Venice is a city shaped by water and imagination, a place where histories overlap, and craftsmanship has long held the power to turn the ephemeral into the eternal. In this spirit, Fondazione Dries Van Noten emerges as a new cultural and artistic landmark, rooted in the city’s history and committed to its creative future.

Housed within Palazzo Pisani Moretta, the Fondazione brings contemporary purpose to one of Venice’s most storied palazzos. Centuries of craftsmanship serve as a backdrop for new dialogues: between artworks and artisans, between past and present, and between local talent and international creativity. The Fondazione reflects a belief in craftsmanship as an act of cultural identity, thinking with one’s hands, shaping meaning through material, gesture, time, and space. It is a place for transition and transformation, where traditions are not preserved in stillness but carried forward through continual reinvention.

Currently on view at the Fondazione is The Only True Protest Is Beauty: a temporary presentation exploring beauty as a charged encounter, capable of unsettling the familiar and making space for the unexpected. Within the palazzo’s many winding rooms, craftsmanship engages emotion and material inquiry in a constellation formed through mastery, set in dialogue with the historic architecture that houses it.

Curated by Dries Van Noten, The Only True Protest Is Beauty is on view at Fondazione Dries Van Noten from April 25 - October 4, 2026.

Photography by Anna Sabatini