“Materia prima / Raw Material”: issue 3/2025 of La Biennale di Venezia Magazine

Materia prima / Raw Material is the title of issue 3/2025 of the historic Magazine published by La Biennale di Venezia, which has come back to life after fifty-three years of editorial silence. Printed to be ready for the 82^nd Venice International Film Festival, the new issue addresses the tension between the digital and material reality. In the era of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and virtual reality, the magazine focuses on res extensa, the extension of the body, the physical nature of experience, the genuine connection with the world.

It features contributions by: philosopher Massimo Cacciari, who confirms how intelligence does not intend to dematerialise; choreographer Antony Hamilton, on the body as a map of space; director Massimo D’Anolfi on the pilgrimage to Fàtima as a physical act of faith; the science fiction author Bruce Sterling, on cyberpunk as a bridge between technology and pop culture; paralympic champion Daniele Cassioli, on the role of technology as an extension of the human being; poet Hugo Mujica, who calls for moving beyond the opposition between matter and spirit; the heart surgeon Gino Gerosa in a conversation with Vincenzo Milanesi on the body enhanced by science; artist Alberto Biasi on his artistic research between movement and expansion.

The cover is designed by artist Mari Katayama with the work on the way home #005 (2016), while the back cover features leave-taking #013 (2021), also by Mari Katayama, who participated in the Biennale Arte 2019.

Conceived and produced exclusively as a printed edition, the Magazine features a rich iconographic apparatus that draws largely from the Historical Archive of La Biennale and from national and international photographic research. Published quarterly,each issue will have a monographic focus, establishing a dialogue between the disciplines that characterise La Biennale di Venezia – the visual arts, architecture, dance, music, theatre, cinema – as well as incursions into the fields of the sciences and literature. 

The Magazine contains articles, testimonies, interviews, dialogues and original and exclusive contributions by artists, scholars, and leading figures in the cultural landscape and civil society from Italy and abroad. Every page is characterised by the multiplicity of languages and freedom of expression, with ample space for graphic experimentation and the cross-fertilisation between different forms and codes.

This issue is also illustrated with photographs from: Archives of the Teatro Stabile di Torino; Fototeca Cinema; Fototeca Teatro; Flowers Gallery; Studio Ancarani, ZERO…, Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie. There are also photographs by Ela Bialkowska - OKNO Studio, Massimo D’Anolfi, Davide Ferrante, Pieter Hugo, Nadav Kander, Michele Palazzi, Pamela Randon, Italo Rondinella, Martin Usborne, Michael Wolf. The illustrations are by Lorenzo Mattotti.

The authors for N. 3/25: Maurizio Ferraris, Massimo Cacciari, Giorgio Marengo, Damiano Michieletto, Cesare Bisantis, Oge Obasi, Antony Hamilton, Xu Jiang, Michelangelo Frammartino, Luca Buoncristiano, Massimo D’Anolfi, Bruce Sterling, Raqs Media Collective, Daniele Cassioli, Giovanni Agosti, Giuseppe Bartolucci, Piero Genovesi, Pietro Li Causi, Davide Brullo, Hugo Mujica, Gino Gerosa, Vincenzo Milanesi, Arthur Duff, Arcangelo Sassolino, Alberto Biasi, Debora Rossi, Erzë Dinarama.

THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Editor-in-chief: Debora Rossi. Director: Luigi Mascheroni. 
The Editorial team consists of the Office of Editorial Activities, the Press Offices and a team of professionals from the various Departments of La Biennale. 
Graphic design: Tomo Tomo, a communication design firm founded in Milan by Davide Di Gennaro and Luca Pitoni.

THE DISTRIBUTION
The Magazine is available at the Biennale’s online store (labiennale.org/it/aquista-online) and in major bookstores. It will be presented in various locations and events in Italy and abroad.

PREVIOUSLY RELEASED ISSUES
N. 1/24. Title: Diluvi prossimi venturi / The Coming Floods.
Contributions by: Manal AlDowayan, Engin Akyurek, Carlo Barbante, Davide Brullo, Carolyn Carlson, Aziza Chaouni, Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Giulia Foscari, Chiara Ianeselli, John Kinsella, Piersandro Pallavicini, Francesco Palmieri, Gilda Palusci, Orhan Pamuk, Mariagrazia Pontorno, Elena Pettinelli, Andrea Rinaldo, Emanuele Rosa, Stenio Solinas, José Tolentino de Mendonça, Lorenzo Toso, Luciano Violante, Peter Weir, Kongjian Yu. The cover is illustrated with a photograph of Yuri Ancarani taken during the shooting of his film Atlantide. The volume is illustrated with photographic images from the Biennale Archive and with photographs by Chiara Arturo, Alessandro Cinque, Antonio Martinelli, Paolo Pellegrin, Italo Rondinella, Paolo Verzone, Federico Vespignani, Francesco Zizola.

N. 1/25. Title: La forma del caos / The Shape of Chaos.
Contributions by: Adonis, Matteo Al Kalak, Eleonora Barbieri, William Basinski, Cesare Bisantis, Boris Behncke, Sue Black, Irene Boyer, Silvia Calandrelli, Edoardo Camurri, Mircea Cărtărescu, Maud Ceriotti Giaccari, Roberto Cicutto, Giuseppe Conte, Maria Cristiana Costanzo, Pablo Delano, Okwui Enwezor, Marta Franceschini, Alessandra Iadicicco, Gianfranco Linzi, Giulio Maira, Alberto Manguel, Pablo Maurette, Damiano Michieletto, Paolo Nori, Federico Pontiggia, Mariagrazia Pontorno, Carlo Ratti, Amerigo Restucci, Bruno Ruffilli, Debora Rossi, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, Gian Antonio Stella. The cover is illustrated with a photograph of Archèus. Labirinto Mozart, an immersive installation by Ophicina and Damiano Michieletto. The issue is illustrated with photographs from the Historical Archives of La Biennale; from the Archivio Luciano e Maud Giaccari, Bergman Center Foundation, Getty Images, Warburg Institute. Also featured are photographs by Iwan Baan, Giacomo Bianco, Antonio Biasucci, Frankie Casillo, Giacomo Doni, Thierry Du Bois, Charles Fréger, Mary Gelman, Roberto Marossi, Domingo Milella, Alessandro Scotti, Giovanna Silva, Dayanita Sing, Gerald Ulmann.

N. 2/25. Title: Anteguerra / Things to Come
Contributions by: Christine Macel, Germaine Acogny, Roberto Cremascoli, Gianni Forte, Mazen Khaled, Luigi Gallo, Luca Francesconi, Antonio Marras, Darco Pellos and Wael Shawky, Josep Oriol Esteve, Claudio Magris, Robert Jan van Pelt, Mizue Hasegawa, Annarita Colombo, Jon Padfield, Javier Cercas, Gohar Dashti, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Anita Likmeta, Valentina Tanni, Silvano Tagliagambe, Felix Azhimov, Giovanni Caprara, Cinzia Zuffada, Pier Luigi Sacco, Matt Leacock, Krystian Lupa, Stefania Vitulli, Alexander Sokurov, Denis Brotto, Mark Salvatus. The cover is illustrated with a work by Mino Maccari: this is an image of the stage panel with a reflected face for the final parade in Bohuslav Martinů’s opera “Commedia sul Ponte”at Biennale Musica 1951 (tempera on plywood). The issue is illustrated with photographs from: Historical Archive of La Biennale; Fototeca Cinema; Sfeir-Semler Gallery; Lisson Gallery; Lia Rumma; Barakat Contemporary; Museo Nacional del Prado; Scala, Florence; New Picture Library; Summerfield Press; Carlo Valsecchi; Collezione Maramotti; Elvert Bañares; National Commission for Culture and the Arts NCCA – Philippine Arts in Venice PAVB. Also featured are photographs by Stefano Graziani, Junpei Katayama and Jon Padfield, Carlo Valsecchi, Gohar Dashti, Luca Capuano, Lorenzo Pesce, Gabrielle Traversat, Toni Fabris, Joan Fontcuberta, Jason Larkin, Masahisa Fukase.

The Biennale di Venezia magazine 1950-1971
In consideration of the great success of the XXIV International Art Exhibition of La Biennale in 1948, the first after the end of World War II, the Institution decided in the early months of 1950 to publish a magazine with the intent to make it the official organ for the promotion of its events. The idea was to create a quarterly magazine titled ‘La Biennale di Venezia’. The cover image varied for each issue in relation to the activities of La Biennale, and from the very outset the magazine appeared as a precious object, printed in a large format, and highly refined from an editorial point of view: it featured inserts on different types and weights of paper, with many sophisticated images, mostly in black and white, but with some colour plates that increased in number over time. The initial title was: La Biennale di Venezia. Quarterly magazine of art cinema music theatre fashion. The inaugural issue was launched in July 1950 and consisted of 50 pages of text, 5 colour plates and 65 plates in black and white. The publisher was Vittorio Alfieri, Florence; the printer, Carlo Ferrari, Venice. The Editorial Board consisted of the President of the La Biennale Giovanni Ponti, the Secretary General Rodolfo Pallucchini, the editor-in-chief of the magazine was Elio Zorzi (head of the Press Office) who relied on the following collaborators: Umbro Apollonio (head of ASAC), Antonio Petrucci, Giovanni Piccini, Adolfo Zajotti, Ferdinando Ballo.

Second phase of the magazine 1960-1971
The double issue number 36/37 July-December 1959 was the last in a phase of transition. Pallucchini had left his position at La Biennale in 1957 and been replaced by Gian Alberto Dall’Acqua. Apollonio took over the magazine as editor-in-chief, and was officially appointed to the position in 1958, working from the start in close understanding with Wladimiro Dorigo. The less-academic orientation introduced by Apollonio tended to give space to the concerns of the art of the new generations, further updating the magazine’s look to make it less slick. The turnabout became evident starting with issue number 40 July-September 1960: the font was changed again, the number of critical contributions increased, the images were mostly in black and white. 
The new policy sought to give “ample margin to the most pressing criticism in a union of formal, historical and aesthetic aspects which today’s global art proposes and develops”. It was also decided that the magazine would be published in-house by La Biennale, without involving other more or less renowned publishers, due to the lacklustre sales. This editorial policy remained in place through the 1970s, when after 1975 the publication of the magazine was replaced by that of the Annuari directed by Dorigo.