Venice in winter sparkles with events, exhibition openings, concerts, theatre, presentations, and cocktail parties.
Kissing Squares
Alberta Pane Gallery presents Kissing Squares until 29 January 2022: a solo exhibition by Esther Stocker. On show are her distinctive paintings and sculptures of different sizes and spaces, linear and squared in a path of evolution and reflection on the concept of artistic responsibility.
“In my paintings, sculptures and installations I try to describe the ambiguity and uncertainty of the system. I use the precision of a system to investigate the system itself. I try to unleash and leave behind our ways of seeing and understanding that are associated with the recognizability of forms and that distinguish us from one another, sometimes unconsciously.” Born in 1974 in Silandro, Esther Stocker is an international artist known for her large-scale abstract and geometric installations and for her use of a limited palette of black, white, and grey.
BACHaro Tour: Bach & Art
The music of J.S. Bach dialogues with that of other composers of the 17th and 18th centuries and the Venetian living spaces for BACHaro tour at Spazio Berlendis. The next events are on Fridays, 10 December 2021, 14 January, and 4 February 2022.
There will be live performances by cellist Federico Toffano and violinist Alessandro Cappelletto, with short listening sessions guided by music historian Mauro Masiero.
Admission to the public, only with green pass, is free with mandatory reservation at info@bacharotour.com. Each participant will receive a hand-screen-printed gadget
Saturday 27 November, at Spazio Berlendis, Marignana Arte is opening the exhibition AT WORK! Lavoro, Società, Comunità nell’arte contemporanea (Work, Society, Community in Contemporary Art), curated by Ilaria Bignotti and ACME Art Lab (Alessia Belotti, Melania Raimondi and Camilla Remondina) and with the support of Piero Atchugarry Gallery, a group exhibition of international artists, until 5 February 2022.
In the Venetian venue we will see different artworks, some specially created, by: Serena Fineschi (Siena, 1973), Silvia Infranco (Belluno, 1982), Marco Maggi (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1957), Giulio Malinverni (Vercelli, 1994), Albano Morandi (Salò, 1958), Lorenzo Passi (Milan, 1985), Maurizio Pellegrin (Venice, 1956), Túlio Pinto (Brasilia, 1974), Quayola (Rome, 1982), Dagoberto Rodriguez (Caibarién, Las Villas, Cuba, 1969), Arcangelo Sassolino (Vicenza, 1967), Yūken Teruya (Okinawa, 1973), Verónica Vázquez (Treinta y Tres, 1970).
Murano glass from creativity to experimentation and design
Discovering Murano beyond the glass furnaces. A unique location tells a happy story of urban, social, and cultural regeneration: Punta Conterie is the project of two entrepreneurs, Alessandro Vecchiato and Dario Campa.
Dedicated to art, design, international creativity and contemporary food and wine, Punta Conterie is in Fondamenta Giustinian and it enriches the Murano experience with an exhibition space, InGalleria / Punta Conterie Art Gallery, where the exhibition Empathic is open until the 10th of April 2022. Discovering a Glass Legacy is curated by Luca Nichetto, a restaurant, a bistro, a café, a concept store of design, books, magazines and perfumes and a flower boutique: Fiorario Green.
On show are installations and limited-edition pieces by Ini Archibong, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, GamFratesi, Benjamin Hubert, Richard Hutten, Luca Nichetto, Elena Salmistraro and Marc Thorpe; invited to engage freely with Murano glass, free from standard patterns and constraints.
Murano Glass Toys
At the Glass Museum in Murano until 6 January 2022 there is an interactive multimedia installation in which glass lives, moves and interacts with the audience. The project involves 14 Murano glass masters and is curated by architect Matteo Silverio and organised by Consorzio Promovetro with the support of the Veneto Region and the Chamber of Commerce of Venice and Rovigo for The Venice Glass Week.
Fidelio opens the season at Teatro La Fenice
The opera season started with Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Teatro La Fenice. The choir and orchestra were directed by Maestro Myung-Whun Chung, who, just a year ago, had conducted a closed-door theatre concert at La Fenice with the orchestra in the stalls and choristers in the stands.
We can see the opera from Tuesday 23 November to 30 November 2021 by booking at the dedicated link on the website.
At La Fenice from Tuesday 23 to Sunday 28 November 2021 there is the 37th edition of the Venice Prize 2021: a national piano competition with the technical jury of Massimo Contiero, Gabriele Gandini, Carla Moreni, Giorgio Pestelli, Roberto Prosseda and Gianni Tangucci.
On Monday 29 November the Ex-Novo Ensemble will play Di nuovo ci darem la mano, with violin reinterpretations in tribute to great masters such as Giuseppe Tartini, whose death (1770) marked the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary last year, and the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Igor Stravinsky.
The full calendar with the December and 2022 dates is online at www.teatrolafenice.it.
Let’s all go to the theatre!
The Teatro a l’Avogaria is the most beloved of Venetian theatres, founded in 1969 by Giovanni Poli. Located in Corte Zappa in the Dorsoduro district, it is a theatre of experimentation in scenic methods, a baptismal place for new generations of actors. There are numerous events for the association’s members:
- Tuesday 23 November 2021, Miles gloriosus, or rather dying from depleted uranium. Directed and performed by Antonello Taurino with Orazio Attanasio and his music. A story of mysteries, death, and guilt, of sick people, courts and absurdities told by Mimmo and Pasquele, two perfect narrators, or rather charlatans.
- Tuesday 30 November 2021, Zona Franca. Production Teatro C’art Comic Education. By and with Federica Mafucci and directed by André Casaca. Zona Franca is the territory where you can live your madness as an act of freedom. A direct dialogue with Franca’s audience and her “stories of ordinary madness” playing between fun and drama.
- Tuesday 7 December 2021, The Confession. Based on Marco Politi and interpreted and directed by Alfredo Traversa. It is the dramatic testimony of a Catholic priest who discovers being homosexual and narrates his world and his life on stage in a genuine way: from his admission to the seminary to his suspension from the Eucharistic celebration.
- Saturday 11 December 2021, Eleazaro Rossi, The Eleazaro Experience. The show, reserved for an adult audience, is the life story of the artist Eleazaro Rossi with the touch of his unmistakable sarcasm. Starting with the peculiarity of his name, he starts from his childhood, school to then talk about femininity, feminism, fatherhood and even religion
- Tuesday 14 December 2021, Geminga.By Samuel Krapp with Ilaria Weiss and Fabio Mannite. A Donkey flies when fly lies production that recounts the typical day of two people suffering from schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, who share the same room in a psychiatric clinic with only one bed, one chair, one bedside table and one meal.
- Tuesday 21 December 2021, Stand up Poetry. A TrentoSpettacoli production by and with Lorenzo Maragoni. Stand up Poetry is a performance poetry show on the classic themes of poetry: love, identity, and life in constant evolution.
The initiatives will continue over the coming months – details can be found on the website – They are open to members of the Associazione Culturale Teatro a l’Avogaria only. Here is the form to register, and the membership fee is 30 euros per year. To book your place in the theatre, write to prenotazioni@teatro-avogaria.it or call 041 5285711 or 335 372889.
Teatro Carlo Goldoni
The fourth oldest theatre in Venice, the Carlo Goldoni Theatre continues its series of events between contemporary and Venetian theatre with important performances:
- From 26 to 27 November 2021, Maria Callas. Letters and memoirs with an ever more fascinating Monica Bellucci in a double appointment, exclusive for the whole Triveneto, on the true story behind the legend of Maria Callas: the woman and the artist, the world-wide career, marked by scandals and many personal challenges.
- On 28 November 2021, at 5 p.m. there will be a free screening of WELCOME VENICE in the presence of director Andrea Segre, Francesco Bonsembiante and some of the leading actors. This will be followed by a dialogue with the public on the themes of the city and tourism, moderated by Radio3 journalist Pietro Del Soldà.
The December and 2022 program with the possibility to book online is on www.teatrostabileveneto.it.
Mutaforma nelle Mani di Ovidio – The city goes green
In the rehearsal room of Teatro Goldoni in Venice, from October until May 2022, the Laboratorio di Teatro di Cittadinanza is in progress: 20 sessions for an audience from 20 to 70 years old, created from an idea of Mattia Berto for the Teatro Stabile del Veneto.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses are the inspiration for this year’s theme dedicated to sustainability under the title Mutaforma nelle Mani di Ovidio. The city goes green. Myths and legends will accompany the months of activity: from the sorrowful events of Orpheus and Eurydice to the disappointed passions of Apollo for Daphne and Echo for Narcissus, and the story of the Pieridae, transformed into magpies for having challenged the Muses in their singing. Ovid’s tales open a new reflection on contemporaneity, on the city of Venice and its citizens with three performances in the green spaces of Venice, on 19 December 2021, 20 February 2022, and Sunday 10 April 2022, transforming the city into a true open-air theatre. May 8, 2022 will be the date of the workshop final performance at the Goldoni Theatre.
To find out more and register for meetings, write to laboratori.teatrogoldoni@teatrostabileveneto.it.
European examples for Porto Marghera
TRANSLITERA is the new cycle of conferences organized by the Ordine degli Architetti PPC di Venezia and the Fondazione degli Architetti PPC di Venezia in partnership with M9 – Museo del ‘900, to reflect on the theme of cities: from the reuse of abandoned urban areas to urban regeneration as an engine for designing and rethinking new spaces.
European examples for Porto Marghera is the title of the first conference scheduled for Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 December 2021, which will take place at the Cesare De Michelis Auditorium. The topic will be the future of Porto Marghera, a potential area of economic, social, and cultural growth for the City of Venice, analyzing examples of projects, both completed and not, in Italian and foreign cities with similar characteristics.
Two days of training and refresher courses for all – for a maximum of 20 participants – including architects registered with the Order (5+5 training credits for each day) and university students. All details in the digital PDF.
Galileo Galilei – the revolution of Knowledge
On Sunday 28 November at 4.45 p.m. at Palazzo Sagredo, the German production company Atlantis Film presents the documentary on Galileo Galilei: the story of a true revolutionary, a man of science in the early 1600s, the first to ask how phenomena occurred and not why, sacrificing relationships and connections in the name of science.
A docufilm that involves four cities – Pisa, Florence, Rome, and Venice – and in Venice the Atelier Pietro Longhi with the accurate making of the sets and costumes. The main cast is all Italian: from Galileo, played by Gaetano Tizzano, to Pope Barberini, played by Luciano Roman, and Ambassador Niccolini played by Riccardo Giannini.
The entire documentary was filmed in the ballroom of Ca’ Sagredo in the presence of the director with an introduction by the costume historian and architect Raffaele Dessì, who not only supervised the production but who is also the protagonist in the documentary of the introduction to society and the historical character of Galileo.
Art is digital
From the 1st of September to the 15th of November of one year ago, Fabrizio Plessi‘s Golden Age was decorating the windows of the Museo Correr in a magnetic cascade of gold. Today, in collaboration with Nifty Gateway, the Venetian master’s latest work is transformed into a new medium of artistic expression thanks to NFT’s blockchain technology.
NFT works are experiencing a revolutionary phenomenon that is generating a great deal of interest both in the media and in the economic art market, spotlighting a bivalent discussion between speculative bubble or new art form. The world of NFT, which originates from the acronym Non Fungent Token, is in a nutshell the digital representation of physical or virtual works whose sole ownership is guaranteed through blockchain mechanisms of impossibility of reproduction, thus making the work of art unique in all its aspects (Crypto Art).
Events at SpazioEventi of the Libreria Toletta
The next presentations at SpazioEventi are dedicated to Venice. They start on Tuesday 23rd November with Venezia adagio. L’altra faccia della città cartolina (The other side of the postcard city), the original guide by Paola Zatti with the contribution written by Giovanni Pellizzato, owner of the historic bookshop La Toletta, which tells about the Venice of the lock-down and when the bookseller Giovanni used to go around the deserted city bringing books from house to house.
On Thursday 25 November it is the turn of the Venetian Giacomo-Maria Salerno, a young scholar who has published a detailed paper on Venice entitled Per una critica dell’economia in turismo. Venice between museumisation and merchandising, with a preface by Prof. Giovanni Attili.
Access to appointments is by prior booking at giovanni@libreriatoletta.it and by holding a green pass.
Luciana Boccardi’s book Dentro la vita (Inside Life), published by Fazi Editore, is now available. Author of numerous books and historic fashion journalist, Luciana has seen the transformation of Italy: society, culture, people, Venice, Milan, Paris, New York, the great experience at the Venice Biennale, diving into the world of fashion as a journalist for a daily newspaper and author of various costume books. The book is already on the bookshops’ shelves.
Jewellery and weaving in the workshop
Sunday 28 November from 11am to 5pm is Gioielli e intrecci in Bottega.
A preview presentation of the Christmas collections in an event created by Calle Longa’s desire to host Elena’s LNE jewellery and 360infilanda Stefano’s creative flair. The event will take place in four workshops: Bottega 2137, Paperoowl, Psyche and Slash.
Vesper Project, Ca’ Pesaro
At Ca’ Pesaro, the International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice, the Vesper Project there is an exhibition curated by Sara Marini.
In the Museum’s Project Room from 5 November to 12 December 2021 the first four issues of Vesper, the six-monthly scientific journal on architecture, the arts and theory of the IUAV Department of Cultures dealing with the relations between forms and processes of design and thought, will be on display to unveil the dialogue between art and architecture created by MUVE in collaboration with the IUAV University of Venice.
Venice in two minutes
As part of the exhibition Venetia 1600. Births and Rebirths at the Doge’s Palace, is open to the public until 25 March 2022. It tells the story ( see video above) of 1600 years and life in Venice amidst commercial splendor, social and technological innovations but also sunsets and sunrises. On Tuesday 23 November 2021 starts a weekly cycle of nine two-minute videos showing the beauty, vitality and mastery in Venice in the various branches of knowledge: art, entertainment, crafts and fashion.
Free visits and exhibitions at the Cini Foundation
Free guided tours of Le stanze del Vetro on the island of San Giorgio in Venice during the exhibitions Tapio Wirkkala at Venini and Toni Zuccheri at Venini.
From Saturday 27 November until 13 March 2022, every Saturday and Sunday (at 12 noon in English and 3.30 p.m. in Italian) you can see the 200 glass works by Tapio Wirkkala and Toni Zuccheri on display. At least two days in advance of the requested date, you can also book a weekday visit (except Wednesdays) free of charge or, from December, activate online guided tours and educational workshops, dedicated to the exhibitions Venice and the American Glass Studio and The Glass Ark. The animal collection of Pierre Rosenberg.
Until 31 January 2022, the Giorgio Cini Foundation is offering a guided tour service, organised by the D’Uva company of Florence, with tours of the Foundation’s monumental complex, from the Chiostro del Palladio, the Chiostro dei Buora, the Cenacolo Palladiano, the Sala delle Fotografie, the Scalone del Longhena, the Biblioteca del Longhena, to the Nuova Manica Lunga, where you can find the temporary exhibition Ghiribizzi, also included in the ticket price.
Reservation on www.visitcini.com and green pass are mandatory.
Serenissima Cocktail Week
The tribute to the art of Mixology arrives in Venice for the first time. From Florence, Cocktail Week will stop off for the first time in Venice from 13 to 19 December 2021.
With the support of Aman Venice, Paola Mencarelli is bringing Venice Cocktail Week to Venice, who in 2016 launched this festival in Italy, which was created for the first time in London back in 2008.
26 historic Cocktail Bars and Cafés have been selected, each of which will give life to a specially designed #VCW21 Cocktail List dedicated to Venetian mixology.
An intense week of meetings and sharing about the world of cocktails: masterclasses and themed evenings with international guests, cultural initiatives, and recreational activities, to bring the general public closer to discovering another wonderful facet of Venice.
The whole programme will be on the Venice Cocktail Week website in early December.
The article is by Lucia Pecoraro.
The photos are by Michele Tamasco for Venice Cocktail Week, Settimo Cannatella and Marta Formentello for Venezia da Vivere, Raffaele Dessì for Galileo Galilei, Roberta Orio for Punta Conterie, Giorgia Chinellato for Mattia Berto, Michele Crosera for Teatro La Fenice and Irene Fanizza for Galleria Alberta Pane.
We would like to thank the editors of Vesper for the cover image of issue 4 Exiles and Exoduses.
La Cocktail Week della Serenissima
Arriva per la prima volta a Venezia l’omaggio all’arte della Mixology. Da Firenze la Cocktail Week fa tappa per la prima volta a Venezia dal 13 al 19 dicembre 2021.
Con il supporto di Aman Venice, a portare Venice Cocktail Week a Venezia è Paola Mencarelli, che nel 2016 ha lanciato questo festival in Italia, nato a Londra nel lontano 2008.
26 sono i Cocktail Bar e Caffè storici selezionati, ognuno dei quali darà vita a una Cocktail List #VCW21 ideata appositamente e dedicata alla mixology veneziana.
Un’intensa settimana di incontri e condivisioni sul mondo del cocktail: masterclass e serate a tema con invitati internazionali, iniziative culturali e attività ricreative, per avvicinare il grande pubblico alla scoperta di un’altra meravigliosa sfaccettatura di Venezia.
Tutto il programma sarà sul sito di Venice Cocktail Week nei primi giorni di dicembre.
L’articolo è di Lucia Pecoraro.
Le foto sono di Michele Tamasco per Venice cocktail Week, Settimo Cannatella e Marta Formentello per Venezia da Vivere, Raffaele Dessì per Galileo Galilei, Roberta Orio per Punta Conterie, Giorgia Chinellato per Mattia Berto, Michele Crosera per Teatro La Fenice e Irene Fanizza per Galleria Alberta Pane.
Ringraziamo la redazione di Vesper per l’immagine di copertina del numero 4 Esili e esodi | Exiles and Exoduses.
