Ahmet Güneştekin — "Sessizlik / Silence" at Palazzo Gradenigo, Venice

Ahmet Güneştekin — "Sessizlik / Silence" at Palazzo Gradenigo

The Güneştekin Foundation opens Palazzo Gradenigo in Venice to host Sessizlik / Silence, a site-specific exhibition by Ahmet Güneştekin curated by Sergio Risaliti. The installation spans multiple floors and combines monumental bronze sculptures with oil paintings that draw on Mediterranean and Anatolian iconography.

The artist stages a conversation between collective memory and personal experience: bronze figures — many inspired by the workers who restored the building — coexist with painted works that incorporate restored Anatolian doors and folkloric symbols. The result is a pathway that asks visitors for quiet contemplation.

Highlights

• Bronze sculptures: eleven works, some exceeding three meters, created as site-specific figures that inhabit courtyards and rooms.
• Oil paintings: eleven large canvases featuring textured surfaces and inserted antique doors, where color and fine incisions generate luminous vibration.
• Self-portrait: a prominent figure on the ground floor signaling silence with the forefinger-to-lips gesture.
• Themes: memory, language loss, cultural censorship, resilience and rebirth.

Why visit

This exhibition offers a multisensory encounter that merges sculpture and painting within a restored historic setting. It is relevant for visitors interested in contemporary art with symbolic density and social engagement. The works engage with the architecture and the city, prompting reflection on memory and the need for silence in an overstimulated information era.

Practical information

• Location: Palazzo Gradenigo, Castello district, Venice.
• Curator: Sergio Risaliti.
• Visitor tips: allow time to study the painted surfaces and the interplay between sculptures and architecture; respect the contemplative atmosphere encouraged by the installation.
• Note: dates and opening times may change—check official foundation or venue channels for the latest visitor information before planning your trip.

The show sits within a body of exhibitions that connect Mediterranean traditions with contemporary practices, offering fresh perspectives on identity, loss and cultural renewal.