International Sculpture Park in Mestre reopens with two new sculptures and evening openings

Beginning Sunday, April 27, 2025, the Banca Ifis International Sculpture Park at Villa Fürstenberg in Mestre reopens to the public after its winter break, officially inaugurating a new season dedicated to contemporary art. After last year’s success, with more than 3,500 visitors registered in 2024, the Park is preparing to welcome the public with important news, starting with the entry of two new works into the collection: Versus by Tony Cragg (Liverpool, 1949) and Draco Piscis by Agnes Questionmark (1995).

Located within the 22-hectare historic garden surrounding Villa Fürstenberg, the Park was created in 2023 at the instigation of Banca Ifis President Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio. Since its opening, it has established itself as a point of reference for contemporary sculpture in Italy and Europe, thanks to a permanent collection that now has 24 sculptures created by 14 internationally renowned artists. These include names such as Fernando Botero, Annie Morris, Park Eun Sun, Igor Mitoraj, Manolo Valdés, Pablo Atchugarry, Pietro Consagra, Roberto Barni, Julio Larraz, Philip Colbert, Jaume Plensa, Giuseppe Penone, Nico Vascellari, and Davide Rivalta. Thus, 2025 opens with the entry of two significant new works that expand the visual and conceptual narrative of the Park. The first is Versus, a permanent sculpture signed by Tony Cragg, one of the leading contemporary sculptors. The work, previously exhibited in 2011 under the Louvre’s famous glass pyramid, is created in an intense orange hue and plays on the dualism between balance and dynamism. A seemingly compact circular form disintegrates into a vortex of elliptical columns, moved by an inner energy. Depending on the point of view, Versus can look like a perfect disk, a fermenting organic mass, a planet, an eye, a core in constant transformation. It is precisely this multiplicity of interpretations that makes the work a central element of the 2025 collection.

Alongside Cragg’s work is Draco Piscis by Agnes Questionmark, an artist who signs a large-scale temporary sculpture inspired by the Renaissance naturalist’s scientific imagination. The work depicts a hybrid creature, perhaps marine, perhaps mythological, that never fully reveals itself. A symbol as much of the monstrosity projected by the collective unconscious as it is of the unexpressed potential of the ocean as a place of symbiosis and coexistence, Draco Piscis is proposed as a reflection on the relationship between adaptation and environmental crisis, and will be on view until August 30, 2025.

The official opening of Agnes Questionmark’s work is scheduled for Sunday, June 1, on the occasion of the first event of the Public Program of the Italian Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. On that date, the International Sculpture Park will also host a performance by Thomas De Falco, entitled The earth still sings. The day will also see the symbolic connection between the Banca Ifis Park and the Italian Pavilion, within which the videos accompanying Draco Piscis will be screened, emphasizing the dialogue between environmental art and contemporary languages. In addition to the expansion of the collection, the 2025 season will be enriched by new modes of enjoyment. Sunday openings with continuous hours, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., will be joined by extraordinary openings in the evening hours, scheduled one Saturday a month from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Visitors will be able to book access through the free Ifis art app, available on both mobile devices and the web version. This choice allows not only to extend the opportunities for visits, but also to strengthen the experiential and participatory dimension of the Park, enhancing its inclusive and sensory aspect. Precisely in terms of accessibility, all the sculptures in the Park have been accompanied by special captions in Braille language, so that people with visual disabilities can also interact with the works through touch. This is further evidence of Banca Ifis’ commitment to art that is not only contemplative, but also engaging and inclusive, capable of breaking down physical and cultural barriers.

The Park is part of the broader Ifis art project, a cultural platform articulated in an art collection, a calendar of events, and an innovative digital strategy. The Bank’s corporate art collection includes more than 100 works by more than 50 artists, ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary art. Curated by Giulia Abate and Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, the Park represents the beating heart of the project, in which the works find a natural location that is consistent with the environment that hosts them. The aim is to promote cultural, social and economic biodiversity through temporary initiatives, workshops, performances, studies and training moments. An approach that focuses on the “economy of knowledge and social justice,” and that sees art as an agent of change, capable of creating bridges between business, the public and the creative third sector.

A distinctive element of the project is the Ifis art app, which allows a digital exploration of the works through unedited video content, author narratives, critical insights and interviews with artists. Available on the App Store, Google Play and via browser, the app represents an accelerator of fruition, designed to engage even those with no specific training in the arts, making the Park a living, cross-cultural experience. Finally, at the beginning of the year, the Banca Ifis Research Office conducted, in collaboration with the Milan Polytechnic, a measurement of the social impact of the International Sculpture Park. From the data collected on a sample of 500 visitors, a multiplier of 3.9 emerges: every euro invested by the Bank generates almost four euros of social value for the territory. This indicator rises to 5.3 in the case of participants in the workshops organized in 2024 together with the Ministry of Culture, within the Biennale program.

International Sculpture Park in Mestre reopens with two new sculptures and evening openings

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