After saying goodbye to a challenging year in the history of the city due to the high water of November 12th, we look forward to this new year and all the beautiful things that will happen in Venice in 2020.
Burano
January is a relatively quiet month in the city, so you can dedicate yourself to seeing all the exhibitions you are missing. I also recommend you to visit the Centro Candiani in Mestre to see the show dedicated to Fishing in the lagoon. If you can take advantage of some guided tour that will help you better understand the exhibition itself.
February is the month of Carnival: it starts on February 8, 2020, with the “Festa sull’Acqua” and ends on February 25, 2020. The official site to follow the whole program is Venice Carnival. One of the most anticipated events is the famous Ballo del Doge on February 22, 2020, which this year changes location and moves to the Scuola Grande della Misericordia. It will be interesting to see this change of place and the extraordinary creativity of Antonia Sautter.
“Migrating Objects Arte from Africa, Oceania and Americas” exhibition also open in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (February 15 – June 14, 2020). Migrating Objects focuses on a lesser-known but significant episode of its migrations, when in the 1950s and 1960s, it began to look at the art of Africa, Oceania, and the indigenous cultures of the Americas, of which it acquires specimens. The exhibition presents these objects in groups that favor the original contexts or in dialogue with the European works in the collection.
In March we are approaching spring, and activities to do are increasing. The spring edition of Venice Fashion Week, dedicated to Venetian creativity and beyond, returns from March 18 to 21 2020.
On March 23, 2020, at Stanze del Vetro “Venice and American Studio Glass“ inaugurates: 155 exceptional pieces including vases, sculptures, and glass installations created by 60 artists Americans and Venetians. This exhibition will be the first to carefully examine the influence that the aesthetics and traditional techniques of Venetian glass processing have had on the American Glass Studio from the sixties to today.
On the same day, March 21, 2020, the new exhibitions of the Pinault Foundation also open: “Henri Cartier-Bresson: Le Grand Jeu” and “Once Upon a Dream” with photos by the Egyptian photographer Youssef Nabil. At Punta della Dogana on the same day, “Untitled, 2020” will be open conceived and curated by Caroline Bourgeois, Muna El Fituri, and the artist Thomas Houseago.
And here we are in April, and from 1st to April 4 the Incroci di Civiltà Festival returns when Italian and foreign authors arrive in Venice and talk about literature and human rights.
Vicino San Basilio
The Opera exhibition opens on April 9, 2020, in the Doge’s Palace. The protagonists of the melodrama (April 9 -August 30, 2020). It will be a tribute to Venice as the birthplace of melodrama and to Italy as the place of choice for the most prestigious names in the history of opera. In collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
The Piranesi Roma Basilico exhibition opens on April 24 at the Palazzo Cini Gallery (April 24 – November 23 2020). The exhibition includes the display of about seventy Piranesian views, all kept in the graphic collections of the Foundation, alongside the particular photographs that Gabriele Basilico took in 2010 on the occasion of the exhibition at the Cini Foundation on Piranesi, retracing almost all the Piranesian places with the camera.
May is the month of the opening of the Architecture Biennale with the pre-openings of 21 and 22 May and the actual opening of May 23 to November 29 and curated by Hashim Sarkis. We will see in the press conference which usually takes place in March what the exciting advances will be.
Connected to the Biennale, there will be many other events in the city that will open in those days, so you have to follow the daily updates.
June opens with the Venice Boat Show from 3 to June 7, 2020, at the Arsenale of Venice, a symbol of the power and military power of the Serenissima Republic and the heart of its maritime industry. An incomparable historical context in the center of Venice, consisting of a 50,000 square meter water basin, over 1,500 linear meters of piers for over 250 boats in the water. It will also be a further opportunity to see these incredible spaces.
The Biennale Danza also takes place from June 5 to June 24, 2020, with performances by choreographers and companies from all over the world for the 14th International Contemporary Dance Festival directed by Marie Chouinard.
On June 27, the Guggenheim Collection returns for Lygia Clark. Painting as experimentation, 1948-1958
(June 27 – September 28, 2020) a leading figure in the Brazilian avant-garde. Her radical artistic production spans over three decades and includes paintings, sculptures, works on paper, films, actions, and therapeutic art.
At the end of the month, the Biennale Teatro will also arrive from June 29 to July 13, 2020, which will take place between theaters and fields under the direction of Antonio Latella.
July is the month of the sea and the Redeemer, which this year will be celebrated on 18 and 19 July 2020 with the great fires on Saturday night. Last year I enjoyed it from a particular place, and I must say that it is a show that is worth seeing, better if on a boat.
Redentore a Venezia
In August, events usually take a break to come back with a bang for the Venice Film Festival, which this year takes place from 2 to September 12, 2020. We will see in the coming months the films proposed and who will be the president of the jury.
On September 6, the Historical Regatta will take place with the famous procession and the race along the Grand Canal. If you decide to see it, buy tickets in advance for seats on the floating grandstand or choose a hotel with a terrace.
Venice Glass Week is also back in September, now in its fourth edition. It will take place from 5 to September 13, 2020, and as usual, it will be full of events.
After a year off, he returns to the Cini Foundation Homo Faber: Crafting a more human future. Living Treasures of Europe and Japan from September 10 to October 11, celebrating excellent craftsmanship and extending this time over a whole month.
Here we are in October, a month that has been particularly pleasant in Venice in recent years. The Biennale Musica directed by Ivan Fedele, will take place from 2 October to 10 October.
The large autumn exhibition at Palazzo Ducale will be dedicated to Vittore Carpaccio from October 10, 2020 to January 24, 2021. The exhibition is being organized in co-production with The National Gallery of Washington. It will trace the development of Carpacciesque painting in both thematic and chronological terms from an updated perspective, through religious cycles and genre paintings and a solid nucleus of drawings, revealing his fruitful imagination, the punctiliousness of his technique and his interest in nature, perspective and the effects of light.
As usual, there will be the autumn edition of Venice Fashion Week from 17 to 26 October 2020 with the typical rich program of events. When the program is announced, check carefully the events for which access must be reserved.
From 17 October 2020 to 11 January 2021 at the Guggenheim Foundation, it will be the turn of the exhibition on Edmondo Bacci, one of the few Italian artists capable of achieving success in life, exhibiting in the most important national and international museums and art galleries.
Giardini Reali – Royal Garden
November and December are usually quieter months concerning events without prejudice to the celebrations for Our Lady of Healt, La Salute, on November 21st.
These are broadly the events planned for next year in Venice but, as soon as updates reach me, I will be happy to share them with you.
Meanwhile, Happy New Year!