THE EXHIBITION AT PALAZZO FRANCHETTI EXPLORES HOW cleavage has been represented in visual arts. more than thirty established and emerging artists from all over the world animate the mezanine of the ancient building.
Palazzo Franchetti, built in the second half of the fifteenth century in Venice, returns to be the protagonist on the occasion of the 60th International Art Exhibition of Venice with Breasts, the collective exhibition curated by Carolina Pasti (starting from 18 April 2024) focused on breasts and on all its representations in art. An exhibition project, in collaboration with ACP Palazzo Franchetti, which delves into the investigations and styles of over thirty artists – both emerging and non-emerging – from all over the world, moving from motherhood to empowerment, from sexuality, to body image and disease, with the aim of raising public awareness about the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.
The “Breasts” exhibition at Palazzo Franchetti in Venice
The Breast exhibition is divided into five chapters that take shape in the mezzanine rooms of Palazzo Franchetti. We start from the historical representation of the breast and the construction of narratives linked to the female body through the works of the great Renaissance Masters, focusing on the iconography of the Madonna del Latte. An iconic image that has also influenced contemporary artists, such as Cindy Shermann, Richard Dupont, Teniqua Clementine Crawford and Sherrie Levine.In the second room we move on to the reworking of the décolleté through the sculptural language with Prière de toucher (Please touch) by Marcel Duchamp, the pectoral plates by Claude Lalanne and the sculpture by Prune Nourry. We then move on to photography, and more precisely to the lens of Robert Mapplethorpe and Irving Penn and their symbolic and unconventional representations full of dreamlike or abstract elements. Subsequently, we delve into the breast as a marketing tool, hosting shots by fashion photographers who have been able to subvert the conventional role of advertising, causing discomfort and confusion, such as Oliviero Toscani. Finally, in the fourth room the works of Chloe Wise, Sarah Lucas, Louise Bourgeois, Aurora Pellizzi and Laure Prouvost fragment, abstract and deconstruct the breast, contributing to a new vision of identity and its development in contemporary arts.