Producing Live Events: The Venice International Performance Art Week

At We Exhibit, we have had – and continue to have – the opportunity to support VestAndPage in the realization of this project, actively contributing to the event's production.
It’s a story of collaboration and mutual growth that we want to recall through the voices of those who lived it – theirs and ours – to share not only a creative experience but also the deep human bond behind the organization of a live event born as a collective act.

How did the Venice International Performance Art Week project originate?

Andrea Pagnes – VestAndPage: 'At the beginning of 2012, thanks to mutual acquaintances, I met Rene Rietmeyer, who had recently moved to Venice with the Global Art Affairs Foundation. Knowing that we mainly operated in performance art and Live Art, he proposed using one of his locations – Palazzo Bembo – to create an event dedicated to these practices.

In 2014, Rietmeyer offered us another of his venues, Palazzo Mora: architecturally more suitable to our vision of a performative event, combining a live performance program and a documentary exhibition hosting both established and emerging performers selected based on their ethical adherence to the concept of each edition, always focused on contemporary social and political urgencies.

How did the collaboration with We Exhibit begin?

AP – VestAndPage: The collaboration with Davide, Giovanni, and Nicolas started in 2012.
At that time, they were not yet We Exhibit but part of the Global Art Affairs Foundation team.
They immediately became like blood to me: professional, capable, passionate, friendly.
I think it was mutual, even for Verena.
Thanks to them, we also established professional and personal bonds with others who later joined We Exhibit, such as Giorgi De Santi and Arianna Grosso.

Giovanni Dantomio – We Exhibit: In 2012, We Exhibit didn’t exist yet. It was just me, Davide, and Nicolas at Palazzo Bembo.
During the summer, we met Andrea and Verena, who introduced us to the project: Jan Fabre, Marina Abramović, Yoko Ono...
We couldn’t wait to collaborate with artists who had made – and continue to make – art history.
After the Architecture Biennale, we had technology and space available.
It felt natural to put them at the service of this project.
At the opening, the palace was literally packed. That night, we realized we were part of something extraordinary.
That evening, Andrea pulled me aside – actually, lifted me up! – and said: "Whatever I do in Venice, I want to do it with you."
And so it has been.

Cecilia De Gasperi – We Exhibit: In 2016, I participated as a volunteer for the Venice International Performance Art Week, Fragile Body – Material Body edition.
After introductions to the curators and the space, each volunteer was assigned two artists to assist, from their arrival at the airport to supporting their performances during scheduled days. One of our duties was helping artists locally source the materials needed for their performances, with support from the We Exhibit team.

How does the We Exhibit team support the development and realization of the artistic concept in each edition?

AP – VestAndPage:
Without We Exhibit, the Venice International Performance Art Week wouldn’t exist.
It’s the philosophy of teamwork and dedication to the cause that has allowed it to grow and endure over time, remaining an artist-run, zero-cost project.
What Verena and I imagine, what the artists require, We Exhibit brings to life.
Giovanni, Davide, Nicola, Cecilia, Tommaso, Aldo Aliprandi (himself an artist and performer), and the entire past and present team give us security and peace of mind, especially because we have very little time to set up the event each year – barely a week.
I must also mention the support of the European Cultural Centre team, who manages Palazzo Mora.
It is a horizontal collaboration on multiple fronts that makes each edition possible: teamwork is the password.

A particularly successful collaboration or a moment that remains closest to your heart?

AP – VestAndPage: Each edition has had special moments, from complex scenic installations like Martin Renteria’s, to Yoko Ono’s The Hole, and the video installations curated by Giovanni and Tommaso.
If I think about what stays most in my heart, I would mention two 'collective performance-operas': Anam Cara: Dwelling Body (2018) and UnderScars (2022).
Perhaps because Verena and I conceived and personally performed them, alongside our closest collaborator-performers, like Marianna Andrigo and Aldo Aliprandi (whose association Live Arts Cultures is also crucial to the event’s realization).

What skills are needed to realize a live performance project?

GD – We Exhibit: Many of the necessary skills are already present in the team.
But performance always challenges you: it asks you to work with unusual materials – ice, rolls of grass, bathtubs, broken glass...
And then there’s the live factor: nothing is perfect, everything can change.
You need nerves of steel to react instantly. THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

A performance that particularly tested you?

GD – We Exhibit: Usually, performance requests are manageable, but perhaps the most complex was Enrique Jezik’s in 2014: we sourced a metal plate, four iron cutters, and piezo microphones.
Or the room dedicated to In Defense of Nature by Joseph Beuys, where we recreated a small park with real trees.
We designed a system to use the minimal amount of soil necessary, so as not to overload the floor.

CDG – We Exhibit:
One of the artists I was assisting as a volunteer, Alexandros Plomaritis, needed a black rotating circular pedestal and countless mirror fragments.
We Exhibit provided about ten sheets of 5mm-thick mirrored plexiglass.
With other volunteers, equipped with gloves, we spent days manually breaking them with pliers, attaching double-sided tape to each fragment.

The task became so mechanical that after a while, I retreated to a corner and started singing to pass the time.
There was a surreal feeling in the contrast between my singing and what we were doing. I think somewhere there are still videos trapped in some iPhone.

What aspects do you most appreciate about the collaboration with We Exhibit?
Is there any particular element you consider fundamental in our working approach?

AP – VestAndPage: Knowing that we can count on We Exhibit is a gift.
Our bond has strengthened over time because we share deep values.
Empathy is fundamental.

If you had to describe We Exhibit in one word, what would it be and why?

AP – VestAndPage:
Efficient problem-solving. The We Exhibit team knows how to analyze complex contemporary art situations in real time, always finding the most effective solution.

And the Venice International Performance Art Week in one word?

GD – We Exhibit: Blood.
Because Andrea Pagnes writes his letters in blood, tracing words that are not just ink but living flesh, memory, existence.
And because I would personally give my own blood to continue organizing this event: a necessary, vital act that pulses with the rhythm of the most authentic art, electrifying the city.
The Venice International Performance Art Week is not something you observe; it is something you live – in your body, in your soul, in your blood.

CDG – We Exhibit: I would say Humanity. Because it’s the deepest value Andrea and Verena transmit. The connection and complicity among all the people involved arise only when you build something together based on shared values.
The need to feel human again, to explore oneself as a human being.
The desire to bring the perception of one’s own experience and share it, adding a piece to the collective story of each of us.

A moment from past editions of the Venice International Performance Art Week that stays in your heart, before experiencing new ones in the upcoming edition?

AP – VestAndPage: There are so many every year, but one I will carry with me forever is when Giovanni, in 2014, at the farewell dinner in the house he shared with Davide (who was sick in bed that evening), started singing I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor at the top of his lungs.
Meanwhile, Davide was faintly pleading from the next room.

GD – We Exhibit:

In 2016, during the third edition of the Venice International Performance Art Week – the one that concluded the "Body Trilogy" – we were joined by many volunteers.
On the last evening, to celebrate the end of the event, we organized a party with all the artists.
We played music, and the atmosphere was relaxed and full of enthusiasm.
At one point, someone asked me to connect a microphone to the stereo system: one of the volunteers wanted to sing a song.
I still remember the emotion of that moment, pure spontaneity, when the notes of At Last by Etta James spread a cappella through the rooms, leaving us all enchanted and deeply moved.

CDG – We Exhibit:
Franko B’s swing in the main hall of Palazzo Mora in 2016. To get on it, you had to strip completely.
I didn’t do it, and maybe it’s my only regret. But the energy of that gesture – exposing oneself vulnerably to the gaze of others, liberating oneself, living – was overwhelming.
In that context, you truly felt free.

We can’t wait to contribute once again to the next edition.
While waiting to share all the details with you, we invite you to learn more about the Venice International Performance Art Week project and visit the dedicated website.