My Heart is a Void, the Void is a Mirror – Odessa Episode

In 2022, for the first time in the history of the Venice Biennale, Italy will be represented by a single artist: Gian Maria Tosatti. Since 2018 Tosatti has concentrated all his practice on a project entitled “My Heart is a Void, the Void is a Mirror”, an episodic visual novel, developed around the world with the aim of witnessing the state of crisis of democracy in the West. The Odessa Episode – which follows the stages of Catania, Riga and Cape Town – is the installation developed by the artist after a long period spent in Ukraine, in the most dramatic moment of the Covid-19 emergency, when the country was closed to foreigners. The film recounts the efforts made to carry out a powerfully visionary work in those difficult months.