Sculpture Collection Reimagines Ancient Art with Futuristic Flair

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Archaeology is the practice of excavating ancient sites and analyzing artifacts to learn more about the past. But what might archaeology look like in the future, as our descendants look back and try to learn about what life was like hundreds, or even thousands of years before? This is the question that Daniel Arsham tries to answer in his new exhibit, VENICE 3024, as the artist uses iconic artifacts to honor humankind's collective cultural memory.

VENICE 3024, as the name might suggest, invites viewers 1,000 years into the future, as they are encouraged to view classical art, as well as modern inventions, as a curious archaeologist who is trying to learn more about the people who came before them. At first, it may be jarring to see replicas of such famous symbols, including sculptures from antiquity, presented in states of both decay and technological modification, but that feeling is almost certainly what Arsham hopes to achieve with his exhibit. After all, nearly all of his work revolves around the concept of fictional archaeology, and he is surely no stranger to creating art that forces humans to think about their own history—past, present, and future. The gallery that VENICE 3024 will be housed in is a deconsecrated Roman Catholic cathedral itself, making the building an indication of humankind's constantly developing relationship with cultural and religious institutions.

In addition to relics of the ancient world, there are many symbols of the present day on display as well, gently reminding onlookers that our present will someday be someone else's collective past.

Arsham has a background in adapting functional automobiles and motor sports vehicles, and a modified MV Augusta Superveloce 800 is his latest canvas. The model is quintessentially Italian, making it perfect for the exhibit, and it has enjoyed worldwide success for its retro design ever since it was released in the 1940s. The artist reimagines the motorcycle as the Eroded Blue Calcite Superveloce 800, giving it a crystalline appearance to imply aging. Impressively, the motorbike is still entirely functional, and could be driven out of the gallery and onto the street, should the artist desire.

Arsham is not only a celebrated sculptor—he is also a talented painter, and several of his more two-dimensional pieces have made their way to VENICE 3024. One of these such paintings fuses classical art with the stylized modernity of anime, as one half of the canvas includes the features of an ancient woman's statue, before bleeding into the face of a young anime girl. The piece, which is from his ongoing Fractured Idols series, cleverly flips the color schemes between both sides, juxtaposing the horizontally brushed brown background of the anime girl with the sepia-toned statue and the gradient gray background of the statue with the grayscale coloring of the anime girl—a reminder that even though human art has changed over centuries, it is still made up of the same ingredients.

VENICE 3024 will be on display at Chiesa di Santa Caterina in Venice, Italy, through September 15, 2024. For more information about Arsham and his work, be sure to check out his Instagram and website.