Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos engages in a dialogue with the work and legacy of Valentino (1932-2026).
This book is published in conjunction with VENUS, Joana Vasconcelos's exhibition at PM23 (18 January – 31 May, 2026) and in selected public sites across Rome, developed in dialogue with the work and legacy of Valentino Garavani and produced by the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti. Conceived as a philanthropic foundation dedicated to education, culture, and social engagement, the Fondazione frames the project not only as an exhibition but as a platform in which art, fashion, and civic participation converge.
VENUS approaches Valentino's work as a material and conceptual archive. Its forms, colors, and techniques are translated into large-scale sculptures and spatial environments that extend fashion into the domain of installation and public space. At the center of the project stands Valkyrie Venus, a monumental figure assembled from thousands of crocheted and textile modules produced through a wide participatory network involving schools, hospitals, refugee shelters, women's shelters and prisons. The book documents both this collective process and the finished work, presenting craft as a social practice grounded in care, repetition, and shared labor.
Edited by Pamela Golbin, with texts by Pamela Golbin, Anna Coliva, Giulia Silvia Ghia, Daniele Luchetti, and Lucia Milazzotto, the volume combines critical essays, visual documentation, and narrative materials that situate Vasconcelos's work within the historical and symbolic landscape of Rome and within broader reflections on ornament, the baroque, and the politics of display. A special project by Daniele Luchetti, developed specifically for the book, extends the exhibition into a parallel cinematic and testimonial dimension, recording the voices and experiences of the communities involved and anchoring the project in a social reality.
Joana Vasconcelos (born in 1971 in Paris, lives and works in Lisbon), a major figure in the contemporary art scene, has been developing a multifaceted body of work since the 1990s that draws on traditional Portuguese culture to compose a visual poetry in which her roots embrace the modernity of pop culture.
