Symposium on moving images, aesthetics, and politics: October 26–27, 2026
Venice
Italy
Fondazione In Between Art Film announces the public programme for Canicula, the group exhibition currently on view in Venice at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto, staged to coincide with the Venice Biennale 2026.
Following through on the curatorial, artistic and architectural concepts embodied in the exhibition, which used the conditions of blinding light and scorching heat as the material and metaphorical frames within which matter, people and ideas are subject to immense pressure, Canicula’s public programme will take the form of a two-day symposium reflecting on the aesthetics and politics of art and exhibition-making during the current cultural, political, social and climate crises.
Participants from across the fields of the visual arts, cinema, performance, literature and law will gather to navigate a collective path through the tensions between the un-/representable and the un-/thinkable. In other words, over the course of a series of conversations, lectures, discussions and screenings, the programme will explore limits and possibilities in the cultural mediation of a reality that feels increasingly overwhelming.
Speakers include 2050+ architects Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli and Francesca Lantieri, artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, scholar Damir Arsenijevic, curator Leonardo Bigazzi, writer Daniel Blanga-Gubbay, curator Enrico Camporesi, scholar Xenia Chiaramonte, artists Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti, curator Daphne Dragona, curator Chema González, artists Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, curator Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, writer Quinn Latimer, curator Alvin Li, theorist Doreen Mende, curator Alessandro Rabottini, artist Janis Rafa, programmer Julian Ross, curator Natalia Sielewicz, artist P. Staff, researcher Bianca Stoppani, artist Wang Tuo, artist Yuyan Wang, artist Maya Watanabe and curator Daniela Zyman.
Canicula is curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi, and is the third and final chapter in the “Trilogy of Uncertainties.” This series of exhibitions, which began in 2022 with Penumbra and continued in 2024 with Nebula, has deployed each time a different atmospheric phenomenon in order to explore states of vision as metaphors for the human condition. All three exhibitions are commissioned and produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film, the initiative conceived by Beatrice Bulgari to promote the culture of moving images and to support international artists, institutions and researchers in their explorations of the dialogue between disciplines and time-based media.
The public programme of Canicula is curated by Bianca Stoppani and organized in collaboration with Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection Venezia. It will be held on October 26–27, 2026 at the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi, Venice. The programme builds upon and extends the work of Vanishing Points, which accompanied Penumbra in 2022 and investigated the margins of representation, and that of Thick Atmospheres, which was staged alongside Nebula in 2024 and examined both the environmental aspects of media and the medial aspects of environments.
Fondazione In Between Art Film’s publications, including the newly released catalogue for Canicula, will be available to purchase at the symposium’s pop-up book corner, alongside a selection of monographs on the Canicula artists.
In conjunction with the exhibition and its public programme, Fondazione In Between Art Film has implemented a number of educational partnerships with local universities, including the Accademia Belle Arti Venezia; the Department of the Arts, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna; the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia; the School for Curatorial Studies Venice; and Università Iuav di Venezia, with a view to offering their students a wide range of formative experiences.
Please visit inbetweenartfilm.com or follow @fondazioneinbetweenartfilm on Instagram for details on the full programme of the symposium accompanying Canicula.
Press & media contact
For international media inquiries, please contact Sam Talbot: Matthew Brown, matthew@sam-talbot.com, T +44 (0) 7989 446557
For Italian media inquiries, please contact Lara Facco P&C: Lara Facco, larafacco@larafacco.com, T +39 349 2529989 / Marianita Santarossa, marianitasantarossa@larafacco.com, T +39 333 422 4032
About Fondazione In Between Art Film
The cultural programme of Fondazione In Between Art Film is focused on the role of contemporary moving images and the support of international artists, institutions, and research centres exploring the dialogue between different disciplines. The Fondazione investigates the boundaries of time-based media—film, video, performance and installation—through commissioning and producing new works, organizing exhibitions and public programs, collaborating with international institutions, and producing editorial projects. The Fondazione continues and expands the work of the production company In Between Art Film, which from 2012–2019 supported video and filmic productions by international artists and directors.
