Like every event we attend, there's always something new to tempt the most attentive and curious eye to browse the works. This time, we'll be catapulted into the depths of London, and we'll be welcomed by the Belmacz Gallery, a contemporary art gallery and showroom based in central London.
Born from the creative mind of Julia Muggenburg in the 2000s, this venue aims to support artists from all over the world, helping them evolve their work through solo or group exhibitions, as well as through expansive publishing and commissioning projects.
The origins of the name "Belmacz" come from French and Slavic. Combining the male adjectives 'bel' (French for "beautiful"), 'maximum' and 'cz' (from the Slavic alphabet), the space's title is an allusion to the groundbreaking jeweler Suzanne Belperron, as the gallery also houses a space displaying a selection of Muggenburg's jewelry.
Esto Perpetua – Between Art and Connections
This year's exhibition, Esto Perpetua, opened at the Belmacz Gallery on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. The event ran from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, featuring presentations by exceptional artists including myself, Carolyn Barker-Mill, Toby Christian, Coco Crampton, Domitilla Harding, Tiina Itkonen, and Massimo Nordio. The exhibition draws inspiration from the island of San Michele in the Venetian lagoon, a symbolism connecting endings and continuity.
Curated and developed by Venice in Peril Fund Director Lavinia Filippi, it reflects on conservation not as the maintenance of a status quo, but as a careful negotiation between history, care, and transformation. Venice is presented as a fragile yet constantly evolving city, transforming decline into new ways of being.
The charity funds conservation and research, educating people about the cultural identity of the city of Venice. It's very well known for her large-scale projects, such as the restoration of Vincenzio Coronelli's 17th-century terrestrial globe, now housed at the Marciana Library.
Esto Perpetua is a group exhibition that draws inspiration from a photograph of a wall in the cemetery of San Michele in the Venetian Lagoon, offering a visual exploration of this emblematic city. The title is inspired by the Latin invocation meaning "be perpetual" or "may it last forever," a phrase historically associated with the persistence of civic life and the idea of collective survival.
Venitian Legacy Through Craftsmanship
In Venice, however, longevity has always been based on adaptation and the ability to live with change without compromising one's identity. In this context, the participating artists explore the fragility and resilience of the city through materiality, gesture, and craftsmanship, as well as through imagination and collective memory.
Among all the exceptional creators, I have chosen to present the cartographic methods of the Venetian cartographer Coronelli with a handmade globe, treating craftsmanship as knowledge conveyed through gesture and as a way of thinking and narrating.
With my work 'Sphaera Caelestis', I exhibit a celestial globe inspired by the cartographer, customized according to his technical tradition drawn from his work Epitome Cosmografica (1693), which includes copperplate printing methods, sections, engravings, maps, and much more.
The bespoke globe reflects on the eternal connection between human and celestial time. Illustrated with constellations, stars, and archetypes, my sphere tells a story that will endure over the years, resisting the changes of the human world and adapting to the history and evolution of celestial space.
Together with the artists, we've created a connection spanning the ages, based on passion and mutual sharing. Venice is the city that unites us thanks to this exhibition, a place of resistance and renewal, parallel to our works. Climate change will surely continue to reshape them long after we are no longer here, but our stories will become legacies that will serve the next great artists.
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Want to learn more about how I typically make my celestial globes, and perhaps enter a world of pure narrative? Read more here, I'm waiting for you!
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