Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo to give new life to the Venetian Island of San Giacomo

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Ph. Irene Fanizza
The Italian art collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo will be transforming the small island of San Giacomo, off the coast of Venice, into an art space.

The island, which is at the moment home to abandoned Napoleon time powder magazines, will be a "laboratory for ecological reflection", and will host discussions on art, cinema, contemporary culture, in addition to research and the production of artistic projects.

 

The Re Rebaudengo Foundation, which has already opened two art spaces, in Guarene and Turin, has also planned to plant trees across the island, a further symbol of rebirth for this island that had its monastery and plant life destroyed by Napoleon and those that came after.

 

"I like to think that, through the centuries, the different lives and functions of this small island have been preserved in the soil and can now comeback to the surface as a source of inspiration” Re Rebaudengo said in a statement, hoping that the island could become a maritime crossroads for encounters and exchanges.

 

The project is scheduled to be completed by 2024, over which period artists will be documenting and photographing the process of transformation that the island will be witness to.