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Bizhan Bassiri. Principe. Il Nottambulo del Pensiero Magmatico

Last chance27 February 2026 – 22 November 2026€35

Bizhan Bassiri's recent and emblematic works in the Sala delle Quattro Porte, with ninety images of artists from the 15th to 21st centuries in a suspended, stepped display.

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On now All of November 2026

Faces climb the walls around you, from just above the floor to the top of the room: Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Duchamp, Burri. Bassiri made them with artificial intelligence, painting artists dead for centuries as if they were his contemporaries, and hung them stepped like an old picture gallery.

It is all one room, the Sala delle Quattro Porte on the museum's second floor. The series numbers 90 portraits and 85 hang here, on reflective glass. Between them stand two bronzes, the mirror-finished Erme Aurea and the 270 cm Meteorite, and two tall Principe paintings mark two of the four doorways. The Italian-Iranian artist calls the thinking behind it Magmatic Thought, a manifesto he began in 1984.

Treat it as a contemporary detour on the Correr route, not a full exhibition. It's included in the St Mark's Square Museums ticket (€35, €15 reduced, free for Venetian residents). From 1 November last entry is 16:00, and it closes 22 November.

Look for

The wall of 90 faces
Look up: AI portraits of artists from Giotto to Carla Accardi rise from low on the walls to the ceiling, each emerging from a black background.
Erme Aurea
A mirror-finished bronze herm forms the backbone of the room and throws its light, and you, back into the display.
Meteorite
A 270 cm bronze pulls the room upward, set against the low, horizontal sculptures Fratino and Serpi.
The old room in the glass
Because the portraits hang on reflective glass, the room's 15th-century Madonna della Misericordia and its Murano chandeliers turn up among the faces.