The Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa is hosting a solo exhibition by the German artist Gregor Schneider (winner of the Golden Lion prize in 2001 at the 49th Venice Biennale in the Germany Pavilion) in the newly restored spaces of the Piazza San Marco Gallery.
The artist, who has always been interested in the relationship between constructed and individual space, reproposes the ‘Cube Venice 2005’ project presented for the 51st Venice Biennale, here with a new display positioning; the work was refused by the Biennale as it was believed to be potentially dangerous in terms of the political reactions that it might have aroused.
Cube Venice consists of a large, black, geometric sculpture, without an accessible entrance, resting on a base of 12x13 metres and standing some 14 metres, and it was designed to be anchored to the ground in St. Mark’s Square. The awe inspired by such an enigmatic and impenetrable volume is rooted in the artist’s reflections on the space of the Ka’ba, key site of Mecca for the Islamic faith.
Yet the project is far from being a mere architectural reproduction. The great volume is in fact designed to be a sculpture made up of different materials serving a different purpose; and yet given its positioning in the light of the global events and unrest of recent years, the work is full of the tension resulting from its being an object linked to the traditions of modern Western art, one that searches for a primordial form going beyond the natural image, and the reflection of a place of worship for millions of Muslims. This mystic tension is where the object and space come together, and where perhaps two different worlds might find common ground.
A work like this is ideally placed in a city like Venice, which has always served as a meeting point for art and culture between East and West.
The exhibition created by the German artist brings together 3-D presentations, models, photographs, drawings which document the creative process and the meaning underlying the Cube Venice project, throughout the various stages of its development. A great installation designed especially for the display area introduces the spectator to the idea of an enclosed space, an empty space: both unsettling and mystical at the same time. Furthermore, video and sculpture works will connect the Venice Cube 2005 project to other works by the artist such as his renown Haus u r (1986), the Weisse Folter projects in Dusseldorf, as well as Black Dead End in Naples, 2006 and 2007 respectively.
The opening at the Bevilacqua La Masa follows a day after that of the solo exhibition Gregor Schneider will hold at the MACRO in Rome , which is focused of rooms outside the Haus u r project, The artist will present different doubled rooms and sculptures in the completely black exhibition rooms. The bathroom and bedroom of the twin house DIE FAMILIE SCHNEIDER built in London 2004 and the doubled cells of the secret Camp V in Guantanamo Bay will be shown, in line with Gregor Schneider’s recent interest in spaces of social relevance.

Opening   31 May 2008  to 14 September 2008
Hours    10:30 - 17:30     Ticket   : Full euro 3 euro; Reduced euro 2 euro
Closed on    Monday and Tuesday

 
Casa Santa Maria Formosa

On the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, in front of the famous Piazza San Marco, you can visit the Giuseppe Santomaso and the Abstract Option show from April 12 to July 13, 2008. At the Giorgio Cini Foundation, the exhibition commemorates the centennial of the birth of the Venetian artist Giuseppe Santomaso. The retrospective presents all the works from the master’s entire career from the beginning to his artistic maturity.
The exhibition is not just a eulogy to the Venetian master but allows visitors to compare his entire body of works with some of the main Italian abstract artists like Afro, Renato Birolli, Mario De Luigi, Leone Minassian, Zoran Music, Armando Pizzinato, Emilio Vedova, Bice Lazzari, Tancredi Parmeggiani, Antonio Corpora, Virgilio Guidi and Toti Scialoja.
Santomaso was a master since he didn’t just stay local but traveled frequently abroad. In particular, there was his 1937 trip to Paris when the Venetian artist saw the Universal Exhibition which led him to meet Braque and reflect on Cubism.
There are primarily paintings but not only: ceramics and frescos from the artist will also be presented. The event, managed by curator Nico Stringa, will be carried out in collaboration with the Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari, the Region of Veneto, the City of Venice, the Biennale of Venice, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna of Rome and the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation.

Casa Santa Maria Formosa

SMS Venice ( S aint M ark’s S quare/ S hort M essage S ystem) is a project promoting the restoration and conservation of S. Mark’s Sq developed in partnership with Venice Municipality, the Department of Architectural and Landscaping Heritage of Venice and event manager Fran Tomasi.Such fundraising project will also host a great variety of international acts reflecting the bond between internet based technologies and musical events stressed out insofar by the Major of Venice himself. Therefore S. Mark’s Sq. will be staging four international events:

July 8^th  2008 Mime-dance company Momix directed by Moses Pendleton will offer some of their most effective choreographies from Opus Cactus , Passion , Sunflower Moon , SuperMomix .

July 9^th  2008 Sir Elthon John will perform an exclusive solo show whose profit will be entirely devoted to SMS Venice project by his own will.

July 14^th 2008 Italian composer and pianist Giovanni Allevi will be performing with his orchestra both as performer and conductor.

July 15^th  2008 will be dedicated to a Brazilian themed, with Gilberto Gil,  show Colore Brasile hosting international acclaimed Brazilian musicians. The Grand Finale performance will include special guests such as Mart Natalia and Venezia Suona Big Band.

A special offer for this unique event,  including :

• Double deluxe room with canal view on a 16^th century palace and ambience;
• Free entrance to the Venice Casino, Ca Vendramin Calergi;
• 10% discount on the parking ticket at Garage San Marco;
• Free Map of Venice
• Free trip to the Murano Island’ glass factories
  

Casa Santa Maria Formosa

The Redentore festival is close to the hearts of Venetians, and is celebrated on the third Sunday of July, with a grandiose fireworks show on Saturday night as the main attraction.
The Venetians take in the spectacle of the fireworks right from their boats which are usually decorated with balloons, festoons and lights. Starting before sunset, the boats make their way to the Saint’s Mark basin and to the Giudecca Canal. The waters sparkle with the reflection of boats and lights. On the boats, among song, dance and typical food, people wait for the fireworks that begin at 11.30pm and go on for almost an hour. Along the banks thousand of people also wait for the fireworks at long tables set up for the occasion.
The origins of the festival date back to the horrible plague that devastated Venice between 1575 and 1577. In three years the plague killed 50,000 people, more than a third of the population. In 1566 the Senate for the Republic decided to erect a church in honor of the Redeemer, hoping that a divine act put an end to the plague. On July 13, 1577 the plague was declared finally over and from then on Venice has been marking the event on the third Sunday of July with a religious celebration and a popular feast.
During the days of the Redentore festival a bridge of boats, 330 meters in length, straddles the Giudecca Canal. The bridge allows Venetians to easily access the Redentore basilica, where the faithful take part in religious celebrations. The most important one is the Votive Mass presided by the Patriarch.

When: July 19-20, 2008

For being part of this venetian event click here

Venezia Suona (”Venice plays”) is an event established in 1999 within the sphere of the French “Fête de la Musique” and which has met with increasing success over the years.
For an entire day, Venice will be transformed into an open stage, an explosion of sounds in the piazzas and narrow lanes of the city: beyond any barriers in taste and fashion, hundreds of artists occupy Venice to create a generalized and collective sound. Jazz, pop, rock, classical, blues, electronic, folk, world music a vivacious musical melting pot.
Venezia Suona is the priceless pleasure of being a part of the world’s largest stage, discovering in the city’s squares and spaces groups, orchestras and individual musicians from around the globe. There are no stages, galleries or ticket offices, just musicians and spectators together in a unique “musical village”.
When: Venezia Suona is forecast for July 2008 (date to be confirmed)
The official program of the event will be made available in May.
Information:
“Il Suono Improvviso” Cultural Center
Tel. +39.041.2750049
Fax: +39.041.2756752
info@ilsuonoimprovviso.it

Casa Santa Maria Formosa

The International Contemporary Dance Festival is organized and sponsored by the Venice Biennial, which is directed each year by a luminary chosen from among world dance stars. The fifth edition of the Festival will be held from June 14 to 29 2008.
The 2008 edition will be led by Brazilian Ismael Vivo, award-winning dancer and choreographer, who has already directed other prestigious festivals and dance companies in Europe and in America.
Editions 2005, 2006 and 2007 of the Festival were already conducted there, completing the triennial focus on the theme of the body. After Body Attack (2005) and UnderSkin (2006), the body is back again to inspire choreographers and companies from around the world. The edition 2008 it’s called: Beauty. Art is beautiful
The Contemporary Dance Festival Program (June 2008) will be annunced in spring.
Location of performances: the Festival is held in the new and attractive theatre spaces of the Arsenale, the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale and the Teatro alle Tese, as well as in the traditional spaces of the Teatro Malibran and the Teatro La Fenice.
Information:
Public and Group Promotion Office
Tel. 041 5218775
Fax 041 5218825
Telephone ticket sales
Call center Hellovenezia - Tel. 041 2424 - every day 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

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A vivid reader of Ruskin, two of whose books he translated into French, Marcel Proust (1871-1922) visited Venice for the first time in 1900.

“ My gondola followed the course of the small canals; like the mysterious hand of a genie leading me through the maze of this oriental city, they seemed, as I advanced, to be carving a road for me through the heart of a crowded quarter which they clove asunder, barely dividing with a slender fissure, arbitrarily carved, the tall houses with their tiny Moorish windows; and, as though the magic guide had been holding a candle in his hand and were lighting the way for me, they kept casting ahead of them a ray of sunlight for which they cleared a path.

One felt that between the mean dwellings which the canal had just parted and which otherwise would have formed a compact whole, no open space had been reserved. With the result that the belfry of the church, or the garden-trellis rose sheer above the rio as in a flooded city. But with churches as with gardens, thanks to the same transposition as in the Canal Grande, the sea formed so effective a way of communication, a substitute for street or alley, that on either side of the canaletto the churches rose from the water in this ancient plebeian quarter, degraded into humble, much-frequented mission chapels, bearing upon their surface the stamp of their necessity, of their use by crowds of simple folk, that the gardens crossed by the line of the canal allowed their astonished leaves or fruit to trail in the water and that on the doorstep of the house whose roughly-hewn stone was still wrinkled as though it has only just been sawn, little boys surprised by the gondola and keeping their balance allowed their legs to dangle vertically, like sailors seated upon a swing-bridge the two halves of which have been swung apart, allowing the sea to pass between them. Now and again there appeared a handsomer building that happened to be there, like a surprise in a box which we have just opened, a little ivory temple with its Corinthian columns and its allegorical statue on the pediment, somewhat out of place among the ordinary buildings in the midst of which it had survived, and the peristyle with which the canal provided it resembled a landing-stage for market gardeners.”

- Marcel Proust -

A la recherché du temps perdu , 1925

For an unforgettable holiday in Venice and an unforgettable gondola ride click here