Jaume Plensa has always explored the relationship between body, word and spirit through works that combine monumentality and poetic lightness, and glass, a living and changeable material, reflects the light and fluidity of Venetian water, evoking an intimate dialogue with the surrounding environment. Visitors are greeted by Laguna, a unique work conceived as a tribute to the city of Venice: a slab the colour of Venetian water with two heads in conversation, evocatively flanked by Alberto Viani's Nudo al sole (Nude in the Sun), which rests on a slab of black marble bathed in a veil of water, once again evoking the characteristic element of Venice. The work that gives the exhibition its title, Water's Soul, is another clear tribute to the soul of the city.

The seventeen sculptures, arranged in dialogue with the spaces of the Negozio Olivetti, were created in the forges of Murano using the casting technique: molten glass is poured into a mould, first in wax – modelled by hand by master glassmakers and the artist himself – and then in plaster, and once solidified, after about two months, it takes on the desired shape.

The exhibition fits perfectly into the space designed by Carlo Scarpa, from an aesthetic, functional and meaningful point of view. Most of the works are arranged on the tables and shelves that once supported Olivetti's computers, in a deliberate alternation between the sculptures and the typewriters that are still preserved and on display. This is a deliberate choice to protect and enhance this place both in terms of its architecture and its spirit, respecting its historical identity as a showroom, but also its original vocation as a space steeped in culture and capable of transmitting culture.

The artist

Jaume Plensa (Barcelona, 1955) lives and works in Barcelona. He is recognised as one of the most important contemporary sculptors internationally, particularly for his interventions in public spaces. His works can be found in numerous cities around the world, including New York, Chicago, San Diego, Montreal, Los Angeles, London, Dubai, Bangkok, Shanghai and Tokyo. Over the course of his more than thirty-five-year career, Plensa has developed a rich and articulate artistic language, creating sculptures that celebrate the human condition and its ability to connect people, often through the poetic and symbolic activation of collective spaces. Traditional materials such as glass, steel and bronze are interwoven with unconventional elements – water, light, sound – to create hybrid works, dense with energy, psychological depth and symbolic value. His practice is based on contrasts and dualities – interior and exterior, light and shadow, earth and sky – and ranges from intimate works on paper to large public installations.