Fishes out of water. And this time literally. These were the protagonists of the exhibit by Annapaola Cibin, entitled No more room in the lagoon, during the summer of 2013. The lagoon is, of course, Venice’s, whose fishes swam above one of the palaces along the Grand Canal. Or rather flew, and the terrace was the one on top of Bevilacqua’s weaving mill.
Annapaola Cibin’s art
After studying art, with a specialization in weaving, in Italy and England, Annapaola Cibin returned to Venice, where she started collaborating with Murano’s glass masters. And this experience led her to the discovery of the opportunities offered by this material, as well as of a chance for glass to meet fabrics.
Since 1997 her textile art has been enriched with a new technique: painting on velvet, on the one hand, drawing on the old Venetian tradition of painted tapestry and, on the other hand, adding her own personal touch to tradition, by inserting gold- and silver-leaf decorations and Venetian-glass elements.
A detail of the exhibit
But dying and painting on velvet is no easy process, due to its pile, which can hardly hold colour: this is why the fishes on Bevilacqua’s terrace, too, were the result of a long handiwork.
Luxury velvets… in the shape of fishes
Annapaola Cibin’s fishes above Bevilacqua’s weaving mill by night
If Venice’s lagoon is overcrowded, its fishes start colonising the roofs of its houses: as a consequence, from May 30th, 2013, while going along or on the Grand Canal you would have happened to see 14 giant and multicoloured fishes swimming above the weaving mill in Sestiere Santa Croce. By day and by night, given that the coloured lights made them visible even in the dark.
Annapaola Cibin has therefore succeeded in using luxury velvets to realise “sculptures” made of fabrics, thus shifting the fishes enlivening her tapestry from the 2D world to the 3D one. Moreover, while on the tapestry brightness is given by the pile itself of the velvet, which is indeed characterised by brilliance and a changing surface, the fishes of No more room in the lagoon can count on the Grand Canal for the shimmers of Sun reflecting on water.
