A portrait of Umberta Beretta – philanthropist, art collector and LUX Contributing Editor – in situ
Philanthropist, collector and LUX Contributing Editor Umberta Gnutti Beretta is one of the leading lights of the Italian contemporary cultural scene. As the 2026 Biennale takes off, the guest editor of our Venice Biennale Special section, who has a must-see private art space at her family’s factory in Brescia, shares her thoughts on contemporary artists she admires who have studied and created in Venice.
She also nominates four luminaries in the city’s cultural scene, who in turn share their thoughts on their creative and collecting practices, and on the latest artistic transformation of La Serenissima
Venice is historically the home of the events within the contemporary art ecosystem. Although the exhibition takes place every two years, the reasons that position Venice as a central hub for artists extend far beyond this recurring occasion.
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The city welcomes artists not only as visitors or privileged observers, but also as students and researchers. The Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia has long represented a fundamental educational context for many contemporary artistic practices. Among the artists who have developed a significant part of their trajectory there and who I admire are Giulia Andreani, Iva Lulashi and Marta Spagnoli, just to name a few.
Back to Earth, 2024, by Anastasiya Parvanova
For some, Venice does not remain a temporary experience, it becomes an existential and professional choice, a place in which to live and create.
Within this context, a visit to the walk-up studio of Giorgio Andreotta Calò, a native of Venice, is a key to understanding the profound relationship between artistic practice, urban space and the lagoon environment. Giorgio Andreotta Calò has spent time in Berlin and Amsterdam, but his studio remains in Venice.
Another Venice native is Chiara Enzo, a young painter who brings into her painting the dampness and the dim light of her city. Trained, like many others, in the classrooms of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, she has the ability to enchant you with her small canvases.
She was invited by curator Cecilia Alemani to take part in the Biennale The Milk of Dreams in 2022, and it was precisely there that I noticed her. I have not yet walked through her studio, but it sits firmly on my wish list: a room I do not yet know, and that I cannot wait to discover.
Calipso (Summer Solar Power), 2021, by Thomas Braida
And then there is Thomas Braida. He lives and works in Venice but was born in Gorizia, a borderland between Italy and Slovenia. He carries with him that silent geography. Extremely reserved in speech (he weighs his words), on canvas he opens up without restraint and his gesture becomes his narrative.
Anastasiya Parvanova comes from Bulgaria, where she studied visual arts and pedagogy. Venice welcomed her later, and she stayed.
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She paints spaces that do not exist, marginal presences, subjects that usually escape the eye, dreamlike universes. In her work, the invisible finds form. Just some of the fantastic painters to be discovered through the narrow calles of this magnificent city.
Adele Re Rebaudengo, President of the Venice Gardens Foundation
Adele Re Rebaudengo – President, Venice Gardens Foundation
The foundation of Adele Re Rebaudengo has restored both the Royal Gardens of Venice and the Convent Garden of the Most Holy Redeemer, with both open to the public
In 2010, I moved to Venice to devote myself gardens. In 2014, I co-founded the Venice Gardens Foundation to restore gardens in difficulty, bringing them back to their beauty.
The restored gardens of the Capuchin friars of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Guidecca
This is not only to protect the city’s landscape, botanical and architectural heritage, but to affirm the fundamental role that gardens play in a community. Seeing gardens cared for by the Foundation now used again with joy and love fuels my commitment. As living beings, gardens should not be neglected, but accompanied along their path of growth with care and attention.
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Italy is known for the art of gardening, a body of knowledge that combines aesthetics, culture and a passionate understanding of nature. It is a heritage of contemporary relevance, telling the story of the symbiotic relationship between ourselves and the landscape.
The restored Royal Gardens of Venice, adjacent to San Marco
Being heirs to this history brings a responsibility to preserve, expand and pass it on. Gardens are more than ornamental spaces: they unfold horizons – of life, memory and relationships, giving communities a greater opportunity for wellbeing than any other space.
In Venice, there are many gardens to rediscover, sheltered behind high walls, concealed within ancient palace courtyards or scattered among the narrow streets. They represent a precious presence for the city and help ensure its balance and harmony, but many require conservation work to continue to occupy their central place in the Venetian urban fabric. No community exists without a space to inhabit, because it is itself a dimension, a place; by restoring green areas, we give it the opportunity to take root. Even if gardens do not seem functional, they are essential.
Petra de Castro with Vladimir Kartashov in his Pietrasanta atelier
Petra de Castro – Patron, collector and writer
Among her current projects, Petra de Castro has a new book and is supporting Vladimir Kartashov’s installation “Sequences of Time” at San Clemente, Venice, during the Biennale
Each time I ask myself where my passion for literature, art and music comes from, the images that come to my mind are those when, aged seven or eight, I would spend twilight afternoons at the home of a very old couple, who had lost their newborn baby during the Second World War and had “adopted” me as a kind of granddaughter.
It was this couple who taught me that music must be listened to attentively, who would sit me by their gramophone to listen to Mozart and who took me to the opera to see Madama Butterfly.
Petra de Castro’s home with works by Jean-Marie Appriou and a ceiling painting by Kartashov (represented by Gowen, Geneva, since 2025)
They had me read the stories of Tolstoy out loud, and look at the paintings of Cézanne, Monet and Renoir, tell them what I saw in the paintings and then copy them.
Those days of a faraway past made me understand that the universe of literature, art, music and the humanities corresponded to my own emotional understanding. I went on to study French modern literature, German and Philosophy. I did theatre and played the piano.
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I worked in dramaturgy at the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt. I did graphic and event design, and window settings for a renowned Swiss watch manufacturer. I wrote a book about Pier Paolo Pasolini’s summer journey of 1959, La Lunga Strada di Sabbia, to be published this September.
From being an art lover I became an art patron and collector, with a vision of a Gesamtkunstwerk of my own in Venice, for my private art collection, Antigone’s Tales, to find a home. The idea of storytelling within the works in my collection is very much interweaved with the history of Venice and with the theme of Vladimir Khartashov’s installation, “Sequences of Time”. This Gesamtkunstwerk will be my life’s achievement and I trust in the process.
Nicoletta Fiorucci – Founder, Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation
Collector Nicoletta Fiorucci founded her eponymous foundation to promote experimentation in art focusing on radical, interdisciplinary and community-oriented ideas, with a Venice venue opened in 2025
Sharing experiences with artists has always been my starting point. I’m drawn to artists who sense shifts in culture, ecology and politics, articulating what feels intangible or unresolved. In a moment defined by speed and distraction, I value contexts in which an artistic practice can unfold slowly and rigorously, and artists who champion that. Art can offer a different tempo, one that encourages reflection instead of consumption.
The Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation grew out of a desire to support artists in a way that feels attentive and long-term. It is about possibility rather than preservation, about creating the conditions for risk, experimentation and sustained thinking. I’m motivated by dialogue: the conversations between artist and curator, idea and space, visitor and time. Those exchanges often become more meaningful than the object itself. Ultimately, what drives me is the belief that artists help us rehearse possible futures. By supporting their research and experimentation, I hope to contribute to a cultural environment that is inclusive and forward-looking.
The foundation is conceived as a long-term commitment, thus my strategy is intentionally patient. I am interested in sustained relationships with artists, curators and researchers, creating a context where ideas can develop over time. The aim is to build trust, to offer a space where artists feel supported enough to take risks. That may mean site-responsive projects, research-based work or installations that respond directly to Venice’s architecture or history. I’m less interested in spectacle and more in depth.
The exterior of the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, a former 15th-century palazzo in Dorsoduro
Living in Venice has always been my dream, and not just for her beauty. Venice is a city of paradox: fragile yet resilient, historic yet continually reinvented. It has always been shaped by exchange: of goods, cultures, ideas. That openness feels essential to contemporary artistic dialogue. At the same time, Venice embodies urgency. Questions of climate change and preservation are very tangible realities. Working in Venice means engaging with vulnerability in a direct way. The city demands sensitivity, to water, to light, to material decay, to histories layered over centuries. Venice also slows you down. Its scale and geography encourage attentiveness. This rhythm aligns with my desire to create exhibitions that unfold gradually and invite reflection.
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Rather than competing with the city’s grandeur, I see the foundation’s role as contributing thoughtfully to its ongoing narrative. Venice does not need more content; it needs meaningful layers. By working here, I hope to participate in a dialogue between past and future, acknowledging history while making space for contemporary voices. Over time, I hope the foundation becomes a point of connection, linking Venice to international conversations while remaining grounded in its local context, a space of inquiry where ecological, social and cultural questions can be explored through artistic practice. Success for me would mean that artists see the foundation as a place of dialogue, where experimentation is encouraged.
The foundation is located in Dorsoduro, which has a quieter, more residential rhythm, slightly removed from the spectacle associated with major art events. That intimate scale has shaped the way people experience the exhibitions. Visitors tend to stay longer. Artists often feel comfortable inhabiting the space more fully. The atmosphere encourages proximity, between the artwork and the viewer, and between visitors themselves. I have discovered how much people value spaces that feel personal rather than institutional. The foundation’s setting allows for a different kind of encounter: less about circulation, more about presence. It has also reinforced the importance of context. In Dorsoduro, the architecture, light and surrounding community become part of the exhibition. The experience feels less like attending an event and more like entering into a shared moment of reflection. That sense of closeness has been one of the most rewarding discoveries.
To Love and Devour, 2025, by Tolia Astakhishvili, exhibition view of a site-specific installation at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
The projects that have meant the most to me are those where the artist truly inhabited the space: physically and conceptually. The most memorable exhibitions of the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, and before that the Fiorucci Art Trust, were not necessarily the most visible, but the ones that generated sustained dialogue and emotional resonance. I am especially moved by projects that embrace vulnerability, works that explore memory, displacement, ecology or personal history. When an exhibition becomes an atmosphere rather than simply a display, I feel it creates a deeper connection.
Meaningful projects are often collaborative in spirit. They involve trust between artist and curator, and a willingness to adapt to the specificities of the place in which they happen. These moments reaffirm why the foundation exists: to create the conditions for thoughtful experimentation. Rather than identifying a single highlight, I value the cumulative process, the gradual building of relationships and ideas.
Each project adds a layer to the foundation’s evolving identity. The exhibition from May to November 2026 is by Lydia Ourahmane, curated by Polly Staple. What excites me about this collaboration is its sensitivity to context. Lydia Ourahmane’s practice often engages with absence, infrastructure and invisible systems that shape everyday life. Her work carries both political depth and emotional subtlety, which feels particularly resonant in Venice. Polly Staple brings a curatorial approach that is rigorous yet spacious. I anticipate an exhibition that fosters atmosphere, listening and architectural response over immediate spectacle. It may not offer easy conclusions, but it will likely generate questions about place, movement and the systems that underpin contemporaneity. I hope visitors will feel invited to slow down and reflect.
A portrait of Luca Bombassei, an architect who synthesises the ancient and contemporary
Luca Bombassei – Architect, entrepreneur and collector
The practice and projects of Luca Bombassei operate at the intersection of past and future, exemplified in his recently acquired and restored apartment in the Palazzo Contarini Corfù, which overlooks the Grand Canal
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I grew up in an environment where things were made to last, not to impress but to age well and to carry meaning over time. Collecting art and supporting projects comes from this same place: it’s a way of staying intellectually alive, of engaging with ideas that challenge me rather than reassure me. I’m drawn to works and projects that take risks, that may even feel uncomfortable at first but that are grounded in intelligence, craft and intention. What truly drives me is curiosity guided by responsibility.
A main bedroom view, with art by Alex Katz and Ettore Sottsass
I don’t really believe in fixed strategies. I believe in direction, in intuition and in the ability to change course when something more interesting appears. My goal is not to build a “collection” in the traditional sense, but a constellation of projects, places and relationships that reflect how I think and live. If there is a method, it’s to avoid repetition, to stay alert and to accept that coherence is not a value in itself. As I often say, coherence is for people who have run out of ideas, what matters more to me is intellectual honesty.
I love the past for its discipline and confidence. There was a belief in knowledge, in materials and in the responsibility of form. At the same time, I’m deeply interested in the future, not as an abstract promise but as a space of experimentation: new technologies, new ways of living, new cultural models. In my work, these two forces coexist naturally. Tradition gives me a foundation; the future gives me permission to take risks. I don’t work with nostalgia, but with memory – there’s an important difference.
A living-room view of Luca Bombassei’s Venetian apartment, with metal bookcase by Bombassei and painting by Nathlie Provosty
What excites me most are projects that sit in between definitions. I’m working on initiatives where architecture becomes a framework for cultural exchange rather than a finished object; projects where the past is not staged or idealised but questioned and activated. They are complex, sometimes even contradictory, but that’s exactly where I feel most at home.
Living in Venice has taught me that nothing truly belongs to you. A palazzo is not a trophy, it’s a responsibility. The city itself is a lesson in adaptability: Venice has survived for centuries not by resisting change, but by absorbing it intelligently. I’ve learnt that beauty is something you practise every day through care, through use, through attention. Venice also teaches restraint: knowing when to intervene, and when to step back.
Venice doesn’t need to be saved, it needs to be understood. Its future doesn’t lie in spectacle or nostalgia, but in serious cultural work, education and long-term thinking. I still believe Venice can be a laboratory – not for trends, but for ideas; a place where history and contemporaneity do not cancel each other out but challenge one another. Being part of that tension is what keeps the city, and my work, alive.
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