The Holy See’s exhibition has opened in Venice featuring high-profile artists, poets and musicians such as Brian Eno, FKA Twigs and Precious Okoyomon. The Vatican show, The Ear is the Eye of the Soul, (9 May-22 November) is based on the life and legacy of the Benedictine nun Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), who was a medieval abbess, poet, healer and composer.
Twenty-four artists were selected by the Vatican for the exhibition, which takes place across two sites: the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelite in the Cannaregio district and the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex in Castello.
“The exhibition takes the form of a sonic prayer, a call to the contemplative act of listening,” a project statement says. Other participants include the musician Patti Smith, the US filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and the organist Kali Malone. Visitors can hear the commissioned audio tracks through headphones while wandering; the pieces meld together in a seamless blend, moving effortlessly from Eno’s composition to Smith’s poetry for instance.
The project is co-organised by Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and the US-based curator and publisher Ben Vickers, who founded the Arts Technologies department at the Serpentine. The Holy See initiative is also organised in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective, a sound art platform founded in 2001.
The Vatican is meanwhile expanding its contemporary art remit. The cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, who was in charge of the Vatican library, was appointed by Pope Francis as minister of culture and education in September 2022. “Mendonça started working with the Venice Biennale as an international platform for new dialogue. Now we have a stable presence here in Venice,” Cristiano Grisogoni, a representative of the Culture and Education dicastery at the Vatican, told The Art Newspaper.
“We have so many projects—last year we opened a contemporary art space in front of La Basilica [at the Vatican] called Conciliazone 5 where we’re currently showing works by the British artist George Rouy. Next year we will present works by other artists such as [the Chinese artist] Yan Pei-Ming and [the Swiss painter] Vivian Suter. Pope Leo XIV is following the path started with Pope Francis,” he added. The Vatican’s contemporary art programme is curated by Donatien Grau, head of contemporary art at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
For Conciliazione 5, Rouy has created a new site-specific painting and accompanying sound work, according to the Vatican website which says that Rouy “invites the viewer to engage with the act of reading a painting as if it were a text, embracing the palimpsestic nature of his work”.
Grisogoni also revealed plans for a new “triennial” comprising works created by artists and students at seven Catholic universities worldwide in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Milan. These works will be presented in Venice early next year.