Bottega Veneta Celebrates the Arts in Venice
The iconic Italian luxury house turns to the world of dance, and typing, as a way to support creativity in all its forms
A giant billboard recently appeared above Venice’s Grand Canal on the apse of the famous Chiesa San Geremia. It featured a smiling image of model Dara Gueye and was shot by Malick Bodian for Matthieu Blazy’s debut campaign as creative director of Bottega Veneta. The installation proclaimed the storied brand’s roots in the Venetian region, its cultural home. It was the first in a series of initiatives this year linking the house with the area where it was founded more than half a century ago.
In connection with this year’s Venice Biennale, supporting La Serenissima’s status as a hub for the arts, culture and creativity, the brand has partnered with the Pinault Collection – Kering founder François Pinault’s extensive art collection – in support of Dancing Studies, a performance program inspired by the work of American artist Bruce Nauman, whose exhibition Contrapposto Studies is on show at Venice’s Punta della Dogana through November 27.
Matthieu Blazy, who was named creative director of Bottega Veneta in November last year, designed costumes especially for the series for Lenio Kaklea and Pam Tanowitz. They are among the internationally renowned choreographers who created new works for the program, to be staged at the Pinault Collection’s Venice locations through November to coincide with the Biennale.
“Essentially, we are exploring movement and the body in motion,” Blazy explains of the project.
To celebrate the showcase’s opening, the luxury leather-goods specialist staged a major event on April 21 at the Punta della Dogana, one of Venice’s most renowned landmarks and home to part of the Pinault Collection since 2009.
Against a backdrop of compressed metal cubes that featured in the brand’s Winter 2022 show set, Athens-born, Paris-based dancer and choreographer Lenio Kaklea led the performance.
“Working with Lenio, somebody who uses movement so radically and beautifully, it’s where clothing and a radical sense of self-expression collide,” enthuses Matthieu.
The celebrations continued into the night with an intimate dinner for 50 guests, including figures from the art and cultural scene, who gathered under the towering brick columns of the historic edifice at a table laden with floral displays in vivid shades of orange.
The night was intended to be a platform for cultural exchange, promoting conversations between aficionados of different artforms both on a local and global scale.
The gilded guestlist included artists like Andra Ursuta, Danh Vo, Sterling Ruby and Jenn Nkiru, a plethora of renowned curators, gallerists and collectors from across the globe as well as cultural figures like UNESCO director general Audrey Azoulay and faces from the movie world such as Julianne Moore, Bart Freundlich and Maïwenn Le Besco.
This July, Bottega Veneta will yet again reiterate its support for dance as the official partner of the Biennale di Danza. Its participation includes funding for the Biennale College Danza, a three-month long training program for emerging international talent that will culminate with performances during the 16th edition of the festival from July 22-31.
Also at Bottega Veneta’s Venice boutique, the brand celebrated a new capsule collection inspired by cult typewriter maker Olivetti’s legendary machines, which are collected and reputedly used to this day by figures ranging from Nick Cave to Pope Francis.
The collection of 15 limited-edition Cabat bags, sold exclusively in the label’s Venetian outpost, is intended to help support the preservation of Olivetti’s showroom on Piazza San Marco, designed by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa in 1957. Campaign images for the capsule were shot against the showroom’s graphic backdrop by François Halard, known for his interior and architectural photography.
Images supplied
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s June 2022 issue.