FC Bergman, the collective that tells stories about little people trying to cope with big worlds
La Terra di Nod ( Het Land Nod) by FC Bergman Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia © Andrea Avezzù To experience FC Bergman's Het land nod (The Land of Nod), we are in a gigantic room in one of the art chamber-like museums of fine arts built in Europe in the second half of the 19th century to display the collections of royalty. The room, measuring 18 metres by 12 metres and 10 metres high, was built from scratch in a disused factory in the nearby industrial area of Marghera because it did not fit into any of the existing theatres in Venice. Half of it is used as a tribune for the audience and the other half is used as a stage. Later I learned that this space is not supposed to be a part of an anonymous museum, but it is an exact replica of the Rubens Room of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerpen, which had been closed for four years for renovation in 2015, when this show premiered (and only recently reopened in November 2022). The first thing that strikes me on entering the room ...