To coincide with the opening days of the 61st Venice Biennale Art Exhibition, In Minor Keys, CREA – Cantieri del Contemporaneo, is pleased to announce Widespread Seeds, deep program of exhibitions, public art, installations, perfromarce and talks taking place on 7 and 8 May 2026 at the CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo spaces located in the former Venetian historical shipyard on the island of Giudecca (VE).
Widespread Seeds envisions the Cantiere as a communal garden and botanical garden where each of the eight partners involved, both national and international, sows, activates and allows their own imprint to take root in the spaces they traverse through practices and proposals involving more than 50 international artists.
The seeds free to disperse, invade and intertwine within the spaces of CREA – Cantieri del Contemporaneo are:
Keita Miyazaki, with his site-specific work A Symbiotic Form will inaugurate the new CREA Garden, an exhibition garden that will host the Japanese artist’s modular sculpture, on display from 9 May 2026 at the Museum of Oriental Art in Venice – Ca’ Pesaro.
Thanks to the valuable collaboration with Gallery Rosenfeld London, the installation, in fact, takes shape as the second part of the exhibition entitled “Keita Miyazaki – From Water To Form. The rituality of creation bridging ancient and contemporary Japan”, curated by Pier Paolo Scelsi, Ilaria Cera and Riccardo Freddo, engages in a dialogue on the themes of craftsmanship, the shaping of materials and the rituality of the production
process, delicately intertwining with the museum’s permanent collection; a narrative of traditional and contemporary Japan that meets the artisanal craftsmanship of the shipbuilding yards of the Giudecca.
Presented by Ryan Green Gallery, the exhibition “Cliché” opens on May 8, 2026, at Spazio Legno & Legno of CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo, featuring new paintings by Michael Corner. The artist reworks emblematic images from the history of Western art, creating a dialogue between past and present. The works unfold through visual citations and trompe-l’oeil interventions, questioning familiar imagery and established visual stereotypes. The scenes remain suspended and unresolved, leaving interpretation open and actively involving the viewer in the construction of meaning. The exhibition is curated by Ryan Green and is accompanied by a critical text by Sandrine Welte. The opening on May 8 will include a public conversation with the artist.
On May 10, Sandrine Welte and Michael Corner will lead two guided tours of the exhibition, at 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM.
CYLAND MediaArtLab, in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and
Centre for Studies in Russian, Central Asian and Caucasian Art, presents the International Media Art Festival CYFEST 17: Natura Naturans: Human Beings, Nature, Landscape.
The exhibition’s title invokes the philosophical concept of Natura Naturans— nature understood as generative force, as process rather than product. Within this framework, art is conceived as an active principle: a field in which light, time, and matter emerge. The exhibition places works from the Frants Family Collection in dialogue with over 20 contemporary media artists, tracing a continuous trajectory of artistic becoming from the 20th century to the present. As one of the longest-running international media art festivals, CYFEST brings together artists, curators, engineers,
and media thinkers from around the world featuring AES+F, Andy Barrt, Aleksandr Bochkov & Matvei Peshkov, CAA (CYLAND Audio Archive), Alexandra Dementieva, Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov, Alexey Grachev, Sergey Kishchenko, Sergei Komarov & Lidiia Griaznova, Valery Koshlyakov, Alexei Kostroma, Linda Loh, Natalia Lyakh, Tuula Närhinen, Jaanika Peerna, Mariateresa Sartori, Dmitriy Shishov,
Hugo Solis, Eric Vernhes, Mathieu Zurstrassen.
Te Tuhi presents “Paerangi: Venice”, curated by Karl Chitham. The project involves four Māori artists: John Turi-Tiakitai, Kereama Taepa, Neke Moa and Suzanne Tamaki, who are taking part in a wānanga (sharing of knowledge and spaces) by creating performances and site-specific works in Giudecca. The collaboration between Te Tuhi and CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo promotes cultural exchange and the collective
work “Paerangi”. The latter refers to the chair of Ranginui, the Māori deity associated with the sky—that is, the horizon—a place of unlimited potential and change.
For the artists visiting Venice and the Biennale for the first time, Paerangi: Venice represents a horizon of new possibilities, including the chance to exhibit their work within the context of the world’s largest and most prestigious art exhibition. The project also offers a space to explore cultural exchange and community engagement, providing artists with
the opportunity to expand their artistic research whilst learning from this new environment and becoming part of it.
MARLANDS “Island Rarities” is a two-day event (7–8 May, 10 am–1 pm) celebrating the Venetian art scene in conversation with artists from other islands and archipelagos.
In resonance with the Biennale theme “In Minor Keys” — an intimate gathering that favours subtlety, vulnerability and poetic persistence — where artworks, sound art pieces, performances, publications and conversations create the conditions for a direct encounter with Venice’s artistic community and the artists who shape it.
The aim is to showcase the diversity and dynamism of artistic life, highlight new talents, and foster connections between artists and art professionals from the city and
those invited from other island territories. With the participation of over 20 artists from Venice, including Alessandra Craba, Andrea Tagliapietra, Ariele Bacchetti, Camilla Dalmazio, Elena Callegari, Kishor Fiorin, and others.
The event also brings together artists and initiatives from other island territories: Luca Spano from Sardinia, Klitsa Antoniou from Cyprus, Nocefresca art residency from Sardinia, and Seize Mètres Carrés association from Martinique.
Organized by curator Elena Posokhova, artist Alessandra Craba, curatorial assistant Josephine Storey, and cultural project manager Giulia Saya.
Adiacenze is a curatorial space and cultural association dedicated to research, experimentation and the production of contemporary art, co-directed by curators Amerigo Mariotti and Giorgia Tronconi, and committed to discovering and promoting emerging artists through experimental projects. As part of Widespread Seeds, Adiacenze
presents the new, site-specific performance “La Forza Invisibile del Cielo (sulla coppia)” by Chiara Ventura. The work recounts the journey of two young lovers on a symbolic quest for ‘Home’. Everyday, intimate gestures are transformed into aesthetic codes that reflect the dynamics of a couple. The boundary between the private and public spheres dissolves, rendering love a political gesture. The body becomes an instrument of truth and understanding, transcending emotional symptoms. The work weaves together masculine and feminine energies, everyday objects and urban elements into a holistic narrative. Adiacenze also presents the work of Gaetano Palermo and Michele Petrosino, an artistic duo working across choreography and the visual arts, focusing on the nature of performance between reality and fiction. Their research explores movement to the point of its suspension or negation, questioning the body as a scenic and perceptual device. The performance “STILL” takes on a sculptural form in
which the body becomes a ‘living fountain’ from which a continuous liquid flows. The body appears static and weary, yet traversed by an unstoppable, almost involuntary internal movement. The work reflects on stasis, dissolution and existence as a slow process of transformation and disappearance.
Arts & Globalization “Water No Get Enemy” is a hybrid event combining a talk and performances, presented on 8 May 2026 at CREA on Giudecca, it explores the relationship between water, art, spirituality and sustainability. Participating artists include Lisa Mara Batacchi, Ọ́mọ̀ Ọba
Adétòmíwá A. Gbadébò and Thierry Geoffroy, with curator Rikke L. Jørgensen as moderator. The project reflects on the symbolic and political importance of water, particularly in relation to current climate and environmental crises. As a satellite event of the Pavilion of the Republic of Nauru’s exhibition “AIM Inundated, Imagining Life After Land,”, it promotes global dialogue, ecological awareness, human rights and cultural exchange.
Synkretica, a Venetian art collective, presents “Sette Direzioni”, a project inspired by the dynamics of a flock, based on local relationships and the absence of central control.
It offers a reflection on the balance between individuality and collectivity, where a spontaneous and fluid shared form emerges. The artists featured in the exhibition work across performance, visual art, video and sound: Tatita Spang, Nicolò Di Cecio, Clara Conturso, Indrasynch, DADA, Martina Dell’Aira, Oxytocin, Gaia Bucciarelli, Arianna
Ciolli, Akiko, Sacret River.