Past events

A conversation with the Venetian artist who gives voice to the soul of women: Manù Brunello
On the occasion of ATELIER APERTI 2025, the city-wide event organised by Venice Fashion Week, Bottega Cini renews its participation by proposing a special meeting coordinated by Marisa Convento, resident artisan impiraressa (glass-bead stringer).
The guest of honour is Manù Brunello, a Venetian painter of extraordinary sensitivity and poetic talent.
From 24 October (opening at 17:30) to Sunday 26 October 2025, at the Bottega Cini exhibition space, some of the artist’s works and jewellery are on display.
Manù Brunello’s creations tell the story of the female inner universe, exploring the value, not only aesthetic and artisanal, of ornaments and traditional garments. Beyond defining the character of those who wear them, these elements become bearers of local identity, aspirations, artistic aesthetics, culture, religion, a sense of belonging and the feelings tied to them.
During the conversation with Marisa Convento, the artist shares her own creative path: from her beginnings making glass-bead jewellery, to the discovery of her painterly vein and her training at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. An ideal journey between distant cultures which, through the language of art, explores the female spirit beyond geographical borders — a study of the intimate connection between garment, ornament, the poetics of objects, identity values and the female inner world.

Video
• ABITI IN VIAGGIO di Manù Brunello per “Atelier Aperti 2025” – Venice Fashion Week – Bottega Cini
  VeniceSkyline, 23 October 2025
  

An introduction to the art of Venetian glass-bead flowers, a journey between past, present and future, curated by Holly Parr with Marisa Convento for the CPVV Committee.
The Committee for the Safeguarding of the Art of Venetian Glass Beads (CPVV) and Holly Parr, an English artist expert in the ancient art of Venetian-style bead flowers, with the support of the Fondazione Archivio Vittorio Cini, offer a free hands-on workshop at Bottega Cini, booking required by email to cpvv.ve.pr@gmail.com.
During the workshops, led by Holly Parr with Marisa Convento for the CPVV Committee, participants are offered the chance to learn the basic techniques for creating glass-bead flowers, a very ancient art that spread from Venice throughout the world.

Holly Parr, a British artist of great talent and an excellent contemporary interpreter of this art, has been selected to exhibit on the occasion of The Venice Glass Week 2025 at L’HUB of Palazzo Loredan, and is competing for the prize for the best candidate at the exhibition; the workshops offered are linked to her exhibition.
Bottega Cini, which has many times already hosted important activities for the CPVV Committee, is currently hosting a multimedia exhibition dedicated to the life of the illustrious traveller Marco Polo and to the adventurous personality of Giacomo Casanova, a man of culture beyond the myth of the seducer.
The glass-bead flowers created are ideally a tribute to these two figures of the past who, like the decorative arts and historic crafts, cross the boundaries of time and space in the shared imagination to become a shared cultural heritage and an occasion for dialogue between different peoples. The Art of the Glass Bead, of which the creation of bead flowers is one of the practices, has been inscribed on the Unesco ICH Representative List of the intangible cultural heritage since 2020, thanks to the work of the CPVV Committee and of APAF, Association des Perliers d’Art de France, with the support of the local and national institutions of the respective nations of the proposing heritage communities: Italy and France.

For further information

• info@bottegacini.it

Submerged Alchemies from 18.00 to 23.00

Art as an alchemical language, works as the fruit of a creative process in which the elements of painting, sculpture and contemporary life are transformed into something sublimated.
Four women living in Venice: Resi Girardello, Elena Cenzon, Nadia Fabris and Giorgia Zuin, engage today with the key themes of current affairs, from politics to climate change, offering new food for thought through the language of art. Thanks to Giovanni Alliata di Montereale.

The Alchemists of Venice. A Journey into Hidden Wisdom from 19.15 to 23.15

Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, the first woman in the world to earn a university degree, Marietta Barovier, a fifteenth-century glass master, and Isabella Cortese, an alchemist and author of one of the most widely read books of the Renaissance, are the protagonists of an exhibition path that celebrates the creative, intellectual and transformative strength of female knowledge in historic Venice.
During Art Night, the public is invited to immerse themselves in three dedicated spaces: the Sala della Sapienza (Hall of Wisdom), the Sala della Materia (Hall of Matter) and the Sala dell’Essenza (Hall of Essence), in which words, images, glass and scents are interwoven to tell an unfamiliar Venice, seen through the eyes of its alchemists. A project curated by Bottega Cini, to rediscover the invisible and powerful roots of female knowledge.

Musical interludes
flute, Nives Acquaviva
violin, Mattia Pilotto
cello, Davide Da Dalto

Press release
• Le Alchimiste di Venezia (The Alchemists of Venice)
  

Video
• Art Night Venezia 2024 a Bottega Cini – Bottega Cini
  VeniceSkyline, 22 June 2024
  

For further information

• bottegacini@themerchantofvenice.it

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

• 
  The Venice Glass Week

For Art Night Venezia 2024, an evening offering a kaleidoscope of emotions. During the evening, the new perfume “Moscado” is presented in preview, inspired by one of the most prized raw materials, musk, already described and brought to Venice by Marco Polo.
Also on display are the famous silk fabrics of the Tessitura Bevilacqua, a historic Venetian manufactory known throughout the world.
Marisa Convento, resident artisan, presents a capsule collection inspired by Asia.
During the special opening, visitors can watch interactive craft demonstrations and performances, such as the workshop by Ljupka Deleva on the Sumi-e painting technique, widely used in the Far East. During her performance, the artist Ljupka Deleva combines ink with the olfactory notes of the new fragrance “Moscado” by The Merchant of Venice.
Visitors are immersed in the atmospheres of other times and distant, exotic lands thanks to the musical harmonies of Aldar Dashiev, who plays the traditional Mongolian flute and sings ancient songs from his homeland.
The Eastern music is in dialogue with the melodies of the lutenist Carlo Santi.
In addition, during the special opening it is possible to taste some varieties of rare tea.

Video
• Art Night Venezia 2024 a Bottega Cini – Bottega Cini
  VeniceSkyline, 22 June 2024
  

For further information

• bottegacini@themerchantofvenice.it

Presentation of the book Reza Aramesh. Action: By Number, published by Skira Arte, on Wednesday 5 June 2024 at 17:30 (accompanying the exhibition, which continues until 16 June) at the Bottega Cini premises, Dorsoduro 862, Venice.
In his politically and emotionally charged sculptures, photographs, installations and performances, the contemporary artist Reza Aramesh, born in Iran and based in London, addresses violence and oppression around the world and examines how the mass media portray conflicts and their ramifications.
During the presentation, Reza Aramesh talks with Bjorn Ster, an art dealer and collector from London, one of the contributors to the book

Working with a wide range of materials and techniques (sculpture, drawing, embroidery, ceramics, video and performance), in his works Reza Aramesh explores in parallel the history of Western art and contemporary events relating to Middle Eastern politics and history, creating a unique visual language that addresses the dramatic situations of violence of our time.
A deep knowledge of the history of art, cinema and literature is always present in his works, which range from photography to sculpture, from video to performance.
In response to the raw images of war reportage from newspapers, online articles and social media, the artist decontextualises scenes of violence and proposes a reflection on the human condition, focusing on the theme of power and brutality in a crucial confrontation with the history of European art.

Video
• Reza Aramesh. Action: by number – Bottega Cini
  VeniceSkyline, 5 June 2024
  

For further information

• Reza Aramesh

On Friday 24 May 2024 at 17.30, at the Bottega Cini premises, Dorsoduro 862 Venice, Maria Madeira, one of the most significant contemporary visual artists on the international scene, talks with Cristina Baldacci, Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice. During the meeting, the full video of the performance “Kiss and Don’t Tell” is screened, in which Maria Madeira pays tribute to the women of East Timor, victims of violence and abuse during the years of Indonesian occupation. The video remains available to the public in the Bottega Cini multimedia room until 31 May.
An event promoted and organised by the publishing house Skira in collaboration with Bottega Cini by The Merchant of Venice and the Fondazione Archivio Vittorio Cini.

Maria Madeira was born in the village of Gleno, in the Ermera region of East Timor. She was forced to leave Timor in 1976 during the Indonesian invasion. She spent most of the following eight years in a refugee camp run by the Red Cross on the outskirts of Lisbon, Portugal. She emigrated with her family to Australia in August 1983.
She graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts (Visual Arts) from Curtin University in 1991. Two years later she obtained a Graduate Diploma in Education (Major in Art) from the same university. In 1996 she earned a second degree, a B.A. in Political Science from Murdoch University. In 2019, she became a Doctor of Philosophy – Art at Curtin University in Australia.
Between 1996 and 2000, she worked in Western Australia as a high-school art teacher, visual artist and cultural consultant. Between 2000 and 2004, she returned to East Timor to fulfil her role in the recovery, reconstruction and development of her country and of Asia’s newest nation. She currently lives in Perth with her partner and son.
Maria works with a wide range of media, from painting to sculpture, drawing, mixed-media collage and installation. Her work has been exhibited in more than 30 international exhibitions in Australia, Portugal, Brazil, Macao, Indonesia and East Timor.
She firmly believes that art and culture are the spirit and soul of a nation and are a vehicle through which future generations can learn to appreciate the beauty and strength of their own culture and, in this way, discover their place in the world.

For further information

• Maria Madeira

On Saturday 20 April at 15.00 you are invited to the Bottega Cini premises in Venice for the booksigning of the volume “Lena Herzog”, published by Skira, and for the opening of the video installation “Last Whispers” by Lena Herzog, who will be present and available to sign copies of the volume.
The event is promoted and organised by the publishing house Skira in collaboration with The Merchant of Venice and the Fondazione Archivio Vittorio Cini.

Last Whispers: Immersive Oratorio for Vanishing Voices, Collapsing Universes and a Falling Tree by Lena Herzog, an American photographer and artist, is a project centred on the theme of the mass extinction of languages.
Every two weeks the world loses a language. At an unprecedented rate, greater than that of the extinction of some species, our linguistic diversity – perhaps the most important means of self-knowledge – is being eroded. Today, of the 7,000 surviving languages on Earth, only 30 are used by the majority of the population. It is estimated that at least half of the languages currently spoken will be extinct by the end of the century. Other sources predict even faster disappearance.
In an attempt to raise awareness of this problem, the UN General Assembly and UNESCO declared 2022-2032 the “International Decade of Indigenous Languages”.
Last Whispers is a spatialised sound composition that combines speech, songs, spells and ritual chants with sounds and images of nature and frequencies from outer space. The result is a choral work, at once deeply modern and traditional, dedicated to the theme of the extinction of languages on a global scale. This extinction is, by definition, silent, because silence itself is precisely the form it takes. Last Whispers gives voice to what has been silenced: while we drown in the noise of our own voices – the expression of the dominant cultural and linguistic systems – we are surrounded by a boundless ocean of silence.
The immersive landscape of Last Whispers is an invocation to extinct languages and a spell for those at risk.

For further information

• Lena Herzog

A journey into the total art of Alberto Casiraghy

To the unreachable myth of total art, pursued by the historic avant-gardes and beyond, perhaps no one has come closer than the magical little man of Osnago, in Brianza, Alberto Casiraghy. A typographer in the manner of Gutenberg, a poet and author of striking aphorisms that are never forgotten, a graphic artist and artist who has seen everything of the twentieth century and reworks it in an autonomous and original way in a surrealist-Dadaist key, as an heir to Bruno Munari, an unrivalled publisher of twelve thousand Pulcinoelefante editions printed in very few copies. Not to mention the art of his own life, lived as a free and disinterested man. On the occasion of the 2024 Biennale, it is worth getting to know and reckoning with a giant of Italian art and beyond.
(Andrea Tomasetig)

Video
• Incontro con l’autore: Alberto Casiraghy (Meeting the author: Alberto Casiraghy) – Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia
  VeniceSkyline, 4 June 2024
  

For further information

• Press release

Bottega Cini by The Merchant of Venice celebrates the 2024 Venice Carnival by following in the footsteps of Marco Polo and his magnificent voyages. Venice has always been the gateway to the East, a precious treasure chest of the rarest cultures and traditions.
Amid coloured glass, antique-style porcelain, rich perfumes drawn from oriental essences, hand-worked silks and other art objects, the Bottega Cini team, together with its resident artisan, welcomes you in colourful costumes. From 8 to 13 February, at certain times of the day, carnival make-up created by a make-up artist is made available to customers.
For further information, follow Bottega Cini’s social media channels on

Instagram or Facebook.

e-mail: bottegacini@themerchantofvenice.it

Venice Glass Week
9 to 17 September (10.00 – 13.00 / 14.00 – 19.00)

Three temporary exhibitions dedicated to glass:
– Perfumum in Vitro by The Merchant of Venice
– Celebrazione di un secolo di vetro (Celebrating a Century of Glass) – NasonMoretti
– A B C – A bead change organised by Marisa Convento with Alessia Fuga

A b c – a bead change

Event organised by Marisa Convento in collaboration with Alessia Fuga

Marisa Convento, impiraressa, and Alessia Fuga, perlera (bead-maker), present a capsule collection in which the art of glass beads becomes a promoter of reflections tied to the main issues facing contemporary society. In an ongoing dialogue between matter and person, glass beads, with their many different techniques of creation and use, are a mirror and amplifier of the lived experience of those who create them, use them and wear them.
The reality in which we live can be improved, and we can do it bead by bead.

A b c – a bead change

Celebrazione di un secolo di vetro – NasonMoretti (Celebrating a Century of Glass – NasonMoretti)

Event organised by Bottega Cini in collaboration with NasonMoretti

On the occasion of the hundredth year of activity of the acclaimed Nason Moretti art glassworks, Bottega Cini exhibits a selection of its most iconic designs. The works on display are accompanied by descriptive notes on their origins and on the many collaborations with artists and designers that led NasonMoretti, as early as 1955, to win the prestigious Compasso D’Oro award. The occasion will also be a fitting one to highlight some objects that represent the moment of transition between the historic Murano production and the use of ancient techniques in the creation of contemporary design objects.

Celebrating a Glass Century – NasonMoretti

“Corte Polacca” (Polish Court)
Venetian presentation of the novel by Sebastiano Giorgi

Do you feel like a dazed, dystopian, nostalgic-futurist and slightly cat-loving read, set between Venice and Warsaw?
On Thursday 27 July at 18:00, the author, Sebastiano Giorgi, talks with Marco Vidal and Alessandro Bressanello at Bottega Cini.
“Corte Polacca is an ironic, dreamlike, at times moving adventure, set between a disillusioned, stagnant Venice and a frenetic Warsaw in constant transformation and growth. Two seemingly opposite realities form the backdrop against which Checco moves, the acrobatic protagonist of these pages, who, through his stories, takes us by the hand to help us discover them, with the enchanted gaze of someone capable of connecting them beyond temporal and physical limits. Checco is a comic-book artist, in his own way a caricature-like character, steeped in irrepressible tics and idiosyncrasies, melancholies and futuristic fantasies, endowed with a lightning-quick sense of humour, inflamed by frequent irritations, who, between games of Risk and an all-consuming love for his cats, survives the pressing daily life of Warsaw, the expectations of a family world he does not feel he belongs to, as well as the poignant nostalgia for a living, inhabited Venice of which today only a bitter memory remains. An existence shaken by a dystopian, comic adventure at the Polish court of King Poniatowski, in an idealised past populated by many Italian characters, including the Venetians Casanova and Bellotto“.
This is how the story is presented by the Kraków-based publishing house Austeria, which a year ago opened a new office in Italy, in Ortigia, Syracuse, on Via Giudecca.
The novel Corte Polacca, with its beautiful cover by Guido Fuga, can be found at Bottega Cini, at the La Toletta bookshop and on the website of the Austeria publishing house.

La Rosa, Rosae, Rosam…
an event for Art Night Venezia

On the occasion of Art Night Venezia 2023, organised by Università Ca’ Foscari with the support of the City of Venice and under the patronage of the Veneto Region, Bottega Cini offers a special opening:
“LA ROSA, ROSAE, ROSAM…”
The event draws its inspiration from the ancient damask rose, exploring its history and its uses in perfumery, cosmetics and cooking.
The essence of damask rose created by The Merchant of Venice accompanies the musical notes played on the harpsichord by the pianist specialising in early keyboard instruments Zoya Tukhmanova Karapetyan, who performs a number of compositions from the eleventh to the fifteenth century dedicated to the rose.
The artisan Michela Bortolozzi holds a demonstration workshop on the creation of her iconic sculptural candles shaped like the architecture of the Gothic rose window.
In a surprise moment during the evening, visitors present are offered a tasting of the rare “Vartanush” jam, made for centuries following a secret recipe by the Armenian monks of the Island of San Lazzaro in Venice.
The resident artisan Marisa Convento gives a demonstration of her craft as an impiraressa, creating roses live using the ancient techniques of the art of glass beads.
The special opening runs from 19:00 to 23:00.

Submerged Venice in glass
an event for The Italian Glass Weeks

Video
• Submerged Venice in Glass – Resi Girardello, at Bottega Cini Gallery
  VeniceSkyline, 23 September 2022
  

For information

• resigirardello.com ,

Regione del Veneto / Veneto Film Commission space, Hotel Excelsior, Venice Lido. Screening of short films and presentation of the Sensory Archive of the Lagoon

Sensory Archive of the Lagoon: video, ASMR, performance

From the Archive of the Intangible Heritage of the Lagoon: presentation and national-premiere screening of a number of short films made as part of the #FEELINGVENICE project. Memories, reflections, emotions and voices paying tribute to a love for the Lagoon through research on the territory, for the creation of a sensory and interactive archive exploring the relationship and traces that the lagoon environment leaves on those who live in Venice.

Video
• #Feelingvenice, presentation (full version)
  79th Venice Film Festival
  
• 1 #FEELINGVENICE
  INDEPENDENT SHORT FILM – Arte-Mide Production 2022
  Direction and texts Francesca Seravalle; performer Chiarastella Seravalle.
• 2 CAIGO
  INDEPENDENT SHORT FILM – Arte-Mide Production 2022
  Direction Francesca Seravalle; performer Erika Urban; text by a French tourist.
• 3 XE L’ALBA
  INDEPENDENT SHORT FILM – Arte-Mide Production 2022
  Direction Francesca Seravalle; performer Chiarastella Seravalle; text by a Venetian.
• 4 IMBARCADERO
  INDEPENDENT SHORT FILM, ASMR AND PERFORMANCE – Arte-Mide Production 2022
  Direction and texts Francesca Seravalle; performance Chiarastella Seravalle.
• 5 LE VOCI DELLA LAGUNA
  INDEPENDENT SHORT FILM – Arte-Mide Production 2022
  Direction Francesca Seravalle | Venetian Voices

For information

• info@arte-mide.com | www.arte-mide.com | Instagram @artemidevenezia
• Archivio Vittorio Cini
• Press release

SUBMERGED VENICE
an event for the opening of the 59th Venice Biennale

open by appointment

The exhibition stems from a reflection on an article published in March 2022 in Le Scienze, entitled Venezia Affonda (“Venice Is Sinking”) (M. Anzidei, A. Vecchio and F. Florindo). The authors developed a model to estimate the average sea-level rise in Venice, using data and forecasts published by the IPCC. They argue that within 78 years the effect of rising seas will have a major impact on the environment and cultural heritage of coastal cities. The research results show that, in the absence of action on greenhouse gas emissions, the level of the lagoon could rise by 82 cm by 2100. The artist REsi Girardello felt it was urgent to create works that could raise awareness, provoke thought and perhaps promote studies and reflections on the subject. Visitors to the SUBMERGED VENICE installation are astonished and highly intrigued when they enter the small space and are immersed in the scenario.

Contributors to the exhibition: Elena Cenzon and Giorgia Zuin, Audio by Giovanni di Capua, Video by Liviana Vanzetto
Glass works created in collaboration with El Cocal Glass Studio
The exhibition is produced by Bottega Cini with the support of the company Angelella

Contact: resivenezia@gmail.com, +39 388 8917619

For information

• resigirardello.com ,
• Venezia Sommersa
• Submerged Venice

An interactive, sensory space for the Venetians.
Lives, emotions and the imagined future of the Lagoon

Calendar of events
• 30 April, 11/18 #FEELINGVENICE ALGAE AND SALT
• 13 May, 18.00 LAGOON – SOURCE OF INSPIRATION
• 20 May, 18.00 SUN – WELLBEING AND POETRY

Video
• #xealba (9 April) | Performer Chiara Seravalle | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #caigo1 (11 April) | Performer Erika Urban | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #sanpieroinvolta (13 April) | Performer Erika Urban | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #caigo2 (15 April) | Performer Chiara Seravalle | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #pescafaja (19 April) | Performer Erika Urban | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #caigo3 (20 April) | Performer Chiara Seravalle | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #feragosto1943 (22 April) | Performer Chiara Seravalle | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide

#FEELINGVENICE
Interreg Ita-Slo DIVA @diva.borderless
Arte-Mide @artemidevenezia
The Merchant of Venice
Fondazione Archivio Vittorio Cini
Bottega Cini

For information

• Arte-Mide
• Archivio Vittorio Cini

On the occasion of the 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Bottega Cini presents the exhibition Paradise cannot wait, curated by Laura Villani, with works by the artists Dialo, Gianmaria Potenza, St. Emmo, Tariro Washe and Zimbabwelive. At the presentation, held on Thursday 21 April at 18.00, the guests of honour, by invitation, are:

• THOKOZILE CHITEPO Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts & Recreation of Zimbabwe
• MARY BIBUSISIWE MUBI Zimbabwe Ambassador in Italy
• RAFFAEL CHIKUKWA Executive Director National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe – Biennale Pavilion Commissioner
• EMMERSON JR. TANAKA MNANGAGWA Music Producer, son of the President of Zimbabwe
• TARIRO WASHE Film Producer, daughter of the President of Zimbabwe
• MASSIMO AMADEO Deputy Head of the Mission Embassy of Italy in Zimbabwe
• GIOVANNI ALLIATA DI MONTEREALE Vittorio Cini Archive Foundation

The exhibition, curated by Laura Villani in collaboration with H.E. Ambassador Carlo Perrotta together with Massimo Amadeo, Deputy Head of Mission of the Italian Embassy in Zimbabwe, and with Giovanni Alliata di Montereale of the Fondazione Archivio Vittorio Cini, offers an artistic portrait of the wonderful natural paradise that Zimbabwe represents, one of the last edens of the planet. Linking the artistic worlds on display is the wish that the lush natural beauty of Zimbabwe may be handed down to future generations, with an emphasis on the rhinoceros, an extraordinary creature so distinctive as to represent a living relic of prehistory and, at the same time, at risk of extinction, an emblem of a planet in great difficulty. Set up in the Bottega Cini Gallery spaces in an emblematic location, opposite the Galleria di Palazzo Cini and at the centre of the Venice Museum Mile, the exhibition presented, through Zimbabwe Live’s interpretation of the rhinoceros theme, the contemporary transposition of a thousand-year-old tradition in the field of sculpture, using semi-precious stones and symbolic meanings handed down over the centuries. These are artists whose ancestors are the Shona, who built great stone cities in southern Africa more than a thousand years ago. A legacy that has made Zimbabwe, with the artists of Tangenenge, one of the finest expressions of contemporary African art present in major international museums. For the curator, this exhibition represents the second occasion to focus on the extraordinary output of the Tangenenge artists, following the one held years ago under the patronage of the Presidency of the Italian Republic and the Council of Europe, at San Giorgio in Poggiale in Bologna. Enriching the project are musical and cinematic contributions presented in the highly evocative immersive multimedia room, by the producer and composer St. Emmo, Emmerson Jr. Tanaka Mnangagwa, with contemporary rhythms drawing on natural and traditional African sounds, and by the producer and actress Tariro Washe, who won, with Gonarezhou, the 2020 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, an awareness film against poaching in support of the protection and monitoring work of the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. The exhibition also featured figures such as Dialo, selected to represent Zimbabwe at the Dubai Expo, the author of works conceived as a shamanic cure for the viewer, intended to show how every human gesture, even a seemingly insignificant one, always has an impact on a cosmic level. The artistic dialogue on the theme of the rhinoceros also involves a Venetian artist, Gianmaria Potenza, the author of a personal bestiary of simplified forms with surfaces shaped by a primordial alphabet, creating an unexpected Venetian counterpoint in dialogue with a universal symbolism.

Press

• L’arte per difendere l’ambiente (Art to defend the environment) Il Gazzettino, 22 August 2022

For information

• Paradise cannot wait – video
• Paradise cannot wait
• info@bottegacini.it

A project raising awareness of the Venice lagoon, conceived by the Venetian association Arte-Mide in collaboration with The Merchant of Venice, thanks to the support of the Interreg Italy-Slovenia DIVA Project. Arte-Mide is building a digital archive of the Intangible Heritage of the Lagoon at the Archivio Vittorio Cini (audio, video and images), made up of the emotions and personal memories of all Venetian generations tied to a Venice lived upon the water, through a series of postcards, available at Bottega Cini.
If you would like to take part, contact: info@arte-mide.com | www.arte-mide.com

#FEELINGVENICE
Interreg Ita-Slo DIVA @diva.borderless
Arte-Mide @artemidevenezia
The Merchant of Venice
Fondazione Archivio Vittorio Cini
Bottega Cini

Video

• #Feelingvenice (7 April)
• #xealba (9 April) | Performer Chiara Seravalle | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #caigo1 (11 April) | Performer Erika Urban | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #sanpieroinvolta (13 April) | Performer Erika Urban | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #caigo2 (15 April) | Performer Chiara Seravalle | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #pescafaja (19 April) | Performer Erika Urban | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #caigo3 (20 April) | Performer Chiara Seravalle | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide
• #feragosto1943 (22 April) | Performer Chiara Seravalle | Direction Francesca Seravalle / Arte-Mide

For information

• Arte-Mide
• Archivio Vittorio Cini

The AIL Easter Eggs event is also held at Bottega Cini.

The AIL Easter Eggs return to colour the dreams of haematology patients with hope, and this year they are even more recognisable, thanks to new packaging that embodies the same enduring commitment: giving a future to patients’ dreams. By choosing to support us with a minimum donation of 12 euros, you can support scientific research and assistance for patients and their families throughout Italy.

Thanks to you and to AIL, patients, and everyone else, will never be alone in their battle.

Find out how to help AIL — today, more than ever, we need you!

For information

• AIL Venezia

The internationally renowned artist Safet Zec presents a selection of works at the Bottega Cini premises in Venice.
Following international acclaim at exhibitions in Lille, Paris, Sarajevo, Rome, Turin and Venice, the great master is a special guest at Bottega Cini.
The opening took place on Friday 10 September at 17.00, in the presence of the artist.
Safet Zec a Bottega Cini (Safet Zec at Bottega Cini) comprises a selection of around twenty pictorial works representative of his poetics and of his bond with Venice, ranging from tempera on paper to oil on mounted board, painted from the 2000s onward. The exhibition is accompanied by video screenings presenting glimpses of the master’s life and recounting, through images and interviews, his themes and his art.

Press

• Safet Zec espone a Bottega Cini. Un legame ehe varca l’Adriatico (Safet Zec exhibits at Bottega Cini. A bond that crosses the Adriatic) Nuova Venezia 10 September 2021, p.40

Carta abitata (Inhabited Paper) narrates the creative act of cellulose, the history of Venetian paper production, new arrangements and configurations in the works of Fernando Masone. It is the result of an encounter that developed in the lands of the Serenissima during an artist’s residency where paper, word, image, body and sound breathed in the history of eastern Venetia, through the Tagliamento river, one with the Venice of the lagoon.

– Screening of the short film and documentary Carta Abitata. Una cartiera, una villa, un territorio da vivere (Inhabited Paper. A paper mill, a villa, a territory to live in).
– Temporary exhibition of the works of Fernando Masone, curated by Silvia Pichi.
The volumes of handmade cotton paper and the chromatic poetics of the artist’s works accompany participants along an active and engaging path.

Opening Sunday 7 November, 17.00

Film

• Exhibition Carta abitata – Bottega Cini | Veniceskyline, 18 November 2021

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• Monday 13 September: Carlo e Giorgio
• Monday 20 September: Marta de Vivo
• Monday 27 September: Marco Capovilla
• Monday 4 October: Nicolò Falcone
• Monday 11 October: Paolo Poggi

All the meetings will last forty-five minutes

Bottega Cini, the artisan impiraressa Marisa Convento and the Comitato per la Salvaguardia dell’Arte delle Perle di Vetro Veneziane (Committee for the Safeguarding of the Art of Venetian Glass Beads) organised the “Hunt for the Pearls of Art”.
Through a themed treasure hunt taking place along the Dorsoduro Museum Mile, the mile of Venetian Art and Culture, adults and children will be led to discover unusual and evocative places.
From Punta della Dogana, passing through Bottega Cini, and finishing at the Gallerie dell’Accademia and the Sestiere di Dorsoduro, which even today remains a space rich in museums, galleries and craft workshops, preserving the memory of poets, writers and artists who lived and conceived their works in these places.
Departure from Punta della Dogana at 15:00. Conclusion at 18:00.

Booking required

• cpvv.venezia.vp@gmail.com | +39 370 3622439

The internationally renowned artist Safet Zec presents a selection of works at the Bottega Cini premises in Venice from 3 September to 31 October.
Following international acclaim at exhibitions in Lille, Paris, Sarajevo, Rome, Turin and Venice, the great master is a special guest at Bottega Cini.
The opening is on Friday 10 September at 17.00, in the presence of the artist.
Safet Zec a Bottega Cini (Safet Zec at Bottega Cini) comprises a selection of around twenty pictorial works representative of his poetics and of his bond with Venice, ranging from tempera on paper to oil on mounted board, painted from the 2000s onward. The exhibition is accompanied by video screenings presenting glimpses of the master’s life and recounting, through images and interviews, his themes and his art.

Press

• Safet Zec espone a Bottega Cini. Un legame ehe varca l’Adriatico (Safet Zec exhibits at Bottega Cini. A bond that crosses the Adriatic) Nuova Venezia 10 September 2021, p.40

Event

• SAFET ZEC a Bottega Cini

The opening is on Tuesday 7 September at 17.30, with the artist personally presenting her own creations.

Assia Karaguiozova, designer and artist, works mainly on the versatility of materials, combined with chromatic interpretations of the subjects she portrays.
Her creations are the fruit of innovation and tradition and, thanks to the skill of the Nason Moretti glass masters, represent a perfect balance between art and design.

Event

• The Venice Glass Week – Assia Karaguiozova per Nason Moretti

The purpose of the meeting is to launch a reflection on the model of enterprise linked to the city of Venice, an activity that can be sustainable and profitable in relation to what the post-Covid economy of Venice might look like, but also ethical in relation to the needs of a delicate territory, and therefore able to have positive effects on the existing social, cultural and economic fabric.
Let us think of an enterprise of the “future” able to bring added value, jobs, economic activity and new ideas from Venice for Venice, certainly benefiting from the city’s unique charm, while being able to integrate and give back this advantage.
The starting point is the anniversary of Venice’s 1600 years and an analysis of what the city offers today, both within its own fabric and in its ability to project itself outward, with a focus on what our company, our partners and Bottega Cini are developing at present. We have innovative direction by Veneta Video, which makes the webinar highly dynamic and engaging, with the participation of outside contributors, and in particular Toscolano, the paper mill presenting the excellence stationery project developed for The Merchant of Venice, Porcellane Geminiano Cozzi 1765, presenting the 1600 collection, and Marisa Convento, impiraressa and resident artisan of Bottega Cini.

Film

• Venezia1600: Come sviluppare un’impresa etica e culturale compatibile con Venezia

Event

• Venezia1600: Come sviluppare un’impresa etica e culturale compatibile con Venezia

This year, the AIL Christmas Stars event is also held at Bottega Cini.

Despite the limitations due to the ongoing pandemic, AIL Venezia and the other local AIL branches have organised themselves so that homes will not go without this symbol of solidarity, which has helped over the years to fund scientific research and assistance for haematology patients.

Thanks to you and to AIL, patients, and everyone else, will never be alone in their battle.

Find out how to help AIL — today, more than ever, we need you!

For information

• AIL Venezia

On Saturday 19 December at 16.30, live on Facebook, the writer and journalist Alessandro Marzo Magno, in the run-up to Christmas, invites us to read and presents some of his titles available at Bottega Cini.

Alessandro Marzo Magno (Venice, September 1962) is an Italian journalist and writer. After graduating in Venetian history from the Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice, he began working as an editor for the weekly Diario, as head of the foreign desk. As a journalist he experienced the war in the Balkans and came to understand that “nationalism is the worst plague to have afflicted Europe from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present day”.

He subsequently worked with Linkiesta, with Focus Storia and with the “Food” section of Il Sole 24 ORE. He currently contributes to the cultural pages of Il Gazzettino and is the director of the biannual Ligabue Magazine.

The author of 16 books, he has also edited other volumes of essays. He began writing as a historical essayist, drawing on his long experience as a war correspondent during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, for “Il Giornale” and later “La Voce”, under the direction of Indro Montanelli. His book “L’alba dei libri. Quando Venezia ha fatto leggere il mondo” (“The Dawn of Books. When Venice Made the World Read”) has been translated into English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Spanish; the following one, “L’invenzione dei soldi. Quando la finanza parlava italiano” (“The Invention of Money. When Finance Spoke Italian”), into Korean and Turkish.

In 2014 and 2015 he taught at the Università Statale di Milano, running a biannual workshop on the history of food. He took part in the television programme Unomattina Estate, where he hosted the “Grand Tour” segment. He also took part in Unomattina, with a segment alongside Antonia Varini, and in Geo & Geo, where he contributed on the theme of the history of food.

In 2015 he reached the final of the Premio Bancarella della Cucina with the book “Il genio del gusto. Come il mangiare italiano ha conquistato il mondo” (“The Genius of Taste. How Italian Food Conquered the World”), published by Garzanti, finishing in second place. In 2019 he won the “La cucina della memoria” (“The Cuisine of Memory”) section of the “Iolanda” prize with the book “Il ricettario di casa Svevo” (“The Svevo Family Recipe Book”), published by La nave di Teseo, with an introduction by Susanna Tamaro.

Film

• Filmato dalla diretta da Bottega Cini (Video from the live stream from Bottega Cini)

A journey to discover a subject as topical and interesting as pandemics, which has run through the history of Venice over the centuries, shaping the Serenissima’s policies on prevention and the management of migratory flows.
Venice was the first city to equip itself with a structured public health system to confront the Black Death, as the plague was called, which caused many of the great epidemics that occurred throughout its history, claiming numerous victims. The documentary Dalla Peste alla Salute. Storia delle pandemie a Venezia (From Plague to Salute. The History of Pandemics in Venice) recounts the path followed by the Serenissima in the prevention and treatment of epidemic diseases, focusing in particular on the intuition behind effective measures still adopted by modern medicine today.
An original in-depth look at the theme of the plague as faced by the Serenissima and at the importance of the centuries-old experience of Venice and the University of Padua in approaching epidemics, with reference also to the sacred places that remain as evidence of this and to customs and traditions still strongly felt today.
Written and presented by Alberto Toso Fei, directed by the Venetian filmmaker Tommaso Giusto and conceived by Marco Vidal, managing director of The Merchant of Venice, the documentary features the participation of Professor Nelli Vanzan Marchini, the leading historical authority on the subject of Venetian public health, and of Professor Emeritus Giorgio Palù, a virologist of international standing.
A Veneta Video production
In collaboration with The Merchant of Venice | Fondazione Archivio Vittorio Cini | Scuola Grande di San Rocco <!–

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Go to the Bottega Cini Facebook page and set a reminder for the premiere so you are notified of the screening, available from 14:00 on 20 November.

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Film

• Dalla peste alla Salute

Press coverage

• Venezia, dalla peste alla Salute (Venice, from plague to Salute) Il Gazzettino 20/11/2020
• Dalla peste alla Salute. La storia delle pandemie (From plague to Salute. The history of pandemics) La Nuova Venezia 20/11/2020
• «Dalla peste alla Salute» Le pandemie a Venezia («From plague to Salute» The pandemics in Venice) Corriere 20/11/2020
• CRV – Ciambetti “Video promosso da The Merchant of Venice e dalla Fondazione Archivio Cini” (CRV – Ciambetti “Video promoted by The Merchant of Venice and the Fondazione Archivio Cini”) Ansa.it | Veneto 19/11/2020
• «Dalla Peste alla Salute»: il documentario che racconta come Venezia è sopravvissute alle epidemie («From Plague to Salute»: the documentary telling how Venice survived the epidemics) Vanity Fair 19/11/2020

On the occasion of the 19th Settimana della Cultura d’Impresa (Corporate Culture Week), we present the webinar “Bottega Cini, un progetto di cultura d’impresa a Venezia” (Bottega Cini, a project of corporate culture in Venice), organised by Confindustria Venezia, in collaboration with Bottega Cini.

PROGRAMME
– The Merchant of Venice, the artistic perfumery project inspired by the ancient sea routes of the Serenissima – curated by Marco Vidal;
– La Fondazione Archivio Vittorio Cini, its documentary heritage and art collection – curated by Giovanni Alliata di Montereale, grandson of Vittorio Cini;
– La Bottega Cini, a Renaissance workshop reinterpreted for the present day, bringing together local excellence, businesses and artisans in a cultural project;
– Preview of the documentary Dalla peste alla salute, storia delle pandemie a Venezia” (From Plague to Salute, the history of pandemics in Venice).
The webinar lasts approximately one hour.

Event link Film
Thanks to Confindustria Venezia, which made the video of the meeting available

During the month of September and on the occasion of the Bottega Cini Open Day, it is possible to view, in the immersive atmosphere of the screening space, the short film by Andrea Morucchio Venezia Anno Zero (Venice Year Zero) and to learn more about the stages of the work’s creation.
Winner of the “Venezia una città” (“Venice, a City”) section of the 17th edition of the Francesco Pasinetti Video Competition, the short film was presented during the Venice Film Festival by the Veneto Region.
The production of the short film involved the collaboration of Interno3 – Manuel Frara for editing and optimisation, and original music by the contemporary composer Claudio Rocchetti.

#venice2020 | #venezia2020 | #shortfilm | #venicefilmfestival2020 | #andreamorucchio

Press coverage

• Venezia Anno Zero di Andrea Morucchio (Venezia Anno Zero by Andrea Morucchio), report by Luca Colombo – TGR Veneto 5 November 2020
• VAZ – VENEZIA ANNO ZERO – shortmovie, YouTube
• VAZ – Venezia Anno Zero, arte.it, 29 September 2020
• Venezia Anno Zero, Andrea Morucchio, Segnonline, September 2020
• Andrea Morucchio: Venezia Anno Zero, My Art Guides, September 2020
• PERFORMANCE:Andrea Morucchio-Venezia Anno Zero, dreamideamachine, 17 April 2020