April 2 – 6, Satka will host "Days of Italian Culture" Festival for the third time. The festival will be opened by Pasquale Terrachchano, the Italian Ambassador in Russia, and Olga Strada, CEO of Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Moscow.

"Days of Italian Culture" Festival is a part of the large-scale cultural and enlightenment programme of Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Moscow. Concerts, conferences, exhibitions, lectures, screening of feature films, as well as international festivals of new Italian cinema and modern music are held in different Russian cities every year.

Mirror in the Stone

The festival agenda includes opening of the "Latitude/Longitude" sculptural composition by maitre Diego Esposito in Zuratkul National Park. He had created it in September 2018 during "My Satka" International Festival.

Since his studentship, the artist was attracted by the ancient cultures that divinifed and worshiped the stone. Through all his life, he has been traveling searching for places one can call the sources of power, culture and human beliefs. Works of signor Esposito are site-specific – he reveals peculiarities of a certain geography, its connection with the ancient and currently living people, with the surrounding nature through the land art of the installation performed out of the local rock. He puts the mirror lens, “oculus”, “an eye” that reflects the roof of heaven in almost rustic stone thus turning it into a place of merging of the Earth and Skies, substance and light, the part and the future. Syncretism of mystical beliefs and realism through the prism of modern art of sculpture makes his works out-of-time metaphors. The foundation of this art project has been laid in the Italian city of Prato. Then signor Esposito created such works in Shanghai (China), Cordoba (Argentina), Lima (Peru), a Buddhist monastery in Koya (Japan), Marseille (France), Cini Gardens in Venice (Italy) and Teramo (Italy). Zuratkul National Park in the Southern Urals became a new point in his own map of the metaphysical world. It is the borderline between Europe and Asia, while its surroundings boast with prehistoric sanctuaries, able stones and sacred places.

Precious Evidences of the Second Renaissance Epoch

Opening "Testimonianze prezione", the exhibition of the selected photographs by Elizabetta Catalano, a famous portrait painter, will continue the programme. In her black and white and color works, she engraved the view from the inside at the events of the epoch of the Second Renaissance of the Italian art, cinema and literature. 

Her debut as a photographer took place during the shooting of the famous film of Federico Fellini, "8 1/2". She was playing in the film, and during the off-shooting time she started making photos using the old camera of her father. Photos made by Catalano greatly impressed Fellini, who later used to invite her at the shooting of his films as photographer. Then she started working with influential international publishing houses, including Italian, French and American "Vogues", "Il Mondo", "L’Expresso" and others. In the 70-ies, Catalano founded her own studio in Rome, where in addition to photo portraits, she also started working with artists, playwrights, and actors.

Catalano was a part of the world she told about, she knew characters of her photos, she worked and made friends with many of them. Trust helped her grasp the “soul” of her characters without affectation and masks. Due to this, we can see very personal portraits of Federico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rudolf Nureyev, Charlotte Rampling, Andy Warhol and many others. 

Opera and Fairy-Tale Theatre

A bright and memorable event of the festival will be performance of the Milan Puppet Theater, Carlo Colla and Sons, (Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla e Figli). The oldest theatre ensemble of Italy and one of the first puppet theatre in the world has been performing for more than 180 years offering its spectators around the globe a unique repertoire. The Colla family has been reverently saving and continuing traditions of the puppet theatre of the XVIII century and that of the baroque theatre: they manufacture puppets, decorations and costumes only manually in accordance with the ancient technologies, they create their performances together with main world theatres, musicians and actors. They faithfully continue delivering the mission of their art: the puppet theatre has always been and is supposed to remain truly public – this is the main “recipe” of reaching the hearts of even the youngest spectators.

The scene of Magnezit Cultural Center will see two performances of the theatre: the magic story of the "Sleeping Beauty" set to the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky and the fascinating "Turandot" by Giacomo Puccini, whose music would become the setting for the voice of the peerless Maria Callas. 

April 3, the staff of Colla theater will have master class for children and teachers in Rozum Children Art School No. 1. The actors will show the way to the backstage of the theatre life, reveal the ancient secrets of manufacturing the puppets and decorations, open the mysteries of the “hypnotic” effect of the puppet art.

The Italian Revolution Through Lives

The next item of the programme will be representation of "Leopard" ("Il gattopardo") film by Luchino Visconti made in 1963. May 1860 saw the civil war between the republicans, Garibaldi followers, and adheres of the ruling Bourbons dynasty uprise in Italy. The main character, Don Fabrizio Corbera, feudal Prince of Salina, experiences the crash of the world he used to live in and searches for his place in the then-built new society of the revolutionary Italy. Maitre Visconti has created the majestic drama of history and philosophy, the expression-rich portrait of humanity, with all its drawbacks that can be found in any epoch. The unique visual style of the film director, thorough attention to details of lifestyle of the Italian upper class, deep and complicated characters have turned the Leopard into the world cinema legend.

Present for Satka

Books and catalogues published by Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Moscow will be presented to the collection of the Satka’s Central Library. Due to this present, the general public in Satka and Satka District will be able to get deeper understanding of the Italian cultural heritage. Such initiatives promote the cultural dialogue and extend relations between the countries and peoples.

Curator: Laura Cerubini

The project is provided by the Archive of Elizabetta Catalano

Organizer: Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow)

With support of: Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Moscow