Beauty's dangerous allure: stendhal syndrome and the price of excess

Prepare to be overwhelmed. Dries Van Noten’s latest presentation in Venice promises a sensory assault, a collision of craft, Fashion, and art so intense it could trigger Stendhal syndrome – a dizzying experience of beauty bordering on collapse. This isn’t a gentle introduction; it’s a plunge into a lavish, deliberately chaotic world.

A manifestation of excess

Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a testament to 18th-century opulence, becomes the stage for Van Noten’s ambitious vision. The stuccoed ceilings, ornate rooms, and a deliberate, almost unsettling abundance of detail aren’t merely decorative; they’re a deliberate provocation. Within this gilded cage, beauty isn’t simply present; it explodes outwards, fueled by Van Noten’s almost alchemical ability to curate a prismatic Wunderkammer.

The presentation unfurls as a whirlwind of ceramics, clothing, glass, and jewelry – a dynamic interplay orchestrated by emerging and established makers. A Comme des Garçons 2024 sculptural piece, crowned with a Julien d’Ys headpiece, sits unexpectedly alongside an anonymous 18th-century portrait, a jarring juxtaposition that somehow works, highlighting the exhibition's core tension.

Kaori Kurihara’s Pierrot Fleuri (2025) – a mesmerizing, disquieting botanical creature – contributes to the atmosphere, nestled within a jewel-box room draped in sumptuous lampas. Elsewhere, Alexander Kirkeby’s crystalline works shimmer alongside the palazzo’s historic crested glassware, collapsing centuries into a glittering continuum. It’s a deliberate, beautiful discordance that elevates the experience, refusing to offer easy answers.

Van Noten himself, immersed in the palazzo’s backstage chaos on the eve of the opening, offered a deceptively calm perspective. “Beauty will save the world,” he mused, a statement that, he admitted, initially felt hopelessly naive. But he insists,