Emisferi / Hemispheres is the title of no. 2/26 of the magazine published by La Biennale

Emisferi / Hemispheres is the title of issue no. 2/2026 of the historic magazine published by La Biennale di Venezia. Printed in time for the presentation of the new headquarters of the Historical Archive – International Centre for Research on Contemporary Arts at the Arsenale, the new issue addresses the concept of the hemisphere as a symbolic, geographical, political, and cultural form of the present. Starting from a word that is increasingly recurrent in public discourse and in the languages of our time, the volume examines the new configurations of the contemporary world, between polarities, divisions, belongings, and possibilities for relation. It also explores the tension between thought and matter, between res cogitans and res extensa, between what takes shape as a mental construction and what manifests itself in space, in bodies, in architectures, and in territories. In a present marked by rapid transformations and new geopolitical balances, Emisferi / Hemispheres invites reflection on the forms that skills, sensibilities, and cultural, artistic, and political visions take today.

Among the contributions featured in the issue, Monsignor Francesco Moraglia, Patriarch of Venice, reads prayer as a voice of communion capable of uniting peoples across different hemispheres. Political geographer Luca Muscarà analyses hemispheres as conceptual tools placed at the service of power, while historian Alessandro Vanoli explores the map as a cultural and symbolic device capable of changing the way societies read the world and themselves. In dialogue with Antonio Vettese, sailor Cino Ricci retraces the relationship between navigation, orientation, and technology, from the sextant to GPS, recalling the unpredictability of the sea beyond any instrument of control. In conversation with Michele D’Emilia, Ludwig H. Moeller, Director of the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna, takes the theme of hemispheres beyond the Earth, considering the Moon as a new space of competition, cooperation, and governance. Curator Beatrice Leanza analyses the global expansion of cultural infrastructures as instruments of urban development, institutional experimentation, and geopolitical repositioning, while cartographer Laura Canali rethinks the geopolitical map as a dynamic and never-neutral device for representing power relations. Researcher Nicole Starosielski investigates the hidden geography of undersea fibre-optic cables, showing how global digital communication is intertwined with territories, seabeds, economic interests, environmental issues, and geopolitical balances.

Interviewed by Francesco Giai Via, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer explores the power of representation and the control of historical memory through his films The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence, and The End, questioning the official narratives that legitimise violence and art as a possible space for humanisation. Artist Cai Guo-Qiang retraces his research between gunpowder, fireworks, Artificial Intelligence, and dialogue with the universe, bringing energy, risk, beauty, and destruction into relation. Giorgio Vallortigara, neuroscientist and writer, addresses the theme of hemispheres starting from the division of the brain and studies on the split brain, showing how the unity of the mind is a fragile balance constructed through body, behaviour, and environment. In a present marked by wars, climate crises, migration, and new technologies, lawyer Philippe Sands reflects on the resilience of international law, while poet Tom Buron, interviewed by Davide Brullo, interprets poetry as an experience of crossing, risk, and overturning the world. Biologist and ornithologist Francesco Petretti explores the planetary routes of migratory birds as a living fabric capable of connecting remote places and crossing hemispheres. Starting from the spatial and symbolic organisation of the contemporary art system, artist Meriç Algün questions the role of biennials as devices of visibility and temporary maps of the global art world. Photographer Massimo Sestini describes his “vertical vision” as both an aesthetic and ethical choice, capable of transforming events, crowds, migrations, and landscapes into emotional and political cartographies. Artist and photographer Emeka Okereke develops a reflection on the project Invisible Borders Trans-African Road Trip as an artistic and philosophical practice that challenges the colonial legacy of borders, transforming them from lines of exclusion into places of encounter. Writer Giuseppe Lupo proposes the concept of the Medioccidente as an intermediate cultural and moral space, starting from Venice and its nature as a threshold between East and West. An insert dedicated to The Planet After Geoengineering by DESIGN EARTH, presented at the Biennale Architettura 2021, addresses geoengineering as a field of political, design, and ethical imagination, questioning the consequences of a planet made engineerable. Engineer Mattia Cavanna explores technologies capable of reaching beyond the visible field, from aerospace to medical diagnostics, from satellites to drones, interpreting innovation as a multidisciplinary practice. Interviewed by Flavia Fossa Margutti, artist Grazia Toderi retraces her research around light, vision, and hemispheres, from the Moon landing to nocturnal cities, from satellites to drones. Director and playwright Manuela Infante, interviewed by Emanuela Caldirola and Marta Zannoner, develops a reflection on Estado Vegetal and on the possibility of reinventing theatre through non-human and post-human thought. Architect Eyal Weizman presents the work of Forensic Architecture as an investigative practice in which space, images, data, and testimonies become instruments of evidence and justice. Mathematicians Michele Emmer and Massimo Marchiori reflect on the contemporary relevance of Flatland as a metaphor for overcoming the limits of perception, between geometry, cinema, art, society, and technology. Finally, filmmaker Lav Diaz, interviewed by Paolo Bertolin, describes cinema as a form of resistance, memory, and cultural struggle, rooted in the history and traumas of the Filipino people and capable of subverting Western models through a free temporality, long sequence shots, and a radical political commitment.

All texts in issue no. 2/2026 are by Monsignor Francesco Moraglia, Luca Muscarà, Alessandro Vanoli, Cino Ricci, Antonio Vettese, Ludwig H. Moeller, Michele d’Emilia, Beatrice Leanza, Laura Canali, Nicole Starosielski, Joshua Oppenheimer, Francesco Giai Via, Cai Guo-Qiang, Giorgio Vallortigara, Philippe Sands, Tom Buron, Davide Brullo, Francesco Petretti, Meriç Algün, Massimo Sestini, Emeka Okereke, Giuseppe Lupo, Mattia Cavanna, Grazia Toderi, Manuela Infante, Eyal Weizman, Michele Emmer, Massimo Marchiori, Lav Diaz, Paolo Bertolin and Savita Apte.

On the cover, the issue features Duvan No. 13 (Dove No. 13, 1915) by Hilma af Klint, a Swedish artist and one of the most radical figures of early twentieth-century abstraction, whose work was exhibited at the Biennale Arte 2013, Il Palazzo Enciclopedico. Linked to spiritualism, theosophy, and the search for visual languages capable of giving form to the invisible, af Klint developed a body of work traversed by alchemical, spiritual, and cosmological symbolisms.

This issue is illustrated with photographs and images from the Artemis II Lunar Flyby Mission, the Roger Caillois Collection, Juho Kuva, Luigi Ghirri, Stephen Gill, Massimo Sestini, Adrian Paci, DESIGN EARTH, and Forensic Architecture, and with works by Claudio Parmiggiani, Cai Guo-Qiang, Taryn Simon, Meriç Algün, Emeka Okereke, Tullio Pericoli, and Gonkar Gyatso.

Conceived and produced exclusively in print format, the Magazine stands out for its rich iconographic apparatus, largely drawn from the Historical Archive of La Biennale and from photographic research conducted nationally and internationally. Published quarterly, each issue is dedicated to a monographic theme, bringing into dialogue the disciplines that define La Biennale di Venezia — visual arts, architecture, dance, music, theatre, and cinema — together with incursions into the fields of science, literature, and fashion. The Magazine features essays, testimonies, interviews, dialogues, and previously unpublished and exclusive contributions by artists, scholars, and leading figures from the cultural sphere and civil society, both Italian and international. A multiplicity of languages and freedom of expression characterise every page, with ample space devoted to graphic experimentation and to contaminations between different forms and codes.

The editor-in-chief of the magazine is Debora Rossi. The director is journalist and author Luigi Mascheroni.
The Editorial team consists the Office of Editorial Activities, the Press Offices and a team of professionals from the various Departments of La Biennale.
The graphic design is by Tomo Tomo, a communication design firm founded in Milan by Davide Di Gennaro and Luca Pitoni.

The magazine will be for sale in the Biennale’s online store (https://www.labiennale.org/en/buy-online) and in major bookstores. It will be presented in various locations and events in Italy and abroad.

Issue no. 1/2024. Title: Diluvi prossimi venturi / The Coming Flood
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 photographic image by Yuri Ancarani, taken during the shooting of the film Atlantide.
The volume is illustrated with photographs from the Biennale Archive and with photographs by Chiara Arturo, Alessandro Cinque, Antonio Martinelli, Paolo Pellegrin, Italo Rondinella, Paolo Verzone, Federico Vespignani, and Francesco Zizola.

Issue no. 1/2025. Title: La forma del caos / Shape of caos
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 e Lu Wenyu, Gian Antonio Stella. The cover is illustrated with a photographic image of Archèus. Labirinto Mozart, an immersive installation by Ophicina and Damiano Michieletto.
The issue is illustrated with photographs from the Biennale Archive, the Luciano and Maud Giaccari Archive, the Bergman Center Foundation, Getty Images, and the Warburg Institute. It also includes photographs by Iwan Baan, Giacomo Bianco, Antonio Biasiucci, Frankie Casillo, Giacomo Doni, Thierry Du Bois, Charles Fréger, Mary Gelman, Roberto Marossi, Domingo Milella, Alessandro Scotti, Giovanna Silva, Dayanita Singh, and Gerald Ulmann.

Issue no. 2/2025. 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 e 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: the image of the stage panel with a reflected face for the final parade of Bohuslav Martinů’s opera Comedy on the Bridge at the 1951 Music Biennale (tempera on plywood). The issue is illustrated with photographs from the Biennale Historical Archive, 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, and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts – NCCA / Philippine Arts in Venice – PAVB. It also includes 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, and Masahisa Fukase.

Issue no. 3/2025. Title: Materia Prima / Raw Material
Contributions by: 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 cover is by artist Mari Katayama, featuring the work on the way home #005 (2016), while the back cover presents leave-taking #013 (2021), also by Mari Katayama, who participated in the 2019 Art Biennale.The issue is also illustrated with photographs from Archivio Teatro Stabile di Torino, Fototeca Cinema, Fototeca Teatro, Flowers Gallery, Studio Ancarani, ZERO…, and Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie. It also includes photographs by Ela Bialkowska – OKNO Studio, Massimo D’Anolfi, Davide Ferrante, Pieter Hugo, Nadav Kander, Michele Palazzi, Pamela Randon, Italo Rondinella, Martin Usborne, and Michael Wolf.
The illustrations are by Lorenzo Mattotti.

Issue no. 4/2025. Title: Applicazioni / Applications
Contributions by: Luigia Lonardelli, Umberto Eco, Massimo Sterpi, Stefano Micelli, Brendan Cormier, Diane De Clerq, Daniele Torcellini, Âniko Ferreira da Silva, Giuseppe Donnaloia e Pavlos Mavromatidis, Marco Santi, Stefano Salis, Lilli Hollein, Virgilio Villoresi, Giovanni Leone, Yervant Gianikian, Giovanni Bonotto, Padre Simone Raponi, Fuyumi Namioka, Francesca Ummarino, Stefano De Matteis, Elias e Yousef Anastas, Marta Cuscunà, Deyan Sudjic, Bjarke Ingels, Tim Reeve, Elisabeth Diller, Álvar González-Palacios, Julio Luzán, Julian Schnabel. The cover features a chromogenic print by German artist Andreas Gursky, Nha Trang (2004), depicting scattered rows of women weaving bamboo chairs and baskets on the floor of an industrial shed in the Vietnamese coastal city of Nha Trang. The issue also includes photo essays by Iwan Baan, Michele Borzoni, Rachele Savioli, Matteo De Mayda, Alessio Miraglia, Antonio Biasiucci, Daniele Borghello, Martino Gamper, and Lorenzo Castore.

Issue no. 1/2026. Title: Alfabeti / Alphabets
Contributions by: Gilles Kepel, Giorgio Marrapodi, Frédéric Bonnaud, Valeria Della Valle, Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Tommaso Santambrogio, Ermanna Montanari, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Visar Zhiti, Line Langebek Knudsen, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Luca Valtorta, Letizia Michielon, Debora Rossi, Cesare Pietroiusti, Valentina Casali, Angela Guzman, Keith Broni, Maria Luisa Frisa, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Christopher Hampton and Monica Capuani, Sonia Folin, Silvia Pareschi, Emma Dante, Silvio Ranise and Nicola Grandi, Tsai Ming-liang, Gabriele Mainetti, Tomaso Binga, Manuela Furnari, Peter Joch.

La 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 Vladimiro 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 lackluster sales. This editorial policy remained in force through the 1970s, when after 1975 the publication of the magazine was replaced by that of the Annuari directed by Dorigo.