by MAXXI in Rome. Between 2012 and 2013 he was artist-in-residence at the Centre National d’Art Contemporain at Villa Arson in Nice. In 2014 he won the New York Prize promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2015 he began collaborating with Sprovieri Gallery (London). In 2017 he was one of three artists invited to represent Italy in the central pavilion curated by Cecilia Alemani at the 57. Biennale and with the project Anastasis he won the Italian Council call (2017). In 2019, a personal exhibition of his work was held at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. Between 2017 and 2024 he created a permanent installation for the Castello di Ama collection. In 2024 he began a collaboration with Annet Gelink Gallery (Amsterdam). His artwork is housed in major contemporary art museums across Italy and featured in prestigious private collections both in Italy and abroad. Since 2016, he has been based in Venice, and in 2021, he began teaching in the sculpture department at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts.

Admission to the exhibition with the Museum’s hours and ticket.