META_Paradiso from September 17 at Caffè Paradiso
From September 17, 2025, Caffè Paradiso will host the collective exhibition META_Paradiso, curated by the Concilio Europeo dell’Arte on the occasion of the Foundation’s 20th anniversary.
The exhibition stems from a radical question: what makes us human?
In an era where identity fragments, memory becomes digitalized, and the imagination shifts between the real and the artificial, META_Paradiso unfolds as a journey through painting, collage, installations, and video-performance, inviting the public to reflect on the relationship between body, image, and transformation.
The project brings together artists who, over the years, have collaborated with the Concilio Europeo dell’Arte, intertwining generations and diverse languages. The works of Vincenzo Eulisse open the reflection on the body as a site of metamorphosis, blending Renaissance sacredness and industrial landscapes into powerful, unsettling collages. Alongside him, Claire Fontaine with The World’s Mine Oyster presents a luminous icon taken from the emoji repertoire, suspended between nature and digital culture. The oyster, both fragile and resilient, recalls centuries of representation and restores an image that is immediate yet dense with symbolic stratifications.
The path continues with Rafael Megall, whose pictorial language transforms the icon into a political and ornamental symbol, reflecting on the power of images in the contemporary era. With Michelangelo Pistoletto, the mirror becomes a relational device: The Girl Taking a Picture places the viewer at the center of the work, renewing the concept of the Third Paradise, a balance between nature and artifice. The theme of corporeality also finds expression in performative works: the video-performance Dye by Kawita Vatanajyankur and the flashmob “Y la culpa no era mía” give the body its role as a tool of social and political protest. On the upper floor, the works of Sciacca and Grippo, interpreted by Achille Bonito Oliva as part of “Metamorphism,” introduce new trajectories suspended between classical myth, political critique, and contemporary existentialism.
With META_Paradiso, the Concilio celebrates its 20 years of activity, renewing its mission: to support art as a tool of research and cultural regeneration, capable of creating connections across generations, languages, and territories. The exhibition thus marks a significant chapter in this journey, uniting memory and future through the transformative power of creativity.
META_Paradiso
📅 From September 17, 2025
📍 Caffè Paradiso, Giardini della Biennale – Venice
Date
From September 17, 2025
Press review
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