Louis Vuitton and Fondazione MUVE renew their partnership in support of the Venetian artistic heritage
Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia and Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE) renew their collaboration that every year, thanks to an accurate and passionate local sponsorship and cultural actions project, brings Louis Vuitton supporting the restoration of art works from the collections of the MUVE’s museums.
On the occasion of the exhibition “Fondation Louis Vuitton Building in Paris by Frank Gehry con l’intervento di Daniel Buren“, Louis Vuitton supported the restoration of a series of wooden architectural scale models from the 18th Century: the models built for the study of a large Venetian palace probably Palazzo Corner della Regina) and the one of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni (incomplete) and a series of models of Villa Pisani at Strà.
The result of this important restoration work will be the protagonist of a small but significant exhibition from October 14th to November 14th 2016 at the Sala delle Quattro Porte [Four Doors Hall] within the Correr Museum itinerary in Piazza San Marco.
This location will exhibit all the restored models, forerunners of the modern maquettes and scale models, with the exception of the large model of the Doge’s Pisani villa project which, due to its size, will remain at Palazzo Fortuny where it can still be visited until November 6th 2016.
The presentation of the restored wooden models echoes the exhibition hosted by the Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia, from May 27th 2016 to February 26th 2017. The exhibition showcases a selection of scale models tracing the study of the Fondation Louis Vuitton building’s different aspects: a true immersion into the creative and designing universe that allowed the origin of a building that has already become a symbol for Paris.
The eighteenth-century architectural scale models belonging to the Venetian Civic Museums collections are truly outstanding witnesses, among the few who have reached us, of the architecture observed between the Renaissance and the nineteenth century, especially for particularly complex and large buildings.
In such demanding works, the conclusion of which always required several years, the presence of a perfect scale model on-site, finished in every structural and decorative detail both inside and outside (for this reason they can always be disassembled and observed in every part, even more than the paper designs, were essential and very tangible reference for the vast array of operators called upon to contribute to the construction in a unified and organic manner (bricklayers, stonemasons, wood and iron carpenters, decorators, etc.).
For the realization of such amazing wooden artefacts, featuring a really ‘painstaking’ expertise and execution quality, one can presume the activity in Venice of some quite skilled craftsmen.
The conservative restoration, necessary to preserve the artefacts and allow optimal enjoyment, has affected the models of two great Venetian palaces, as well as that for the wonderful Villa dei Pisani at Strà, along with those of three smaller buildings for the famous garden. All of them are perfectly evocative of the successful Venetian architecture season in the eighteenth century that was able to translate the scenographic Baroque talent in an absolutely Venetian pictorial and luminous key, following the main example of Baldassarre Longhena,
The first model for a large building, surely destined to face the Grand Canal, is an advanced design proposal, remained unfulfilled, characterized by the unusual width of the front, with nine vertical axes. This may be a first project for Palazzo Corner della Regina in San Cassiano, then created in a different manner by Domenico Rossi on a narrower front. Incomplete (note, however, an astonishing Baroque staircase with multiple ramps), perhaps because of its fragmentary condition, the model has a particularly evocative charm.
Compared with the first project by Lorenzo Boschetti, it corresponds to a second version assigned to Domenico Rizzi, accurate as far as the vertical general approach in eleven aisles, but simplified in the architectural codes and in some layout solutions. It is the project realized around 1750; as known, the work was interrupted when the building had reached just above the mezzanine ground floor, only for the front part (it was the famous Peggy Guggenheim house-museum, today with its rich collections of modern art, headquarters to the Peggy Guggenheim foundation).
The model of the Doge’s Villa Pisani at Strà on the Brenta Riviera, is extraordinarily interesting as it gives us the first ‘Pharaonic’ project entrusted to Francesco Frigimelica, exceptionally complex in its articulation and unusual scenic grandeur, worthy of a great ruler. The ‘palace’ was later erected on the more ‘sobre’ and linear project by Francesco Maria Preti. Instead, for the fantastic ‘French garden’, the original Frigimalica projects for the Belvedere, the Esedra and the Tower (respectively a high-arch belvedere at the intersection of various allées, a favourite side entrance to the garden and the central turret of the famous greenery maze) of which the beautiful painted wood models remain, have been accurately realised.
Building in Paris by Frank Gehry con l’intervento di Daniel Buren
The exhibition retrace the story of Frank Gehry’s dream, offering an immersion into the creative world of the Canadian-American architect and presents a selection of scale models created during the project by the Gehry Partners Studio.
The models are organised by groups to retrace studies for various aspects of the Fondation Louis Vuitton including the integration in the site, architectural programme, project design, interior spaces, the “icebergs” and the glass sails.
Initially unveiled in Paris for the inauguration of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the exhibition has been specially redesigned by Gehry Partners for the Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia.
It is part of Fondation Louis Vuitton’s ‘Beyond the Walls’ programme of events. As well as presenting the building’s impressive architecture, screens in the exhibition in Venice projects the rich artistic programming at Fondation Louis Vuitton. This includes temporary exhibitions with a contemporary or historical perspective, presentations of the Fondation’s collection, as well as concerts in the Auditorium.
As part of the exhibition, Daniel Buren has designed a special installation incorporating the glass roof of the Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia. This echoes to the presentation of his temporary work, ‘Observatory of Light,’ which was unveiled at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris on May 11th 2016.
Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE)
The Civic Museum Foundation of Venice (MUVE) – Participation foundation with only one founder, the Venice City Hall – manages , promotes and enhances from September 2008, for its specific mission, the complex system of the Civic Museums of Venice, one of the most important in Europe: 11 museums with their rich collections (Palazzo Ducale, Correr Museum, Clock Tower, Ca ‘ Rezzonico – Museum of eighteenth Venetian Century, Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo – Study Centre of the History of Textiles and Clothing, Casa di Carlo Goldoni, Ca ‘ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art , Palazzo Fortuny, Museum of Murano Glass, Burano’s Lace Museum and Natural History Museum), 5 specialized libraries, the photo archive and a furnished outdoor storage (Vega Stock).
An innovative reality in the area of Cultural Heritage in Italy.
Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia
Inaugurated in June 2013 with the aim of promoting a dialogue between contemporary art and the historic and artistic heritage of the Serenissima Repubblic, Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia has hosted six exhibitions to date.
Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia has established an innovative dialogue between the contemporary art scene and classical art, helping to celebrate the extraordinary vitality and modernity and returning works often forgotten to Venice in two ways: in the rediscovery, made possible by the restoration, that makes them once again accessible to the general public and in the re-interpretation provided by contemporary art.
The comparison between the art of yesterday and today started with the “Where Should Othello Go?” exhibition, which proposed the face-to-face between “The Death of Othello” (1866) by Pompeo Molmenti and the installation “Strawberry, Ecstasy, Green” by Tony Oursler (2013), revealing an explosion of unexpected and allied matches; it then continued with “Renaissance “, in which Vittore Carpaccio and Bill Viola explored the theme of the Nativity and the passion of Christ, and was followed by the romanticism of the Cayer de voyage by Mariano Fortuny and Jiro Taniguchi in “Sguardi incrociati a Venezia“.
In 2015, new dialogues and discussions have seen the Venice Espace hosting the references between “The optic views of the sixteenth century period and Olafur Eliasson“, the lunettes by Francesco Hayez and creations by Tilo Schulz, up to the last exhibition, that combined three worlds, the eighteenth century of Andrienne’s dress belonging to a Venetian lady and revived in a contemporary version by the students of the Experimental Centre of Cinematography in Rome under the supervision of Oscar winner Piero Tosi and of maestro Maurizio Millenotti and by the creation of contemporary artist Movana Chen.
From 2016, the Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia started a new course that see its spaces host the great contemporary art in programs created by Fondation Louis Vuitton for the Paris space and for the Espace Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munchen, Beijing and Venice.
Museo Correr
Museo Correr San Marco 52, 30124 Venezia
Open from March 26th to October 31st 10.00 am – 7.00 pm
Open from November 1st to March 25th 10.00 am – 5.00 pm
Museo Fortuny
Campo S. Beneto, 3780, 30126 San Marco, Venezia
Open from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm
Fondation Louis Vuitton Building in Paris by Frank Gehry exhibition
Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia, Calle del Ridotto 1353, 30124 Venice
From 27th May to February 26th: exhibition opened to the public
Open from 10.00am to 7.30pm, Monday to Saturday and on Sunday from 10.30am to 7.30 pm