Adele Re Rebaudengo, President of the Venice Gardens Foundation, and curator Chiara Bertola have invited artists Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham to show selected works by their design collective LABINAC in the Greenhouse of the Royal Gardens, “The Human Garden”, during the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.
LABINAC was commissioned by the Venice Gardens Foundation to design work tables for the Royal Gardens, in keeping with the Foundation’s idea that the Gardens should be also a meeting place where researchers and artists can develop the vast metaphorical concept of the garden, sowing signs, sounds and words, cultivating and nurturing new visions.
“Architecture must begin with a specific place, considering the nature of the surroun- dings. Every building is created in a garden, whether or not that is recognized”, says Maria Thereza Alves.
LABINAC is presenting thirty tables that were specifically designed for the Royal Gardens by the two artists. The tables that were donated by Alves and Durham to the Venice Gardens Foundation will remain as a site-specific perma- nent installation at the venue after the end of the Biennale.
The exhibition also includes eight vases by Maria Thereza Alves, from the series Cloudstone, Perfectly Imperfect, Allelic Combinations and Forms of Life. All the objects are one of a kind. They were made at different glass workshops through a process of experimentation between the artist and the master glassblowers. Durham will also exhibit a chandelier inspired by trees and the play of light on leaves and on broken glass.
Both Alves and Durham drew inspiration from the Mediterranean Pine Tree. Alves designed eight research tables from Green Serpentine Marble to represent the trees as seen from above or below. According to Durham: “We humans always need to know that the rest of nature is close.” LABINAC’s “Echoes of the Forest” scattered throughout the greenhouse opens the possibility of myriad lessons that flora can teach us and reminds us of our need to engage in an inclusive dialo- gue, which encourages relational practices, and the challenges that this involves.
Opening dates and times Press Conference:
May 18, 2021, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The artists will be present.
Open to the public:
Inauguration May 18, 2021 at 6 p.m. The artists will be present.
May 19 - June 5, 2021
Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m Closed Mondays
By appointment only:
September 3 - September 17, 2021 Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays
Press contacts
PCM Studio di Paola C. Manfredi | via Farini 70, 20159 Milano
Paola C. Manfredi | paola.manfredi@paolamanfredi.com
Francesca Ceriani| francesca@paolamanfredi.com | +39 340 9182004
Press enquiries should be addressed to:
Teodora Kotseva | ted.kotseva@gmail.com | + 359 878 282897
LABINAC, table designed by Jimmie Durham for LABINAC,
photo Andrea Avezzù