Ca' Corner della Regina - Fondazione Prada - Venezia - Diagrams - A Project by AMO/OMA

Photo - Marco Cappelletti - courtesy Fondazione Prada

 

"The project aims to encourage dialogue and speculative reflection 

on the communication of knowledge and data.  

The ultimate goal is to raise awareness of the value and risks inherent 

in a medium that is increasingly used in communications today, 

as well as of its implications for society and the construction of 

personal ideas and identities."

Miuccia Prada 

Ca' Corner della Regina - Fondazione Prada 

Diagrams - A Project by AMO/OMA

Diagrams is a research-driven exhibition by AMO/OMA - founded by Rem Koolhaas - for the Fondazione Prada in Venice, examining how diagrams function as vital tools of visual communication, knowledge creation, and manipulation. At Ca’ Corner della Regina - until November 24 -  the show features over 300 items—including rare books, documents, digital media, and videos—ranging from the 12th century to today. These are organized around nine pressing themes: Built Environment, Health, Inequality, Migration, Environment, Resources, War, Truth, and Value, offering a cross-cultural and historical lens on the diagram’s role in shaping understanding.   Curated in collaboration with Giulio Margheri and scholar Sietske Fransen, the exhibition explores the diagram’s evolution from explanatory to persuasive forms, highlighting its adaptability across time, disciplines, and media—from religion to fashion. Koolhaas emphasizes the diagram’s enduring relevance and its capacity to transcend language. "Diagrams" also traces the influence of modernist aesthetics on contemporary infographics, urging viewers to reconsider how knowledge is structured and shared today.

Exhibition View

Built Environment

Michael Wolgemut - Wilhelm Pleydenwurff - Family tree of Christ and Solomon's Temple Plans for Solomon's Temple - 1493

"When I was young, I was totally fascinated by diagrams and realized that my brain is particularly engaged in - and maybe also particularly capable

of synthesizing complex ideas in accessible form."

Rem Koolhaas

Built Environment - Sustainability

Arthur Bowen - Diagrams of the insulation of a building - 1984

Built Environment - Sustainability 1.1

Atmos Lab with Lacaton & Vassai - Temperature stratification in the Centre Pompidou

-Chenille- glazed walkway - Paris - 2024

Health

Utagawa Kunisada - Toyokuni III - Dietary life rules chart showing ill effects of intemperance and functions of organs - 1850s.c.

Health - Body 2.1

The muscular system - The circulation system - The nervous system - The skeleton - 2022 - In Joelle Jolivet - Il Corpo Umano 

Inequality - 3.1

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois - Occupations of Negroes and whites in Georgia -1900c.

photo - courtesy Fondazione Prada

Migration - 4.1  

Philippe Rekacewirz - The African big wheel - 2007

photo - courtesy Fondazione Prada

Environment

 John Auldjo - Map of Vesuvius showing the direction of the streams of lava in the eruptions from 1631-1831 - 1831

photo - courtesy Fondazione Prada

Environment - 5.1 World

Waqidi Geography Map - 1281

Environment - 5.2 Elements

October monthly averages - Antarctic total ozones - 2022

Resources

Peak streamflows in California from 1905 to 1975 - 1979

photo - courtesy Fondazione Prada

Resources - 6.2 Food

Sankey diagram of the product flows and food waste generated along the food supply chain in Europe 2011 - 2019

Resources - 6.2 Food

AMO The new farmer - 2020

War

Arrangement of troops - 1521

Nicolo Machiavelli - Libro della arte della guerra - 1521

War - 7.2 Atomic Bomb

Robert A. Lewis - Bombing plan for the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima - August 6 - 1945 - 1945

War - 7.2 Atomic Bomb

Picture Post - In Martin Chisholm - The Navy in the Atomic Age - October 25- 1947

Diagram showing what happened to the ships of the - Sitting Duck Fleet - after the bombing - 1947

Truth

Emma willard - The temple of time - 1846

Truth

 Clarence Larkin - I.E. Earle - Chronological geographical, and harmonical bird's-eye view of the life of Christ - 1894

Truth - 8.1 Astronomy

Andreas Cellarius - Map charting the movement of the planets - 1661

Truth - 8.1 Astronomy

Cosmological representations - Various appearances of the sun - moon - stars and clouds and related predictions - 1914

Truth - 8.3 History

Johannes Buno - Mnemonic plate with a dragon symbolizing the fourth 

millennium - 1672

photo - courtesy Fondazione Prada

Value

Italian postal saving banks - Number of passbooks - Average passbook and total deposit at the end of each month from 1876 to 1880 - 1888

Value - 9.1 William Playfair

William Playfair - The trade between England and America from 1700 to 1782 - 1789

Value - 9.2 Fluctuations

Nigel Holmes - Medical care expenditures - 1979

Value - 9.2 Fluctuations

The percentage increase in hosuing prices across EU countries from 2015 to 2023 - 2023

"the diagram has always been an unconventional language for designing, thinking, and communicating without words."

Diagram of Diagrams

In the process of making this exhibition, diagrams were both the material and the means.  The adjacent diagrams emerged as a device to build it- to organize content, test relationships, and maintain diversity.   What you see is both a summary and a trace of that process.

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Piazza San Marco - Museo Correr - Il Correr di Carlo Scarpa 1953-1960

"It's all in the detail"

Museo Correr  

Il Correr di Carlo Scarpa 1953-1960

For the occasion of the 19th International Architecture Biennale the Museo Correr has put on an exhibition dedicated to the work of the  famous Venetian architect and designer Carlo Scarpa - entitled - Il Correr di Carlo Scarpa 1953-1960 - until October 19 - curated by - Chiara Squarcina and Andrea Bellieni, the exhibition brings Scarpa’s design display units - for the Correr - to life with period photos from the MUVE Archive and original pieces he designed for the museum - display cases, easels, supports, and joints - some of which are still in use today.  The exhibition showcases his unique blend of form and function, marked by his signature style and craftsmanship - becoming iconic examples of Italian postwar museography.

  Detail - Case on 'foot' for the Mariegola dei Calafati - 1952-53 

Production - Fabbri Zanon - Venice

Scarpa designed a sleek, wall-mounted wooden display case for important Venetian manuscripts, with a glazed front and top, and a unique central wooden support featuring elegant vertical stripes. This design, combining structure and beauty, also appeared in the Gallerie dell’Accademia. For the 16th-century Mariegola dei Calafati, he created a swiveling trapezoidal case of fine wood and plexiglass on an asymmetrical metal stand. These works reflect Scarpa’s inventive use of materials and his collaboration with skilled Venetian artisans like the Capovilla woodworkers and the blacksmiths Zanon.

Case on 'foot' for the Mariegola dei Calafati - 1952-53 -

Production - Fabbri Zanon - Venice

Wall Inclined Display Case - 1952-53 

Production - Falegnameria Capovilla - Venice

Detail - Case on 'foot' for the Mariegola dei Calafati - 1952-53 

Production - Fabbri Zanon - Venice

Carlo Scarpa’s 1959 Easel for Paintings, designed for the Quadreria Correr, is his most iconic museographic creation. Used in many later exhibitions, it masterfully combines precious wood and natural iron, with refined brass and wood inlays. Though structurally complex, the easel remains elegant and restrained, perfectly balancing function and form.

Easel for Paintings - 1959-1960

Production - Falegnameria Capovilla -  Fabbri Zanon -Venice

Overlooking Piazza San Marco

 Carlo Scarpa - Easel for Paintings -  front and back - 1959-1960

Andrea Bellunello - Madonna in Trono con Bambino 

tra San Giovanni Battista e San Tommaso - 1480ca.

co-curator - Chiara Squarcina -  Mariacristina Gribaudi - President MUVE  

co-curator - Andrea Bellieni

In the ornate Baroque setting of the Pisani Library - lined with carved wooden shelves and lit by a grand Murano chandelier - Scarpa introduced a bold modern contrast: four angled wooden display cases joined by iron supports. Their clean lines and subtle details, like stepped wood edges and laminated vertical supports, quietly echo the room’s craftsmanship while standing apart. Smaller versions carried this refined, functional style into other rooms for books, coins, and documents. The intervention reflects Scarpa’s design philosophy: a sensitive dialogue between past and present, where modern forms enhance, not overshadow, historical context.

Inclined Display Cases for the Pisani Library - 1952-1953

Inclined Display Cases for the Pisani Library - 1952-1953

Production - Falegnameria Capovilla - Venice

In the History and Civilization of Venice rooms, Scarpa designed striking all-glass display cases to hold original Venetian togas. Supported by half-height iron corner posts, the glass sheets are held by finely crafted brass clamps—both structural and decorative. Mostly quadrangular, with one hexagonal and one triangular case, they created a refined contrast with the full-length portraits of patricians wearing the same garments.

Hexagonal Showcase - 1952-1953

Production - Fabbri Zanon - Venice

Hexagonal Showcase -  detail - 1952-1953

 

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Venice - Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Maria Helena Viera da Silva - Anatomy of Space - Exhibition

“I think I’ve lived my entire life in labyrinths. It’s my way of seeing the world.”

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva

 Peggy Guggenheim Collection 

Maria Helena Viera da Silva - Anatomy of Space

At the Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Maria Helena Vieira da Silva: Anatomy of Space -  until September 15 - is a major solo exhibition dedicated to one of the most original artists of the 20th century - curated by -  Flavia Frigeri of the National Portrait Gallery - London.  Featuring about seventy works from top international museums and cultural institutions - including the Centre Pompidou, MoMA, Tate Modern - and others - the exhibition traces the evolution of Vieira da Silva’s unique visual language. It explores the relationship between abstraction and figuration in her work from the 1930s to the late 1980s, with a focus on her fascination with architectural space. The exhibition repositions her art away from its usual association with Art Informel, emphasizing her influences in Paris and Brazil, and her connections to both Peggy Guggenheim and Solomon R. Guggenheim.

The Card Game - Le Jeu de cartes - detail - 1937

Self-Portrait - 1930 + Portrait of Arpad - 1931

© Willy Maywald, Courtesy Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris-Lisbon - courtesy Peggy Guggenheim Collection

“When you love and you’re a painter the model you love becomes more beautiful every day,”  

Arpad Szenes 

Born in Lisbon, Vieira da Silva - 1908 -1992 - trained in Lisbon and Paris. Her work merges tradition with modernity, often portraying labyrinthine spaces, chromatic rhythms, and fragmented perspectives. Pieces like The Tiled Room - 1935 - and Ballet Figure - 1948 - reveal her interest in dissolving the line between figure and background. She approached art as an extension of herself, with the studio becoming both her workspace and subject.  The exhibition begins with her symbiotic relationship with husband and fellow artist Arpad Szenes, followed by early works from the 1930s exploring skeletal architectural forms. 

 

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and Arpad Szenes in their studio -  Paris - 1937

Works like Composition - 1936 - above -  and - Dance - 1938 - introduce themes of movement and strategy, echoed in her wartime pieces created during exile in Brazil. These include The Disaster - 1942 - and  - The Drowned  - 1938 -  reflecting the emotional toll of World War II.

 Composition - January 1936 + Composition - 1936

The Arena - 1950 + detail

Curator - Flavia Frigeri  and Karole Vail - director - Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Post-war, Vieira da Silva developed a more abstract style marked by complex, labyrinth-like structures and urban landscapes, as seen in Paris - the Night - 1951 - and Venetian Celebration - 1949 - above. Later works focus on public architecture and the interplay of internal and external space. 

Venetian Celebration - 1949

Checkmate - detail -  1949-50

The Sleep - 1969

© Willy Maywald, Courtesy Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris-Lisbon - courtesy peggy guggenheim Collection 

"We paint at the same times, but each in our own studio. We go in together, we leave together. We lead the life of bank employees, at least in terms of regular working hours.”

Arpad Szenes 

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva in her studio -Paris - 1948

The final sections present her darker-toned paintings from the 1960s and the luminous White Compositions - above - underscoring the symbolic and expressive role of white in her oeuvre. The final room offers a mini-retrospective of Vieira da Silva’s career, united by the color white. Known for her mastery of vivid tones, Vieira da Silva saw white as timeless—expressing emotions beyond any season. In her later years, she embraced white almost exclusively, giving her work a deep, spiritual dimension.

Exhibition View  + Equity - 1966

 Press Breakfast

Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Terrace

 

 

 

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