Almost a year after the death of Ilya Kabakov, Fondazione Querini Stampalia and the Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Art Foundation pay tribute to him in Venice, on the occasion of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale. Curated by Chiara Bertola, Between Heaven and Earth will feature the Kabakovs’ historical installations within the rooms and the collections of the Querini Stampalia Museum. Their works become site-specific interventions designed for the environment that hosts them, as is the nature of the Querini Stampalia’s contemporary art program “Conserving the future,” which implies confrontation with a past to be protected and a future to be designed and involves the institution, the public, and the artists. These artists act as ferrymen between these worlds, revealing fractures, inventing connections and showing something that otherwise risked being lost or never seen.

Each installation on display is a carefully choreographed staging of objects, works, texts, lights, and sounds that will immerse the viewer in the artwork, according to the concept of the “total installation” so important to the artist since the 80s.

We thank the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Art Foundation, Thaddeus Ropac, Lia Rumma, Sprovieri, Galleria Continua, and ONDA for their support of Between Heaven and Earth.