November - December 2007

click here for complete programme

An ancient organ, a polyphonic chorus, the soft and ancient sound of bagpipes, the voice of a gospel, a flute will accompany the winter season in Venice with an elaborate and complex programme of concerts. The fifth edition of Venice winter presents an extraordinary kaleidoscope of rhythms coming from different places, with the aim of letting us know and enhancing the value of music on the whole.

ORGAN AND CHORUS
All this will start in November with Concerts with organs and choruses which want to offer the visitors coming to Venice during winter some musical events in different and strongly characterized places. Some of the most beautiful churches in the town of Venice and on its dry land, then, will show their art treasures by welcoming also the less expert visitors together with the youngest people, in a unique Christmas atmosphere.

click here for complete programme

GOSPEL
In December the programme will go on, during the Immaculate extra day off, by starting with the Gospel at Christmas concerts, curated by the Venetian chorus Joy Singers, directed by the director Andrea D’Alpaos and accompanied by the host Colin Vassel, coming from London: such concerts will delight us both with the classical songs of the spiritual  tradition

Querini Stampalia Museum

until 10 february 2008

Georges Adèagbo, who was born in 1942 in Cotonou (Benin) where he lives and works, is one of the most important artists of Western Africa. His presence at the International Biennale of Art in Venice in 1999 and at Documenta of Kassel in 2002 have decreed his recognition on an international level too.
The exhibition, arranged in the rooms of the Querini Stampalia Foundation, is curated by Chiara Bertola with Stephan Koehler and was inaugurated last Friday in the site of St. Maria Formosa; it will be open until 10th February.
Such exhibition is developed on two floors: on the second one the interaction with the existent works of art of the museum, according to the project Keeping the future – with the aim of correlating ancient and contemporary art, and the site-specific walls on the third floor, of which the African artist has represented two great collages which continue on the floor and which are made of newspapers, brochures, figures put into cases realized by craftsmen.

With a variegated programme of concerts and shows, a rich calendar of tasting for the public fond of wines and specialties from all over Italy and from abroad too, thirty displaying stands, a renewed scenery and a welcoming service for the public and journalists, which will be full of novelties: the tenth edition of the town event of the local street Market in Campo St. Stefano, arranged by Confartigianato Venezia, will be, as ever, a good occasion to entertain children while, parents are calmly in search of Christmas presents.
SATURDAY 1St December Inauguration
Concert of Gospel Mini Singers. Director Andrea D’Alpaos
SUNDAY 2nd December
Nossa Alma sings Concert of bossa nova
SATURDAY 8th December
Dixieland Jazz Band
SATURDAY 15th December
Space zero
SUNDAY 16th December
The Boys of the Beat
FRIDAY 21st December
Greetings by Mayor Cacciari to citizens and Concert of ‘Mamme per caso’
SATURDAY 22nd December
Fevre da samba

ENTERTAINMENT FOR CHILDREN
This event has always had a deep attention for the activities devoted to children, in order to make Christmas an entertaining period full of useful and educational experiences.

17th November 2007 – 6th January 2008
Museum of Mocenigo Palace: Entrance hall on the ground floor

Twenty-nine works on paper by the USA artist Susan Crile, which are inspired by the horror of the photos taken in the Iraqui prison of Abu Ghraib in 2004. Perfect and, at the same time, soft images which skilfully reverse the intentions of those who had taken such photos: not victory trophies but unspeakable proves of brutality, not degraded victims, but painful humanity.
Susan Crile, during her artistic career, had already run into the consequences of war: her apocalyptic Fires of War, realized after travelling ten days through the areas of the Iraqi war of 1991, gave her back burning, barren, shocked and senseless panoramas.
Now, again, war. This time the unbearable disgust given by the images of the hellish Abu Ghraib are revealed to the whole world.
From a formal point of view Susan’s work is perfect, with her masterly use of chalk, of the diaphanous white tones for the victims, of the full and opaque colours for the torturers, with that essentiality   and mastery of her mark, with those monochrome colours characterized by dramatically eloquent contrasts which are strongly able to evoke a

15th November – 16th December 2007

Rabarama’s success, an artist who was born in Rome but who grew in the Saint’s town, is going on. Rabarama’s anthological exhibition proves that. Dream of transformation will be inaugurated on 15th November 2007 at Vecchiato Art Gallery in Padova: among the works on display many sculptures and inedited canvas stand out, beside a rubber installation with pigments, composed of thirty elements. The Oriental flowery patterns, the spirals which cover the surface of the human body, forms which turn into felines: these are the main features of the latest basic themes with which Ramarama is dealing. Rabarama’s course goes on towards innovation with a driving force towards an astral dimension in her sculptures which often are marked by stellar patterns. In her search of universal explanations which can exist just in the sky above us, also her sculptures of the cycle of leopards make their appearance, in which man

21st November 2006
Salute Church
The Feast of Salute is, with no doubt, the one with the less tourist impact, recalling a real popular religious feeling.
Also such festivity, like that of Redentore, reminds us of another terrible plague occurred during the two-year period 1630-1631, and the succeeding vow made by the Doge in order to get the intercession of the Virgin.
Those who have the opportunity to be in Venice during the day of Salute can breathe an atmosphere of genuine and heartfelt popular participation, as well as not pharisaic religiosity, but deeply related to the history and traditions of the town. Every year, for this feast, a temporary bridge on boats is built: it crosses the Canal Grande and links the areas of St. Moisè and St. Maria del Giglio (sestiere of St. Marco) to the Basilica of Longhena (sestiere of Dorsoduro), in order to allow the passage of the procession. Tens of thousands of people go on a pilgrimage to pay homage to the

After holding, between 2005 and 2007, the expositions ‘Tintoretto’s Cycle’ and the series of paintings of the Patriarchal Palace and the Officina Dűrer, the Diocese Museum will open again to the public from 1st November 2007.
While the adjacent former church of Saints Filippo and Giacomo (ex Jesurum) is in the process of being restored, the new setting up now inaugurated will give us the opportunity of admiring the exposition of some works belonging to the permanent collection of the Museum, including some canvases coming from Venetian churches, in some of which worship is forbidden and some of them  are intended for other uses.
There is, then, such new idea of an artistic itinerary intentionally created to place the paintings back in their original setting. From the iconography of Mary, which reconstructs the most relevant stages of the Virgin’s life, to the Cycle of St. Saba which comes from St.Antonin’s Church, to the one of the school of the Great Christ of St. Marcuola. The public will also have the opportunity of seeing an altar piece by Tintoretto, belonging to the small church of San Gallo, which has already been restored.
Moreover we cannot miss the collection of liturgical silverware, namely one of the richest and most complete collections in

The City Notebook about Venice has come out, with its stone and water routes with young people from all over the world. It is the new Moleskine City Notebook about Venice, following the ones about New York, Boston, Paris, London, Barcelona, Berlin, etc… The Italian producing house of the most famous small notebook in the world, which was also used by Hemingway, Chatwin, Picasso, has enriched its new collection with new city notebook models which, besides its mere white pages to write one’s own travel notes, are endowed with useful information and the map of the Venetian city too.
Moleskine directly takes part in the cultural and economical life of the city, by supporting a project in favour of young artists from all over the world, in collaboration with the Venetian town council and organized by the Foundation Bevilacqua La Masa: in the building of Saints Cosma and Damiano at Giudecca eight artistic projects  have been assigned to young artists selected by the Foundation.
The official mark of Venice (created under the artistic management of Philippe Starck) testifies Moleskine’s commitment towards financing such project, by investing a part of the proceeds of the Venice City Notebooks sold.

The well-know phenomenon of high water regularly occurs in Venice above all in autumn and winter. It is caused by higher-than-average tides which, by getting into the lagoon through its three inlets, flood some parts of the town. The combination of three different natural phenomena results in such event: tides, low pressure, strong winds and heavy rainfalls. Such extraordinary high tides are due to the very characteristics of the Adriatic Sea ploughed by winds such as scirocco wind coming from Syria and bora from Hungary. These two winds respectively press the sea towards the lagoon and, at the same time, avoid the tide itself from flowing back into the sea.
The limit of high water has been calculated on the level sea.
If there is  a one meter high water St. Mark’s Square and some parts of the town are covered by a level ranging from 5 to 40 centimetres of water. For these reasons the town and the most populated city points have been equipped with a number of footbridges which are arranged by AMAV operators (Environment Multi-services Company of Venice) early in the morning in order to help the use of routes.
Venetian people are warned of high tide by means of some sirens when the tide is rising (very early in the morning at about 5 o’ clock).