The 25th Venice Art Biennale and the Avant-garde Retrospective Exhibitions Designed by Carlo Scarpa: Palazzo Centrale as a Space of International Dialogue between Italy and France

− Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate how Palazzo Centrale’s main hall in the Giardini became a space for dialogue and cooperation between Italy and France during the 25^th Venice Art Biennale. The two countries jointly developed a retrospective narrative on Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism, with a display designed by Carlo Scarpa. 

For the first time, this research underlines how these exhibitions questioned the national dimension of each artistic movement and anticipated the critical debate on the transnational modern art koine, which non-governmental cultural institutions, such as AICA, addressed in the following years. Thanks to a delicate balance of administrative and diplomatic dynamics, new generations were finally able to acquire a greater knowledge of Modern Art.