“Photo / Dance; Reflections” and “What the Garden Whispers”
From November 10, 2026, to January 27, 2027, Le Stanze della Fotografia in Venice, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, hosts two exhibitions presented by Van Cleef & Arpels: “Photo / Dance; Reflections by Rinko Kawauchi, Olivia Bee ed Estelle Hanania” and “What the Garden Whispers”. Featuring over 200 prints by artists with whom the High Jewelry Maison has collaborated for several years, this event celebrates a dialogue dear to the Maison: one between the art of photography and two of its major sources of inspiration, dance and nature.
Since its founding in 1906, Van Cleef & Arpels has created flora- and fauna-inspired pieces infused with a taste for vitality, whether conveyed through the metamorphosis of the seasons, the poetry of a flower in bloom, or the ethereal flutter of a butterfly’s wings.
Dating back to the 1920s, the Maison’s passion for dance gave birth the Dancer clips in the 1940s and inspired George Balanchine’s ballets Jewels, which premiered in 1967.
While flora and fauna come to life in the archives through extraordinary craftsmanship and a poetic sensitivity to the natural world, the Maison's passion for dance traces back to the 1920s - from the first Bailarina clips to the 1967 ballet Jewels. This shared history with the dance universe has evolved over time, enriched by a new chapter in 2020 with the launch of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels. With this program, the Maison supports contemporary choreographic creation on an international scale.
Photo / Dance; Reflections by Rinko Kawauchi, Olivia Bee and Estelle Hanania
This exhibition brings together photographic series by three artists who have collaborated with Van Cleef & Arpels for several years. “Photo / Dance; Reflections by Rinko Kawauchi, Olivia Bee ed Estelle Hanania” highlights their individual perspectives on dance, enriched and expanded through their experience with the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival, an event held twice a year in different cities worldwide, which offers a panorama of contemporary choreographic art.
Throughout various editions of the Festival - from London (2022 and 2025) to New York (2023 and 2026), via Hong Kong (2024), Kyoto (2024), and Seoul (2025) - the photographers were given complete creative freedom to follow choreographers and dancers day in and day out, both on stage and backstage. Capturing the movement and beauty of fleeting moments, their immersive photographs convey the world of dance through the single common denominator followed by all three artists: the company (LA)HORDE.
Three deeply distinct artistic visions contribute to this choral narrative. On one hand, Rinko Kawauchi, one of Japan’s most celebrated photographers (born in 1972, winner of the Kimura Ihei Award, and collaborator of the Maison’s book Florae), weaves the fluidity of movement with her ongoing poetic inquiry into human fragility and the fleeting nature of living beings. On the other, Olivia Bee, an American photographer and director captivated by the magic of everyday life and the beauty of memories (who rose to prominence at a very young age in 2016 with her monograph Kids in Love), presents her vivid film prints, born from an ongoing dialogue with the festival that began in 2019. Finally, Estelle Hanania, a French photographer graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and renowned for her exploration of bodily metamorphosis and theatricality (developed notably through a long-standing partnership with choreographer Gisèle Vienne), has been transforming the dancers' routine into true sculptural and totemic matter since 2022.
What the Garden Whispers
Le Stanze della Fotografia unveils an exhibition route of over 80 images within a design conceived to highlight the artist’s delicate and profound attentiveness to the plant world. “What the Garden Whispers” recounts the exploration conducted by Juliette Agnel in the Orto Giardino del Redentore in Venice, a natural space recently restored by the Venice Gardens Foundation with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels (an initial selection of which was presented between August and December 2026 directly within the Convent Garden).
Upon stepping across the threshold of this hidden haven for the first time in early 2026, the photographer instantly felt its singular energy. Wandering through its paths day and night to capture its silences, quivers, and imperceptible movements, Juliette Agnel caught its intrinsic vitality, where every whisper merges the three core elements of the garden: floral, vegetable, and medicinal. The exhibition path develops around a raised platform displaying an ointment - the fruit of her research into the healing properties of plants - surrounded by prints that embody her desire to offer a true visual remedy: a holistic journey acting as a restorative balm for the body, heart, and mind.
This sensitivity aligns seamlessly with the artistic journey of Juliette Agnel, a French photographer who has made understanding the world the guiding force of her work. Her explorations range from the sky - where the cosmos meets terrestrial forces - to Earth's geobiology, and more recently into the subterranean depths of prehistoric caves. Attempting to photograph the invisible and convey what arises from interiority, her sceneries don’t seek objective photographic truth but instead instill a deep calm that carries the quiet imprint of ecological awareness.
Through this exhibition, Van Cleef & Arpels reaffirms its support to the artist - which began in 2023 with Photo Days, continued in Paris with La susceptibilité des Roches (2025), and in Kyoto with The Scent of Light (2026) - revealing through her lens an entirely new perspective on the authentic splendor of the Convent Garden.
About Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels was born in Paris, at 22 Place Vendôme, in 1906. Its founding resulted from the 1895 marriage of Alfred Van Cleef and Esther (known as Estelle) Arpels, both from families of jewelry merchants. The Maison’s sources of inspiration - including love, nature, couture and dance - open the gate to an enchanting universe. Guided by excellence, Van Cleef & Arpels is distinguished for its gemstones selected according to the most stringent criteria, its expert savoir-faire and its taste for innovation, expressed throughout its High Jewelry, Jewelry and Watchmaking collections. Today, its style, embodied in numerous signatures such as the Mystery Set technique, the Minaudière, the Zip necklace and the Alhambra motif, continues to blend inventiveness and poetry.
Throughout its history, Van Cleef & Arpels has continuously expressed its attachment to the values of creation, transmission and education. Today, the Maison promotes the outreach of savoir-faire through L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, which has shared the culture of jewelry with the public since 2012. Meanwhile, the “de Mains en mains” event seeks to raise awareness of the jewelry professions among young people and adults in career transition. Further actions echo the Maison’s major sources of inspiration. Since 2020, the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels program has supported contemporary choreographic art, while the Maison’s affinity for nature is reflected in its support for garden restoration and preservation.
