More than 50 performances including theatre plays, concerts, film screenings, exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, and recreational-educational activities for children will interpret the theme of play, love, and madness in various ways.
The 2023 Carnival of Culture will take place between Venice and Mestre with a rich programme of initiatives. Original projects created ad hoc, co-promoted by Vela and supported by the Venice City Council, will offer adults and children numerous events every day, most of them free of charge.
The cultural programme of the 2023 Venice Carnival “Take Your Time For The Original Signs” was presented this morning at Ca’ Farsetti by the president of the Venice City Council Culture Commission Giorgia Pea, the curator of the events schedule Marta Moretti, the sole director of Vela Spa Piero Rosa Salva, and the chief operating officer of Vela spa Fabrizio D’Oria.
The fifty or so appointments of the cultural programme are an addition to the outdoor activities, to best combine the theme of Carnival 2023 in the various forms of art, with many unmissable events involving cultural associations, institutions, theatres and museums, palaces: from Ateneo Veneto, to Marghera Library, then the Venice Biennale, The House of The Human Safety Net at Procuratie Vecchie, the Candiani Cultural Centre, Café Sconcerto, the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory, the Compagnia l’Arte dei Mascareri, Fabbrica del Vedere, the Querini Stampalia Foundation, the MUVE Foundation, the Pro Helvetia Foundation, the M9 – Museo del 900, Palazzetto Bru Zane, Palazzo Grimani, Palazzo Labia, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, Scuola Grande San Rocco, Teatro ai Frari, Teatro Momo, and Teatro a l’Avogaria.
“I am very pleased with the presence of all these cultural institutions, which dialogue with each other and propose, each according to their own chords, a programme of events of the highest quality”, Pea said. “The spirit of this Carnival wants to be inclusive, and I would like the participation to be real and effective on the part of citizens and visitors. Many of these initiatives are dedicated to children, but also to adults so that they can, even for a short time, become children again”.
Among the novelties, opening this year’s doors to the Carnival will be The House of The Human Safety Net at Procuratie Vecchie, which proposes a conference on astronomy and celestial navigation, following the 2023 theme, as well as offering a theatrical performance of dance, mime and sign language for deaf and hearing families, and the projection of a feature film made with the animation technique and accompanied in the auditorium with live music. Enriching the cultural offerings of “Take Your Time For The Original Signs” will be shows, concerts, mask-making workshops for children and adults, book presentations and lectures.
“The Carnival of Culture is an important moment”, explained D’Oria. “Year after year, the cultural calendar has grown thanks to the constant commitment of the institutions, associations, and companies, and over the years this commitment has been repaid with ever-increasing participation by the public”.
The Civic Museums also offer a wide range of different events at their venues, as well as free workshops and creative proposals for families with children and young people (at Casa Goldoni on Sunday, February 12 and at the International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro on Tuesday, February 21), which can be booked at www.visitmuve.it/education.
Furthermore, there is the collaboration with La Biennale di Venezia for the 14th edition of the International Kids’ Carnival, from 11 to 19 February in two venues: in Venice, Ca’ Giustinian, for free workshops upon reservation ([email protected]) and in Mestre, Centro Civico del Parco Albanese, Bissuola, for workshops and musical initiatives.
“In the Carnival programme there has always been space for cultural events, but in the last dozen years this presence has been consolidated and qualified, and has found in the new approach that the municipal administration has given it a more visible and systematic thematisation and use by all,” recalled the sole director of Vela spa, Piero Rosa Salva.
The Querini Stampalia Foundation is organising a journey through the Carnival among zodiac signs, masks and collections, a guided tour of the Museum’s collections to discover the original sign. Among the activities on the calendar, M9 is proposing by popular demand, on Saturday, February 18 from 6.30 PM until 9 AM of Sunday, February 19, “A chilling night”, to guarantee an adventure to be experienced in a sleeping bag like real explorers of stories. And the Carnival of Culture will also be under the sign of mystery with the “Racconti di quasi mezzanotte” proposed by Alberto Toso Fei on the stage of St. Mark’s Square, featuring timeless stories, grim or sweet, that have left their mark on the centuries-old stones of the city. Also at St. Mark’s, “Sotto il segno del leone” will be staged, free tours in search of the graffiti of power, faith and superstition, work, play, death and revolution.
After a first weekend that saw the musical “La storia della mia vita” staged at Teatro ai Frari and the highly acclaimed “Bricola e regina” at Teatro A L’Avogaria, the Carnival of Culture continues tomorrow (Wednesday, February 8) at Teatro Momo at 6 PM with “Teresina. Una storia vera e pazzo…con e senza maschera” and on Thursday, February 9, again at 6 PM at Teatro Momo, with “Benvenuti in Paradiso! Viaggio tragicomico tra variegate dipendenze a Norma”.
