Through Contemporary Art
From 08.06 to 26.10.2025
Architetture Trasparenti (Transparent Architecture) is the exhibition that comes to life between 8 June and 26 October 2025 in the monumental spaces of Villa Manin in Codroipo (UD). It is a playful journey through contemporary art, generated by a reflection on the concept of border, understood not only as a geographical line, but also as a mental and perceptive space. Curated by Guido Comis, Linda Carello and Daniele Capra, and organised by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Agency for Cultural Heritage (ERPAC), the exhibition is part of the programme of ‘GO! 2025&Friends’, the programme of events – linked to the official programme of ‘GO! 2025 Nova Gorica – Gorizia European Capital of Culture’ – that involves the entire Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
The project stems from the idea of the border not as a barrier, but as a crossable limit, which can be crossed with the gaze or the body. Some of the selected works alter the perception of the spaces in which they are presented so as to make them uncertain and question them, others create volumes that can be crossed. Still other works, exhibited outdoors, contradict the distinction between interior and exterior, closed and open space.
The artists were called upon to propose works capable of constructing volumes and architectures that invite interaction and which, even before being observed, should be experienced. The fifteen selected installations – articulated in a path that starts at the entrance to the villa at the eastern barchessa, continues in the noble body of the villa and extends into the magnificent historic park – dialogue with the Baroque architecture of Villa Manin and the surrounding nature. The artists on display include not only the now historicised names of contemporary art such as Dan Graham, Robert Irwin and Giulio Paolini, but also some of the most famous international artists such as Jeppe Hein and Pae White, as well as some of the most interesting exponents of Italian art today such as Anna Pontel and Matteo Negri. However, the exhibition also includes artists who are less well-known to the Italian public such as Gabriel Dawe and Janusz Gruenspek and Petra Blaisse’s Inside / Outside studio, whose work lies somewhere between art, architecture and design. Spaces are not only represented visually but also through sound installations as in Christina Kubisch’s work.
The materials used range from glass to fabrics, from mirrors to light, creating sensory experiences that subvert the traditional idea of architecture as a closed, opaque, defined space. Through games of reflections, transparencies and optical illusions, the Villa is shown in new perspectives: filtered, deformed, multiplied. In a continuous cross-reference between work and context, between interior and exterior, the spectator is called upon to explore the space with a curious and participatory gaze. The exhibition combines the aesthetic and research dimension with a playful and experiential intent. Transparent Architectures is an invitation to lose oneself in lights, sounds and ephemeral geometries, to let oneself be involved in environments that change and transform at every step. The exhibition thus becomes a context not only to be seen, but a place to be temporarily inhabited, to be walked through, to be experienced.
