Palazzo Querini Stampalia in Venice is not just a container of the past, but a place in continuous transformation. The contemporary art program of the Querini Stampalia Foundation has for years called artists to dialogue with environments, collections and archives, to take inspiration from them for new works, in the name of continuous experimentation. Some works inhabit these spaces only for the duration of an exhibition, others remain there, left as gifts by the artists themselves: 'intruders' who open new perspectives to the visitor, helping him to read our time, in a continuous comparison between history and future , as is the nature of this cultural institution. It also happens in these weeks, the most intense and interesting period of the year for contemporary art.

A Journey to the Infinite: Yoo Youngkuk (20 April – 24 November 2024), among the Collateral Events of the Biennale Arte and curated by Kim Inhye, is the first solo exhibition in Europe of the great Korean artist and the most important held so far on him outside Korea. Thirty large oil paintings and twenty copperplate prints by the artist are on display, along with a series of photographs documenting the evolution of one of Korea's most important artists. A pioneer of geometric abstract painting, he left an indelible mark on the history of art in Korea.

The cultures of the world also meet on the roads of taste. From mid-April the Querini Café offers the flavors and colors of the encounter between Italian cuisine and Afghanistan, from which Ali Khan and Hadi left, the lands they fortunately crossed, those of those who shared the road and meals with them, Iran, Syria, Turkey.

They bring this colorful migrant cuisine to the Foundation among Maria Morganti's contemporary tapestries on the walls. The stop in the café thus becomes a convivial journey of exchange and discovery along unimaginable routes and caravan routes. Inspires and surprises like Querini.

For Hadi and Ali Khan, eating and drinking means travelling. They invented a spicy saffron cocktail and called it Zafferol.