Personal Structures – Confluences

About Personal Structures

Personal Structures is the biennial contemporary art exhibition organised and hosted by the European Cultural Centre Italy in Venice. The 8th edition will run from 9 May until 22 November 2026 in parallel with La Biennale. In a society marked by fractures, displacement, and accelerated transformation, Personal Structures – Confluences emerges as a space for encounter. It is a place where artistic practices, cultures, and disciplines intersect, contaminate one another, and generate new possibilities for coexistence. In the group show, visual artists, photographers, sculptors, performers, universities, and artist collectives, both established and emerging, bring a multitude of perspectives to the historical venues of Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora, and Marinaressa Gardens.

Confluences

For its eighth edition, Personal Structures takes Confluences as its theme: it is a powerful metaphor to describe how people, cultures, and experiences can come together, influence one another, and give rise to fresh perspectives.

The exhibition is built on the idea that individual stories are never isolated, but part of a larger, ever-changing collective fabric. Through the works of artists, galleries, universities, and cultural institutions from across the world, Confluences becomes a space for dialogue, where diverse languages intersect and open the way to new possibilities of imagining both our present and our future.

Art, society, nature, and technology converge in a journey that invites reflection on how we can live together more consciously and sustainably. Personal Structures – Confluences is not just an exhibition, but an invitation to be carried by new ideas and to discover the richness of encounter.

About the European Cultural Centre Italy

European Cultural Centre Italy (ECC Italy), based in Venice, is part of the non-profit association ECC Worldwide, based in the Netherlands. In Venice, we operate within the fields of art, architecture, and design. The organisation strives to create dynamic exhibition spaces that foster the exchange of ideas across cultures. ECC Italy’s core activities include cultural projects, planning exhibitions, publications, videos, and educational programmes. In addition, we restore and care for historic venues, opening them to the public free of charge and sharing art, culture, and beauty with everyone. The contemporary art-focused Personal Structures exhibition alternates each year with the architecture exhibition Time Space Existence.