MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità
The Museum
The Museum displays art from 1948 to the present day and offers a reflection on what ‘contemporaneity’ means today. What has changed in society and art since the post-war period? What elements unite artistic production with Italian and international visual traditions? Without offering a single answer, the museum project poses these questions through a selection of 50 works from the civic collections of modern and contemporary art held at Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art.
The exhibition is organised thematically rather than chronologically, offering two levels of interpretation: that of international art, which has passed through Venice and its surrounding area from 1948 to the present day, and, in parallel, the original experiences that have developed alongside the growth and evolution of the city of Mestre.
The galleries are organised into three sections – Reconstruction, Construction, Deconstruction – each explored through three perspectives: the body, matter and the city, understood as environment, as a place of dialogue and conflict, and as a living space.
Reconstruction: following the devastation of the Second World War (1939-1945), Italy and its artists had to rebuild the cultural and visual identity of society.
Construction: numerous artists construct a new language based on geometric forms, materials and colour.
Deconstruction: breaking down into smaller pieces, dividing, breaking, shattering, dissolving. Contemporary artists deconstruct the body, identity and language.
The history of the venue
In 1978 the Venice City Council approved the design for the construction of the Centro Culturale Candiani by architects Iginio Cappai and Piero Mainardis, commissioned to plan a ‘cultural centre’ in Mestre. The idea behind the project was to create a space not only dedicated to cultural activities, but also capable of serving as a focal point and promoting cultural services in the local area. After several revisions, work began in 1981 and was completed in 2000, with the centre being inaugurated in 2001.
From 2011, the Centre underwent urban regeneration under the auspices of architect Giovanni Caprioglio and, in 2013, the polychrome paving of the square, designed by Luigi Gardenal, was unveiled, alongside new lighting for the public space.
The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia began operating at the Centro Culturale Candiani in 2016, presenting original exhibition projects that have brought masterpieces from the civic collections to Mestre, each time organised around different themes. The first, in 2016, ATTORNO A KLIMT. Giuditta, Eroismo e Seduzione saw Gustav Klimt’s famous Judith, a masterpiece held by the Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art, exhibited in Mestre for the first time.
The success of this first exhibition was followed by numerous others, always organised around themes that cut across sectors in a dialogue across the centuries. In 2022, a new season of exhibitions dedicated to the masters and themes of modernity began, inaugurated with the exhibition Kandinsky e le Avanguardie. Punto, linea e superficie, followed in 2023 by Chagall e Il colore dei sogni, Matisse e la luce del Mediterraneo in 2024 and Munch. La rivoluzione espressionista in 2025.
The project, curated by the curatorial teams of Ca’ Pesaro and MUVE in Mestre, helps to establish the exhibition spaces of the Candiani Cultural Centre as a prime venue for hosting major exhibitions conceived around Venice’s exceptional civic collections, whilst also being able to accommodate prestigious loans from national and international museums.
The new Museum of Contemporary Art – Casa delle Contemporaneità will open in 2026 within the Centro Culturale Candiani and will feature a separate route providing access to the exhibition spaces managed by MUVE, specifically via a dedicated entrance on Piazzale Candiani and a walkway leading to the new reception area on the second and third floors. Signalling the museum’s presence in the urban landscape, a 13-metre-high illuminated tower becomes a new defining feature of the square.
The Casa delle Contemporaneità features a permanent museum on the second floor, where visitors arrive, and a temporary exhibition space on the third floor.
Activities
Exhibitions
MESTRE PAINTING PRIZE 2026
10th EDITION
from 25 April to 7 June 2026
MUVEC – 3rd Floor
MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità hosts the collective exhibition of Mestre Painting Prize 2026, organized by Il Circolo Veneto, promoted by Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, under the patronage of Regione del Veneto, Città Metropolitana di Venezia and Comune di Venezia, with the collaboration of Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia and Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. The exhibition will display the finalist works, selected by the prize jury.
Now in its tenth contemporary edition, the 2026 Prize follows nine previous editions that together have featured 3,200 participating artists and over 5,000 submitted works.
It is a major showcase for the world of contemporary painting, with complete stylistic and technical freedom, no age limits and no geographical boundaries.
KLIMT, SCHIELE, KOKOSCHKA AND THE BODY IN CONTEMPORARY ART
from 26 September 2026 to 14 February 2027
Curated by Elisabetta Barisoni
MUVEC – 3rd Floor
The second exhibition to open in the spaces of MUVEC presents a dialogue between the leading figures of the Vienna Secession – Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Oskar Kokoschka – and a selection of contemporary artistic practices, starting from the theme of the body as a privileged tool for exploring the human psyche.
In their works, the body appears direct, at times restless and even raw: from Klimt’s sensual and refined figures, to Schiele’s tense and emaciated anatomies, to Kokoschka’s vibrant, expressionist painting, capable of conveying the cultural tensions of an era on the eve of the First World War.
The exhibition then opens to contemporary perspectives with artists such as Chen Zhen, Vanessa Beecroft, and Marlene Dumas, in whose works the body remains central: fragile, exposed, and transformed into a symbol of the dynamics between individual identity, inner dimension, and public representation in the image-driven world.
Opening hours
Open to the public from 25 April 2026
Summer season
1 April – 31 October
10.00 – 18.00 (last admission 17.00)
Winter season
1 November – 31 March
10.00 – 17.00 (last admission 16.00)
Closed on Mondays
Museum tickets
MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità
From 28 April 2026 admission to the museum will be permitted upon purchase of a ticket.
Check the partnerships of The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia >
REDUCED TICKET CATEGORIES
– Children aged from 6 to 14
– Students aged from 15 to 25
– Visitors over 65
– Holders of the Venice Rolling Card
– Holders of ISIC – International Student Identity Card
Is possible to book online only reduced price tickets for children aged from 6 to 14, students aged from 15 to 25 and over 65. Other reduced and free tickets are instead issued, upon presentation of the requested documents, directly at the Ticket Office.
SENIORS + JUNIOR OFFER
Reduced ticket for all paying members of groups composed of two adults and at least one youth (up to 16 years old).
FREE ADMISSION CATEGORIES
– Venetian citizens and residents
– ICOM members
– Children aged from 0 to 5
– Disabled people with helper
– Tourist guides enabled in Italy accompanying groups or individual visitors
– Accompanying teachers of school groups (up to 2 teachers per group)
– AMACI Card holders
– MUVE ordinary partners
– MUVE Friend Card holders
– Holders of Art Pass Venice International Foundation (valid for two people)
– Holders of Venetian Heritage Foundation membership card (valid for two people)
– Holders of Save Venice Inc. Fellow membership card (valid for two people)
– Members of “Amici dei Musei e Monumenti Veneziani”
Is possible to book online only reduced price tickets for children aged from 6 to 14, students aged from 15 to 25 and over 65. Other reduced and free tickets are instead issued, upon presentation of the requested documents, directly at the Ticket Office.
SCHOOL OFFER
3,50 euro per person (valid for entrance from September 1st to March 15th): for students of all schools levels accompanied by their teachers; a list of the students’ names must be provided by the school, valid also for up to two people accompanying the group.
THE MUSEUMS OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART
A single ticket valid for:
– Ca’ Pesaro – International Modern Art Gallery
– Museum of Oriental Art
– Fortuny Museum
– MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità (from 28/04/2026)
This ticket is valid for 3 months and grants one single admission to each Museum.
A single ticket gives access to three fascinating places and an understanding of the role played by Venice in modern artistic experimentation from the late 1800s. The grandiose Baroque palazzo Ca’ Pesaro houses the city’s modern art collection, with the main nucleus comprising works acquired at early Venice Biennials. Among these celebrated masterpieces is Klimt’s Judith II (1909). The itinerary continues at the Gothic palazzo in Campo San Beneto, transformed by Mariano Fortuny in the early 1900s into his own eclectic, spectacular photography, stage design, textile design and painting atelier. The meticulously preserved collections are constantly augmented by prestigious exhibitions. Ultimately, in Mestre, is the newly established museum MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità whose exhibition path broadens the perspective on the present: the collection focuses on art from 1948 onwards and offers a reflection on what is meant today by contemporaneity.
On the occasion of temporary exhibitions, visitors will be able to appreciate a cultural offer of contemporary art in these museums.
REDUCED TICKET CATEGORIES
– Children aged from 6 to 14
– Students aged from 15 to 25
– Visitors over 65
– Holders of the Venice Rolling Card
MUSEUM PASS
The MUSEUM PASS is the cumulative ticket for the permanent collection of the Musei Civici of Venice currently open and for those connected.
This ticket is valid for 6 months and grants one single admission to each museum.
The Museum Pass grants entrance to the following museums (Clock Tower not included):
– Doge’s Palace
– combined itinerary of Museo Correr, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
– Ca’ Rezzonico – Museum of 18th Century Venice
– Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo
– Carlo Goldoni’s House
– Ca’ Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art + Oriental Art Museum
– MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità (from 28/04/2026)
– Glass Museum, Murano
– Lace Museum, Burano
– Natural History Museum of Venice Giancarlo Ligabue
– Fortuny Museum
– Torcello Museum
Check the other combined tickets of the Musei Civici di Venezia >
REDUCED TICKET CATEGORIES
– Children aged from 6 to 14
– Students aged from 15 to 25
– Visitors over 65
– Holders of the Rolling Venice Card
– Holders of ISIC – International Student Identity Card
SENIORS + JUNIOR OFFER
Reduced ticket for all paying members of groups composed of two adults and at least one youth (up to 16 years old).
Information and bookings
Call center: 848082000 (from Italy); +39 041 42730892 (only from abroad).
From Monday to Friday 09.00-16.00, Saturdays and Sundays 09.00-13.00.
Email: prenotazionivenezia@coopculture.it
How to get there
MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità
Piazzale Candiani
30174 Mestre
By train
From the Station F.S. di Mestre take bus Linea 2 (bus stop at Hotel Plaza), get off at the stop ‘ex Ospedale’ and walk down via Antonio from Mestre towards piazzale Candiani
By car
Exit at ‘Tangenziale Castellana’, follow directions for ‘park Candiani’, turn onto via Einaudi take the first right and drive straight on until piazzale Candiani. Parking close to the venue
By bike
From the station F.S. di Mestre: cycle route no.1 (red)
Services
Welcome and accessibility
Discover the services that enable all visitors to plan and enjoy a pleasant experience.
EDUCATIONAL TOURS AND WORKSHOPS
Discover MUVE Education activities! A rich program for Adults, Families, Schools, and audiences with special needs. Also available LAST MINUTE.
Exhibitions
Discover current and upcoming exhibitions at MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità, at the Emeroteca dell’Arte and at the Casermette in Forte Marghera.
Visitor Regulations
Read the visiting regulations for the museum venues of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia >>>