Pietrangelo Buttafuoco

The programmes for Theatre, Dance and Music presented by their respective Directors, bear witness to deep reflection and research into the fields they are responsible for. The three disciplines in question share a performative aspect, and participate in the exchange of human vibrations between the stage and the audience.

In Theatre, Dance and Music – in the alchemy intrinsic to the three arts – there is a millennial creative spirit that acquires meaning only in the here and now of a unique and unrepeatable performance, which goes beyond the writing, the choreography, the musical score.

This is the primal meaning of a show, the performing of the living among the living: the “Moment… linger a while, thou art so fair!” of mortal transience, bound as it is – the technically non reproducible moment – to time, space and the action on the stage.

An evanescence saved by recording and documentation, traces gathered and preserved thanks to the meticulous and indispensable work of the Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts – La Biennale’s historic memory – at the service of future scholars and the increasingly vast audience of “posterity”.

The Theatre Festival proposed by Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte is a programmatic manifesto titled Niger et Albus, a dichotomy expressed in a line-up of plays described by the directors as “a round-trip ticket to a transverse elsewhere”. A personal Shadow of Light, in which to “develop spirituality while governing material tendencies”.

I wish to thank Lucia Ronchetti, Wayne McGregor, Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte for the work they have done and the entire staff of La Biennale di Venezia which has transformed their programmes into reality.

I wish to thank the Ministry of Culture for its significant contribution and the Regione del Veneto for the support it provides to the Dance Music and Theatre Departments of La Biennale di Venezia.

I wish to thank the RAI broadcasting company, with which we are renewing a now consolidated partnership that allows us to reach growing segments of the public and enthusiasts.

I also wish to thank the press and all the spectators who, from Italy and abroad, assiduously attend the dance music and theatre festivals of La Biennale di Venezia. We look forward to seeing you all at our coming events.