Massimo Cacciari racconta “Gli ultimi giorni dell’umanità” lectio magistralis: a preview

La Biennale di Venezia is pleased to host, on Wednesday 10 June 2026 at 5:30 pm in the Biennale Library (Calle Paludo S. Antonio, Castello, Venice), the presentation of Massimo Cacciari racconta “Gli ultimi giorni dell’umanità” – a lectio magistralis dedicated to Karl Kraus’1922 masterpiece“The Last Days of Mankind”,in light of the conflicts of ourtime – by Massimo Cacciari, Sandro Parenzo, Ranuccio Sodi. A programme by Nove Discovery Italia produced by Videa Group, with Emilio Giovanni Alessandrelli and Mario Genovese, directed by Ranuccio Sodi.

The presentation of Massimo Cacciari racconta “Gli ultimi giorni dell’umanità” will be introduced by a dialogue between the President of La Biennale di Venezia Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Massimo Cacciari, followed by a screening of the programme (runtime 65 minutes). Massimo Cacciari racconta “Gli ultimi giorni dell’umanità” will be broadcast the following Saturday 13 June in prime time on the digital terrestrial Nove channel. 

This is a new chapter in Nove’s cycle dedicated to recent History, told by Italy’s major authors, for a new and original reading of our present time. The monumental pacifist text about World War I by the renowned Austrian journalist, playwright and satirical author Karl Kraus, comes alive in a special event that, in a series of historical and philosophical reflections, brings out the remarkablec ontemporary relevance of its thought.

The precarious condition of international relations, the corruption of language and the progressive dehumanisation of conflicts, all themes important to Karl Kraus, take on a deeply alarming meaning in this new lectio magistralis by Massimo Cacciari, complemented by stage readings by Massimo Venturiello and Paola De Crescenzo interwoven with suggestive AI animations evoking the wartime period.

The Last Days of Mankind, a milestone in expressionist theatre, is a violent satire on society and the media of the time: a monumental historical drama consisting of 200 scenes, with hundreds of characters, a grotesque parade of obtuse officials, cynical journalists, war profiteers and everyday citizens numbed by the propaganda.

Massimo Cacciari’s account transforms Karl Kraus’ biography and his dramatic play into a testimony of striking contemporary relevance – never drawing mechanical or didactic parallels with the present, but leaving it to the spectator to assess the significant regression currently underway in international relations, following 80 years of relative peace and to register the progressive deterioration of the supranational bodies and organisations such as the United Nations, founded in the postwar period specifically to resolve and mediate the disputes between nations and ideological and political blocs. All in the context of a world that is increasingly interconnected culturally and economically yet at the same time is edging dangerously closer to the “final apocalypse” of dehumanisation so greatly feared by Karl Kraus. 

Massimo Cacciari’s analysis also seeks to contextualise Kraus’ work within a broader critical process which began in the previous century with the thought of Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and the other “prophets of the nineteenth century”, for a compelling narrative and visual journey that brings them into dialogue with the tensions, fears and risks the world is facing today.