Venice · Biennale Arte 2026 · Wilmotte Foundation
Feeling marble.
Ten marble sculptures transform the spaces of the Wilmotte Foundation into a silent garden, where visitors are invited to slow down, observe and approach the material through touch as well. This is the experience offered by Isole del Silenzio (Islands of Silence), Kan Yasuda’s exhibition in Venice, a collateral event of the Biennale Arte 2026.
The exhibition opens with the video Beyond Form, devoted to the process of working marble, and continues into a room immersed in half-light. Here the works, arranged like islands, change appearance as the viewpoint and light shift. Polished forms and carved hollows create a dialogue between solid and void, hardness and softness.
The exhibition suggests a way of encountering sculpture that also involves contact: visitors can sit on the marble forms and feel their temperature and surface. As Yasuda explains, his hope is that the works will be approached with the heart, leaving room for a personal experience. Some embrace them, some lie down on them, some rest an ear against the stone; everyone is free to find their own way of being in front of the material.
Curated by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Isole del Silenzio is installed at the Corte Nuova of the Wilmotte Foundation, on Fondamenta de l’Abbazia, in the Cannaregio district. Admission is free and the exhibition is open until 22 November, Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 1:30 pm and from 2 pm to 6 pm.
Stone is in motion.
