Roberto Cicutto

La Biennale decided this year to increase the resources and support for the Dance Music and Theatre Departments and their respective International Festivals. These Festivals have never been conceived as events made to exhibit the finest productions in the fields represented by the three artistic directors, but as the development of a project that enriches knowledge and experimentation coherently with a four-year mandate.

A particularly important role is ascribed to the activities of the Biennale College Danza Musica and Teatro, which have produced remarkable results in all three performing arts, not only by discovering young talents, but also by facilitating their introduction into the circuit of international companies, and even the most important permanent establishments.

The increased resources will also make it easier for the public to attend the events, which will feature more repeat performances, masterclasses, installations and interdisciplinary activities. Above all they will allow La Biennale to commission, produce or co-produce new productions, partly filling (especially for the Music Department) the gap in public support compared to that of other countries.

The work of the artistic directors Wayne McGregor, Lucia Ronchetti, Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte has demonstrated across the first three years of their mandates the infinite potential that lies in weaving an unbroken thread between the masters of the past, contemporary artists and the professionals of the near future. We thus give substance to an intent that is often asserted but more rarely achieved: to help women and men at the beginning of their careers to grow, nurturing them with the example of those who have preceded them in a spirit of research and innovation. Only a multidisciplinary institution such as La Biennale di Venezia, international by constitution with the capacity to interpret the many expressions of the contemporary of which its history is comprised, can fulfil this task by relying on new technologies and means of expression to invent new languages and groundbreaking collaborations.

For this I wish to thank the current Artistic Directors and the entire staff of La Biennale di Venezia which sustains them in their endeavour.

I thank the Ministry of Culture and the Regione del Veneto for their contribution and support for the Dance, Music and Theatre Departments.

I thank RAI television, with which we have renewed our partnership, and the press which covers us and all those who will join us to expand the ranks of the professionals and enthusiasts, in Italy and the rest of the world.

Thanks to our sponsors.