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buongiorno venezia

buongiorno venezia weekly newsletter by veniceword.com

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Greetings from Venice!


NEWS.  Even Venice is feeling the effects of the world economic crisis. For the first time in memory, there is a minus sign in front of the summer tourism percentages with visitors down 8% in July, mainly because of reduced travel from North America.

NEWS.  It's open. The fourth bridge on the Grand Canal, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, was opened last Thursday at midnight without any official celebration. Its statistics are impressive (or depressive, depending on your point of view): six years of works instead of, as originally, planned, a little more than one and 12 and a half million euros instead of four (plus 11 million euros more at the centre of various legal arguments). Those expenditures, however, pale beside yearly maintenance expenses of forty million euros. At the moment, none of the bridge's accessibility devices for the disabled are working and, last but not least, while the fourth bridge is beautiful, it is, essentially... useless.

Mayor Cacciari had announced it as "a present given to the city" -- a project that was supposed to be provided for free. Instead, it turned out to be a big mess. And in at least one respect -- accessibility for the disabled -- the bridge does not conform to Italian law. So, while waiting for the "ovovia " over the Grand Canal to be completed, the mayor decided to open the bridge without inviting the President of the Republic (as announced) or other celebrities, without stage lights, and without an official speech. The extent of the festivities was a toast with a glass of Prosecco with the bridge's engineers. To add to the exasperation, the disabled are granted the free crossing of the Canal (between the Piazzale Roma and Ferrovia stops) as long as the ovovia is not working. The permanent free crossing -- for everyone -- would have been the longest, cheapest, and fastest (not to mention the most welcome and popular) solution.

NEWS.  A proposal for an Islamic cultural centre and a mosque in the historical centre Venice is, in the wake of the controversial opening of the Calatrava Bridge, offering no rest for the mayor, who has declared himself to be in favour of a new prayer hall for Muslims. It would be the first one in the history of the city. Architect Wael Farhatt, representing the Muslim community in Venice, will in fact present two projects: a small cultural centre with a small mosque in Venice, and a bigger centre for 500 worshippers on Venice's mainland, Mestre. "A symbolic presence in Venice is needed," Farhatt says. Needless to say, the matter is giving rise to divergent opinions and controversies.

CURIO. One of the attractions of the Venice Biennale of Architecture -- which opened yesterday -- is Singletown, presented by the Droog Design Collective. The reasoning behind the project is that, by 2026, it is forecast that a third of the world's population is expected to be single.

NEWS. Biennale Architecture: the 11th International Architecture Exhibition - "Out There: Architecture Beyond Building", curated by Aaron Betsky - will take place in Venice (Giardini and Arsenale) until 23 November 2008. Featured architects include Frank Gehry and Matthew Ritchie. Aaron Betsky -- former director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in Rotterdam and, as of last year, Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum -- entitled the 11th Architecture Biennale "Out There: Architecture Beyond Building". He believes that this edition "will point the way towards an architecture liberated from buildings to engage the central issues of our society; instead of the tombs of architecture, which is to say buildings, it will present site specific installations, visions and experiments that help us figure out, make sense of, and feel at home in our modern world. Architecture is not building. Buildings are objects and the act of building leads to such objects, but architecture is something else. It is the way we think and talk about buildings, how we represent them, how we build them. This is architecture. In a concrete sense, architecture is that which allows us to be at home in the world."

"The challenge of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale," Betsky emphasises, "is to collect and encourage experimentation in architecture. Such experimentation can take the form of momentary constructions, visions of other worlds, or the building blocks of a better world. This Biennale does not want to present buildings that are already in existence and can be enjoyed in real life. It does not want to propose abstract solutions to social problems, but wants to see if architecture, by experimenting in and on the real world, can offer some concrete forms or seductive images".

Presented at two venues -- the Arsenale and the Padiglione Italia at the Giardini -- the 11th Architecture Biennale will offer site-specific installations, manifestos and utopian, dystopian or heterotopian visions. In the Arsenale, visitors will encounter almost two dozen such works. At Padiglione Italia, the survey of experimental work will be, mainly, by young designers alongside five Masters of the Experimental.

The beginning of the Corderie in the Arsenale will present Hall of Fragments by David Rockwell with Casey Jones + Reed Kroloff. It will showcase -- onscreen -- architecture both from science fiction films that depicted what our world would look like and from historical films that recreated older worlds. The Corderie will also present large-scale, site-specific Installations that will pose the question "how we can be at home in the modern world?"

NEWS. Italian architect and designer Marcello Morandini, with two separate exhibitions, is one of the protagonists on the cultural scene in Venice. In addition to "Bianco, Nero, Azzurro Cielo" which is being presented in his reference gallery Giudecca 795 alongside work by his wife Teresa, Morandini is having an important show at Ca' Pesaro (the Museum of Modern Art in Venice).
"Bianco, Nero e Azzurro Cielo" is the new exhibit opening at the Giudecca795 Art Gallery on 12 September, marking the occasion of the Architecture Biennale. For the first time, this exhibit presents the artwork of a very special couple: Marcello Morandini, who has become a reference point for designers around the world, and his wife Teresa Barisi, a talented hyper-realistic painter. One of the most renowned artists in constructivist art since his early debut at the Venice Biennale in 1968, Morandini has devoted his work to elementary geometric shapes, mostly black & white sculptures and objects in Plexiglas, porcelain, and wood. The sculptures' shapes are often developed on the basis of individually constituted mathematical systems. The reduction of colour to black and white thereby creates a focus on the shapes and their aesthetic value. The exhibition at the Giudecca 795 Art Gallery presents recent works which are "married" to the paintings by his wife Teresa. Though the two styles look incompatible at first sight, they are not. As in any successful marriage, the two different personalities share common elements that are complementary. Teresa Barisi Morandini's work acts as astonishingly real scenery for the architect's optical sculptures, shown as if they were in their intended environment. In fact, Morandini's artworks are often designed to be outdoors sculptures, adding "order" to reality.

REMINDER. The 52nd International Festival of Contemporary Music will be held from 2 to 18 October. "Roots / Future" is the title chosen for the Festival by the new director, Luca Francesconi. Young composers and those from the mid-generation, whether newcomers or established, will appear alongside some great masters who have left their mark on 20th-Century music and beyond.

Since 1930, the Venice Festival of Contemporary Music has featured new compositions, European and world premieres, great orchestras, and prestigious ensembles and soloists. Today, Its director, Luca Francesconi, intends to renew this long-standing tradition. "Roots / Future"'s programme includes 77 composers and 34 concerts performed by thirteen leading ensembles, three orchestras, and eight soloists, as well as meetings, seminars, and workshops. Among the participants at this year's Festival will be German composer Helmut Lachenmann who, on 3 October, will be awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.  When he was 20, Lachenmann settled on Giudecca Island in Venice to study with Venetian composer Luigi Nono. It was at the 25th International Festival of Contemporary Music, during the Biennale di Venezia in 1962, that he made his debut as a composer with "Fünf Strophen" performed by the instrumental group from the Teatro La Fenice. Today, his music is performed, recorded, analysed, and discussed throughout the world.


 

SERVICES. Avoid queues at the ticket office... We are launching a new service for the online purchase and home (or hotel) delivery of  Venicecard tickets, complete with a map and PDF guide. Please allow 10-15 days for mail delivery!!! Click for details.

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You may remember a series of children books dedicated to a young "detective", Nancy Drew. She's back in a videogame, which offers a new perspective to discover Venice, with the 360 degrees images of its set.

Nancy Drew, the character  with a talent for investigations whose stories were signed  by the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, has new popularity with the videogame version of her Venetian adventure. In  "Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice," from Her Interactive for the PC, Nancy has been invited to Venice by the Italian police to help them solve a series of crimes where priceless Venetian artifacts have been stolen. Set against the beautiful backdrop of Venice, as depicted in almost photo-realistic scenes, the mystery takes you around the city to many of its famous piazzas and other locations, letting you ride on gondolas to get from place to place. When you do, you see more of this scenic city. You play as Nancy and see Venice through her eyes. The game uses point-and-click navigation, with several of the scenes allowing you to look in 360-degree views by placing your cursor at the edge of the screen. The plot is complicated and fascinating, as you meet characters who aren't what they seem, and others who are hiding behind masks. 

The book which inspired the videogame is PHANTOM OF VENICE (NANCY DREW 78): PHANTOM OF VENICE (Nancy Drew).

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Buy a gondola, "park" it in Venice, and someone will take care of it in the wintertime, ensuring that you'll always have your own gondolier when you come to Venice, (and even give you rowing lessons, if you wish, so that you can be the gondolier!). Or you may decide to have the gondola packed and shipped home. This strange but, just as strangely, well-received idea already has many fans. If you're interested, contact us. (More about gondolas)

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