EXHIBITION REVIEW
L’ORO DELL’ACQUA BY VIOLAINE VIEILLEFOND
June 03 – July 08, 2024
Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, Venice
ITSLIQUID Group, in collaboration with ACIT Venice – Italian-German Association / Goethe Institut, SEE Galerie and Galerie Faure Beaulieu, Paris, is pleased to share the great success of L’ORO DELL’ACQUA, a solo exhibition of the French artist Violaine Vieillefond, curated by Luca Curci, which took place in Venice, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello from June 03 to July 08, 2024, during the same period as the 60th Venice Biennale of Art.
Click here to read more about the press release
Click here to see the photo full reportage
Just before the exhibition’s opening, a special concert titled “Come nell’Acqua” was held at the ancient Chiesa di Santa Sofia in Venice, built in 1020 by a noble Venetian family. In this splendid setting, five talented flautists performed a program dedicated to the artist Violaine Vieillefond, interpreting the concept of water through both classical and contemporary music. This harmonious blend of music and art set the perfect tone for the exhibition, highlighting the transformative qualities of water that Vieillefond captures in her paintings, creating a multisensory experience that deepened the audience’s experience.
Installed as folding screens in the middle of Sala della Musica of Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, amidst the 18th-century frescos, twelve stunning canvases rich in blues and golds explore the multifaceted nature of water, mixing themes of migration, the unknown, and the ever-present influence of the sea. Drawing inspiration from the several meanings of folding screens, they create intimate viewing spaces, symbolize the barriers and passages of migration, and reflect the ever-changing and fluid nature of water. This format allows Vieillefond’s work to resonate on multiple levels, echoing the historical and contemporary meaning of them as both functional objects and profound artistic expressions.
L’ORO DELL’ACQUA brings a surprising new element to Vieillefond’s work: the integration of gold within her traditionally blue palette, which adds not only a visual richness but also deepens the symbolic narrative. The homage to Hokusai’s The Great Wave of Kanagawa within this series is particularly striking, with the intense Prussian blue dominating the scene, reminiscent of Venetian skies immortalized by Canaletto.
Vieillefond’s work represents a delicate balance between nature and human achievement. Her use of gold and blue not only pays homage to Venice’s rich cultural heritage but also serves as a symbolic reminder of water’s vital importance, a life-giving force, and its potential for devastation. Through her art, Vieillefond challenges us to reflect on our relationship with this essential element and its impact on our future.
The exhibition has not only drawn art enthusiasts but also sparked meaningful conversations about the environmental and cultural significance of water. Vieillefond‘s ability to blend historical references with contemporary concerns has resonated deeply with visitors, making L’ORO DELL’ACQUA a memorable and impactful event in the vibrant art scene of Venice.
organized by ITSLIQUID Group
curator Luca Curci
exhibition coordinator Giulia Tassi
VENUE
Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello
Associazione Culturale Italo-Tedesca (ACIT), Cannaregio 4118, Venice
June 03 – July 08, 2024
Opening hours | Monday – Friday . 09.30 AM – 05.30 PM
Click here to register for the event (free entry)
VIOLAINE VIEILLEFOND – BIOGRAPHY
Violaine Vieillefond was born near Paris in 1970. She graduated in science and political sciences, then pursued her training at the Ateliers Beaux-Arts of Paris with painter Martin Bissière, a grandson of the famous Roger Bissière from the Ecole de Paris movement.
She has always been fascinated by the images and experiments she observed in the course of her scientific studies: coloured fluids in movement, micro and macrocosmic worlds. Thanks to a specific technique as well as to the forms they take, in which hazard contributes largely, her works bring to light the moving characteristic of water and its aesthetic and emotional possibilities. Her work plunges us into a universe of forms undergoing metamorphoses, leading to a questioning about life.
Violaine Vieillefond works mainly in her studio near Paris, but it is in the link with nature, that she finds food for her research. She is represented by SEE Galerie/ Galerie Arnaud Faure Beaulieu, Paris. Her works have been exhibited in Europe, the United States and Japan. The City of Paris dedicated an exhibition to her paintings, in 2012-2013, in the Water Pavilion. She exhibited her first installations in nature inspired by Monet’s Water Lilies, at the Flers Museum in Normandy in 2014, then at the Science and Industry Museum in Paris. In 2017, her monumental series on paper was displayed in Vertheuil Abbey (Bordeaux), and in 2021 she was invited again in Normandy to dialogue with its collections of Impressionists. Preceding her solo show at the Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello during the 60th Biennale of Art, she participated in an exhibition at the Palazzo Bembo in 2022 in Venice, and other exhibitions, with Its Liquid Group (Rome, London).
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ITSLIQUID is a web-based information platform, founded in 2001 by Luca Curci, dedicated to the worldwide distribution of information about calls for entries, exhibitions, and events at some of the world’s leading art galleries, museums, and foundations selected. ITSLIQUID has already built a readership of more than 300.000 qualified subscribers. Among them architects, designers, artists, collectors, art critics, curators, dealers, and other personalities of the International art, architecture, and design world. It provides advertising services, press office services for events and projects, articles and specials published on the website, and media partnership services.
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ITSLIQUID GROUP includes a section dedicated to the organization of international art events, managing exhibitions of painting, photography, video art, installation and performance; it organizes solo and collective shows, art residencies and international contests. Its object is to use new technologies to globalize the language of art, and to connect artists working in every part of the world.
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