At the far end of the Dorsoduro district, where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca Canal, stands the Dogana da Mar (Punta della Dogana). Built between 1677 and 1682 to a design by Giuseppe Benoni, for centuries it served as the landing point for goods arriving in Venice by sea.

Decommissioned in the twentieth century and long abandoned, in 2007 it was entrusted to François Pinault, who commissioned Tadao Ando to restore it. The Japanese architect respected its spirit exposed brickwork, wooden trusses while inserting minimal concrete volumes.

Since 2009 it has been an exhibition venue of the Pinault Collection.

It was in these spaces that, from 2 April to 26 November 2023, the exhibition Icônes was held, curated by Emma Lavigne and Bruno Racine.

The exhibition reflected on the power of the image as icon-presence an object of veneration, a threshold to the invisible through more than 80 works by some thirty artists, including Theaster Gates, Donald Judd and Rudolf Stingel, ranging across painting, video, sound and site-specific installations.

It was also a homage to Venice itself which, as a bridge between East and West, was for centuries the gateway through which the Byzantine icon entered European art.