“Algebra,” a major solo exhibition by Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth at Punta della Dogana, draws on over two decades of his practice and the strong presence of his work in the Pinault Collection, bringing together both existing and previously unseen pieces in a transformation of the former customs house. Curated by Fernanda Brenner, the title references the Arabic al-jabr—the mending of broken bones—framing Nazareth’s work as a method for addressing historical fractures through his long-distance walking practice across the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa, where he exposes the enduring impacts of racial and colonial violence and foregrounds knowledge rooted in relationships and ancestral memory. A continuous line of salt runs through the galleries, gradually revealing the ghostly geometry of a tumbeiro, or slave ship, evoking histories of transatlantic suffering while functioning as both a symbolic and material agent of healing and corrosion.

Rather than a linear narrative, the exhibition unfolds as a series of stations within an ongoing art-life performance, including Notícias de América, which documents Nazareth’s ten-month journey from Brazil to New York through photographs, texts, and worn objects that blur lived migration and constructed identity. Extending his practice of geographic doubling, Nazareth connects Venice with its Brazilian namesake, Veneza in Minas Gerais, creating a dialogue between two sites shaped differently by histories of trade. Set within a building once dedicated to the measurement and control of goods, “Algebra” ultimately interrogates what such systems failed to record, seeking to resolve the absences and silences that persist beyond official histories.