The year 2023 will offer a lot of events to put on your agenda in Venice. Let’s find out together what they are the events in Venice 2023
Venice in 2023 will offer excellent opportunities to have fun, visit beautiful exhibitions, and participate in interesting events. Events in Venice 2023: like every year, I give you an overview of the 2023 events not to be missed in Venice.
NB: this post will be constantly updated because, for example, the programs relating to the 2023 exhibitions of the Fondazione Musei Civici have yet to come out. If you have an event to report that I missed, write to me. info@rominvenice.com.
JANUARY
After the revelry of the Christmas holidays, after the Regata delle Befane (January 6), and before starting the Carnival celebrations, the event not to be missed in January in Venice is Wine in Venice. In fact, from January 28 to 30 in Venice, it will be time to taste good wine thanks to this event which is aimed at operators in the sector but also at an audience of enthusiasts who want to feed their passion for wine. Tastings, presentations, masterclasses: make yourself comfortable as the year seems to communicate very well.
In the middle of the month, a new exhibition opens at Palazzo Grimani. From January 18 to June 4, the first and second floors of the building will host Inge Morath, Photographing from Venice onwards. Inge Morath was the first woman photographer to join the Magnum Photo agency: in 1955 she made photos of Venice in support of reportage by the writer Mary McCarthy wrote for the art magazine L’Oeil. More than 200 photographs will be exhibited with a new and specific focus on Venice: 80 of these shots have never been exhibited in Italy.
The exhibition season at Palazzo Loredan, organized by the Ligabue Foundation, will start again on January 28. The exhibition De visi mostruosi e caricature. Da Leonardo da Vinci a Bacon (open until April 27) recounts a fascinating journey that identifies a line of continuity from Leonardo’s grotesque heads to the caricatures of Zanetti and Tiepolo up to Bacon’s twentieth-century works. On the exhibition, for the first time in Italy, 18 drawings by Leonardo, part of the Duke of Devonshire collection.
FEBRUARY
If you love contemporary music and performing arts, mark the dates of February 3 and 4 February 2023 in your diary: in fact, at Punta Della Dogana will take place Set Up 2023: Now in its fourth edition, Set Up presents a program with artists from all over the world, created from Palazzo Grassi with the independent curator Enrico Bettinello, and for the first time this year, with the collaboration of the Terraforma festival.
Any February in Venice can only be dedicated to the Carnival. The Venice Carnival will be celebrated from February 4 to 21. Every year the event is given a theme which this year will be Take your time for the original sign. Important news: there won’t be the traditional flights from the bell tower in Piazza San Marco (if I read correctly due to problems related to the works/restorations in the Piazza. Do not miss the night show in the Arsenale which everyone told me was very beautiful and which I’m planning to do this year.
On February 4, the exhibition season of the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro will start again. The French photographer of Greek origins Nikos Aliagas (Paris, 1969) will inaugurate the season with the exhibition Nikos Aliagas. Regards Vénitien (until April 2, 2023): the photographer retraces the venetian streets to meet the inhabitants, those who avoid the gaze of tourists. The project stems from an artist residency in Allagas which took place in 2022 at Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro.
If it’s your year to attend one of the Carnival balls, you know that the most iconic is the Ballo del Doge which will take place on February 18, 2023, at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia under the direction of Antonia Sautter (ticket price starting from € 800 for the after dinner and € 1500 with dinner).
Antonia Sautter – Ballo del Doge (credits Antonia Sautter – ufficio Stampa)
MARCH
In March, the season of the great exhibitions of the year begins again. On March 12, the exhibition Chronorama – photographic treasures of the 20th century opens at Palazzo Grassi. The exhibition brings together photographic masterpieces from the Condé Nast archives, recently acquired by the Pinault Collection. Thanks to the photographs, the exhibition tells the story of the 20th century through events, social phenomena, and personalities of the last century.
A major exhibition dedicated to the painter Vittore Carpaccio is scheduled for 18 March at the Doge’s Palace in Venice. As soon as I have more precise news, I’ll update you.
From March 29 to April 1, the Incroci di Civiltà festival is back. Writers from all over the world will come to Venice: they will talk about experiences and works that reward the encounter between different civilizations to learn about the riches of each experience.
APRIL
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection season reopens on April 1 with the exhibition Edmondo Bacci. The energy of light (scheduled until September 18, 2023). With this exhibition, we want to pay homage to the Venetian artist Edmondo Bacci (1913-1978) who exhibited his works in the most important national and international museums. At least eighty works are planned with loans from national and international private collections.
Punta della Dogana opens on 2 April with the Icônes exhibition (until 26 November 2023): the exhibition brings together works from the Pinault Collection, recounting how the image (icon) represents a presence, between appearance and disappearance, shadow and light. The word icon refers to the two meanings of image and resemblance, in religious painting it is the representation of the divine, while in recent times its use as an emblematic figure, or model has taken hold. The exhibition is therefore interesting and was designed specifically for the spaces of Punta della Dogana.
At the end of the month, a super interesting exhibition dedicated to Nicolo Manucci arrives at the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro. The title of the exhibition explain well who was this famous venetian: Nicolò Manucci, the Marco Polo of India. A Venetian at the 17th-century Moghul Court (open from April 29 to November 26, 2023). The exhibition traces the salient stages in the life of the Venetian traveler and offers the view of a privileged witness of the cultural richness of Moghu India. The exhibition is enriched by the watercolors of the Venetian artist Guido Fuga which tell the life of the traveller.
MAY
May is one of the most eventful months for the city and perhaps also the best month to visit it: pleasant temperatures and long days.
On May 14, le Stanze del Vetro reopen with an exhibition dedicated to Bohemian Glass (until November 26, 2023). In the exhibition you will find the story of glass in Bohemia after the Second World War: thanks to the inventions of Bohemian artists the boundaries between applied art and decorative art were broken and important abstract sculptures were born. As always, the exhibition will be free as well as the guided tours offered.
On May 20 the 18th International Architecture Exhibition (until November 16) open to visitors. The curator Lesley Lokko, architect, professor of architecture, and writer, has chosen The Laboratory of the Future as the title of the exhibition. As usual, the exhibition will involve Giardini and Arsenale but also many other parts of the city with various national participation. Tickets are already on sale at a discounted price until March 30, 2023.
At the end of May, the Salone Nautico (Boat Show) returns, from May 31 to June 4 in the usual spaces of the Arsenale. Excellent opportunity to get to know the excellence of international pleasure boating and also to visit many spaces normally closed to visits.
JUNE
For lovers of theater and live performances, the 51st International Theater Festival will take place in Venice from 15 June to 1 July directed by Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte. The program shows and appointments with the most important protagonists of the contemporary theater scene, in addition to the productions created as part of the Biennale College Theatre, the training project dedicated to young artists.
Saturday, June 17 will be the night of the beautiful Art Night Venice event organized by the Ca’ Foscari University. From 18.00 many exhibitions will be open and events scheduled in museums, cultural institutions, theatres, bookshops, and galleries. A unique opportunity to experience the city in the evening and at night.
JULY
In July we enter the full Venetian summer.
From July 13 to 29 it’s time for the 17th International Festival of Contemporary Dance: the festival will be directed by Wayne McGregor. As usual, there are many appointments scheduled every day with international soloists and companies, and the activity of the Biennale College Danza is dedicated to education and training projects that become an integral part of the Festival program.
July 15th is the time to celebrate the Feast of the Redeemer. Like every year there will be the Votive Bridge and there will be the traditional fireworks. If you want to celebrate it on board a beautiful boat or on a beautiful terrace, take your time and don’t wait until the last minute. If you need help, write me.
AUGUST
In August whoever can is at the beach, makes plans for September, ect, etc. Perhaps one of the plans also includes finally going to the Venice Film Festival: then mark the dates because the 80th Venice International Film Festival returns from 30 August to 9 September. Under the well-established direction of Alberto Barbera, the exhibition will offer the usual mix of international cinema with new visions awaited in theaters around the world, research films, and restored great classics.
SEPTEMBER
As always, September will be crowded with events. In full swing of the Film Festival, on September 3, 2023, there will be the Historical Regatta and the subsequent boat race along the Grand Canal at the same time.
The Venice Glass Week will return from September 9 to 17, 2023 with many events related to this incredible art in Venice, on the islands, and probably also on the mainland.
OCTOBER
Venice Design Week is back from October 7 to 15,2023. Exhibitions, meetings with designers, and conferences: as always, a busy program to learn something new in the field of design.
A new exhibition opens at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on October 14: Marcel Duchamp and the lure of copy (until March 25, 2024).
Last festival of the season for the Biennale: the 67th International Festival of Contemporary Music arrives from 16 to 29 October: the festival will be directed by Lucia Rocchetti. Prestigious soloists, performers, and international ensembles as well as the Biennale College Musica program. There is more than one good reason to attend the festival.
Please pay attention to the date of October 22nd: the Venice Marathon arrives this year in its 37th edition.
NOVEMBER
As we move towards the end of the year, of many exhibitions linked to the Biennale, November is currently not so full of events. Certainly many look forward to the Festa della Salute on November 21. Celebrate it by going on a pilgrimage to the Basilica della Salute, lighting a candle, eating a pancake and why not, even castradina, the typical meal of the day.
DECEMBER
December is usually a rather empty month of events in the city but 2022 will give us an interesting trend in my opinion. We had more visitors than in the past, who expected to experience a bit of Christmas magic in Venice. So stay updated because there will be markets, concerts, and many other beautiful occasions.
Do you want to create some particular itinerary and do you need help? Write me at info@rominvenice.com.
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