L’Età dell’Oro Dior Presents Fabrizio Plessi’s Installation in Venice

The 80-year-old Italian artist Fabrizio Plessi moved to Venice 60 years ago. As a dreamer, the city welcomed his aspirations, and he began creating video art that pushed powerful considerations for time and space. He explored the material that surrounded him—water. Plessi has become synonymous with the element, staking his space in the art world with video installations that question ideas about history, landscape, and time.

Holistic experiences, exhibitions, and installations like Roma, “Under Water,” and “Vertical Seas,” mix the technological and the historical, merged the primordial and the mystical, and bridged the physical and the spiritual. Nearly 20 years ago for the Venice Biennale in 2001, he presented “Waterfire” on the front of Museo Correr in the Piazza San Marco. Today, in the very same space, he’s presenting “L’Età dell’Oro” for a triumphant return.

Presented by Dior, Plessi’s latest public installation—meaning “The Golden Age”—is on view in the famous square through November 1. As an emotional homage to his life in Venice, a series of video installations featuring gold water gives a nostalgic nod to the beauty that surrounds him. Projected high above the square, the gold streams also speak to the mosaics found within the Basilica, and there’s a cryptic message hidden between its runnels, too—“Pax Tibi.” In Venice, the Latin scripture is famous for appearing on the winged lion statue that guards St. Mark’s Cathedral. Set to a soundtrack composed by Michael Nyman, the installation serves as a reflective remembrance to the city that he loves, and to the materials that make it shine.

Courtesy of WhiteWall.art