Lorenzo Quinn. Anime di Venezia - Souls of Venice

MARCO POLO AT PALAZZO DUCALE
The exhibition at Ca' Rezzonico will have an exceptional preview: from April 6th, a sculpture by Quinn depicting Marco Polo will welcome visitors to Palazzo Ducale, right at the entrance to the Doge's Apartments, on the occasion of "The Worlds of Marco Polo. The journey of a Venetian merchant of the 13th century," the main event exhibition of the Polo celebrations, organized by Fondazione Musei Civici and open from April 6th to September 29th, 2024.

THE "SOULS" OF CA' REZZONICO
AN ACT OF LOVE FOR VENICE EMBRACING THE WHOLE WORLD

In addition to the replica of Marco Polo already present at Palazzo Ducale, visitors to Ca' Rezzonico will be able to admire the statues in metal mesh of Lorenzo Tiepolo, Caterina Corner, Veronica Franco, Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopia, Carlo Goldoni, Antonio Vivaldi, Marietta Barovier, Elisabetta Caminer Turra, Andrea Palladio, Antonio Canova, Tiziano Vecellio, Rosalba Carriera, Giacomo Casanova, and the "universal" Marco Polo symbolically represented by the figure of the Gondolier inviting everyone to intervene to "save Venice and the whole world."

"In its being together present past and future, Venice has inspired this installation that wants to symbolize my "journey" into the soul of the City," says Lorenzo Quinn. An homage to all the "Souls" who have lived here, and who will live here forever.
"Men through artistic creation seek to tell their past and their present. These statues of illustrious Venetians, women and men, are testimony to the uniqueness of our being "works of art" forged by the hands of Mother Earth."

They remind us that there is only one planet that we must save, starting from Venice. "Saving Venice means saving the whole World. Venice is a place of freedom, a time of great power, and today a symbol of climatic fragility. It is a place where Art has been shaped over the centuries. It will remain so through these statues. Crossing Time to today and tomorrow. And perhaps beyond, forever." concludes Quinn.

The exhibition hosted at Ca' Rezzonico contributes to enriching the schedule of contemporary art exhibitions in the city, with a project that combines past and future: it is a tribute to Venice itself and its historical protagonists, who come to life in Quinn's interactive works and remind us, within the mission of museums, how culture, historical heritage expressed in collections, are always living forms of the present, emphasizes Mariacristina Gribaudi, President of MUVE.

Chiara Squarcina, curator of the exhibition, writes, "Immortality has always been linked to the soul, never to the body. The eternity of being compared to the transience of materiality is what we clearly perceive from Lorenzo Quinn's project. Of these characters, embedded in our memory, we read the aesthetic of a memory as the first neural connection to trace their physiognomy, but it is only the prologue of this incredible experience. A first visual approach that will allow us to connect with these characters, thanks to the virtual solution proposed by Quinn."

For Alberto Toso Fei, who has taken on the artistic direction of the project, "Venice is the zero line of time. It is the place where everything that has existed, exists, and will exist translates into a 'forever' that knows no interruption. The souls that emerge in this journey - chosen from the thousand possible ones - are voices that populate every present, because Venice is made of its entire past. They are men and women who, by living it fully, have reshaped Venice to make it what it is: they have made it, and in telling their story they tell hers. Despite the time that has passed and the glimpse of history that has seen them transit through these places, something of them has remained in Venice, and will remain forever. They are souls, which all together mark the present of Venice, the city of cities, to which they are indissolubly united for eternity."

Lorenza Lain, Project Coordinator, comments: "It is an installation designed for the celebrations of Marco Polo and created specifically for Ca' Rezzonico on which Lorenzo has worked in the last year. Two main pillars; On one side, Venice, the city of cities from which everything originates: 'Venice is the oldest city of the future' (quote by Bruno Tosi); On the other, Marco Polo, the world's most famous Venetian, who 'comes to life' through augmented reality, becoming at the same time the narrative voice and 'the gaze' through which this journey through time, physical and spiritual, is 'seen' and traveled. In Lorenzo's imagination, in fact, the characters not only 'embody' Venice but also indelibly fix its eternal Soul". A hymn to Beauty, just as the famous "Support" hands created for Ca' Sagredo were.

Patrizia Zambelli, Architect, technical director: "Venice that encapsulates everything in one, which today and in the future will be the journey into the past of the centuries of its magnificent essence, expressed in Art, Architecture, Music, Theater that the great Souls of its history have transmitted to the world; Venice that is the journey of journeys".

THE ARTIST
Lorenzo Quinn is an internationally renowned figurative sculptor of Italian-American descent, born in Rome in 1966 to the Oscar-winning Mexican-American actor Anthony Quinn and his second wife, costume designer Iolanda Addolori.
During his years of study at the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York, Quinn realized that, among all the arts, his future would lie in sculpture.
All his public artworks, as well as his smaller pieces, convey his passion for eternal values and authentic emotions.
In particular, many of his most famous works represent expressive reconstructions of human hands: "I wanted to sculpt what is considered the most difficult and technically challenging part of the human body," Quinn says. "The hand holds so much: the power to love, to hate, to create, and to destroy."

WORKS AROUND THE WORLD
Over the past two decades, Lorenzo Quinn's works have been exhibited worldwide.

The communicative power and immediacy of the message are indeed the elements that characterize his sculptures, especially the monumental public artworks that Quinn has exhibited in many prestigious international contexts, captivating global audiences, often with charitable and philanthropic purposes: in Park Lane, Barkely Square, and Cadogan Gardens in London, in the courtyard of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, at the Casina Valadier in Rome, in front of the Church of San Martino in Birmingham, in front of the Cathedral of Palermo, at the Paramount Group skyscraper on Avenue of the Americas in New York, and at the Museum of Modern Art in Palma de Mallorca; on the Doha waterfront in Qatar, on the roof of the Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai overlooking the Huangpu River.

Among the monumental works, "Support" (2017) stands out, exhibited in Venice - the hands of a child emerging from the waters of the Grand Canal to support Ca' Sagredo, a symbol of the beauty and fragility of the city - "Building Bridges" (2019) at the Arsenale in Venice - six pairs of hands representing the six universally recognized essential values: friendship, wisdom, help, faith, hope, and love. "Give" (2020) installed also in the Boboli Gardens of the Uffizi in Florence, to testify to the importance of "giving." Among the latest works, "Baby 3.0" installed in the Garden of the Metropolitan City (2022) again in Venice, with which the Artist hopes for a new Re-birth of Humanity.

Also of strong impact is "Together" (2021), a land art piece presented first in Cannes and then in the exhibition "Forever is Now" in Egypt, on the occasion of the first contemporary art event held at the UNESCO site of the Giza Pyramids; "The Greatest Goal" (2022) for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Building Bridges in Vieste (2023), and "Paint your Life" (2024) in Caorle (Venice).