London-based October! Collective to open Venice’s first ever permanent art quarter

The city of Venice has been blessed with its first ever permanent art quarter, thanks in part to London-based female art group October! Collective.

Built upon a former industrial island, the Giudecca Art District will launch at this year’s edition of the Venice Biennale. Encompassing 11 galleries and art spaces, its set to complete the transformation of what was once regarded as “a Bronx with canals” into a kind of “Venetian Shoreditch”. Presumably with less adult-oriented ball pools, though.

The island has a weighty artistic history, with the likes of Marina Abramovic, Ai Weiwei and Damien Hirst having used it as a creative base in the past. The launch of the district sees over 60 artists exhibiting, and our attention has been caught by Body as Home, a collaboration between artist Aleksandra Karpowicz and the aforementioned October! Collective.

A video triptych, which we’re told “documents a journey of self-discovery, identity, migration and search for the meaning of home”, Body as Home was shot in four countries, and explores the concept of home in “regard of geographical location and how our identities are formed by our own understanding of home.”

It is billed as the flagship installation for the launch of what is one of Europe’s biggest recent expansions in the art world. Ryanair flight attendants, you’ve been warned: there’s a new destination in town for the nation’s elegantly-wasted CSM graduates.