Francesco Vezzoli: Museum of Tears

Conceived as both a publication and an autonomous artwork, Museums of Tears extends Francesco Vezzoli's acclaimed exhibition presented at Museo Correr, Venice, in 2024, in the form of a true artist's book.
Developed in dialogue with Donatien Grau, the project brought together historical works from the museum alongside recent and newly commissioned works by Vezzoli, creating a layered conversation between antiquity, emotion and illusion. The exhibition marked a significant moment in the artist's practice, reflecting his growing engagement with art history, archaeology and the museum as a space where the past can be reimagined through contemporary desire.
Moving beyond the conventional exhibition catalogue format, the volume has been conceived as a true artist's book. Inspired by the historical guidebooks of Museo Correr and by Carlo Scarpa's vision of the museum as a form of emotional choreography, it transforms the museum guide into a hybrid object: part scholarly document, part fictional archive and part personal diary. Rather than documenting the exhibition, Museum of Tears becomes an extension of it: a portable museum of memory, beauty, mourning and artifice. [publisher's note]