Conceived as both a publication and an autonomous artwork, MUSEUMS OF TEARS extends Francesco Vezzoli’s acclaimed exhibition presented at Museo Correr, Venice, in 2024. Developed in dialogue with Donatien Grau, the project brought together historical works from the museum alongside recent and newly commissioned works by Vezzoli, creating a layered conversation between antiquity, emotion and illusion. The exhibition marked a significant moment in the artist’s practice, reflecting his growing engagement with art history, archaeology and the museum as a space where the past can be reimagined through contemporary desire.

Published by Lenz Press and moving beyond the conventional exhibition catalogue format, the volume has been conceived as a true artist’s book. Inspired by the historical guidebooks of Museo Correr and by Carlo Scarpa’s vision of the museum as a form of emotional choreography, it transforms the museum guide into a hybrid object: part scholarly document, part fictional archive and part personal diary. Rather than documenting the exhibition, MUSEUMS OF TEARS becomes an extension of it: a portable museum of memory, beauty, mourning and artifice.