The art of living: through his Fondazione, Dries Van Noten gives beauty a home in Venice

Bieke Peeters
17 August 2026

In a fifteenth-century palazzo on the Grand Canal, Dries Van Noten is writing a new chapter. Not with his next collection, but with a space dedicated to beauty, craftsmanship and the art of creation. The Fondazione Dries Van Noten is both a tribute to the past and an invitation to look at the future in a different light.

Some places transcend their architecture. They carry stories, memories and generations within them. Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice is one such place.

Since April 2026, the Gothic palazzo on the Grand Canal has been home to Fondazione Dries Van Noten, the new cultural initiative by Belgian designer Dries Van Noten and his partner Patrick Vangheluwe. This marks a special new chapter for a name that has grown from its roots in Antwerp to become an international symbol of distinctive elegance.

But anyone expecting a discussion of fashion here is mistaken.

The Fondazione is firmly focused on the future.

A palazzo as a living work of art

The location alone makes this initiative exceptional. Palazzo Pisani Moretta stands on the Grand Canal, in the historic heart of Venice. Centuries-old salons, frescoes and ornaments do not merely provide a neutral backdrop for contemporary creations; they become an integral part of them.

That is precisely where the power of the place lies.

Van Noten and Vangheluwe are giving the historic palazzo a new cultural purpose, without erasing its past. Here, heritage and contemporary creativity coexist and reinforce one another. The Fondazione aims to be a meeting place for established figures and emerging talent from the worlds of art, design, fashion, architecture, gastronomy and other creative disciplines. At the heart of it all is always the same idea: the human capacity to create something exceptional.

Craftsmanship is not treated as a matter of nostalgia, but as a living cultural language.

That premise feels almost self-evident to Dries Van Noten. For nearly four decades, his body of work has been characterised by an exceptional attention to colour, material, texture and craftsmanship. After presenting his final collection as Creative Director of his fashion house in June 2024, that fascination took on a new form. In Venice, his focus has shifted from creating collections to bringing together and supporting creators.

Not the end of a career, but the evolution of a vision.

The Only True Protest Is Beauty

The Fondazione’s first exhibition bears a title that almost sounds like a manifesto: The Only True Protest Is Beauty.

The exhibition, curated by Dries Van Noten and Geert Bruloot, brings together more than two hundred objects from fields including fashion, jewellery, design, photography, glass, ceramics and the visual arts. The works are not separated from one another according to traditional categories, but engage in a dialogue with one another and with the historic spaces in which they are displayed.

Beauty is not presented here as something purely decorative.

She’s allowed to surprise. To unsettle. To stir up emotion.

A contemporary object takes on a different meaning when set against a centuries-old fresco. An experimental material suddenly becomes part of a much longer narrative about human creativity. Eras and disciplines intertwine, making the palazzo itself feel like a carefully curated Wunderkammer.

It is precisely this complexity that makes the Fondazione so special.

From Antwerp to Venice

The fact that this story is written by a Belgian adds an extra dimension to it.

Dries Van Noten studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and gained international renown as one of the Antwerp Six. From Antwerp, he went on to establish a fashion house whose influence extended far beyond Belgium.

Today, that Belgian creative legacy is finding a new home in Venice.

The choice of this lagoon city is significant. For centuries, Venice was a crossroads of trade, art, architecture and craftsmanship. Materials, ideas and cultures came together there, creating something that could not have emerged anywhere else. The Fondazione aims to once again provide a space for precisely this kind of cross-fertilisation: between the local and the international, between established artists and young talent, between tradition and experimentation.

In doing so, she also says something about a broader concept of luxury.

Not the luxury of the obvious, but that of time, knowledge and attention.

The value of what cannot be recreated

In a world where almost everything is becoming faster and more easily replicable, the appeal of the opposite is growing.

Handcrafted. Unique. A material that grows more beautiful with age. An interior that wasn’t designed in a single stroke, but evolved over generations. A building whose imperfections have become part of its character.

These are qualities that are difficult to quantify, but which we recognise intuitively when we encounter them.

Even exceptional properties rarely derive their value solely from square metres or location. The most remarkable properties possess something that cannot be replicated: history, architectural identity, exceptional craftsmanship or simply an intangible sense of place.

Palazzo Pisani Moretta is an impressive example of this. The Fondazione does not treat the building as a relic that must be shielded from the present, but as a setting in which a new story can unfold.

Perhaps that is the most contemporary way of looking at heritage.

Not just preserving what is valuable, but giving it new meaning.

A new definition of the art of living

There is a natural affinity between art, architecture, design and exceptional property. Not because they necessarily serve the same world, but because they stem from the same desire: to create an environment that goes beyond the merely functional.

A truly special home does more than just provide shelter. It says something about taste, culture and the way someone chooses to live.

That is also what makes the Fondazione Dries Van Noten in Venice so significant. It serves as a reminder that beauty need not be fleeting. That well-made things can transcend generations. And that true refinement often arises where vision, craftsmanship and time come together.

For Christie’s International Real Estate Belgium, this is a familiar concept.

After all, exceptional living is never just about property. It’s about the art of choosing, preserving and passing on something special.