In Venice opens its doors today, Sept. 2, the new Casa Sanlorenzo space, an artistic hub desired by the yachting brand Sanlorenzo, unveiled in the spring and conceived as a meeting place for design, dialogue and sustainability. The venue debuts with Breathtaking, the installation by Fabrizio Ferri (Rome, 1952), which arrives in the lagoon enriched by a new element: a portrait of musician and activist Sting. The exhibition, promoted by Sanlorenzo Arts, will be on view until Sunday, Nov. 23, and is the first official initiative of a cultural program that links the brand’s nautical tradition with artistic and environmental reflection.
Casa Sanlorenzo is located in a restored 1940s villa overlooking the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. The architectural intervention bears the signature of Piero Lissoni, Sanlorenzo’s artistic director, who imagined an exhibition space capable of combining aesthetics and commitment. Access is provided by a pedestrian bridge inaugurated in 2008, the first one built in Venice in the third millennium, symbolically emphasizing the role of passage to a new cultural season for the brand.
Breathtaking focuses on the theme ofmarine pollution, with particular attention to plastics and microplastics that compromise ocean ecosystems. Ferri’s works feature thirteen portraits of iconic figures suspended in plastic wrappings, a metaphor for the silent suffocation of the seas. Visitors are confronted with striking images that evoke the fragility of life and the urgency of addressing the environmental issue. In Milan, the exhibition had attracted more than 40,000 people in just four weeks.
In Venice, the installation features Sting’s portrait for the first time, added to the twelve already known, including Willem Dafoe, Helena Christensen, Misty Copeland, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gala Gonzalez, Julianne Moore, Bridget Moynahan, Carolyn Murphy, Isabella Rossellini, Susan Sarandon, and Naomi Watts. Actor Willem Dafoe, whose face appears among the works, attended the Venetian opening, which was held in conjunction with the Architecture Biennale and the Film Festival. The presence of prominent names in cinema and art confirmed Sanlorenzo’s desire to turn the exhibition into an international crossroads of creativity and awareness.
The installation designed by Ferri proposes an immersive path. In the center of the room is a large glass coffin filled with seawater, a symbol of the vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems. Surrounding it, on a black wall, are the thirteen photographs pierced by rough iron nails. Making the experience even more intense is the contribution of Marina Abramović, who suggested the use of soundproofing headphones to reproduce the absence of sound typical of the abyss. In this way, silence becomes an integral part of the artistic narrative, transporting visitors to a suspended dimension.
The exhibition is curated by Geraldina Polverelli Fer ri and Cristiano Seganfreddo, photographically realized in New York by Polverelli Ferri and produced in Italy with the support of Nobile Agency. The collaboration with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the support of Credem Euromobiliare Private Banking allowed the project to materialize, confirming the choral dimension of the initiative.
Breathtaking aims to consolidate the mission of Sanlorenzo Arts, a cultural platform created to promote the encounter between contemporary art, design and the sea. Casa Sanlorenzo, with its opening, wants to be not only a gallery but a creative workshop and a space for reflection on urgent issues such as sustainability and collective responsibility. The company thus reaffirms its desire to be a protagonist in a cultural dialogue that goes beyond boating, embracing beauty as a tool for awareness. The exhibition will be open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with free admission on scheduled days.
“Not long ago,” declares Fabrizio Ferri, "I saw some disturbing photographs of a dolphin and a seal suffocated by plastic bags. Looking at these images I gained a new awareness: the lethal force of contamination of the seas and oceans that we cause with plastic and microplastics is not only killing the oceans, we are killing ourselves. To share this awareness, I conceived this installation, Breathtaking, and shot a series of dramatic portraits of famous international talent as if they were asphyxiated by plastic, and whose commitment to the project was immediate and heartfelt. Each of the large-format prints will hang on a black wall, pierced by two hand-forged wrought-iron nails. The viewer will be immersed within this installation, at the center of which will be placed a transparent glass coffin filled with water."
“Casa Sanlorenzo is a natural extension of our philosophy, where beauty and responsibility go hand in hand,” says Massimo Perotti, Executive Chairman Sanlorenzo. "With Breathtaking, we open our doors not only to art, but to a deeper dialogue about the future of our oceans. This is not just an installation. It is a statement of intent."
Born in Rome in 1952, Fabrizio Ferri began his career as a photojournalist, later establishing himself as a fashion photographer in London and New York. He has worked with publications such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and Vanity Fair, and has signed campaigns for brands such as Bulgari, Gucci, Ferrari, Dolce & Gabbana, and Valentino. He has immortalized famous faces, from Isabella Rossellini to Naomi Watts, Madonna to Beyoncé. In 2022 he directed Portrait of the Queen, a film presented at the Rome Film Festival and released in more than a thousand theaters worldwide.
In addition to his photographic career, Ferri distinguished himself as an entrepreneur by founding Industria Superstudio in Milan and New York and creating the Eataly brand. He also started the University of the Image, an institute dedicated to the study of sensory perception. His philanthropic efforts have seen him involved in projects such as “Stop Think Give,” carried out with Bulgari and Save the Children, which has raised over ten million dollars for education in the poorest countries. He has also supported the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, contributing to pediatric HIV research. In 2025 he published with Rizzoli his first book, Fin Qui.
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| Fabrizio Ferri's "Breathtaking" opens Casa Sanlorenzo in Venice |
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