This Historic Constructing in Venice Hasn’t Been Open to the Public in 500 Years—Now You Can Go to

One in all Venice’s most historic buildings is getting a brand new lease on life as a contemporary arts middle. The second ground of the Procuratie Vecchie, a constructing working alongside one facet of St. Mark’s Sq., is now open to the general public for the primary time in 500 years in its new kind because the San Marco Arts Centre (SMAC).

Venice is already a hub for up to date artwork with its worldwide biennale, however SMAC goals to do one thing that doesn’t exist within the metropolis’s arts panorama: be a kunsthalle, an area that mounts common short-term exhibitions however isn’t constrained by a particular curatorial focus or theme. “We need to be versatile, dynamic and reactive to what’s taking place on the planet,” co-founder David Gramazio instructed Journey + Leisure. That’s why SMAC isn’t limiting itself to fashionable artwork, however will even exhibit structure, style, images, and movie.

It’s kicking off its program concurrently this yr’s Structure Biennale with two architecture-themed solo exhibits, one a retrospective of the Austrian-Australian architect Harry Seidler—dubbed “the excessive priest of modernism”—and the opposite the primary worldwide exhibition of the pioneering panorama architect Jung Youngsun, identified for being the primary Korean lady to earn the title of land growth engineer.

The Procuratie had been initially constructed as residences for the Venetian Republic’s public prosecutors within the first half of the sixteenth century. The constructing ended up primarily getting used as workplaces by the Italian insurance coverage group Generali, earlier than the corporate launched a large restoration mission with Pritzker Prize-winning architect David Chipperfield. The third ground opened to the general public in 2022 and is occupied by the corporate’s basis, The Human Security Web. 

The intensive redesign of the area preserves the constructing’s Venetian touches equivalent to Napoleon-era frescoes and Venetian terrazzo flooring, whereas making it appropriate for exhibiting artwork, with state-of-the-art temperature and humidity management in each room. The 16-gallery, 10,793-square-foot area strains the sq.’s northern facet, laid out alongside a light-filled hall. From the home windows, guests have a panoramic view of the enduring piazza, with St. Mark’s bell tower and basilica on one facet and the ornate arcades of the Procuratie Nuove reverse, mirroring the Procuratie Vecchie.

SMAC’s opening is an indication of Venice’s gradual transformation right into a year-round arts capital—one which isn’t simply depending on the Biennale sweeping in.