Fondazione Dries Van Noten
What does one do after 38 years at the helm of a wildly successful namesake brand? Exit and buy a 15th-century palazzo in Venice that’s what! In 2024, after stepping away from fashion, Dries Van Noten signed the paperwork for the Palazzo Pisani Moretta, once home to some of Venice’s most powerful families and repurposed it as the Dries Van Noten’s Fondazione, its manifesto a commitment to celebrating creativity.
Before the official opening I was excited to receive an invitation to the Palazzo with a view to making three pieces for its inaugural exhibition ‘The Only True Protest is Beauty’. As we wandered through the ornate stuccoed rooms Dries explained the building’s extraordinary heritage – from entertaining Tsar Paul of Russia and Josephine Bonaparte to hosting the most extravagant masked balls in town. It seemed the palace had always been a stage for prestige and cachet.
Where to start making an artwork for an actual palace? One that has been accumulating beauty for more than 500 years and a landmark of Venetian Gothic architecture? The frescoed walls already spoke, the stuccoed ceilings and terrazzo floors had opinions, and the Murano chandeliers whispered stories. My sculptures would be entering into a dialogue with centuries of Venetian artisans. Was I ready to join the conversation? Oh yes!
Following discussions with Dries and his team it was decided that I would make three artworks for the historic Chapel at the very top of the Palazzo (so situated to enable easier access for Holy Spirits to the Heavens).
Back at my studio in Margate I made my first artwork. This piece was for the shrine, to be placed under the watchful eye of the Madonna and Child. I sculpted a rich Vanitas bouquet of flowers fashioned from nails, whisks and cutlery. Everyday objects bent into new life. My intention was to make it look and feel like it had simply slipped from the Nature Morts canvases that surround it and onto the alter where it had always belonged. I think it worked.
To stand guard protectively either side of the bouquet I built two totems from twisted forks, a gentle nod to the Solomonic marble columns, that fantastic feature of so many Venetian churches. Their cork screw shafts symbolising the Holy Ghost’s ascent to heaven. Just above the totems to the left I placed a red heart pierced by blades, a sharp (!) reimagining of religious iconography, a heart so full of love it is actually bursting.
The exhibition, which opened during the 2026 Venice Biennale, treats craftsmanship as a language of expression and a conduit for emotion, deliberately moving beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Works respond and delight in one another and to the building itself – its ceilings, frescoes, and ornamental details, the Palazzo functioning as a participant rather than a neutral container.
More than two hundred works of fashion, jewellery, design, art, photography, glass, ceramics, and material experimentations enter into dialogue with frescoes, ceilings, and the building’s layered histories all driven by Dries van Noten’s magical curational alchemy. The show is beguiling, emotionally rich and mind-boggling in equal measure. If you’re planning on visiting and you’ve never experienced Stendhal syndrome, that curious inclination to feel faint in the face of overwhelming beauty, take this as a warning.
Fondazione Dries Van Noten. S. Polo, 2766, 30125 Venezia VE, Italy.
The Only True Protest Is Beauty, on view from 25 April to 4 October 2026.
Architectural Digest – The Fondazione Dries Van Noten Opens a Bold New Chapter in Venice
