In a magical atmosphere of a Venice always crowded with tourists, rainy and with clear flashes of sun that lit up Piazza San Marco, in the House of The Human Safety Net – space located inside the Procuratie Vecchie – the work of Arthur Duff was inaugurated in the presence of the President of Generali, Andrea Sironi, of the President of The Human Safety Net Foundation, Gabriel Galateri, of the Secretary General, Emma Ursich, the artist Arthur Duff and the curator Luca Massimo Barbero. The installation presented is part of the two-year project of the Art Studio which will be curated by Luca Massimo Barbero.
"Hungry Eye" is the title of Arthur Duff's work
The work is sort of kaleidoscope of colored lights it is created by a laser system that welcomes visitors in a semi-dark room, and in addition to being a perceptive stimulus it is above all a sensory experience. The inspiration comes from the nineteenth-century Japanese woodcuts depicting fireworks, designed to astound and surprise the eye of the beholder. A laser composition of the representation of the strengths takes about two minutes, but after thirty seconds it can leave room for the representation of a new image that is always different. The interactive experience certainly does not prevent the visitor from immersing himself in a state of strong emotion, almost a narration that goes beyond the provoked imagination.
It's Andrea Sironi, president of Assicurazioni Generali, to greet the guests and to open the presentation “We live in a historical moment in which inequalities are increasing due to the overlapping of systemic crises. Generali looks to global challenges by playing the role of insurer, investor, employer and responsible corporate citizen, to make a positive and tangible contribution within the communities where it operates. The HumanSafety Net foundation operates in this sense, to make a difference for thousands of vulnerable families and refugees eager to rebuild a life project through a new career path".
Follows Gabriele Galateri di Genola, President of The Human Safety Net Foundation, which points out: “With the work of Arthur Duff, the Foundation celebrates a year of activity in its House at the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice, a space open to dialogue and comparison, also through the privileged language of art, with the aim of generating social innovation with a positive impact on the community. Never before in a historical phase like this, characterized by uncertainty and change, can the foundation's mission affect people's welfare. From its establishment in 2017 to the end of 2022, The Human Safety Net Foundation has reached more than 210 people, including parents, children and refugees, collaborating with 77 NGO partners in 24 countries where the Group operates".
Arthur Duff :“The Hungriest Eye–The Blossoming of Potential” is an artwork that begins as a collaboration with The Human Safety Net, and for me, as an artist, it is a unique opportunity to investigate the unseen aspects of art objects as physical and non-physical interconnected systems. I would like to create collaborative spaces where the public can actively participate in the shaping of the artwork through their personal experience of the museum in its entirety. The implication of the viewer is integrated into the
structure of the artwork and incorporated within the House of The HumanSafety Net”.
Luca Massimo Barbero, curator of the Art Studio, explains:"The ArtStudio is a place of visual and personal experimentation that the visitor makes through his own experience throughout this extraordinary level of TheHumanSafetyNet, a suspended place and a visual pivot to be reached right in the heart of Venice. The theme is to create a network that connects the activities of The HumanSafety Net space to art, but also to the social issues that develop and are represented in it. Arthur Duff creates a collected and visually strong moment that conceptually starts from the history of vision, of the ephemeral and the marvelous like the great Eastern tradition of fireworks, and brings it back to the contemporary in the center of Piazza San Marco thus involving the visitor's eye in that exercise that we all have to do every day in this extraordinary city and more in general in life”.
The Foundation celebrates one year of activity in its home at the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice
Space The Human Safety Net is open to dialogue and comparison, also through the privileged language of art, with the aim of generating social innovation with a positive impact on the community. From its establishment in 2017 to the end of 2022, The Human Safety Net Foundation has reached more than 210 people, including parents, children and refugees, collaborating with 77 NGO partners in 24 countries where the Group operates".
The House of The Human Safety Net is open every day except Tuesday from 10.00 to 19.00
On 15 and 16 April, admission will be free for all residents of the Metropolitan City of Venice, for holders of the Venezia Unica card and for students of Venetian universities.
Duff's work completes the itinerary of the permanent exhibition "A world of potential”, a unique opportunity to visit the Venetian space that perfectly acts as a synthesis between the ancient and the contemporary.
