VENICE — Zegna is taking its commitment to fostering art one step further.
As the main sponsor of the Italian Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition-La Biennale di Venezia, the Italian menswear powerhouse is directly engaging in the artistic process, presenting the “Con te con tutto [With you with everything]” project by Chiara Camoni and curated by Cecilia Canzani. Earth, ash and minerals sourced from Oasi Zegna were used to form the sculptures, while yarns from the Lanificio Ermenegildo Zegna were integrated into the pieces.
The sponsorship “means continuing a commitment that is part of our history,” said Gildo Zegna, executive chairman of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group. “For over a century, we have invested in territory, craftsmanship and Italian culture, fostering an ongoing dialogue between business and art. Oasi Zegna represents its most authentic expression: a project born from the [namesake] founder’s vision that continues to generate value over time.”
Zegna underscored that the company has partnered with Camoni and Canziani since 2014, highlighting how the artist’s “work reflects this attention to material, landscape, and evolving tradition.”
Her presence with Canziani at the Italian Pavilion, open to the public from Saturday, “represents an important recognition of their journey and the coherence of their research — one we are proud to support,” the executive concluded.
Chiara Camoni, “Con te con tutto,” at Italian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale.
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This development is part of ZegnaArt, the company’s cultural framework for all of the brand’s artistic initiatives, creating long-term relationships with artists and curators and commissioning works of art.
This dialogue between art, nature and the territory will be further extended in the exhibition project promoted by Fondazione Zegna, which will feature Camoni at Oasi Zegna from May 24 to Nov 22, curated by Ilaria Bonacossa. The exhibition will expand on the research presented in Venice.
Since the 1920s, the founder of the company, as he developed the wool mill in Trivero, in the foothills of the Italian Alps in the Northern region of Piedmont, commissioned artists such as Ettore Pistoletto Olivero and Otto Maraini, as well as landscape architect Pietro Porcinai, to shape the environment. In the alpine town of Bielmonte, he asked architect Luigi Vietti to design noninvasive hospitality structures in harmony with the landscape, including the family’s Bucaneve hotel.
Over the years Zegna has engaged with artists including William Kentridge, Daniel Buren, Dan Graham, Mimmo Jodice, Ding Yi and Michelangelo Pistoletto. In particular, with the latter, Zegna in 2010 launched a long-term platform, called Visible, conceived with Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto that explores the role of art within society and supports socially engaged artistic activities. Visible is curated by Judith Wielander and Matteo Lucchetti, under the artistic direction of Pistoletto.
Fondazione Zegna further structured this commitment through site-specific projects in Oasi Zegna and exhibitions at Casa Zegna. In Oasi Zegna, “All’Aperto [In the Open-air],” conceived in 2008 to allow contemporary art to be more accessible and curated by Barbara Casavecchia and Andrea Zegna, developed in the area around Trivero site-specific works by artists including Daniel Buren, Alberto Garutti, Stefano Arienti, Roman Signer, Marcello Maloberti, Dan Graham and Liliana Moro.
Located a 90-minute drive from Milan, Oasi Zegna offers beautiful views of the Alps and is crossed by the road 232 created by the company’s founder in the 1930s, when he planted half-a-million pine trees to enrich local flora of hydrangeas and rhododendron.
This approach extends across Zegna’s spaces worldwide. At its Milan headquarters, designed by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, the environment echoes the atmosphere of Oasi Zegna, integrating art and architecture and works by artists such Reena Kallat, Ding Yi and Frank Thiel and Pistoletto’s “Woolen — the Reinstated Apple,” stands at its entrance. Across global stores, Zegna has included site-specific works and installations by artists such as William Kentridge, Mimmo Jodice, Francesco Jodice and Emil Lukas.
The works are all commissioned, and each piece is developed in relation to Zegna’s places, materials and values, becoming part of a broader narrative rather than an isolated statement.
In 2025, Zegna entered a global multiyear partnership with Art Basel, spanning Basel, Miami Beach, Paris, Hong Kong and Doha, and within this context, the Visible Fellowship is now awarded annually each June during Art Basel in Basel, championing socially engaged and community-rooted artistic practices.
