"... unfolding through folds, burnings, and unstable surfaces, where Saytour's material research
encounters Piero Manzoni’s conceptual ‘reduction’ -‘azzeramento’ - giving shape to a radical
dialogue on gesture and time."
Venice Biennale Preview
Fondazione dell'Albero d'Oro - Palazzo Vendramin Grimani
Patrick Saytour. Le Pli et Le Temps / La Piega e il Tempo
At Palazzo Vendramin Grimani on the Canal Grande at the Fondazione dell'Albero d'Oro - the exhibition - Patrick Saytour. Le Pli et le temps / La Piega e il Tempo - Fold and Time - until November 22 - curated by Daniela Ferretti. It is the first exhibition in Italy dedicated to French
artist - Patrick Saytour - unfolding through folds, burnings, and unstable surfaces, where the artist's material research
encounters Piero Manzoni’s conceptual ‘reduction’ - azzeramento - giving shape to a radical
dialogue on gesture and time.
The exhibition brings together works shaped through folds, cuts, burning, tearing, solarisation, stitching, and manipulation of textiles. These processes form a visual language rooted in both material presence and the passage of time.
Important series include Plié/Déplié, where folded and unfolded fabrics become records of gesture and memory, and Repliés and Brûlages, where shadows, scars, and marks remain visible on the surface.
“Surfaces that refuse to be fixed in a single form.”
Patrick Saytour - 1935–2023 - was one of the leading figures of the French Supports/Surfaces and one of the key protagonists of the French Pictorial Experimentation movement, which emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group challenged traditional ideas of painting by focusing on material, structure, gesture, and process rather than representation and all united by theoretical debate and an engagement in unconventional exhibition strategies that they practiced together.
“The works inhabit the space, revealing its folds, layers, and temporalities.”
Rather than acting as a simple backdrop, Palazzo Vendramin Grimani becomes an active presence within the exhibition. Its decorated rooms, stucco details, historic floors, and views over the Canal Grande create a setting that responds directly to Saytour’s work. The relationship between the palace and the artworks highlights themes of memory, permanence, fragility, and time.
Each room is a threshold, an experience in which the
work must be perceived before it is looked at.
Numerous series trace the artist’s trajectory, such as Plié/Déplié, which present themselves
as archives of time, draperies that recount the memory of gestures and matter. The fold
becomes a metaphor for ethics capable of embracing complexity, imperfection and irregularity.
Curator - Daniela Ferretti
The decorated rooms of Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, the views over the Canal Grande, the stuccoes, the floors, the building’s very architecture, become both frame and counterpoint for fabrics that are folded, burned, or left in the sun.
Palazzo Vendramin Grimani is an emblematic building of the
Venetian Renaissance, now managed and brought to life by the Fondazione dell’Albero
d’Oro. Committed to an exacting programme of restoration, research, and knowledge-sharing, the foundation aims to make this palace a vibrant place for reflection and
creation, open to the public and to international exchange.
Secretary General - Fondazione dell'Alberto d'Oro - Beatrice de Reynies
