Roberto Cicutto

As we lived through these months of almost total isolation, unfortunately amidst the very serious problems that many were forced to deal with, there were some things that came along to surprise us. The beauty of the cities free of traffic, the limpid skies no longer streaked by airplanes, the silence that allowed us to discover sounds we had previously forgotten.
This made me think about music a great deal and especially about those who have the gift of composing it, and how such a situation might have influenced them.
There were moments in which it really felt like listening to a piece of contemporary music, others in which it sounded like the classical themes of romantic music.
Music, as well as movies on the small screen, the broadcasting of theatre productions, or reading, were certainly excellent companions in our isolation but were also fields for the artists who create these arts to explore and to work with.
In Maestro Ivan Fedele’s introduction to this Catalogue, I find words that mesh perfectly with these states of mind: experimentation, research, creativity, dialogue, truth, testimony...
For some that silence was paralyzing, for others perhaps stimulating.
Who knows how many, in this suspension of everyday noise, discovered the “new music” evoked by John Cage and quoted by Ivan “which necessarily requires new instruments, be they acoustic, electronic or even conceptual”.
I would like for La Biennale to try and respond to similar and other questions by fulfilling one facet of its mission, which is to understand and investigate every aspect of the present time through the arts.
Ivan Fedele, like the other curators of the Exhibitions and Festivals of the Biennale 2020 that we are organizing (and including the curator of the Biennale Architettura which has been postponed to 2021), participated in the realization of the exhibition titled The Disquieted Muses. When La Biennale Meets History, a journey through much of the hundred and twenty-five years since the foundation of this Institution.
A strong commitment that has been brought to term notwithstanding the preparation of the new edition of the Festival and the work of the College, which did not prevent the development of a programme rich in proposals and tributes to great authors of the past. For this I would like to offer him and all the other curators my very special thanks.
This year again, following the excellent results of the past editions, the use of the studios in the two venues of the CIMM (Centres for Computer Music and Multimedia), the planning and realization of which owe much to Ivan Fedele, remain essential to the work of the Biennale College Musica.
I would like to express my warmest congratulations to the winner of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2020 Luis de Pablo and the Silver Lion 2020 Raphaël Cendo.
It is wonderful to be able to celebrate them in person in Venice together with all the artists of the Festival and the College.