EXHIBITION | WeThoughtWeWereAlone

A sculptural landscape by Koen Vanmechelen

Curated by

James Putnam

Through more than 40 new sculptures and installations, Koen Vanmechelen brings together diversity, metamorphosis and the entanglement of species, materials and disciplines. As a sculptural landscape, We Thought We Were Alone unfolds throughout Palazzo Rota Ivancich, shaped by hybridity, vulnerability and transformation.

More about the works

Rooted in Vanmechelen's vision of a Cosmopolitan Renaissance, the exhibition rethinks how we exist in relation to others and to the world we inhabit. Classical forms return altered and unsettled, revealing a reality in which life is not singular or autonomous, but shared and interdependent.

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In dialogue with the Venice Biennale theme, In Minor Keys, a dedicated space is given to Wild Gene, a collaborative project with Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, where sound, ritual and collective voice extend the exhibition beyond form into lived, shared experience.

We were never alone.

More about Wild Gene Festival

“The Wild Gene Festival installation in Venice transforms the Palazzo into a place where art and music combine, inviting visitors to experience and celebrate the rhythms of creativity and connection through this sonic architecture, bringing sound, gesture, and colour together to reflect identity, community, and the living dialogue between humans and nature.”

- Youssou 'N Dour

We Thought We Were Alone prompts a shift from human autonomy over nature to the recognition that we are just part of a vast functional, interconnected system and that it is vital to maintain its equilibrium for our long-term survival.

- Curator James Putnam

More about the Curator