Querini Stampalia: a unique cultural experience in Venice

The Querini Stampalia Foundation is among the oldest Italian cultural institutions. Since 1869 we have promoted “the cult of good studies and useful disciplines”, with a curious gaze and a passion for the future.

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Querini Stampalia Foundation

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Since 1869 we have promoted “the cult of good studies and useful disciplines”, with a curious gaze and a passion for the future.

• The Dreamer

— Second Floor

The exhibition is conceived as a series of cinematic sets or stages: entry ignites family obsessions; the library pulses with late-night wisdom; stables clash hoof and blade; the finale unpacks the 1869 will’s eternal gift.

• The Invisible Chord. Hans Hartung and Music

Bringing together nearly eighty paintings, documents, and working tools, the exhibition explores the central role of sound in the artist’s plastic and existential universe. From Bach to Pink Floyd, including composers such as Lili Boulanger, a landscape of energies, gestures, and resonances runs throughout his entire body of work.

• Nigel Cooke: Bad Habits

Nigel Cooke was the first artist-in-residence at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia. The exhibition, his first solo show in Italy, grows out of this experience and presents new paintings in the very space where they took shape, establishing an ideal continuity between the artist's creative gesture and the viewer's gaze.

Architecture
Collection
Library
Library Giovanni
Auditorium

• Carlo Scarpa Area

Carlo Scarpa’s restoration turned structural necessity into visual poetry: controlled water, sculptural gardens, concrete, and Istrian stone engage with Venice’s aquatic nature, where high tide becomes performance and space invites quiet reflection.

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Architecture
Collection
Library
Library Giovanni
Auditorium

• Carlo Scarpa Area

• Collection

Once the residence of the Querini Stampalia family, it is now one of the most evocative house museums in Europe. It offers a glimpse into daily life in a Venetian palace between the 18th and 19th centuries, through original furnishings, art collections, and historic frescoes.

• Library

The Library holds around 400,000 volumes, both ancient and modern, and has been known for over 150 years as the library of the Venetians. Open also on public holidays, it was established by Count Giovanni Querini, who made it public through the wishes expressed in his will.

• Library Giovanni

Dedicated to Giovanni Querini, the bookshop is a meeting point between museum store and independent bookstore. It offers catalogues, objects, and a carefully curated, accessible selection. A space where books inspire reflection and a deeper understanding of the present.

• Auditorium

Designed by Mario Botta, it is located on the ground floor of the Foundation. With 132 seats, it is among the largest in central Venice. It hosts conferences, concerts, and presentations, and can be connected to adjacent rooms. A space conceived for public and cultural exchange.

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• The Dreamer

“The Dreamer” exhibition —which opens on May 5—is conceived as a series of cinematic sets or stages: entry ignites family obsessions; the library pulses with late-night wisdom; stables clash hoof and blade; the finale unpacks the 1869 will’s eternal gift. Velvet drapes, gaslit flickers, war drums, horse whinnies touch the scars of an era. History not on shelves, but alive: What will you donate to tomorrow?

— Cristiana Collu
(Director of Fondazione Querini Stampalia)

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• A Wonder Poster

Eight urban posters, essential phrases in Venetian with an international breath, announce a transformation with strength and irony. A visually rigorous campaign: white background, new institutional typeface, and the symbolic date of May 5, 2025. The words evoke turning points, solidity, beauty, awareness, and movement. A diffused narrative that crosses alleys and canals, turning public space into a living signal of a new beginning.

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• How to deal with a Masterpiece

A tribute to the masterpiece of Giovanni Bellini who returns to Querini to live in a new room inside a shell that will guard it by exposing and illuminating it. A soundtrack and an olfactory plot will accompany an evocative, enveloping experience full of amazement and wonder.

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• Wonder Booster / Wonder Refill

We step into the scene with Davide Rivalta’s powerful lions—heraldic and familiar, guardians and companions. We pause on the threshold, where Martí Guixé transforms the Fondazione’s logo into a piece of social seating, placed between the café and the Libreria Giovanni. On the first floor, the Count’s library beats at the heart of his passions; on the second, his private residence opens up. The spaces redesigned by Scarpa, Pastor, Botta, and De Lucchi converse across time—communicating vessels, layered in meaning. On the third floor, John Baldessari’s exhibition unfolds as a conceptual landscape, leaving nothing to chance.

(05.05.25 – 23.11.25)

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