An event organised by Bottega Cini in collaboration with the Comitato per la Salvaguardia dell’Arte delle Perle di Vetro Veneziane (Committee for the Safeguarding of the Art of Venetian Glass Beads), the exhibition Back from Africa aims to highlight the religious, aesthetic, ritual and social use of Venetian glass beads in Africa.
Through a series of objects, video and photographic installations, a path is created among various tribal realities, rituals still practised and contemporary uses of Venetian glass beads.
Glass beads, worked in such great quantities in the island territory and also in some areas of the mainland, travelled and reached the most remote regions of the African continent, becoming an extremely important part of the intangible cultural heritage of many native communities and influencing art and social life from the past to the present day.
Curators of the exhibition, which opens on Sunday 15 from 17.30 : Augusto Panini and Giorgio Teruzzi; artistic director: Tonia Marek.

as part of the exhibition, various moments of in-depth discussion and dialogue are planned:
• Wednesday 18 and Friday 20 September from 17 to 19 “Bead Talks”, meetings with practitioners of the art Bead Talks
• Thursday 19 from 17.30 to 19 “Caffè Letterario” (Literary Café), a meeting with authors of texts dedicated to the art of glass beads Caffe’ Letterario “Back from Africa”
• Friday 20 from 10.30 to 12.30, bead-stringing workshop Beading Workshop – “Back from Africa”
• Saturday 21 September, from 17.30 to 19:00, a community gathering moment, a parade of glass-bead creations Beads Everywhere

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  The Venice Glass Week