Valentino Garavani through the eyes of Joana Vasconcelos

Just one day before Valentino Garavani passed away, Rome opened an exhibition that now reads as a poignant farewell. Entitled VENUS – Valentino Garavani Through the Eyes of Joana Vasconcelos, the exhibition is currently on view at PM23, a cultural space envisioned by the couturier and Giancarlo Giammetti. It has transformed Piazza Mignanelli into a site of remembrance, dialogue and living beauty.

Running from January 18th to May 31st, 2026, the exhibition brings together fashion, contemporary art and collective craftsmanship. It is a project that resonates deeply in the wake of Valentino Garavani’s death, reaffirming his belief that beauty is a force for harmony and social meaning.

PM23 as a living space for art and fashion

Located at Piazza Mignanelli 23, steps away from Piazza di Spagna, PM23 was conceived as more than an exhibition venue. It is a place where art, fashion, and culture intersect as tools for reflection and progress. With this second major exhibition, the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti positions PM23 as an active cultural organism, open to experimentation, participation, and contemporary voices.

Spanning over 1,000 square metres, the exhibition unfolds as a non-linear journey that places Joana Vasconcelos’ monumental installations in direct conversation with archival haute couture creations by Valentino Garavani, curated by Pamela Golbin.

Valentino Garavani reimagined through contemporary art

At the heart of the exhibition stands Valkyrie VENUS, a colossal textile sculpture conceived specifically for PM23. Emerging from the apsidal hall and extending through the space, the work draws its structure from eight couture dresses, transforming the garment into architecture and the body into abstraction. The figure embodies power, protection, and resilience, while reflecting the multiple identities of contemporary womanhood.

Other key works deepen this dialogue. In Venus, The Painting, Vasconcelos translates textile techniques into a pictorial surface, referencing historical design motifs also present in Valentino’s couture. Strangers in the Night explores female archetypes shaped by patriarchal culture, while Full Steam Ahead (Red) #1 features a mechanical lotus made of ironing irons, symbolising endurance and transformation. Each artwork is paired with couture silhouettes, allowing fashion and art to echo, contrast, and amplify one another.

From couture to collective creation: a social artwork

One of the defining aspects of the exhibition is how it was created. Valkyrie VENUS is the result of a vast participatory process involving more than 200 contributors and over 756 hours of workshops. Students from fashion and art academies, hospital patients, refugees, women from shelters, and inmates from Rome’s Rebibbia prison all contributed crocheted elements, later assembled in the artist’s Lisbon studio.

This collective process transforms the exhibition into a social artwork, where craft becomes a language of care, empowerment, and shared knowledge. It reflects a vision long championed by Valentino Garavani, now rendered especially moving as his legacy transitions from presence to memory.

As Rome mourns the loss of Valentino Garavani, this exhibition stands as a final, luminous chapter of his lifelong dialogue with beauty—now carried forward through the visionary language of Joana Vasconcelos and the living space of PM23.