INSIDE FONDAZIONE DRIES VAN NOTEN’S FIRST PUBLICATION, ‘THE ONLY TRUE PROTEST IS BEAUTY’

Images courtesy of Fondazione Dries Van Noten

A Book About Beauty

What happens when fashion, art, design, and craftsmanship meet without needing to be placed into separate categories? For Fondazione Dries Van Noten, the answer lies in making itself—a process shaped by material, gesture, time, and care.

This idea comes to life in The Only True Protest is Beauty, the first publication from Fondazione Dries Van Noten. Published by Marsilio Arte, the volume extends the conversation begun with the Fondazione’s inaugural presentation at Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice, exploring craftsmanship as a contemporary cultural practice and the increasingly fluid exchanges between art, design, fashion, and other creative disciplines.

On view through 4 October 2026, the inaugural presentation brings together works across different creative fields, placing craftsmanship and material exploration in dialogue with the historic Palazzo Pisani Moretta. The publication carries this spirit beyond the exhibition, presenting making as a living expression of cultural identity shaped by materials, gestures, time, and care—and as a way of connecting people, communities, cultures, and generations.

Designed by Sebastiano Girardi Studio, which also conceived the visual identity of Fondazione Dries Van Noten and its inaugural presentation, the volume combines newly commissioned essays, visual documentation, and in-depth explorations of the works, artists, and making processes featured within the project. Typography, image sequencing, rhythm, and materiality become part of the reading experience, echoing the exchange between disciplines at the heart of the Fondazione’s programme.

Three opening essays provide the conceptual framework. Design historian, curator, and writer Glenn Adamson revisits John Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice, connecting Ruskin’s nineteenth-century understanding of craftsmanship with the Fondazione’s contemporary vision of making as a dynamic cultural force.

“Craft can at once confront and console, limning the full contours of the human condition.”  — Glenn Adamson —

Fashion journalist, author, and critic Alexander Fury approaches the publication through fashion, examining its intersections with craftsmanship, identity, memory, and artistic expression. His essay considers fashion as a cultural practice in dialogue with art, design, and material culture, moving beyond established disciplinary categories while remaining rooted in the artisanal gesture.

“Fashion is comprised of reinvented attractions, each season shed like skins – not necessarily in favour of the new, but of the next.”  — Alexander Fury —

Presented by Magran Living

Writer and curator Ezra Babski turns to the increasingly porous boundaries between art, craft, and design. His contribution reflects the ethos of the presentation, advocating for a more open understanding of making shaped by dialogue, hybridity, and exchange over fixed classifications.

“We might not (yet) have a language to articulate an “afterwards” or a “beyond”, a place where the division of art and craft no longer applies. But we do have images, memories – nodes of emotion that can guide us.”  — Ezra Babski —

Palazzo Pisani Moretta is equally central to the publication. Its architecture, decorative programme, and layered history are woven throughout the book, reinforcing the dialogue between memory and contemporaneity at the heart of the Fondazione’s vision. The volume also captures a defining moment in the life of the Palazzo, preceding the restoration works that will accompany the Fondazione’s next chapter.

Founded by Dries Van Noten and Patrick Vangheluwe, Fondazione Dries Van Noten opened in April 2026 within the historic Palazzo Pisani Moretta overlooking the Canal Grande. Its programme brings together established and emerging creators across art, design, fashion, architecture, food, and beyond, encouraging ideas and practices to move freely between disciplines.

That philosophy is reflected throughout The Only True Protest is Beauty, which features works by artists, designers, fashion houses, and creative voices including Christian Lacroix, Comme des Garçons, Ettore Sottsass, Joris Laarman, Misha Kahn, Peter Buggenhout, Takuro Kuwata, Tony Cragg, and many others.

More than a record of the Venice presentation, the publication invites a closer look at how things are made—and how materials, gestures, history, and imagination can create new connections. It becomes both a record of the Fondazione’s first chapter and an extension of its continuing conversation around craftsmanship.

Publication Details
The Only True Protest is Beauty
Publisher: Marsilio Arte
Price: €75

The book is available through the Fondazione Dries Van Noten website and store, as well as selected museum stores and bookshops across Italy and Europe. It will be released in the United States and the rest of the world through a curated network of international retail partners from 27 October 2026.

Release Date — Italy & Europe: 25 August 2026
Release Date — USA & Rest of World: 27 October 2026

A complete list of the artists and creatives featured in the project is available on the Fondazione Dries Van Noten website.