Gianmaria Tosatti
Storia della Notte e Destino delle Comete
April – November 2022
Italian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
For the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale, the Italian Pavilion presented Storia della Notte e Destino delle Comete [History of Night and Destiny of Comets], a large-scale, site-specific installation by Gian Maria Tosatti. Conceived in a moment of profound global uncertainty, the work reflects on the fragile relationship between humankind and its environment in the wake of the pandemic.
The artist has transformed the Italian Pavilion into an immersive, two-act journey that oscillates between historical memory, ecological awareness and visionary hope. Structured as a theatrical device, the installation unfolds through two distinct narrative phases. The first evokes a landscape of abandoned factories, alienating and silent, where human presence has disappeared. These ghostly environments metaphorically retrace the rise and fall of Italy’s industrial ambition and echo the latent sense of catastrophe embedded in our present. In their desolate stillness, they reflect not only economic decline, but also the specters of contemporary crises, from armed conflict to ecological collapse.
The second part reverses this image. Destino delle Comete opens onto a nocturnal seascape, pierced by a swarm of fireflies that illuminate the darkness like signals of fragile hope. Here, Nature reclaims its dominion, reasserting a cruel yet sublime order, one in which beauty, violence and equilibrium coexist. The fleeting light of the fireflies becomes both poetic and political: a cathartic sign that suggests a possible way forward through the ruins of human ambition.
In a world increasingly shaped by anthropogenic disruption, pandemics, and environmental strain, the project asks: what role can art play in imagining new futures? In the quiet dialogue between decay and resurgence, Storia della Notte e Destino delle Comete proposes that even in the deepest night, a faint light can still guide us.
