An Art Center, Oceans and Science in a Venetian Church

After more than a century closed to the public, the church of San Lorenzo reopens its doors transformed into the Ocean Space, a center of art and science focused on research on the oceans.

Joan Jonas, Moving Off the Land II, at Ocean Space, Chiesa di San Lorenzo, 2019. Copyright: © TBA21

Joan Jonas, Moving Off the Land II, at Ocean Space, Chiesa di San Lorenzo, 2019. Copyright: © TBA21

The Church of San Lorenzo in Venice has a mythical quality: according to legend, the remains of Marco Polo rest beneath its walls. Although in the numerous excavations carried out during the 20th century no human remains were ever found, the building has always been surrounded by a legendary aura. For more than a century, the church remained closed and only opened on specific occasions… Until now. On 23 March 2019 its doors were reopened to the public, although in this case the sacred quality of the building has become part of its past. Today the site houses the Ocean Space, an innovative space dedicated to art and to research on the oceans, promoted by TBA21-Academy, the institution founded by Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza. To inaugurate it, the intervention of one of the most important contemporary artists today has been enlisted: Joan Jonas. Her installation Moving Off the Land II can be visited at the Ocean Space until 29 September, on the occasion of the center’s opening.

Exterior of the Church of San Lorenzo. Copyright: © Photo Enrico Fiorese, TBA21-Academy

After two years of restoration, the church is finally in a condition to show all its splendor again. As indicated by TBA21-Academy, the center is “a new embassy dedicated to the oceans, which will catalyze transdisciplinary research and will foster collective actions, encouraging the public to radically reimagine the way in which we contemplate and treat the distinctive feature of our blue planet”. Joan Jonas’s installation is undoubtedly the ideal element to inaugurate the space: the projections celebrate poetry and explore the ecology of the ocean, which she considers “a poetic, totemic and natural entity, a source of life and home to a whole universe of living beings”. On 7 May a performance will take place by the artist, who will be accompanied by the composer, percussionist and musician Ikue Mori and the performer Francesco Migliaccion. The action will combine movement, live drawing, readings of works related to the oceans and video projections, in an event very close in time to the inauguration of the Venice Biennale.

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