Palazzo Grassi
HYPERVENEZIA
Palazzo Grassi reopened to the public after extensive restorations with the photographic exhibition - HYPERVENEZIA - until January 9, curated by Matthieu Humery. The exhibition is specifically dedicated to the city of Venice on the occasion of the 1600th
anniversary of its foundation. It presents the ambitious Venice Urban Photo
Project, conceived and developed by Mario Peliti.
The Map
A sight-specific map of the city made of approximately 900 geolocalised images offers a panoramic view of Venice.
Mario Peliti - Rome - 1958 - studied architecture and is a publisher and gallery owner. In 2006 he starts to photograph and systematically map the city with the aim to form an archive of
images that is the widest and most organic ever created and to offer a unique representation of the entire
urban fabric of Venice, in its complexity and continuity. This photography archive currently amounts to 12.000
images, all in black and white, taken under the same lighting conditions, without any shadows and, most of all,
in the absence of any human presence.
Mario Peliti
Santa Croce
Isola Nova del Tronchetto - 2021
San Marco
Pescaria - San Bartolomeo - 2019
Fondamenta Tragheto del Buso - 2015
A linear path of almost 400 photographs marks out an ideal trail
through the sestieri – neighbourhoods – of Venice which offers the visitor a radical visual experience: the Venice we know disappears to give way
to a parallel Venice, an empty and timeless one. From the Serenissima presented in its pure materiality
emerges this unsettling strangeness that characterises any city that has been emptied of its inhabitants.
Dorsoduro - Giudecca
Molino Stuky - 2014
Complesso Residenziale - 2019
Complesso Residenziale - 2017
Santa Croce
Campo Santa Maria Maggiore - 2016
Santa Croce
Piazzale Roma - 2021
Castello
Arsenale - 2016
The Video Installation
A video installation of over 3.000 shots that scroll
accompanied by a soundtrack composed specifically for the show by musician and composer Nicolas Godin,
and a member of the electronic music duo Air.
Castello
Arsenale - 2020
Castello
Giardini della Biennale - 2020
"The resulting image of Venice is nothing like the photography books we are used to see. The viewer may find it perplexing because such an image is far from the usual cliches and way beyond the reality it shows us. Although this coincidence could not have been 'planned' by Politi when he began this adventure, the vision he offers us corresponds to that of the city under strict lockdown during the pandemic, and anticipates the appearance Venice would take on if the depopulation that has emptied it of two-thirds of it citizens in half a century keeps growing at its present rate. Hence the title Hypervenezia, which was chosen by the curator Matthieu Humery, to convey this feeling of strangeness which subverts our recognition of places we could have wandered through without really noticing them."
Bruno Racine
Director and CEO - Palazzo Grassi - Punta della Dogana
Calle del Solfarin - 2020
The project aims to revive the methodological and formal rigor of major photographic
campaigns of the 19th and 20th century in order to provide a perception of Venice from the beginning of the 21st century that is as exhaustive
as possible.
San PoloCampiello de la Scuola - 2019
Castello
Giardini della Biennale - 2020
The Catalogue
The HYPERVENEZIA catalogue - Venice Urban Photo Project conceived and photographed by Mario Peliti - is published by Marsiglio and written in three languages. Designed by Sonnoli studio, it includes around 400 photographs and narrative contributions by Alain Fleischer and architect Franco Mancuso, as well as an introductory text by the curator Matthieu Humery.