Hybrids. Leandro Erlich at Negozio Olivetti
progetto ideato da Mario Cristiani e realizzato da Associazione Arte Continua con FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano
curated by Marcello Dantas
Adverse Event of
61. International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale
Olivetti Shop, St Mark's Square, Venice
9 May – 22 November 2026
With the support of Galleria Continua
On the occasion of 61st International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale, Associazione Arte Continua present the exhibition Hybrids. Leandro Erlich at Negozio Olivetti, edited by Marcello Dantas, Side Event of the Venice Art Biennale 2026 hosted in the historic Olivetti Shop di Piazza San Marco, capolavoro dell’architettura di Carlo Scarpa, affidato da Generali Italia al FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano ETS, che da allora lo apre al pubblico, lo gestisce, lo tutela e lo valorizza.
The exhibition, created in collaboration with the FAI and with the support of Gallery Continua, presented by 9 May to 22 November 2026 Around twenty sculptures by Leandro Erlich, some of which unseen, which give shape to impossible yet surprisingly familiar organisms: butterflies with ear-wings, cabbages that become architecture, corals that take on the physiognomy of metropolises, trees that end in human feet. Hybrids that suggest art is not an ornament of the world, but a force that continues its creation, operating at the same level as the evolutionary and geochemical processes that have shaped the planet.
The project is part of the “Art in Art" programme for the Cities of the Future” conceived by Mario Cristiani and realised by Associazione Arte Continua, which aims to create new links between art, architecture and landscape, returning Art has a central role in the construction of cities. From this perspective, Hybrids it configures itself as a poetic device capable of activating reflection on how artistic forms can impact the urban imaginary and the perception of shared spaces.
In The power of art to transform society and the environment was indeed also believed by Adriano Olivetti.In his enterprise, guided by humanistic thought and an educational drive, the products themselves were hybrids conceived to offer technological excellence, but also an aesthetic experience, cultural content, and even an ethical message. Art was structural to the company's strategy and image, and thus it was in the Olivetti Stores, as this of Venice: hybrid spaces, conceived more for conveying a concept than for selling a product (first concept store, and where art was ubiquitous; a vocation that the FAI preserves and enhances by welcoming art projects like this, which spark an original dialogue with the history and spirit of this place.
As it points out text by Emanuele Coccia, art acts on the essence of things by mixing different identities and allowing each form to inhabit the other in an open and sensitive way. The world that emerges from the works of Erlich it is an ecosystem in continuous adjustment and readaptation, in which irony and the play between nature, culture, architecture and the body merge into a single dynamic. The sculptures present in the project, Hybrids, they visualise an intimate and spiritual metamorphosis: the “hidden physiology” that accompanies every authentic act of an artist.
