mare/Fri., 25 – Sat., 26 September 2026
The Diverse Forms of Intelligence
The second weekend in the Public Program conceived and designed by Angelika Burtscher and Daniele Lupo (Lungomare)
Presented as part of the Italian Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia and promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Where Italian Pavilion, Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale
The second weekend of the Public Program, The Diverse Forms of Intelligence, taking place on 25 and 26 September 2026, explores a renewed encounter with myth, ritual, ancestral knowledge, and more-than-human intelligence as alternative forms of knowledge. A plurality of voices, bodies, and materials invites us to look at the world from multiple perspectives, open up new ways of seeing, and imagine different ways of understanding the world.
On the occasion of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Italian Pavilion presents Con te con tutto, a project by Chiara Camoni curated by Cecilia Canziani and promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture. Conceived as a space for encounter, exchange, and the collective construction of meaning, the project invites reflection on the relationships that bind human beings, landscapes, memories, and other forms of life, imagining alternative ways of inhabiting the present.
Accompanying the exhibition is an extensive Public Program, conceived and developed by Angelika Burtscher and Daniele Lupo (Lungomare), which expands its perspectives through performances, workshops, dialogic tours, urban explorations, and moments of public exchange. The program is designed to foster dialogue between the Pavilion and the city of Venice, engaging cultural institutions, research centers, and local initiatives in a shared process of reflection and participation.
Structured into three weekends taking place in June, September, and October 2026, the Public Program develops around three interconnected lines of inquiry, addressing themes such as memory, landscape, forms of collective intelligence, vocality, and the transmission of knowledge.
FRIDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER
4–5 PM
Italian Pavilion, Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale
GEOLOGY AND EROSION OF MEMORY
Conversation between Felice Cimatti and Esther Kinsky
Felice Cimatti teaches Semiotics and Theory of Language at the University of Calabria. His research focuses on the relationship between language, animality, and mysticism. He hosts the radio programme Uomini e Profeti on RAI Radio3. Alongside his philosophical work, he has developed an artistic practice of his own, exploring the inscrutability of the animal gaze.
Esther Kinsky is a poet, writer, and translator. She is renowned for her narrative mastery in exploring the human experience of places, memory, and remembrance. She lives in Vienna and in a small town in Friuli that inspired her novel Rombo (Iperborea, 2023), about the 1976 earthquake. She was awarded the Kleist Prize in 2023 and the Droste Preis der Stadt Meersburg in 2024. Her most recent book published in Italian is Di luce e polvere (Iperborea, 2025).
FRIDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER
6–8 PM
Italian Pavilion, Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale
BIBLIOMANCY
Workshop by NERO with Giulia Currà, Cora Baratti (Il Salotto delle preziose)
Bibliomancy is an ancient divination practice that consists of asking a question of a book and allowing oneself to be guided by the answer that emerges from its pages. The book is opened at random, allowing the eye to encounter a sentence or passage. A simple gesture that transforms the book into an oracle and chance into a poetic force.
Con te con tutto is “a call to gather”, and it is in this spirit that NERO extends Lungomare’s invitation to Giulia Currà, who in turn involves Cora Baratti, bringing Il Salotto delle Preziose into the Italian Pavilion: a space and time for sharing magical, poetic, and political acts through the recovery of practices and forms of knowledge connected to witchcraft and esotericism.
NERO and Il Salotto delle Preziose therefore propose a session of Bibliomancy, bringing different voices into resonance – visions and presences from our world and from other worlds.
Places are limited. Registration is required by September 22, writing to: iscrizione@lungomare.org
SATURDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER
2–3 PM
Italian Pavilion, Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale
CONVERSATIONAL TOUR
With Angelika Burtscher, Cecilia Canziani and Daniele Lupo
A guided tour of the exhibition led by Angelika Burtscher, Cecilia Canziani and Daniele Lupo.
An opportunity to delve deeper into the themes of the Italian Pavilion Con te con tutto through an open exchange between the curator and the founders of Lungomare.
SATURDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER
3–7 PM
Italian Pavilion, Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale
FALLING ON THE PAST
Workshop by Valentina Karga and Jacopo Miliani
with Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Karlsruhe, Università Iuav di Venezia – Multimedia Arts Course
Falling on the Past is a collective and embodied exploration that brings the artistic practices of Valentina Karga and Jacopo Miliani into dialogue, moving between ancestral imagination and bodily experience.
The workshop opens with Karga’s video work Prehistoric Posthumans: A Video Storytelling, followed by a hands-on session in which participants cut and shape fabrics inspired by prehistoric figurines. The fabrics then become part of a series of performative exercises inspired by Miliani’s research, focusing on falling as a transformative gesture and on the relationship between body, risk, protection, and surrender. Through movement and the gradual reduction of verbal language, the workshop invites participants to experiment with alternative forms of relation and communication.
Places are limited. Registration is required by September 23, writing to: iscrizione@lungomare.org
To learn more visit: https://www.contecontutto.it/en/public-program/
