IQ Spot. Seat, read, think, repeat
Q Spot is the point where the identity of the Querini Stampalia Foundation — and its logo, the Q — becomes space, form, meeting place, and a node of connections. A device that welcomes a temporary and transient community. It’s a functional object that inhabits the public space of Campo Santa Maria Formosa, in front of the Querini. It’s for sitting, but also for creating a situation. Its shape is a pretext to spark behaviors: reading, thinking, sharing. A simple gesture within a complex logic: centrifugal, with its five-meter diameter that encourages people to “step into the field,” and centripetal, drawing them toward the heart of things.
Martí Guixé’s project interprets the spirit of Querini with irony and intelligence: to be an open place, where culture is never a solitary exercise but a shared experience. The intervention continues inside: in the Giovanni Bookshop, in a temporary, essential, and lightweight version made of cardboard, and in the café, transformed by a graphic intervention that echoes the visual language of the project. Everything is in black and white: white pages, black marks. A shared grammar where “Qulture” becomes daily training, a routine, a series of simple but high-intensity exercises to stay in shape. A reduction of the superfluous to achieve maximum concentration: stripping away the non-essential to rediscover what matters. It’s not an aesthetic choice made in neutrality, but a radical stance. It does not shy away from complexity — it makes room for it. It does not trivialize — it organizes. It does not distract — it sharpens focus. A subtraction that is only apparent, which instead amplifies a kaleidoscopic vision of the world built on those everyday practices, perhaps forgotten, simply called good habits.
Cristiana ColluDirector of Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice
