The Luca Ronconi fund at the Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts

The Luca Ronconi Fund, ordered and inventoried by the Archival Superintendency of Umbria, comes to the Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts of La Biennale di Venezia, thanks to the agreement signed with the heir to the fund Roberta Carlotto, with the intent to conserve and enhance the artistic legacy of the great master.

On this occasion, La Biennale di Venezia, in collaboration with the Ronconi Archives and the Centro Teatrale Santacristina is organizing two events dedicated to the work of Luca Ronconi and to his years at La Biennale di Venezia, when he was the Director of the Theatre Department and the Music Department from 1974 to 1976 and was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2012.

Luca Ronconi

On March 6^th, in the Auditorium of the Biennale Library (Calle Paludo S. Antonio) starting at 10 am, a seminar will feature speakers Roberto Cicutto (President of La Biennale di Venezia), Roberta Carlotto (President of the Centro Teatrale Santacristina), Giovanna Giubbini (Director of the Archival Superintendency of Umbria), Debora Rossi (Head of the Historic Archives of La Biennale di Venezia), and the accounts of scholars, collaborators, actors and critics, many of whom worked at length alongside Ronconi, sharing in his personal, artistic and intellectual career – Giovanni Agosti, Oliviero Ponte di Pino, Stefano Boeri, Peter Exacoustos, Manuela Mandracchia, Margherita Palli, Ottavia Piccolo, Pier Luigi Pizzi, and Massimo Popolizio.

On March 13^th  at the Cinema Rossini in Venice (at 6:30 pm), there will be a screening of the documentary film 75 Biennale Ronconi Venezia directed by Jacopo Quadri and produced by Palomar in collaboration with the Centro Teatrale Santacristina. The documentary, which will be introduced by the journalist and theatre critic Anna Bandettini, focuses on the Biennale Teatro directed by Luca Ronconi in 1975 and a generation of artists convinced that theatre can change the world. It was in the Seventies that the young masters who would leave their mark on the decades to come rose to international prominence: Peter Brook, the Living Theatre, Jerzy Grotowski, Ariane Mnouchkine, Meredith Monk, Andrei Şerban, Giuliano Scabia, Dacia Maraini, Robert Wilson.  Luca Ronconi, appointed Director of Biennale Teatro in 1974 in the wake of his international success with Orlando Furioso and Orestea, brought them all to Venice, for a memorable experimental festival, which attracted hundreds of young people, some of whom were destined for lengthy careers in the theatre, such as Roberto Bacci, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Sandro Lombardi, Federico Tiezzi, Alessandra Vanzi.

The Luca Ronconi Fund, along with the previously acquired Palazzo Grassi/Fiat Fund and the Premio Oderzo Archives, as well as the future acquisition of the Lorenzo Capellini Fund and the agreement with the Fondazione Luigi Nono, becomes part of the programme of the Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts of La Biennale di Venezia, which aims to activate greater opportunities for research at the new International Centre for Research into the Contemporary Arts, and to enhance the legacies of artists by managing their funds and opening them to scholars.

This initiative dedicated to Luca Ronconi is the first in a series of periodical events organized by the Historical Archive of La Biennale within the context of the International Centre for Research into the Contemporary Arts, to publicise the results of the research studies, to brief on new acquisitions, to present books and exhibitions from the archives. The next event, scheduled for March 30^th and 31^st, will focus on Carlo Ripa di Meana’s Biennale, on the occasion of the acquisition of photographer Lorenzo Capellini’s archives. A small exhibition will also be held at Ca’ Giustinian that will illustrate the activities of that four-year term in Capellini’s own images.

The calendar of events for the entire programme will be announced in coming weeks.