Venice Biennale Review – serie

Materia prima / Raw Material is the title of issue 3/2025 of the historic magazine published by La Biennale di Venezia, which has come back to life after 53 years of editorial silence. Printed to be ready for the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, the new issue addresses the tension between the digital and material reality.In the era of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and virtual reality, the magazine focuses on res extensa, the extension of the body, the physical nature of experience, the genuine connection with the world. It features contributions by: philosopher Massimo Cacciari, who confirms how intelligence does not intend to dematerialise; choreographer Antony Hamilton, on the body as a map of space; director Massimo D’Anolfi on the pilgrimage to Fàtima as a physical act of faith; the science fiction author Bruce Sterling, on cyberpunk as a bridge between technology and pop culture; paralympic champion Daniele Cassioli, on the role of technology as an extension of the human being; poet Hugo Mujica, who calls for moving beyond the opposition between matter and spirit; the heart surgeon Gino Gerosa in a conversation with Vincenzo Milanesi on the body enhanced by science; artist Alberto Biasi on his artistic research between movement and expansion.The cover is designed by artist Mari Katayama with the work on the way home #005 (2016), while the back cover features leave-taking #013 (2021), also by Mari Katayama, who participated in the Biennale Arte 2019. Conceived and produced exclusively as a printed edition, the Magazine features a rich iconographic apparatus that draws largely from the Historical Archive of La Biennale and from national and international photographic research. Published quarterly, each issue will have a monographic focus, establishing a dialogue between the disciplines that characterise La Biennale di Venezia – the visual arts, architecture, dance, music, theatre, cinema – as well as incursions into the fields of the sciences and literature.The Magazine contains articles, testimonies, interviews, dialogues and original and exclusive contributions by artists, scholars, and leading figures in the cultural landscape and civil society from Italy and abroad. Every page is characterised by the multiplicity of languages and freedom of expression, with ample space for graphic experimentation and the cross-fertilisation between different forms and codes.This issue is also illustrated with photographs from: Archives of the Teatro Stabile di Torino; Fototeca Cinema; Fototeca Teatro; Flowers Gallery; Studio Ancarani, ZERO…, Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie. There are also photographs by Ela Bialkowska - OKNO Studio, Massimo D’Anolfi, Davide Ferrante, Pieter Hugo, Nadav Kander, Michele Palazzi, Pamela Randon, Italo Rondinella, Martin Usborne, Michael Wolf. The illustrations are by Lorenzo Mattotti. The authors for N. 3/25: Maurizio Ferraris, Massimo Cacciari, Giorgio Marengo, Damiano Michieletto, Cesare Bisantis, Oge Obasi, Antony Hamilton, Xu Jiang, Michelangelo Frammartino, Luca Buoncristiano, Massimo D’Anolfi, Bruce Sterling, Raqs Media Collective, Daniele Cassioli, Giovanni Agosti, Giuseppe Bartolucci, Piero Genovesi, Pietro Li Causi, Davide Brullo, Hugo Mujica, Gino Gerosa, Vincenzo Milanesi, Arthur Duff, Arcangelo Sassolino, Alberto Biasi, Debora Rossi, and Erzë Dinarama. The graphic design and layout is by Studio Tomo Tomo, Milan.Text in English and Italian.