Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art
20 December 2007 -  24 February 2008

Who was Edgard Chahine? In Paris in the early 1900s he was more famous than Bonnard. A draughtsman lionised by the beau monde, an engraver of dazzling technical skill, an illustrator of works by Huysmans and Barrès, he was a close friend of Anatole France and would (up to 1926) exhibit at every Venice Biennale. But with the end of the Belle Epoque, his career would go into decline. By the time of his death in 1947, Chahine was a forgotten figure.
The Print Cabinet at Ca’ Pesaro has  more  than sixty works by the artist, some donated directly by Chahine, some acquired during the Biennales at which he exhibited. These works reflect his achievements during his ‘golden period’  - from 1900 to 1920 - and a selection of those dedicated to Parisian themes is on display in this exhibition. This event marks the beginning at Ca’ Pesaro of a project that has already worked with such success at Ca’ Rezzzonico: periodic events intended to make the vast collections of the Musei Civici Veneziani available to the public .
The exhibition is included in the normal admission price. Open at usual museum hours

The Exhibition ‘Rome and the Barbarians, the birth of a new world’ has been inaugurated: it is a marvellous exhibition collecting more than 2000 objects, coming from more than 23 countries, some of which have left their original placing for the first time, and it is the greatest exposition which has ever been organized in Europe.
Francois Pinault, the President of Palace Grassi, which has come back, by this exhibition, to the splendour of the era FIAT, invites us ‘‘to meditate on the current situation in Europe, a political and cultural country which has ruled the world and which nowadays is expected to face the exigency of learning to live together a more and more copious number of women and men coming from other parts of the world. That’s why we all have to remember our origins which are not only Greek or Christian: we all are a bit barbaric! And the aim of this exhibition is exactly that of removing the negative glow from the word ‘barbaric’ that derives from the Greek, actually suggesting somebody unrelated to one’s own cultural universe.
The Barbarians and the Romans found the way of merging perfectly giving birth to our civilization’’.
By going round the rooms, more than 3000 square metres of treasures, statues, jewellery, arms, objects of common use,

Rapper Coolio is set to perform the “flight of the angel” at this year’s Carnival of Venice - breaking a tradition which has usually involved a beautiful woman swooping down onto Venice’s St Mark’s Square from the basilica’s bell tower. “It (the choice of Coolio) is a blow of diversity, because it will involve a black man with a turbulent past,” the Carnival’s artistic director Marco Balich was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency on Wednesday.

Balich was apparently referring to past run-ins with the law experienced by Coolio who is best known for his hit record “Gangsta’s Paradise.” “We intentionally wanted to re-interpret the tradition in a jestful way in tune with the spirit of carnival” Balich said of the “flight of the angel” scheduled for Sunday, 27 January at noon.

1)Project ‘Romania … in all senses, all the senses are celebrated’ has planned a rich calendar of musical events with free entrance, which will take place in the Pavilion Italy and the Gardens of Biennale, at Theatre Goldoni, Theatre Junghans on Giudecca isle, Ferretto Square in Mestre and, of course, St. Mark’s Square.
Some examples? You will listen to the world jazz by Marius Mihalache, the Trump Savale typical of the Rom tradition, the instrumental pop by the Amadeus Women, the blues-rock from the Balkans by the Nightclosers and a lot more. Besides, at all parties in the Pavilion we will admire the musical performances of great dee-jays from the Balkans, such as DJ Goijria and Electric Brother.
2)At Cannaregio and precisely in Campo St. Geremia: West Indies Festival with all the power of the Caribbean rhythms.
3)At Dorsoduro, in Campo St. Margherita, ConTatto in Campo: like all the previous

22nd January – 5th February 2008
Acrobat 2008 proposes two shows to the public, which are addressed to spectators of any age and coming from any place of origin, thanks to their prerogative of going beyond barriers related to language and culture.

From 22nd to 31st January
Arlecchino/Don Giovanni
Show of art comedy managed by Pantakin, that has obtained a large approval by the public and the critics in the main Italian towns and in several foreign countries.

From 2nd to 5th February
Gemenii, two similar twins
National opening for such multi-linguistic show produced by the Teatrul Masca of Bucarest in cooperation with Pantakin, that arrives in Venice after the success obtained in homeland.
Besides, for those who want to approach more the theatre activities some specific workshops will be arranged: they will deal with Theatrical make up, from 26th to 27th January, Creation of leather masks, from 28th January to 3rd February and Clown performances  and Pantomime from 2nd to 3rd February.

Higher and higher and ready to run on the large international hubs when also the enlargement of this air terminal and the third runway will become real. SAVE, the company managing the Venetian Marco Polo Airport, on 27th December rewarded the seven millionth passenger in transit on the lagoon terminal in 2007: Jeanne Belhumeur, a French speaking Canadian woman from Montreal who has been living in Italy for five years and who was going leave and call at Paris in order, then, to fly to Canada. During the period January – November the traffic of passengers in Venice increased of 12% compared to the same period of the previous year, against a national average grow of 10,2% and a European one that in the period January – June was equal to 5,7%.
The whole year was characterized by the introduction of new connections and the increase in attendances for already

25th january  - 5th february
Own to the several demands, we are going to publish a brief Programme concerning the events of Carnival 2008, which will take place in Venice from 25th January to 5th February 2008. Unfortunately the definite Programme of the event, as the organizing Agency has told us, cannot be available before the 18th January. Any sestiere of Venice (that is the name of each sector of the lagoon town) is represented by a sense and the whole calendar of events concerns the stimulation of the five senses plus one: the mind.

1.Dorsoduro – Touch
‘Carnival in the dark’ – Dialogue in the dark for the Carnival of Venice 2008.
A special edition of Dialogue in the dark, dedicated to the sensory perception of touch and carnival elements. A feast – a Carnival itinerary completely in the dark, in collaboration with the Italian Institute of the Blind, based on an exhibition that is acquiring a record of visitors all over the world, where groups of people guided by blind persons follow a sensorial itinerary completely in the dark.
From 25th January to 5th February 2008.
Other applications of touch at St. Margherita
2. Santa Croce – Sense of smell
‘Meetings’ – Project Bagliori curated by Pietro Chiarenza.
The national debut of the show ‘Meetings’, revised in the stimulation of the sense of smell: the protagonists will be incenses and their perfumes in a show of 50 minutes made of dancing, fires and circus elements.
From 31st January to 5th February 2008 in Campo San Giacomo all’Orio.
3. Cannaregio –Taste
In collaboration with the restaurant owners of this area, a Carnival itinerary made of food, wine and various performances on gastronomic themes.
From 27th January, Fondamenta Cannaregio – Ponte delle Guglie, Campo SS. Apostoli.
4. Castello – Hearing
Project ‘Venice Gate of the East’.
The rhythms of the East arrive at the Pavilion Italia of the Biennale, with a high quality programme concerning more than 150 among musicians, deejays, actors, for more than 46 hours of performances. A mix of live music, popular

Magnificentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus
Venice. Ca’ Rezzonico – Museum of Venetian Eighteenth Century
4th January – 26th May 2008

After the exhibitions dedicated to Tiepolo, Longhi, Canaletto, Fontebasso and Carlevarijs, the remarkable engravings of one of the most important Venetian landscape painters, Michele Marieschi (1710-1743) are arriving from the rich estates of the Printing and Drawing Laboratory of Museum Correr. This exhibition, curated by Filippo Pedrocco, can be visited during the normal itinerary of the museum and presents its masterpiece in such field, that is a collection of the representations of the most famous places in the town engraved in copper and shown for the first time in 1741. Of them the complete series of 22 engravings in their first stage are displayed and collected in the album Cicogna which was given as a present to the Venetian Civic Museums in 1865 and which has been restored recently by the Restoration Laboratory of the book of the Abbey of Praglia.
Beside such series, some works in their second stage are exhibited; they are different from the others for the presence of the progressive number put at the bottom on the right by the printer Teodoro Viero, namely the owner of the branches? in the eighth decade of the Eighteenth Century. The presence at Ca’ Rezzonico of works of different artists related to Marieschi (from master Gaspare Dizioni to the fellows Fontebasso and Antonio Guardi, namely the author of the portrait of marshal Schulenburg who was the client of them both) let us make comparisons and deepening too.
This exhibition can be visited with the entrance ticket of the Museum.

More information about Carnival 

25th January – 5th February 2008
It will be a ‘Sensation’ one the Carnival 2008 which is going to be celebrated in Venice: to be heard, to be seen, to be touched an to be imagined. The format of the most popular show in Italy was presented on 21st December 2007, at Venice Casino, by Marco Balich, namely the artistic director of Venice Marketing & Events.
A new Venice Carnival, concerning the five senses plus one, that is, as Balich himself has explained, the mind as place of the soul: each sense will be located in a Venetian sestiere, placing the sixth sense in St.Mark. It is a Carnival, then, which keeps the events of its tradition (such as the flight of the Dove and the Feast of the Maries) but which will decisively break off with the past: it will be a repeating format that will aim at creating a lively and consolidated image of Venice Carnival, which can be sold abroad and used to the utmost both by the Venetians and tourists.
The concepts presented by Balich will keep into consideration the dry land and sees Mestre and Marghera as two locations able to catch the attention of a numerous public. In few days the detailed programme of the various events will be at your disposal.
Click here for other news about the Carnival, the flight of the Dove, masks, history, feasts, etc…