Piazza Brescia
21st June – 31st July 2009, every day from 9.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m.

‘Dante’s Hell’ is the theme of the twelfth edition of the International Festival of sand sculpures which started last Friday evening in Jesolo, like every year, on the sandy beach near Piazza Brescia. The eighteen artists who have been chosen by the American Richard Varano for the 2009 edition, coming from all over the world, had to undertake the challenge of representing the settings, the mythological figures and the most famous characters of the immortal Dantesque long poem. Chracters such as Caronte, Paolo and Francesca, the horrible Cerbero, Count Ugolino and many others have, thus, taken shape from sand. This year visitors will be led through a guided tour in the Hell circles, going back over Dante’s journey as far as the exit, to see the stars back again. The artists who have realized such majestic and ‘hellish’ sand artworks are: Dan Belcher (Usa), Damon Farmer (Usa), Brad Goll (Usa), Ray Villafane (Usa), John Gowdy (Usa) Karen Fralich (Usa), Alexey Shchitov (Russia) Vladimir Kuraev (Russia), Katsuhiko Chean (Japan), Radek Zivney (Rep. Ceca), Kevin Crawford (Aus), Marjon Katerberg (NI) David ducharme (Usa), Peter Vogelaar (Canada), Ilya Shannin (Russia), Andy Bergholtz (Usa), Lars Borst (NI), Alexey Diakov (Russia). TD