FONDAZIONE DRIES VAN NOTEN, first protest

THE ONLY TRUE PROTEST IS BEAUTY

Fondazione Dries Van Noten presents “THE ONLY TRUE PROTEST IS BEAUTY”: a temporary presentation exploring beauty as a charged encounter, capable of unsettling the familiar and making space for the unexpected. At Palazzo Pisani Moretta, craftsmanship engages emotion and material inquiry in a constellation formed through mastery, set in dialogue with the historic architecture that houses it. Works by diverse creatives converge in relation to one another, drawn together by affinity or held in productive contrast, revealing the human intensity of making. Here, creation becomes a practice of questioning, an experience of exchange, a field of possibility.

“We are interested in beauty not as an answer, but as a question. It is not an escape from reality, but a way of engaging with it. When beauty allows for ambiguity, slowness, and contradiction, when it disturbs rather than resolves, then it becomes a subtle form of protest. This Presentation is an invitation to look longer, to stay with uncertainty, and to recognize making as a deeply human act in which concept and craft converge, carrying both culture and the memory of the hands.”

– Dries Van Noten and Patrick Vangheluwe.

Founded by Dries Van Noten and Patrick Vangheluwe and housed within the historic Palazzo Pisani Moretta overlooking the Canal Grande, Fondazione Dries Van Noten celebrates craftsmanship as a vital language of cultural identity. Here, ideas take form through material, gesture, and the patient passage of time, as mind and hands meet in the act of creation. The Fondazione inhabits a space of transition, carrying traditions forward while continually reinventing them. Opening in April 2026, the Fondazione brings together established voices and emerging creators alike across art, design, fashion, architecture, food, and beyond. By encouraging cross-pollination between disciplines, it sparks fresh perspectives, bridges history with the present, and connects creativity rooted in place with global perspectives.

Fondazione Dries Van Noten

Palazzo Pisani Moretta

San Polo, 2766

30125 Venice (IT)

25.04 – 04.10 2026

Wednesday – Monday, 10am–5 pm

Tuesday, closed

• Web FONDAZIONE DRIES VAN NOTEN
• Instagram @fondazionedriesvannoten
• Photos © Matteo de Mayda
• Curated by Dries Van Noten
• All further images as credited in photo captions.