VALENTINA FURIAN

Part of the Polifonie Italiane programme

Curated by Camilla Salvaneschi and Angela Vettese

Developed in collaboration with the Dipartimento di Culture del Progetto, Polifonie italiane is curated by Camilla Salvaneschi and Angela Vettese. The series brings together exhibitions featuring works by artists trained at the Università Iuav di Venezia. Previous exhibitions have highlighted the work of Caterina Erica Shanta, Diego Tonus, Elena Mazzi, Diego Marcon and Giuseppe Di Liberto. The series continues with 55 (2019), a video work by visual artist Valentina Furian.
The event is part of the Salotto Longhena project, which brings together all the initiatives organised by MUVE in collaboration with IUAV University of Venice since 2016.

In a suspended space between reality and imagination, a house is engulfed in flames. It is night, and the fire rages violently: flames completely surround the building and consume everything inside. No trace of human beings remains; perhaps they have managed to escape, perhaps they are still concealed within the stillness of the scene. The video unfolds through a looping sequence that creates the illusion of an eternal fire, removing the blaze from the chronological succession of events and the possibility of an ending. The house remains in a state of unreal suspension, trapped in an endless present. Destruction eludes any precise temporal or causal framework, becoming a cyclical event without a beginning or end. The building remains suspended amid the flames, in an ambiguous dimension where the possibility of loss and that of survival coexist without resolution.

55 (2019)
2-channel video, colour, Full HD, 8-channel sound, loop, 1’53’’
backstage photography, ph. Violette Maillard, courtesy the artist

Valentina Furian (1989, Venice) is a visual artist whose practice primarily involves moving images and time-based installations. Through her imagery, she investigates the fluid boundaries between humans, the more-than-human, and the natural environment, exploring themes of domestication and wildness. Her research operates at the threshold between reality and fiction, through a cinematic dynamic that emerges from the interplay between fictional narrative and documentary investigation.
In 2026, she was an artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, where she developed research focusing on the relationships between humans, animals, and systems of representation. In the same year, she conducted research at the Bronx Zoo in New York, in collaboration with the Cheetah Conservation Fund and a team of researchers and biologists, as part of a reserach project funded by the Italian Council (14th Edition, 2025). In 2025, she presented her work at Fantastica, the 18th edition of the Rome Quadriennale; at the Strozzina as part of Lo Schermo dell’Arte in Florence; and at Triennale Milano. She was also invited to participate in Art City for MAMbo in Bologna and presented a solo exhibition at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo / Guarene for YCRS. In 2024, she participated in the Biennale Gherdëina. That same year, she was awarded the New York Prize with ISCP – International Studio & Curatorial Program. Her work was also featured in the exhibition Cinema Underground at Gallerie d’Italia in Turin and at the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection, Venice (Italy).
Her works are held in public and private collections, including Castello di Rivoli, Turin; MAMbo, Bologna; GAMeC, Bergamo; Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice; and Triennale Milano.