The set design of #NebulaVenice was conceived by the interdisciplinary agency 2050+, Milan

It offers up a meditation on the various visual, acoustic, haptic and mental conditions of nebulosity, attempting to translate them into spatial attributes. The architectural strategy plays with a range of environments, enhancing or obfuscating different senses each time, reacting to the artists’ works and creating moments in which those works spill out from their rooms. Conceived as a series of micro-interventions occupying the spaces of transition between the works, the exhibition design encompasses everything from metal-clad passageways, reverberating as the installation soundtracks play, to soft, tactile environments and soundproofed rooms, geared towards creating moments of sensory isolation. The geography of the venue is transformed into an ecosystem of both existing and newly carved out spaces that ultimately amplify the corporeal experience of the video installations and allow visitors to lose their bearings, albeit temporarily, as they engage with different spatial contexts one after another.

Exhibition set design and scenography: @2050.plus (@ippopeste, @fralantieri, @xxbacinisari, @iasepkm, @nils.nef)
Exhibition set-up: @altofragile_studio (Lapo Gavioli, @vallentinagoretti, Giulia Mainetti, @tiial_, Francesco Rovaldi)

Photos by @_marcog (2050+) ...

It all started with the atmospheric sunsets of Venice

The visual identity and promotional campaign that broadcast #NebulaVenice both online and across Venice stemmed from the collaboration between the graphic designers of Lorenzo Mason Studio (Michele Bellinaso, Simone Spinazzè, and Lorenzo Mason) and photographer Giacomo Bianco

Pictures and videos by Giacomo Bianco ...

With “Machine Boys” (2024), which we produced for the International Exhibition "Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere,” curated by @adrianopedrosa, @karimahashadu was awarded the Silver Lion for Promising Young Artist.

In the words of @aifos_gotti, assistant curator at @labiennale Arte 2024, “In her films Ashadu explores stories with relation to Nigeria and West Africa, focusing on practices of self-determination and resilience, visible in alternative or underground economies of undocumented labourers in Nigeria and Europe – contexts unequivocally entangled with neoliberalism and the legacies of colonial power. Her videos are the product of research projects conducted in close collaboration with their protagonists, also the films’ narrating voices, with whom the artists connects over intense periods of time. ‘Machine Boys’ portrays motorcycle taxis colloquially known as Okada in the mega-city of Lagos. In 2022, numerous accidents involving Okada and the impossibility to regulate its informal economy, led to a ban that made passengers and drivers liable to imprisonment. In ‘Machine Boys’ Ashadu dwells on the consequences of this ban, meanwhile portraying the daily rituals and challenges faced by Okada riders. The riders embody though their stylish attire, and self-assured, powerful behavior, a particular kind of masculinity. Through this exploration of Nigerian patriarchal ideals, Ashadu relates its performance of masculinity to the vulnerability of a precarious class of workers. Ashadu projects the film in a purple room—inspired by one of the biker’s flashing headlights. ‘Wreath,’ the brass sculpture exhibited in the space - an interwoven relief of tyres, evokes a medallion; denoting notions of commemoration and legitimacy.”

Images: 1-6) Karimah Ashadu, “Machine Boys,” 2024; 7) Karimah Ashadu, “Wreath,” 2024. Installation views at La Biennale Arte 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Fondazione in Between Art Film. Photo: @_lorenzo_palmieri ...

Congratulations to @karimahashadu who was awarded the Silver Lion for Promising Young Artist with her video "Machine Boys," which we produced for the International Exhibition "Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere," curated by @adrianopedrosa, at @labiennale 2024

The Jury of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, composed by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Alia Swastika, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Elena Crippa, and María Inés Rodríguez, said: "Karimah Ashadu with her video `Machine Boys` and related brass sculpture, Wreath, upends gendered assumptions about the gaze and what is considered proper to commemorate. With a searing intimacy, she captures the vulnerability of young men from the agrarian north of Nigeria who have migrated to Lagos and end up riding illegal motorbike taxis. Her feminist camera lens is extraordinarily sensitive and intimate, capturing the bikers’ subcultural experience as well as their economic precarity. Masterfully edited to draw out yet subtly critique the performance of masculinity on display, her sensual attention to surfaces of machine, flesh, and cloth reveals the rider’s marginal existence." ...

#NebulaVenice is now open every day (except on Tuesdays) at Complesso dell’Ospedaletto in Venice until November 24, 2024. Come and visit us!

We take this occasion to thank all the incredible professionals without whom our second exhibition in Venice would have not been possible

A deep, heartfelt thank you to the artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Saodat Ismailova, Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado, Diego Marcon, Basir Mahmood, Ari Benjamin Meyers, and Christian Nyampeta who shared their visions with us; to @2050.plus (Sara Barbini, Che Delano Facchin, Nils Grootenzerink, Francesca Lantieri, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli) who conceived the exhibition design; to @altofragile_studio (Lapo Gavioli, Valentina Goretti, Giulia Mainetti, Alessia Pasqualetti, Francesco Rovaldi) who realized the set-up; to @lorenzomasonstudio (Lorenzo Mason, Michele Bellinaso, Simone Spinazzè) who designed the exhibition’s visual identity and printed matters; to the organizational offices @venezia_news and @ospedaletto_contemporaneo; and to @larafacco_press (Lara Facco, Claudia Santrolli), and @mr.sam.talbot (Matthew Brown, Maja Hollmann) who take care of our press relations.

Last but not the least, thanks to our tireless team: Alessandro Rabottini, Leonardo Bigazzi, Alessia Carlino, Bianca Stoppani, Giovanni Giacomo Paolin, Chiara Nicolini, Simona Iandoli

Images: “Nebula”, Fondazione In Between Art Film at Complesso dell’Ospedaletto, Venice, 2024. Courtesy Fondazione In Between Art Film. Photo: @_lorenzo_palmieri ...