SAS [ I / II ] Venezia

SAS SECRET APARTMENT SHOW | part I + part II
(3rd floor), Campo Della Tana, Arsenale, Venezia 
April 16-20 + November 18-24 2024
Curated by Vanya Balogh

> SAS web page

Artists:Patrick Colhoun, Sarah Pager, Ann Grim, Gavin Turk, Nicole Farhi, Martin Sexton, Cedric Christie, Andrea Morucchio, Simon Foxton, Toni Gallagher, Paul Sakoilsky, Vanya Balogh, Norman Normski Anderson, Susana Lopez Fernandez, Steve Pettengell, Tiziana Mandolesi, Jon Baker, Marjorie Abela, Gzillion Artist, Tomaz Kramberger

SAS Secret Apartment Show is a site-specific exhibition featured at the 2024 Venice Art Biennale, running during the opening week (April 16-20) and closing week (November 18-24) set in a "secret" apartment located right in front of the entrance to the main venue of the Biennale at the Venice Arsenal. 

The exhibition showcases works from seven international artists and their guests. It delves into themes like biology, waste, violence, technology, displacement, media manipulation, and power politics. 

The art pieces, presented in a labyrinthine space, offer provocative and surreal experiences, exploring the tension between reality and imagination. The exhibition is by appointment only and addresses post-pandemic responses in an increasingly complex world.

This extraordinary independent art project transformed a tourist apartment into a vibrant exhibition space, where the works of a diverse group of international artists—each with their unique artistic language—came together in dialogue.

The artworks seamlessly integrated into the apartment's domestic setting, often reimagining the furniture and décor as components of the pieces themselves, subtly imbued with conceptual references. The result was an environment that both disoriented and captivated visitors, offering an experience that was as alienating as it was alluring.

Morucchio presented 3 different types of works for SAS I: Fantastic Portrait blocks box, Celata, Making Faces and a work created especially for this event entitled History Already Absolved Me.
This artwork, placed in a strategic spot in the apartment—the fireplace hood in the central living room—was also featured in the second edition of the artistic project SAS II, along with a couple of pieces from the Fantastic Portrait series and a video from Engagement Acts project.