On the occasion of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Emilia Kabakov brings to the lagoon an idea originally conceived together with her late husband, Ilya Kabakov: Venetian Diary, a monumental and participatory work that will represent an extraordinary self-portrait of the city.

Curated by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi and Giulia Abate, the exhibition will transform the main floor of Ca' Tron—a historic 16th-century palace overlooking the Grand Canal and home to the Iuav University of Venice—and part of the Padiglione Venezia into a vast narrative device. Not an exhibition about Venice, but an exhibition with Venice.

The protagonists will be approximately 500 residents of the metropolitan city of Venice: each will be invited to write a page in this collective diary, describing their connection to the city and submitting to the exhibition an object capable of symbolically representing it. Fragments of lives, memories, desires, nostalgia, and hopes will compose a layered and surprising human mosaic suspended between past and future.

“Venice is filled with people working tirelessly to preserve not only the city itself, but also a sense of community we rarely encounter in the digital age. At a time where political, economic, and religious differences seem insurmountable, Venice is a beacon of hope for what can happen when neighbors support each other and share the responsibility of caring for their home for future generations,” says Emilia Kabakov.