Andrea Crespi at the Venice Biennale for the project “As Above, So Below”

From May 9 to June 8, 2026, Venice will host As Above, So Below, a project promoted by One Ocean Foundation and ZEITGEIST19, and a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale. Curated by Elizabeth Zhivkova and Farah Piriye Coene, the exhibition unfolds within the spaces of the former Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian on Giudecca, offering a reflection on the ocean as a living system and an archive of deep time.

At the core of the project lies the research of Andrea Crespi, who will present a new holographic installation titled Thetis. The artwork depicts a luminous jellyfish containing within it the image of Thetis, an archetypal figure connected to the depths of the sea, transforming into a true perceptual threshold between the physical and digital dimensions.

Through the use of holographic technology, Crespi creates an immersive experience in which the natural and the artificial, the biological and the symbolic coexist in an unstable balance. The jellyfish thus becomes a hybrid organism, a suspended presence embodying a form of liquid consciousness, while the image emerges more as an apparition than a representation.

Installed within the frescoed space of the former church, the artwork engages in dialogue with the architectural memory of the site, generating a layering of languages and temporalities. Iconographic tradition and contemporary visual culture intertwine, giving rise to an environment in which perception becomes an active and dynamic process.

Andrea Crespi’s practice is distinguished by a profound reflection on the nature of the contemporary image. At the core of his poetics lies the concept of “neosynthesis,” through which the artist reduces the complexity of reality in order to reveal its essence. Conceived as perceptual devices, his works function as mirrors and glitches of contemporaneity, capable of both reflecting and distorting digital and social reality.

The exhibition will open on May 8, 2026, and will be open to the public from the following day until June 8, coinciding with World Oceans Day, further strengthening the connection between artistic research and environmental awareness.