Have you already seen the 4th edition of Contemporanea? Well my friends, you still have a month to go to the eternal city and marvel at great ideas and real masterpieces.

In fact, since last September, the original festival called “Contemporanea – art, visual, music, performance” is ongoing at Auditorum Parco della Musica in Rome; created by Oscar Pizzo and become extremely renowned, it will be open until May 12th 2010.

A tangle of different cultures, social issues and problems, different points of view: at its 4th edition, Contemporanea, includes places like Venice, Germany, Japan, Estonia, North America, Tropical Africa, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, and turns into a space where past and present compare and challenge each other by facing topics like the tale, myth, religion, magic, nature, metropolis, technology, abysses, cosmic space, future, infinite. Is it enough?

Concerts, workshops, exhibitions, performances, meetings

“ArteGenova” comes back in the city of Genoa, in Liguria, and spreads its own creativity. An event entirely dedicated to all modern and contemporary art-addicted and simple curious people. This is the 6^th edition of such exhibition and will take place from Friday 26^th February til Monday March 1^st 2010, at the Fair building in the city of Genoa placed in Piazzale Kennedy.

The 6^th Exhibition of Modern and Contemporary Art will host over 90 galleries with works which

A special exhibition, opened on October 6th, 2009 and dedicated to the extraordinary work of Michelangelo Buonarroti as an architect, under the organization of Musei Capitolini in Rome is approaching to its end. For those who haven’t seen it and wanted to do so, the last day is February 7th, 2010. Beside the famous works in Florence, Siena, Bologna, Venice, the one made in Rome is considered to be among the most important.
Michelangelo had lived in Rome between 1505 and 1516, and afterwards from 1534 until his death in 1564, and during this forty-years long period the artist made numerous great projects, some of them realized, the others unfortunately remained on sheets of paper.
The exhibition is divided in 17 sections organized chronologically and it contains 105 works that remained to testify about the extraordinary inventions of Michelangelo.

Until January 15^th 2010, you have time to visit the wonderful retrospective dedicated to the artist Jacque Villeglè entitled “Vacanze Romane” (“Roman Holidays”), set by Dominique Stella at Mucciaccia Gallery in Rome.

In fact for the first time ever, since last October 8^th visitors can marvel at 75 his works in the rooms of Mucciaccia Gallery: dècollages d’affiches dating back to 1960s ‘til nowadays which keep billboards, adverts and manifestos’ strength and use it in turn to make up and create his dècollages which cancel and remove the message and the communication strength of such adverts.

He angrily dismantles the catch phrases, the images

The year 2009 is ending, but Milan‘s passion for Japan is still alive.
Infact, over the last 12 months “Samurai” and “Monet and Japan” already took place at Royal Palace in Milan, both of them with great success.

Now it’s time for “Japan. Power and Splendour (1568-1868)”, on the calendar in the same location from 6th December 2009 to 7th March 2010.
A refined exhibition, which will give the possibility to marvel at one hundred of precious works of art, coming from the most important Japanese museums: elegant ceramics, paintings on  paper and silk, decorated textiles, masks and armours… in homeland considered as true national treasures!

All the works on display were created during two crucial moments of Japanese history: the periods Momoyama (1568-1615) and Edo (1615-1868). About three centuries marked by the fall of the ancient society, traditionally based on the power of nobles and Samurai, and the gradual rise of a bourgeois middle class, rich but still excluded from the political power.

They were the new producers and consumers of art, and they are the protagonists of the works on show in Milan. This exhibition narrates us vices and

For only few days will still be possible to enjoy the wonderful and legendary creations of one of the best Venetian master of glass art.
The exhibition “Luciano Gaspari and the Glass”, began in May, will be open until November 29th, in the Glass Museum of Murano, a fascinating little island of the Venetian lagoon, a sort of “homeland” of this material.

Luciano Gaspari (1913-2007), born in Venice into a family of decorators, entered the world of glass production during the 30s. It was a crucial moment for the glass department: traditional craftsmen were seeking to respond to changing times and tastes, renewing their way of working and focusing on design. Soon, they began to produce true masterpieces, and the idea that of glassworks as “individual works of art” began to make headway.

Gaspari was one of the protagonists of this evolution. He was able to combine his great technical skills in working glass, which gave him the possibility to exploit the potentialities of the material in the best way, and a prodigious fantasy, applied on forms and colours. Results are impressive:

For the first time, the work of Edward Hopper (1882-1967), one of the most appreciated and successfull American artists of the 19th century, is  on view in Italy!
From 14th October 2009 to 31st January 2010, the Royal Palace in Milan dedicates a very interesting exhibition to him: 160 works on display, from his best-known paintings (such as Pennsylvania Coal Town, A Woman in the Sun e Second Story Sunlight – chosen for the official poster), to never exhibited ones, as Girlie Show.

Special attention is also dedicated to his preparatory drawings, each one shown near the corresponding final painting; a strategy for catching audience’s attention on artist’s way of working, in which preliminary sketches were a key stage. Visitors will also have the opportunity to marvel at one of his ledgers, also known as Artist’s ledger Books,

Comics and its fans will be the protagonists of the Autumnal season in Lucca and Milan, with two important events dedicated to the world of comics.

 

In fact, from October 29^th to November 1^st, inside the walls and in the picturesque squares of the stunning city of the Versilia area, the internationally renowned Lucca Comics & Games starts again. For more than 40 years, such an appointment gathers fans and people involved in the work (last year the presences were 130,000), attracted by the exhibition market and most of all by the several collateral events and projects.

 

So much that this year the organizers decided to give it the official name of “International Festival of Comics, Games and Illustrations” and to celebrate such a transformation with the title “The Evolution of the Species”.

 

Actually, the event’s programme schedules several initiatives, as well as the festival dates and locations are noticeably increasing. On October 17^th, the real exhibition will start in the historical location of the Doge’s Palace.

 

The historical centre, with many new stages, also this year will be the events’ fulcrum. Here you will find the Self Area, dedicated to the self-made comics, a space in the interests of free creativity and invention. The Music & Comics will draw the attention of visitors with all-involving happenings, with a competition in partnership with Mediaset (where winners will produce the theme song of a television cartoon), and most of all with the crucial moment of the Festival, Cosplay, where the fans take part to a funny parade in their favorite comics heroes’ clothing and walk the runaway on Music & Comics’ stage.

 

In addition, the Japan Area , conceived in order to host the more and more beloved Nippon comics, which this year has been turned into the Japan Palace (in the halls of the Real Collegio), where the culture of the Far East will be celebrated with Japanese language courses, courses of writing and traditional handicraft, and with many exhibitions according to the subject.

 

And also international guests, street writing, a pavilion dedicated to the kids television and another one dedicated to the games and their increasingly global diffusion, from the tables of the fans to the movies and videogames from all over the world.

 

So…It’s impossible to get bored here!

 

But in the case it is not enough for you, on November 14^th and 15^th you will have the chance to go to Milan for the special event called Fumettopoli, the other fantastic international exhibition market which takes place many times a year and that this year is at its 33^rd edition.

 

Here the location is more limited but the programme is as much rich. In the halls of the Ata Hotel Executive (in front of the Garibaldi station) many brand new and historical comics will be shared and sold, but also records, cds, dvds, household and gift items and various other things.

 

For comics’ lovers or just for all curious people, this will be an Autumn rich of appointments!

 

For further information about this and other events in Lucca and Milan, please visit our websites http://www.aboutversilia.com/ and http://www.aboutmilan.com/

At Fortezza da Basso in Florence, creativity comes back from October 15^th to 18^th 2009. The fourth edition of the Festival of Creativity is entirely dedicated to the city, the place where creativity becomes innovation, production and development.

In fact, the theme of the edition 2009 will be “The City of the Future“, closely bound to innovation, technology and the development of an ecologically sustainable society.

In the 4 days at Fortezza in fact, several architects, photographers and designers will compare each other by talking about the urban metamorphosis which are taking place in the most important capitals in the world, like Brasilia, Dubai, Berlin or Tokyo.

The programme 2009, in order to be at the same level of the previous successful three editions, also this year suggests four days full of meetings, talks, exhibitions, workshops and performances with international artists, scientists, philosophers and intellectuals coming from every corner of the world

On the calendar you can find more than 240 events: concerts,

No plans for the weekend?

Well, if your answer is “no”, then we’ll suggest you something unique to do.

This weekend in fact, on Saturday 26^th and Sunday 27^th September 2009, there will be a fully cultural event: as usual, also this year all the European countries will celebrate the European Heritage Days, which were conceived in 1991 by the European Council in order to encourage and promote the cultural dialogue and exchange between European countries.

As every year, MiBAC participates in the event with the slogan “Italy, the treasure of Europe” and organizes throughout Italy several initiatives intended to increase the value of Italian culture and heritage, with the aim to share all this great richness with other European countries.

In fact, throughout the country, many events and activities will take place in order to increase the national heritage value: over 1000 sites will be open to the public with free entrance, extraordinary openings, art exhibitions, concerts, shows and