Imperative to remain human! the group exhibition of the first Premio Berlendis

The contemporary space is digital; most of our daily lives take place in contact with digital tools, hyper-connected displays and incessant flows. Byung-Chul Han interprets the digital realm as a zone that, paradoxically to its original premises, produces loneliness and fragmentation, ‘a swarm of isolated individuals’ (Im Schwarm, 2013). Instead, in the folds of an analogue city that questions the relationship between icons and the contemporary, such as Venice, a collective exhibition opens up an alternative perspective. Restiamo umani! Utopie e Distopie nell’Era Digitale at Spazio Berlendis in Venice concludes the first edition of the Berlendis Prize (promoted by Marignana Arte and supported by the Kosmos Contemporary Venice APS Association): not just a simple institutional debut, but a critical device that measures itself against the human dimension, leaving the question to resonate within the exhibition space.

Nicola Bertolo, Nicola Bindoni, Alessio Capici, Alessandro D’Aquila, Davide Dalla Valentina, Giulia Facchin, Jessica Ferro, Camilla Gurgone, Moreno Elia Hebling, Lisha Liang, Rovers Malaj, Matteo Mandelli, Andrea Mangione, Cecilia Maran, Silvia Margaria, Alisa Martynova, Sara Pacucci, Yunge Quing, Alessandra Risi Castoldi, Giuseppe Salis, Nadia Tamanini, Claudia Vetrano, Zehui Xu, Federica Zanlucchi, Rebecca Zen, “Restiamo umani! Utopie e Distopie nell’Era Digitale”, installation view, Spazio Berlendis, 2026, ph. credits Francesco Piva, courtesy Spazio Berlendis

The ambivalence between utopia and dystopia does not create a divide here, but rather an area of friction; technology is a means through which artists raise other cognitive and moral issues. Technical devices are not fetishes or mere tools of iconographic production: they are perceptual structures, invisible grammars and contexts in which the gaze is oriented. The perspective is not catastrophic or dire, because the digital is not representation, but a place that is inhabited and experienced. The works of the twenty-five artists compose a collective landscape, disparate and multifaceted in terms of language and form, which at times suggests enthusiasm for the evolution of technology while maintaining a compact theoretical urgency. In fact, artificiality, automation and virtuality emerge as auxiliary conditions for artistic production, thus redefining the threshold between experimentation and production, between theory and practice. While many seem to regret the pre-digital era or fear the consequences of such innovations, the exhibition’s point of view shifts towards an awareness of the present and its collaborative potential without apocalyptic dissent.

Furthermore, what runs through the exhibition is a more subtle certainty: artistic production, together with digital intelligence and tools, could also renew that sense of community that has become confused and clouded. The awareness of the fragility of progress is not an accident but its backbone; digital technology can isolate, but at the same time amplify and connect. Even when tamed by algorithms, humans are always an active component. Furthermore, the works address some of the most pressing issues of our time – such as the environment, society, cultural identity and ethics – through the lens of new tools and technological processes. Automation and artificiality in dialogue with human transformations and needs. In this complex scenario, dense with impulses, questions and intellectuals, the viewer is called upon to take on a sensitive responsibility: to look and allow themselves to be looked at. To look at art and, at the same time, allow themselves to be looked at, oscillating between presence and virtuality and allowing a fusion between data and the tangible body.

Restiamo umani! is a sincere assessment of the present without regrets for the past or futuristic predictions, and without forced consolations or salvific scenarios. The twenty-five artists experiment with practices and forms that break, in a general sense, with established rhetoric through standard conditions of artistic production. With this direction, Spazio Berlendis presents itself as a place and a laboratory for critical thinking, recognising the value of young, emerging artistic practices as delicate and visceral interpreters of the contemporary world. Their ability to address all the fractures of our time also involves the ability to imagine new scenarios. The exhibition demonstrates that ‘remaining human’ does not necessarily mean opposing progress or change; on the contrary, it means taking a brilliant yet critical stance towards the complexity and contradictions of being. In a daily life where progressive enthusiasm and catastrophic fear constantly clash, artistic production reminds us that humanity is not a given, but rather a horizontal concept in constant renewal.

Info:

Restiamo umani! Utopie e Distopie nell’Era Digitale
Artists: Nicola Bertolo, Nicola Bindoni, Alessio Capici, Alessandro D’Aquila, Davide Dalla Valentina, Giulia Facchin, Jessica Ferro, Camilla Gurgone, Moreno Elia Hebling, Lisha Liang, Rovers Malaj, Matteo Mandelli, Andrea Mangione, Cecilia Maran, Silvia Margaria, Alisa Martynova, Sara Pacucci, Yunge Quing, Alessandra Risi Castoldi, Giuseppe Salis, Nadia Tamanini, Claudia Vetrano, Zehui Xu, Federica Zanlucchi, Rebecca Zen
21/02 – 29/03/2026
Spazio Berlendis
Calle Berlendis, 6301, 30121, Venezia (VE)
Spazio Berlendis – Contemporary Art Venue in Venice

Irene Follador

Irene Follador (Venice, 1997) is an emerging critic and curator. She graduated first in Art History at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, and then she obtained a master’s degree at NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan. She has been collaborating with Juliet Art Magazine for a long time and, at the same time, she carries out her independent curatorial practice; her research and interest mainly tends towards works of moving images and new Media within the contemporary art system.

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