Golden age: Fabrizio Plessi gilds Venice’s Museo Correr

Opening this week, to coincide with the first day of the Venice film festival, the site specific work ‘L’età dell’oro' by the pioneering Italian video artist Fabrizio Plessi, fills all 15 first floor windows of the facade of the Museo Correr, which takes up the whole of the western end of Piazza San Marco.
Sponsored by the House of Dior, the piece with its title translated as ‘The Golden Age', references the Venetian gilding of Byzantine mosaics. The artist hopes it will ‘raise the temperature’ in the city, slowly awakening from the profound effects of Covid-19.
Installation sketches by Fabrizio Plessi
The 15 panels of cascading liquid gold, in which appear the text ‘PAXI TI BI' meaning ‘Peace to you' in Latin, are accompanied by the sound of water and piano music written and performed by Michael Nyman. Plessi, the 80 year old artist, born in Reggio Emilia, often uses water and fire in his work, which he refers to as ‘focal points giving energy to our lives’.
He describes ‘L’età dell’oro' containing characteristics which are ‘fluid, elastic and movable’, that are central to Venice, the city that’s been his home for decades. Piazza San Marco is ‘a symphony of stone and harmony’ and this work, taking up a whole quarter of the facade of the Piazza, is in dialog with the tower of San Marco on the eastern side. A summer electrical storm that passed through Italy earlier this week left Piazza San Marco drenched, added a pleasing infinite reflection to the photos taken the night before the opening, serving further to emphasise the water in Plessi’s work.
‘L’età dell’oro', originally scheduled for May this year, proceeds Fabrizio Plessi’s upcoming retrospective at Palazzo Ca’Pesaro, also moved forward from its autumn opening and now postponed to the spring of 2021. Venice was in total lockdown between March and May, and only from the first week of June were Italians permitted to travel between regions and International visitors welcomed back. Most of us will remember unforgettable images of the eerily empty city. The cultural life of the city is very important, for residents, Italians and international visitors. Showing resilience, museums started to reopen from early June, initially just at the weekends.
This is a Covid-19 social distancing friendly installation, visible only from outside in the square. The official ‘opening’ or switching on earlier this week included an intimate cocktail seated outside at Caffé Florian. This is reminder that Venice is alive.
INFORMATION
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Also known as Picky Nicky, Nick Vinson has contributed to Wallpaper* Magazine for the past 21 years. He runs Vinson&Co, a London-based bureau specialising in creative direction and interiors for the luxury goods industry. As both an expert and fan of Made in Italy, he divides his time between London and Florence and has decades of experience in the industry as a critic, curator and editor.
-
Rediscover a classic midcentury hotel in Sydney
Fender Katsalidis leads a major renovation of the landmark Sofitel Sydney Wentworth hotel, pairing 1960s modernism with an elevated, Australian-minded reset
-
Haute Couture Week A/W 2025: what to expect
Five moments to look out for at Haute Couture Week A/W 2025 in Paris (starting Monday 7 July), from Glenn Martens’ debut for Maison Margiela to Demna’s Balenciaga swansong. Plus, ‘new beginnings’ from JW Anderson
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
Photographer Mohamed Bourouissa reflects on society, community and the marginalised at MAST
Mohamed Bourouissa unites his work from the last two decades at Bologna’s Fondazione MAST
-
Ten super-cool posters for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics have just been unveiled
The Olympic committees asked ten young artists for their creative take on the 2026 Milano Cortina Games
-
‘Water is coming for the city, how do we live with that?’ asks TBA21 in Venice
Art advocacy and activism platform TBA21's Venetian project, Ocean Space, addresses the climate issues the city is facing
-
Luc Tuymans debuts his largest ever paintings at Venice’s majestic San Giorgio Maggiore Basilica
Luc Tuymans is the latest artist to be commissioned by San Giorgio to present work inside its famous space
-
Saskia Colwell’s playful drawings resemble marble sculptures
Saskia Colwell draws on classical and modern references for ‘Skin on Skin’, her solo exhibition at Victoria Miro, Venice
-
Remembering Oliviero Toscani, fashion photographer and author of provocative Benetton campaigns
Best known for the controversial adverts he shot for the Italian fashion brand, former art director Oliviero Toscani has died, aged 82
-
Distracting decadence: how Silvio Berlusconi’s legacy shaped Italian TV
Stefano De Luigi's monograph Televisiva examines how Berlusconi’s empire reshaped Italian TV, and subsequently infiltrated the premiership
-
Louis Fratino leans into queer cultural history in Italy
Louis Fratino’s 'Satura', on view at the Centro Pecci in Italy, engages with queer history, Italian landscapes and the body itself