The exhibition 30 Years. The Wild Horses of Sable Island reveals survival and fragility in a changing world. In Venice, it presents 36 large-format photographs, both black and white and color, dedicated to the wild horses of Sable Island, a remote strip of land in the North Atlantic. In an ideal dialogue with the fragility of the Lagoon, Roberto Dutesco’s images portray a precarious ecosystem where beauty arises from resilience and adaptability.
Hosted at Le Stanze della Fotografia on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, the exhibition is part of the symbolic context of the 2026 Venice Biennale, offering an immersive narrative in three acts that guides visitors through origin, adaptation, and future. The horses, photographed without human intervention, become a metaphor for silent dignity and fragile balance, threatened by climate change and the erosion of natural habitats.
The images and films invite a slow and engaged gaze: not mere naturalistic documentation, but an emotional experience that connects the vulnerability of the island with that of Venice itself—a city suspended between water, memory, and resilience.
Open daily from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM (last admission at 6:30 PM) closed on Wednesdays.
Special openings:
Sunday 5, Monday 6, Wednesday 15, and Saturday 25 April
The major retrospective devoted to Horst P. Horst (Weißenfels, 1906 – Palm Beach, 1999), La Geometria della Grazia, is curated by Anne Morin and Denis Curti and produced by Marsilio Arte in collaboration with DiChroma Photography and the Horst P. Horst Estate. The exhibition offers a new reading of the photographer’s work: a cross-section through its complexi
ty, seen from a perspective in which fashion photography is no longer the main axis nor a fundamental structure but rather a pretext for creating forms and opening up art to new territories. Horst constructs his images as authentic visual equations, in which each element fits into a harmonious, almost mathematical relationship. In this journey, the concept of geometry – understood as structural and spiritual order – becomes the thread that runs through centuries of art and thought. From the classical canons of ancient Greece to Romanesque architectural proportions and Le Corbusier’s Modulor, Horst collects and
elaborates a millenary heritage, restoring it through a surprisingly modern gaze.This exhibition is not only a tribute to his extraordinary talent for photography, but also an invitation to rediscover how geometry and harmony are the basis of every art form, every construction, every image and worldview.
[accordion][/accordion]
[accordion_entry title=”Orari e modalità d’accesso”]
Open daily from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM (last admission at 6:30 PM) closed on Wednesdays.
Special openings:
Sunday 5, Monday 6, Wednesday 15, and Saturday 25 April
[/accordion_entry]
[accordion][/accordion]
The exhibition Ahmet Ertuğ. Beyond the Vanishing Point in Venice presents 29 large-format photographs, with a focus on Italian architectural heritage and the dialogue it has woven over the centuries with the Mediterranean. Among the temples, cathedrals, palaces, libraries, and theatres of Italy, one work in the exhibition stands apart, returning Ertuğ to his origins: the sixth-century dome of Hagia Sophia. These images highlight the deep cultural ties between Istanbul and Venice, pivotal cities along the Silk Road. By opening access to hidden or inaccessible spaces, the photographs reveal architectural heritage as a timeless bridge between cultures and eras, and as a living testament to human imagination.
The catalogue Robert Mapplethorpe, published by Marsilio Arte and edited by Denis Curti, accompanies the trilogy of exhibitions dedicated to the artist, held in the cities of Venice, Milan and Rome.
A maverick genius who redefined the codes of portrait and nude photography; a contemporary shaman of a secret and scandalous side of New York; a refined, concise and elegant champion of an idea of absolute beauty. Robert Mapplethorpe was also, above all, an artist deeply aware of art history, a refined connoisseur who constantly sought to dialogue with the past in order to generate innovative and contemporary images. His vision was influenced by classicism, which Mapplethorpe not only studied but also copied, renewed and interpreted, translating into photography the principles of harmony, proportion and formal perfection that characterise ancient sculpture.
The volume accompanying the three-stage exhibition project places Mapplethorpe’s most famous photographs of classical, perfect and eternal sculptures in direct dialogue with images featuring fleeting and sensual male and female models, who echo the poses or angles of the former, creating a visual comparison between the sculptural representation of the human body and its photographic representation.
With the aim of tracing the various stages of Mapplethorpe’s career and artistic research, a comprehensive and updated monograph has been created, recounting the crucial phases of his production, from his early explorations with collages to his later works, including his iconic photographs of nudes, portraits and floral compositions.
AttraversaMenti, the new solo exhibition by Federico Garibaldi, is structured in four sections – Le spiagge degli altri, blueShores, Through, NowHere/NoWhere – and presents a selection of works that explore the photographer’s visual research. From dreamlike and suspended beaches to introspective landscapes, from abstract compositions to images that blur the boundaries between reality and perception, the exhibition invites viewers into a suspended space between personal memory and universal suggestion. It is part of the vibrant program of photography exhibitions in Venice 2025, contributing to the ongoing dialogue around photography as an artistic and introspective language.
Le Stanze della Fotografia presents, from 10 April to 27 July, 2025, on the first floor, the exhibition Maurizio Galimberti tra Polaroid/Ready Made e le lezioni americane di Italo Calvino, curated by Denis Curti.
Internationally known for his portraits of celebrities like Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp and Umberto Eco, and for having published books and staged site-specific exhibitions on New York, Paris, Milan, Rome and Venice, Maurizio Galimberti presents some of his most iconic Polaroid mosaics in Venice, including those of Johnny Depp, Barbara Bouchet and Angelica Huston, in a show that is divided into six sections: Cenacolo, History, Sport, Portraits, Taylor Swift and Places.
His creations, characterised by a multifaceted and fragmented vision of reality, are taken apart and put back together as in a mosaic, offering a profound reflection on perception and on the multiplicity of viewpoints. The images are almost always manipulated at the development stage, exerting pressure with simple tools – like pens and wooden sticks – directly onto the surface of the support, or assembled into mosaic-like compositions, in which each photograph contributes to the formation of an end result able to create a spectacular overall vision.
[accordion][/accordion]
[accordion_entry title=”Opening Hours and Admission”]
Open daily from 11am to 7pm (last admission at 6:30pm).
Closed on Wednesdays.
Admission subject to a fee. For bookings, ticket prices, and purchasing details, please visit lestanzedellafotografia.it
[/accordion_entry]
[accordion][/accordion]
The major retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Mapplethorpe. The Forms of the Classic is organised and promoted by Marsilio Arte and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York.
Le Stanze della Fotografia in Venice announces their next major exhibition, devoted to a true, and still in many ways controversial, star of international photography: Robert Mapplethorpe (New York, 1946 – Boston, 1989). Curated by Le Stanze della Fotografia’s artistic director, Denis Curti, the show Robert Mapplethorpe. With over 200 works, some exhibited for the first time in Italy, the exhibition places special emphasis on the classical perfection of his compositions. Themes explored include the sensuality of the human body, the beauty of flowers and the visual dialogue between photography and ancient sculpture.
[accordion][/accordion]
[accordion_entry title=”Opening Hours and Admission”]
Open daily from 11am to 7pm (last admission at 6:30pm).
Closed on Wednesdays.
Admission subject to a fee. For bookings, ticket prices, and purchasing details, please visit lestanzedellafotografia.it
[/accordion_entry]
[accordion][/accordion]
