A Palace Mid-Transformation

Etereo opens a mid-restoration Venetian palazzo for ORBITA — an itinerant curatorial project placing Nilufar, Pelletti, and collectible design inside Ca' Donà's layered historic rooms.

Entering a home while it is still being transformed means catching it in a particular state of vulnerability — traces of its history still visible, a new identity not yet fully formed, the two conditions coexisting in a way that is rarely available to the public. ORBITA, the international cultural project conceived by Etereo, the architecture and interior design studio founded by Stefania Digregorio and Mirko Sala Tenna, has built its entire premise around exactly this moment. For its first edition, running from 11 September to 3 October 2026 at Palazzo Ca' Donà in Venice, it has opened a historic Venetian residence — currently mid-restoration, positioned between Ca' Pesaro and Fondazione Prada — to an exhibition that uses the incompleteness of the space as part of its curatorial logic.

Etereo is leading the restoration of Ca' Donà, and before the palazzo returns to its role as a private residence, the studio has invited a constellation of international art and design voices into its rooms. Nilufar, with a selection curated by Nina Yashar, meets the research of Brun Fine Art in a dialogue between historic and contemporary art. Sculptures by Massimiliano Pelletti, who reinterprets the tradition of marble through a contemporary sensibility, occupy the space alongside works by Another View, an artistic platform that transforms travel experiences into collectible video artworks. Each room has been given its own identity — from the colours of India to the atmospheres of Africa — while artworks and collectible design engage with the historic layering of the palazzo's interiors.

"The places we work with are more than architecture. They hold memories and stories, as well as the potential to create new encounters." — Stefania Digregorio & Mirko Sala Tenna, Etereo

Venice was chosen as the starting point deliberately. As a historical crossroads of cultures, trade, and ideas, the city provides the conceptual foundation for a project that unfolds as a journey through real and imagined geographies. The exhibition does not treat the palazzo as a neutral backdrop. The house itself becomes part of the curatorial framework — its walls, its layers, its state of becoming, all active participants in the meaning of what is shown within them.

ORBITA is designed to travel. Each subsequent edition will take place in a different residence, in a different city, developing its narrative in response to the historical, cultural, and architectural context of each new host. Venice is not the destination. It is the first coordinate in what Digregorio and Sala Tenna describe as a growing constellation centred on the home as a space for culture, research, and storytelling.

Key takeaways

• ORBITA uses the palazzo's mid-restoration state as a curatorial condition rather than a limitation — Ca' Donà's visible historical layers and incomplete new identity become active participants in the exhibition's meaning, making the house itself part of the curatorial framework rather than a neutral backdrop for the works displayed within it.
• The first edition brings together Nilufar with a Nina Yashar selection in dialogue with Brun Fine Art's historic and contemporary art research, Massimiliano Pelletti's marble sculptures reinterpreting classical tradition through a contemporary sensibility, and Another View's collectible video artworks transforming travel into collectible experience — all installed across rooms given individual identities responding to geographies from India to Africa.
• ORBITA is conceived as an itinerant platform designed to travel from residence to residence and city to city, each edition developing its narrative in response to the specific historical, cultural, and architectural context of its host — with Venice's history as a crossroads of cultures, trade, and ideas providing the conceptual starting point for what Etereo describes as a growing constellation centred on the home as a space for culture, research, and storytelling.