Hosted by the Marciana National Library from April to November 2024, the exhibition project At Home Abroad comprises a cycle of four successive solo exhibitions by prominent contemporary artists who, in keeping with the motto of the 60th Biennale Arte, engage artistically with the theme of foreignness and being foreign.

Presented one after another in the historic spaces of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in St. Mark’s Square, Venice, the solo exhibitions will feature French artist and sculptor Bernar Venet, Czech-German painter Jirí Dokoupil, Austrian sculptor and artist Erwin Wurm, and German painter Dietmar Brixy. All four have been selected for this series of international exhibitions by chief curator Dirk Geuer, who will collaborate with a different co-curator for each show.

As 2024 marks not only the 60th Biennale Arte but also the 700th anniversary of the death of Marco Polo, the Marciana National Library – with its collection of globes and ancient maps, alongside the renowned frescoes by Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese – offers a unique exhibition venue that excellently bridges both commemorations. The ancient globes and early maps in the collection bear witness to expeditions into unknown foreign territories, undertaken with the aim of discovery and documentation.

Just as Marco Polo – whose will is preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana – once did, the first travelers ventured forth by ship to explore the then-uncharted world, gradually becoming familiar with foreign lands. They were the first to be, in the truest sense, “foreigners everywhere.”

Photo Credits: Wurm – Michele Agostinis, Venet – Michele Agostinis, Dokoupil – Tom Wagner, Brixy – AAP (Sebastian Steinhäußer)