THE IDEA OF SCULPTURE

FROM THE HAND TO THE ROBOT

On the occasion of the 2025 Architecture Biennale - Intelligens, Natural, Artificial, Collective - the exhibition "The Idea of Sculpture: From the Hand to the Robot" will open to the public on August 30 at Palazzo Bollani in Venice. Curated by art critic Roberta Semeraro together with project manager Giovanna Cicutto, the show traces the evolution of sculpture across centuries.

The exhibition brings together drawings, three-dimensional plaster models, finished works, and even a working sculpting robot, to explore how sculpture has evolved - from forms shaped solely by human hands to today's use of artificial intelligence to transform ideas into physical objects.

The works of Cuban-born artist Helena Bacardí, exhibiting for the first time in Italy, are in dialogue with this historical narrative.

Born in Santiago de Cuba and trained in Europe, Helena Bacardí is known for her recreation of the iconic Bacardí Bat in bronze, made in 1980 for the Bacardí Art Gallery in Miami, where it remains on permanent display. For this exhibition, she has created a new site-specific work in Murano glass - a bat-shaped sculpture paying homage to the city of Venice.

Deeply inspired by the tradition of sculpture, Bacardí began visiting Pietrasanta in Tuscany's Versilia region in 2024. There, she fell in love with the Apuan Alps marble quarries and developed ties with the Museo dei Bozzetti. The exhibition concept was shaped in collaboration with the museum's leadership and Semeraro.

The exhibition unfolds as a journey through time, structured around three essential questions: Where do we come from? Where are we going? Who are we? It traces sculpture's transformation over the last half-millennium - from Renaissance masterpieces to Bacardí's contemporary works, created using advanced technologies in the TOR Art studios in Carrara and the Capas Esculturas Foundry in Madrid.

Officially supported by the City of Venice, the City of Pietrasanta, and the Tuscany Region, the exhibition will be hosted in Palazzo Bollani, a 16th-century building that has long welcomed art in all its forms.