In every exhibition of his work, Bizhan Bassiri is careful to present both the outcome of his most recent creative process and a selection of works that articulate principles, rules, or distinctive and recurring elements, recalling the poetic foundations of his aesthetic tension.

The body of works selected for the exhibition at the Museo Correr in Venice likewise does not renounce— as in other significant occasions— a dialogue with the host venue, taking into account its environmental characteristics, especially when these possess a particular aesthetic or historical quality.

Within this perspective, it is appropriate to outline the features of the exhibition design conceived for “Principe. Il nottambulo del Pensiero Magmatico.” Two of the four thresholds of access to the exhibition space are devoted to the Principe, a phantasmal iconography that serves as both witness and alter ego of the artist. Through ninety images depicting the portraits of artists chosen by Bassiri — spanning Masters from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first— he constructs an ideal genealogical tree to which he feels able to adhere and belong for numerous and multifaceted reasons.

With the intention of creating a quadreria that surrounds the visitor and engages their gaze, Bassiri conceived a suspended and ascending arrangement of the ninety portraits, rising from the lower portions of the walls to their full height. Moreover, while the bronze Meteorite is entrusted with one of the sculptural references to the emblematic “verticality” of art— extending from the floor to the apex of the sculpture (270 cm) — the Erme aurea above it is assigned the function of making perceptible the symbolic presence of an atemporal identity, marking the encounter with the reality of things and the moment of contemplative pause.

The exhibition layout, despite the structural solemnity of the whole, offers a mode of experience that is not rigid; rather, it is conceived as a sensation of fluid vibration that envelops Venice— its light and its regality— open to an encounter with the visitor, toward whom the enjoyment and safeguarding of every form and every work of art on display are directed.

Bruno Corà