Contemporary Art Meets the Old Masters in Venice
The Rita Sabo "Sacred Planet" exhibition opened on Friday 23 June 2023, in parallel with the 18th Biennale Architettura 2023, in the Sale Monumentali of the historic Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. L'Officiel Austria reports on the exhibition and provides exclusive insights into the works of Rita Sabo.
In a solo exhibition entitled "Sacred Planet", Sabo's works will be placed in dialogue with wall and ceiling paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. From June 24th till July 23th 2023, the world-famous Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, located directly on St Mark's Square in Venice, will present the works of Rita Sabo.
In the historic monumental halls (Sale Monumentali), 11 large-format paintings by the artist will be on display. In addition, an impressive sculpture depicting the "Sacred Planet" as such will be on display. In terms of content as well as form, Sabo circles the theme of sustainability in all the works exhibited there, centring on the earth as a sacred and thus untouchable planet. Thus, Sabo's kaleidoscopic, colourful works can be understood as an artistic appeal to pay more respect to the earth as a habitat.
The artist's works combine with the opulent spaces of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in an enigmatic environment full of vibrating colours and dimensions. The artist invites all visitors to immerse themselves in her immersive "multi-worlds" and to circle around the "Sacred Planet" in their minds. At the same time, Rita Sabo's works enter into a fruitful dialogue with important Renaissance works by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and other great masters.
"This city touches me on many levels. On the one hand, because the art and architecture here tell so many stories and the language of the symbols impresses me very much. On the other hand, because the love story with my husband began here. Love is the greatest inspiration in my eyes - and I feel it particularly strongly here," says Rita Sabo about her exhibition venue Venice. As part of the vernissage, the artist Rita Sabo was joined by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Wilhelm (Board ZERO foundation), Margherita Venturelli (Deputy Museum Director) and Dr. h.c. Ute- Henriette Ohoven (Special Ambassador UNESCO & Founder YOU Foundation).
The exhibition was curated by Manfred Möller and promoted and organised by the Association for Art in Public Dirk Geuer.
About the artist
Rita Sabo grew up in Jerusalem and later in Basel and Zurich, among other places, where she first attended local art schools before studying painting at the Invers School of Design in Olten, Switzerland. This led her a little later to the renowned Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design in London. The young artist, who grew up multilingually, uses her visual language to explore the meaning of old symbols in the context of our modern times, and in her work she allows them to be reinterpreted in the sense of an artistic update. In the form of a new symbol dictionary bearing Sabo's artistic signature, the mystical to religious signs from the past find a present and future-oriented artistic reworking. Many of the symbols that are considered obsolete today are artistically reinterpreted by Sabo and made recyclable in their symbolic value for the 21st century.
The Sacred Planet - a contemporary symbol of global sustainability
The "Sacred Planet", a meaningful symbol created by Rita Sabo that shows the dignity and inviolability of the earth in the form of a planet, encompassed by two rings that symbolise the continuous flow of energy. In this way, she expresses her vision of a holistically lived, global sustainability. She has thus created a contemporary symbol with great relevance and topicality. Made of high-quality and sustainable materials, the "Sacred Planet" stands as an icon of a new consciousness in art on the threshold of global change. The canonisation of the earth as a planet that should no longer be polluted and exploited, but should regain protection and respect as a biodiverse habitat, is the central theme of Sabo's artistic appeal.
About the venue
Founded in 1468, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice is one of the most important and largest libraries in Italy. Its holdings include important collections of Greek, Latin and Oriental manuscripts. In total, the storehouse of knowledge houses over one million objects, including incunabula, prints, maps and around 13,000 manuscripts. Among the numerous historical treasures and precious items in the library are the testament of the famous Venetian adventurer and explorer Marco Polo and two editions of Homer's Iliad from the 11th and 12th centuries. In addition, the library shines with its magnificent "Monumental Halls" with wall and ceiling paintings by the Renaissance artists Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. Formerly a place of study and meditation, the hall once used by great scholars, brilliant strategists and crowned heads, which can be reached via the Museo Correr, now hosts exhibitions.
