Romina De Novellis and Hermann Nitsch in Dialogue at Alberta Pane, Venice

Curated by Léa Bismuth, the exhibition at Galleria Alberta Pane in Venice stages a dialogue between Romina De Novellis (b. 1982, Naples) and Hermann Nitsch (b. 1938, Vienna). Naples serves as the geographical and emotional backdrop, linking the two artists through the centrality of the body and gesture. Nitsch's late paintings—dense red substance hurled onto a resistant support—evoke the rituals of the Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries, suggesting an active, almost ferocious yet absent body. De Novellis's performances emphasize the body's natural resistance: she leads a secular procession through Naples for hours or drags a cart bearing her own cast through the streets of Pompeii, naked and determined, over an entire night. Simple acts like walking shed banality and become acts of awareness—of oneself and of others who tread the world with the same step.