Fabrizio Plessi was born in Reggio Emilia. He studied at the Art High School and the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where he later became a professor of painting.

He began to focus his artistic practice on the theme of water, exploring it through installations, films, videotapes, and performances.

On the occasion of his solo exhibition at the Galleria Vinciana in Milan, he presents the “Acquabiografico” series, which brings together most of his works centered on the theme of water. He begins to create a series of performance pieces documented through photographs and video recordings. He begins collaborating with the Centro Attività Visive at Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, where he produces his first videotapes using equipment provided by the Center.

He has staged numerous performance art pieces in France, Germany, and Belgium: on Lake Stichter (The Lake Cut), Walking on Water, and Operation: The Scheldt River Cut—all of which were documented with photographs and videotapes.

He participated in the Arte Fiera art fair in Bologna with Studio Soldano and the Lara Vincy Gallery. He also produced the video *A morte Venezia*

He has been invited to the IXL Venice Biennale of Art to present his photography in the special exhibition *L’immagine Provocata*.

He participated in the Venice Film Festival with the film *Liquid Movie*, winning the "City of Milan" Award.

Plessi has been invited to the Venice Film Festival with *Underwater*, a French production; this marks the first time a film made entirely with digital technology has been admitted to the festival.

His complete body of video work is on display at the Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg in Paris. Starting this year, his works closely explore the inherent nature of video’s possibilities, incorporating three-dimensional structures. The illusionistic relationship between representation and reality of the liquid element is amplified by the extreme technological possibilities of mechanical and electronic reproduction.

He is participating in the 41st Venice Biennale with a video installation and is inaugurating the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Villeneuve d’Ascq (Lille) with a major retrospective exhibition.

Plessi presents his first major retrospective in Italy (Plessi-Video Going, Electa Catalogue) at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan, which can be considered the first exhibition of environmental video installations in Italy.

He represented Italy at the 42nd Venice Biennale and created one of his most significant works for the occasion: *Bronx*

At documenta 8 in Kassel, Plessi presented the monumental installation *Roma*, which definitively established his international reputation. In Bologna, he won the international “L’immagine elettronica” award and created the set designs for Enzo Cosimi’s *Sciame*, which opened the Rovereto Festival. That same year, a major retrospective of his video installations was held in Cavaillon as part of the Avignon Festival.

In Madrid, at the Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, he is featured in a major retrospective comprising fourteen installations. Also in 1988, he presented the exhibition *Palacio Electrónico* at the Palacio Sástago in Zaragoza. That same year, he exhibited a series of video installations titled *Videoland – Videolinz* at the Neue Galerie in Linz. Also that year, in Prato, for the inauguration of the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art, he created the work Roma II. During 1987 and 1988, he designed the sets for the television program “Immagina” for RAI Uno in Rome.

Plessi was invited to participate in the exhibition *Videoskulpturretrospektiv und aktuell 1963–1989* at the Kunstverein in Cologne with a new work titled *Materia Prima*. Also in 1989, he took part in the major exhibition *Videosal* at the Palau Solleric in Palma de Mallorca and the exhibition *Movimenti Catodici* at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara. Also in 1989, he participates in the exhibition Borealis at the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek, Denmark, and at Artek, the Nagoya Biennale, in Japan. During this year, he designed the sets and costumes for the opera *The Fall of Icarus* in collaboration with Frederic Flamand and with original music by Michael Nyman, produced by the Opéra Nationale "La Monnaie" in Brussels. He also created the monumental electronic mill *Tempo Liquido*, commissioned by Prato Trade for the Pecci Center in Prato.

To mark his 50th birthday, his hometown of Reggio Emilia is dedicating a major retrospective to him at the museum, the Foro Boario, and the spacious Cavallerizza venue, where Plessi is exhibiting his *Armadi* for the first time

He created the large-scale installation *Roma II* for the Museum of Modern Art, Ludwig Foundation in Vienna. Also from that year is the installation *Porfido a Pergine*, designed specifically for the castle, as well as the comprehensive exhibition of photographs and large-scale projects at the “Sa Nostra” Foundation in Palma de Mallorca, dedicated to the island’s architecture and its materials.

He created the digital set designs for his second collaboration with Frédéric Flamand, *Titanic*, presented in the spectacular space of the Musée de l’Industrie in Charleroi. He led a workshop for UNESCO featuring twenty young international artists on the theme of “Babel.”

Following a trip to India, the video installation *Bombay-Bombay* was created for the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. That same year, the Museum am Ostwall in Dortmund dedicated a major retrospective, *Plessi – Retrospektive*, to him, featuring twelve historic video installations. Also in 1993, Cristalli Liquidi, a commissioned work, was exhibited at Caffè Florian in Venice during the Biennale. Plessi created the electronic set designs for Luciano Pavarotti’s famous live concert in New York’s Central Park. The exhibition Bombay-Bombay family opened at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, along with the monumental video installation Liquid Time, produced by Philips for the Berlin Fair and acquired by the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe. Also in 1993, Plessi was awarded the UNESCO “Mir Medal” in Paris.

He collaborated for the third time with Frederic Flamand on the opera *Ex Machina*, with electronic and virtual set designs created under his direction by students at the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne. He was invited to the International Special Exhibition at the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Also in the same year, an exhibition of historical drawings and projects on paper from 1976 to 1993 is held at the NeueGalerie in Linz. Fabrizio Plessi creates the electronic set designs for the program Studio Moor on the German television channel Premiere, featuring his video installations that change every month

The work *Ex Machina* was invited as a special event to the Centennial Venice Biennale. Also in 1995, he created the two video installations *Fuochi Fatui*, designed for the Fundaciò Pilar i Joan Miró in Palma de Mallorca; one of these was exceptionally set in Miró’s own studio, among his works. Also in 1995, he held a major retrospective at the Rocca Paolina in Perugia, for which he created the monumental color video installation: L’Anima della Pietra.

He created some of his most complex and impressive installations, including *Il Fiume della Storia* for the Landesmuseum in Mainz, *Mausoleum* in Graz, *Acquedotto Elettronico* for the Kunstverein in Heidelberg, and *Mysterium Wein* for the Historisches Museum der Pfalz in Speyer. Finally, also from 1996 is the spectacular video sculpture Baroque Cathodic Movements, which Plessi created in Naples for the opening of the City of Science at the IDIS Foundation.

A monumental installation, *Arca dell’Arte*, at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. A major retrospective of his historic video installations—*Roma*, *Bronx* (1986), *Liquid Crystals* (1993), and *Baroque Cathodic Movements* (1996)—at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. That same year, a retrospective was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, La Jolla Museum.

In Berlin, for the new Sony building designed by Helmut Jahn at Potsdamer Platz, he created a gigantic electronic waterfall that breaks down into sixteen million different colors. The monumental work was officially inaugurated in June 2000. Honored at the 13th Rome Quadriennale, he won the prestigious “Kunstpreis der Nord/LB” award in Hanover, which recognized him as Germany’s Artist of the Year. On this occasion, he staged a major, entirely new exhibition on the theme of the forest, *Der Hängende Waldserif*, at the KestnerGesellschaft in Hanover; in the same year, he won the international competition for the Euregio pavilion at EXPO 2000 in Hanover.

For “Bologna 2000,” he created a large-scale installation titled *Naufragio della Pittura* at Palazzo d’Accursio. At the Almodì in Valencia, he curated a major exhibition on “The Soul of Matter.” In the same year, a traveling exhibition of his latest works was shown in Denmark at the Trapholt Museum in Kolding. He created “Mare Verticale” for the Italian government’s pavilion at the Hannover World Expo, which can be considered the most monumental technological sculpture ever built. The 44-meter-tall steel structure contains a gigantic LED screen that simulates a constantly moving blue electric wave. He represented Italy at the Gwangju Biennale in Korea, and in the same year created the theatrical sets for the Aterballetto production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring original music by Elvis Costello. Also in 2000, he presented the large historical sculpture *Il fiume della storia* at the headquarters of the “VerlagsgruppePassau” in Passau and, in the St. Anna Kapelle, a comprehensive exhibition of recent works on the theme of fire.

Guest of Honor at the 8th Cairo Biennale, where he created the installation *Cairo-Cairo II*, dedicated to the Nile and composed of 80 locally made clay amphorae. In June in Venice, on the occasion of the Biennale, the city inaugurated his exhibition Waterfire at the Correr Museum—a major retrospective of his most recent works based on the theme of water and fire—along with the massive installation in St. Mark’s Square created for the occasion. Also in June 2001, in Ravenna for the Ravenna Festival, he presented the massive installation *Teatro Elettronico della Memoria*, dedicated to Piranesi and plaster casts. In October, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao dedicated a solo exhibition to him featuring his famous installation *Roma II*.

At Artefiera, he exhibited for the first time—to great acclaim—a new series of dreamlike and evocative stone piles titled *Digital Stones*. For the KistefosMuseet in Norway, Plessi was invited to redesign a large area of industrial archaeology. For the occasion, he created Memory Motions, nine large installations of rotating logs with random movements at different levels on mechanical structures. The work remains on permanent display. Still in Germany, the artist began a close collaboration with the BMW automotive industry on a series of projects in which automotive research is combined with the poetics of artistic creation in a stimulating symbiosis of materials and forms. The collaboration takes shape in several events, including exhibitions in Munich and Berlin. He is invited to the 51st Venice Art Biennale for the Biennale’s special project in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For the occasion, Plessi created a new version of Mare Verticale in front of the Biennale’s entrance at the Giardini, rising 44 meters high from the waters of the lagoon. Inside this enormous vertical stele, a technological waterfall flows, becoming the symbol of the Biennale itself.

In 2006, the new Museum of Contemporary Art opened in Rabat, Morocco, with an exhibition dedicated to the dye houses of Fez, featuring projects, drawings, and films. Also that year, he collaborated for the second time with the Italian dance company Aterballetto of Reggio Emilia. Plessi was responsible for the choreography, set design, and costumes for *Romeo & Juliet*. A new conception of the opera, where a highly technological and digital structure modifies and alters the traditional logic of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The themes of water, fire, and wind intersect and intertwine with those of passion, conflict, fate, death, and love.

Fabrizio Plessi has created the digital set design for Pirandello’s *Vestire gli ignudi* at the Goldoni Theater in Venice. The set design features a series of 34 large plasma televisions, a large screen, and a series of hidden cameras that broadcast all the stages and details of the performance live, creating a sort of intimate connection with the audience. Plessi designs and creates the digital lifetime achievement award presented this year to Grace Jones for the La Fenice Theater in Venice. On the island of La Maddalena in Sardinia, in the ancient maritime arena, on the occasion of the Louis Vuitton Trophy, Plessi creates one of his most extraordinary video installations. In a space of nearly 1,000 square meters, he installs Mari verticali, twelve black steel boats tilted at a 45-degree angle, within which the twelve seas of the world flow thunderously. This work, with the support of Louis Vuitton, will be exhibited in the coming years in some of the world’s most important museums. A journey within a journey.

He has been invited by the Ludwig Museum in Budapest to present, for the first time in Hungary, a retrospective of his most important works. The exhibition *Liquid Labyrinth* takes its name from a previously unseen series of large-scale works on canvas recently completed, a monumental fresco spanning his entire artistic career. In France, at the Fondation Schneider in Wattwiller, a major solo exhibition opens, centered on the work *Foresta Sospesa*, presented again after Hannover in 1999 on the occasion of the “Nord LandesBank” Prize won by the artist that year. Milan pays tribute to him at the Fondazione Mudima with the retrospective exhibition *Plessi, gli anni settanta*, which highlights the artist’s frenetic activity in Milan during those years. For the occasion, his pioneering projects in video installation are on display, and, following the 1972 Venice Biennale, *La grande Gabbia d’acqua* is exhibited for the first time. The Ludwig Museum in Koblenz dedicates a major solo exhibition to him titled *Plessi—On the Journey*.

At the Opera Gallery in Paris, he opens a solo exhibition featuring his latest technological wall installations, titled *Digital Wall*. The Montelupo Museum in Florence invites him to create a series of terracotta televisions for Luca della Robbia’s historic kiln, which Plessi will name *Materia Prima*, in homage to his famous video installation at the Kölnischer Kunsthalle in Cologne in 1989. At the Kunsthalle in Recklinghausen, during the Ruhrfestspiele, he opens the major solo exhibition Digital Wall featuring wall-mounted video installations, works on paper, and a gigantic LED light installation on the museum’s façade. In Venice, he is invited to inaugurate the space designed by Rem Koolhaas in the new Fondaco dei Tedeschi building. For the occasion, with *Underwater*, he covered the metal walls with a spectacular installation of digital gold mosaics that breathed in continuous motion, with music by Michael Nyman. At the Celle Farm, Giuliano Gori invited Plessi for a special installation across eight rooms of the foundation, which took the form of an intense and profound dialogue with the works of Sol LeWitt.

In St. Petersburg, for the 10th International CYFEST, he presents a new video installation, *Splash*, dedicated to digital color. This year features two solo exhibitions in Düsseldorf at the two Beck & Eggeling galleries. In the first, *Utopia Liquida*, he exhibits a series of historical works from the 1970s, including drawings, canvases, and photographs. In the second, Memoria dell’acqua, he presents video installations based on the motif of the golden mosaic, accompanied by music by Michael Nyman. He also participates, represented by the Beck & Eggeling gallery, in the Armony Show in New York, TEFAF in Maastricht, and Art Cologne in Cologne. In Venice, for the Biennale’s collateral exhibitions, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow invited Plessi to present a video installation in dialogue with a Roman sarcophagus. The title of this work is Navigare necesse est. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Farnesina) in Rome, Plessi staged a different version of the work *Materia Prima* and subsequently created a previously unseen variation of the same work for the Italian Embassy in Washington titled *Archeologia del futuro*. The Fenice Theater opens its doors to contemporary art and commissions Plessi to create a major experimental work for the occasion. The artist thus discovers the negative plaster casts of the Fenice’s decorations and stages a grandiose total theater piece, FENIX DNA, exploring the themes of water and fire that are dear to him.

He was named an Academician of Merit at the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia. In Moscow, at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, he presented two works of great significance: *The Soul of Stone* and *Rolling Stones*. Through these projects, the artist reinterprets historical themes and events using modern technology. In Venice, at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, he creates Omaggio a Canova, a monumental site-specific installation, a magnificent “homage” to the great Canova, a work intended to symbolize a journey into the artist’s mind. In Denmark, at the Esbjerg Art Museum, he exhibits a series of selected works from the 1970s. In St. Petersburg, at the 7th St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, the book *Plessi, The Soul of Stones* is presented.

At the Opera Gallery in Paris, he created *Plessi Splash*, a series comprising ten video works accompanied by a selection of preparatory drawings. On the island of Mallorca, the Es Baluard Museum dedicated a solo exhibition to Fabrizio Plessi titled *30 años en Mallorca*, which featured a review and analysis of his works created on the island, as a place of projection and inspiration. The book Plessi Feniz DNA is honored in Berlin with the prestigious Fedrigoni Top Award 2019. Plessi pays tribute to Rome’s great history with the exhibition Il segreto del tempo, thereby opening a new section of the underground chambers of the Baths of Caracalla to the public.

Plessi creates the digital backdrops for Alberta Ferretti’s fashion shows in Milan, which are later used in stores in Rome, London, and Paris. In Florence, for the Tuscany Hall theater, Plessi creates *Energy*, a special curtain featuring built-in LED lights in constant motion accompanied by evocative sounds, evoking an almost surreal and metaphysical storm. This work can be considered the first and only digital curtain in the world. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Plessi created an Instagram series called Plessi, Projects of the World, consisting of 44 daily one-minute episodes showcasing 44 cities around the world, each serving as inspiration for a corresponding work. The great success of this series was enhanced by the music of Michael Nyman, with whom Plessi has collaborated for many years. In September, to mark his 80th birthday, Venice paid tribute to Plessi with an exceptional event: “The Golden Age,” a monumental digital installation on the windows of the Correr Museum in St. Mark’s Square. Sponsored by Dior, the museum’s vast cascades of gold engage in an emotional dialogue with the mosaics of St. Mark’s Basilica. For Christmas, the City of Venice invited Plessi to create the traditional Christmas tree. For the occasion, Plessi instead created a gigantic 10-meter-tall, 8-ton digital sculpture composed of 80 illuminated LED monitors. Placed in the small square of St. Mark’s, it will be the only light in Venice during that period. Fabrizio Plessi was a professor of Humanization of Technologies at the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne and, since 1994, has held the chair of Electronic Scenography at the same institution. He lives and works in Venice and Mallorca.