A few doors from the main gallery, on the same filled-in canal: the room where Marignana Arte shows the artists it is still betting on, and the exhibitions that come out of open calls, prizes and residencies.
At a glance
- What — the second exhibition space of Marignana Arte, given to emerging practice and to work at the edge of art, design and architecture
- Where — Dorsoduro 140A, Rio Terà dei Catecumeni, 30123 Venice
- Also hosts — exhibition projects arising from open calls, awards and residencies, including the Berlendis Venice Art Prize and the Berlendis Venice Residency
- Admission — free
Why there are two rooms
Galleries that keep a single space have to choose, every time, between the artist who will sell and the artist who might matter in ten years. Marignana Arte answered that by opening a second door on the same street. Marignana Gallery, at number 141, carries the main programme; Marignana Project, at 140A, takes the emerging names, the cross-disciplinary work, and the shows that arrive through competitions rather than through the market.
That second function has grown since 2025, when the gallery’s Cannaregio space, Spazio Berlendis, launched the Berlendis Venice Art Prize and the Berlendis Venice Residency. Prizes need a room to show the winners in, and this is it: the first edition of the prize has put its selected artists into these walls.
The street itself is worth a look up. Rio Terà dei Catecumeni was a canal until it was filled in, and it is named after the Pia Casa dei Catecumeni that the Venetian Republic founded in 1557 for prisoners of war and enslaved people of non-Christian faith who chose to convert. Giorgio Massari’s church of 1727 for that institution still faces the pavement where the water used to be.
The space
Where the main gallery keeps its old timber ceiling in view, the Project space is deliberately quieter: white walls, a plain tiled floor, a low soffit, a short internal corridor and a small window onto the calle. It is a room that takes light-based and text-based work well, which is a large part of what it gets.
Practical information & getting there
Dorsoduro 140A, Rio Terà dei Catecumeni. Vaporetto to Salute (line 1) or Zattere (lines 2, 5.1, 6); ten minutes on foot from the Accademia, past the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Admission is free, and the two Marignana spaces are close enough together to see in one visit. Opening hours follow the current exhibition.
Exhibition currently running: Before Language / Prima del Linguaggio — Alessandro D’Aquila, to 19 September 2026.
Sources & resources
- Marignana Project — for the remit of the space, the address, and the link with the Berlendis Venice Art Prize and Residency.
- Chiesa dei Catecumeni — for the Pia Casa dei Catecumeni of 1557 and Giorgio Massari’s church of 1727.
- Photographs supplied by the gallery, for the state of the room.
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →Events here — now on & upcoming
- Before Language: Alessandro D'Aquila at Marignana Project, Venice22 May 2026 — 19 Sep 2026See the event →
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