Cover photo: Kan Yasuda, Islands of Silence, Fondation Wilmotte, Venice. Official Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, May 9–November 22, 2026. Courtesy of Kan Yasuda and Fondation Wilmotte.
«I like his sculptures; they are often like gigantic pebbles swept through the streets by the current of an improbable universal flood. (…) He carves them, smooths them, polishes them, caresses them until they emit the right light—just as many sculptors have done. And that long, patient labor is always accompanied by the anticipation of the sculpture emerging from the marble».
In a 2015 essay, Renzo Piano lays bare the indissoluble link between Kan Yasuda’s craftsmanship and the luminous quality of the material. This specific formal sensibility is the focus of Kan Yasuda – Islands of Silence, the exhibition open from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at the Wilmotte Foundation in Venice (Cannaregio), included among the Collateral Events of the 61st Venice Biennale.
Marble and bronze sculptures designed to invite interaction
Born in Bibai (Japan) in 1945, Yasuda graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts and then moved to Italy in 1970 on a government scholarship. At the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he studied under the guidance of master Pericle Fazzini, subsequently settling in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, a center of excellence for stoneworking. His work is characterized by the use of white Carrara marble and bronze, shaped into geometric volumes with smooth, organic lines. His works are created to interact directly with the context in which they are placed, stimulating a three-dimensional, spatial, and deeply dynamic experience.
A reflection centered on “non-matter”
Within the spaces of the Wilmotte Foundation in Venice, this approach gives rise to a “mineral garden”, a quiet, interior space where the smooth texture of the marble resonates with the surrounding volumes. The exhibition unfolds around the Japanese concept of Ma (間), an interval understood not as emptiness or absence, but as an active intermediate space. In Yasuda’s sculptures, the worked material becomes an element that balances the density of the block, translating the artist’s reflection on “non-matter” into a balance between form and space.
Luminous islands in the darkness
The exhibition begins with the video Beyond Form, which reveals the process by which the artist sculpts the marble, before entering the main hall. Here, the installation presents a stark visual contrast: the space is characterized by a dim light set against a white floor, designed to amplify the perception of a space dedicated to contemplation. In this room, ten sculptures are arranged like luminous islands in the darkness. Their soft, circular geometries capture the light in ways that shift depending on the visitor’s viewpoint, with the gentle lines of the internal cavities creating a visual boundary that invites meditation.
The set design and lighting, created by Agence Wilmotte in Paris, evoke this sense of suspension through a precise lighting strategy. The system combines low-angle lighting from below, which bathes the base and visually lifts the works off the floor, eliminating the perception of gravity, with concentrated beams of light from above that gently illuminate the upper surfaces and highlight the stone’s polished finish.