Windmills Of Your Mind: ART for The World --- Exhibitions on Islands

Island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni

below Robert Rauschenberg, A quake in Paradise (Labyrinth), 1994

Since its foundation, ART for The World presents its projects in sites which normally do not belong to the traditional contemporary art circuit, such as ancient monuments, monasteries, public buildings, schools, islands, parks, stadium and other open spaces.
In particular, since 1998 ART for The World has organized exhibitions on the Island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni (Venice) and on the Isola Madre (Lake Maggiore), two sites remarkable for both their natural and cultural heritage.

The concept of “island” – a condition suspended between the sea and the mainland, the present and the past – often leads to the idea of loneliness, closure and refuge in one’s own identity. The island is a secret garden or a hortus conclusus where art silently breaks in and – mingling with the rare and exclusive space-time condition of the place – transforms the environment into a different landscape that is natural and artificial at the same time. The art works, merging with the magic island dimension, enable a new relation with the nature and shift our consciousness towards new geographical and mental regions, invented landscapes and towards a new perception of the world and space.

Island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, Venice, Italy

The Mekhitarian Armenian monastic complex on the Island of San Lazzaro in Venice is an important point of encounter between Eastern and Western, secular and religious, cultures. A place of Armenian studies, as well as prayer, that hosts a unique library of manuscripts and a renowned museum whose combined holdings include Near Eastern and Mediterranean antiquities.

Exhibitions:
1998 ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG
2003 JANNIS KOUNELLIS
2007 JOSEPH KOSUTH, The Language of Equilibrium

Jannis Kounellis, Senza Titolo, 2003

Joseph Kosuth, The Language of the Equilibrium, 2007

Isola Madre, Isole Borromeo, Lake Maggiore, Italy
Isola Madre - the largest of the Borromeo Islands on the Lake Maggiore, between Milan and Turin and next to Locarno (Switzerland) - is also the most wonderful due to its enchanted atmosphere. Its gardens, where peacocks, parrots and pheasants roam freely, are full of rare plants and flowers, creating a charm of an exotic land. The Palazzo Borromeo, located on the island, beside its original rooms from the sixteenth century, host an interesting collection of ancient models of set of theaters.

Exhibitions:
2005 JANNIS KOUNELLIS, Santa Fe
2006 LILIANA MORO, WILLIAM KENTRIDGE, ROBERT WILSON