Once Upon a Time…
Unkel goes to Venice Biennale
Palazzo Mora — European Cultural Centre, Venice, 2019
“Once Upon a Time…” was conceived as a poetic spatial intervention exploring memory, fragility, and the emotional resonance of place. Presented at Palazzo Mora during the Venice Biennale 2019, the installation translated elements of my hometown Unkel into an atmospheric sculptural language situated between architecture, landscape, and imagination.
Using expansive wire structures and cloud-like formations, the work transformed historical space into an emotionally permeable environment. The installation investigated how personal and collective memory can become spatially visible — fragile yet present, temporary yet emotionally persistent.
The project reflected my ongoing interest in dissolving the boundaries between sculpture and atmosphere. Rather than presenting isolated objects, the work aimed to create an immersive condition of lightness, vulnerability, and poetic suspension within the historic Venetian architecture.
“Once Upon a Time…” became both a reflection on origin and belonging, and an invitation to experience architecture not as static structure, but as a living emotional space.
