Marni celebrates 20th birthday with Venice sculpture exhibition

Italian fashion label Marni is celebrating its 20th birthday this year and is kicking things off in Venice with an artistic installation against the backdrop of the city's 56th Art Biennale.

The brand is working with Brazilian self-taught artist Véio on a project called "Becoming Marni," featuring 100 wooden sculptures. Curated by architect and founder of curatorial agency Beyond Entropy Ltd Stefano Rabolli Pansera, the installation will take over the cloister and the rooms of the San Gregorio Abbey in the Italian city. The area is normally off-limits to the public.

"Becoming Marni" has been designed to showcase the label's "prismatic, endlessly morphing identity" expressed through new channels of creativity. The title was inspired by the idea of a dialogue between opposites linked by the same aesthetic. Drawing on the phrase "All the world's futures" -- which is the theme of the 56th Venice Art Biennale -- the exhibition imagines an ideal world and a scenario that might belong to the future.

Represented by Galeria Estação, Véio lives and works in the village of Nossa Senhora da Gloria, in the North East of Brazil. He is known for his enigmatic sculptures, which give new life to pieces of wood, clogs and branches found along the river. The artist claims to identify a being in each piece.

This isn't the first time Marni has branched out into the art world for a special event: last year the house brought a splash of color to Milan Fashion Week with a pop-up flower market to celebrate its love of floral themes throughout its collections.

"Becoming Marni" is part of "Marni Prisma," a series of birthday events planned for the brand under the supervision of creative director Carolina Castiglioni. The installation will run from May 9 - November 22.