View of the Island of San Giorgio, headquarters of the Giorgio Cini Foundation which hosts the Le Stanze della Fotografia initiative.
Le Stanze della Fotografia is a joint initiative by Marsilio Arte and Fondazione Giorgio Cini intended to move further along the path begun in 2012 at La Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice in the conviction that photography, among the most interesting modern and contemporary artistic languages, must continue to have its own specific “home” in Venice.
Over the last ten years Marsilio Arte has managed all the exhibitions and activities of La Casa dei Tre Oci, offering thirty exhibitions that have told the story of the work of the greatest photographers, including Elliott Erwitt, Sebastião Salgado, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Helmut Newton, David LaChapelle, Letizia Battaglia, Ferdinando Scianna and Mario De Biasi, in parallel with significant research activities conducted through exhibitions to rediscover authors such as René Burri, Willy Ronis, Henri Lartigue and Sabine Weiss, welcoming over 500,000 visitors in all.
the project
Conceived as a genuine international centre for research and the appreciation of photography and the culture of the image, alongside the exhibitions in Venice and in the other Italian and foreign cities, Le Stanze della Fotografia will offer laboratories, meetings, workshop, seminars with national and international photographers and master’s degrees, in continuity with the cultural design motivated the Casa dei Tre Oci to date, but with a drive and a vision that are even more international. With a view to this, various partnerships will be developed with the most important players in the world of photography, such as the Magnum Photos agency, the Parisian Jeu de Paume centre, the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie and the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, to mention just a few.
The centre can rely on the creation of a dedicated Foundation, which will enable the research projects to be financed and supported, where strategic partners can meet, such as the Fondazione di Venezia, committed to the appreciation of photographic language ever since the purchase of the Casa dei Tre Oci in the 2000s, and which intends to promote the creation of an annual prize for photography aimed at young photographers, and the San Marco Group, leader in Italy in the sector of paints and varnishes for professional construction, which confirms its solid bond with the experience of the Tre Oci.
Credits: © Alessandra Chemollo
the directorship
The artistic directorship of Le Stanze della Fotografia is entrusted to Denis Curti, who has fulfilled this role for the Tre Oci since 2012 and boasts vast experience in the world of photography. He has been director and founder, in 2014, of the galleria STILL in Milan, he is artistic director of the “Festival of Photography” in Capri and for five years he managed the “SI FEST” in Savignano sul Rubicone. He is executive director of the periodical Black Camera and Course Leader of the Master’s in Photography at Raffles Milano. He has been curator of various exhibitions and author of various publications devoted to the great Italian and international photographers and of two photography essays for Marsilio Editori: Capire la Fotografia contemporanea and Il Mosaico del mondo. La mia vita messa a fuoco, devoted to the biography of Maurizio Galimberti. In the 1990s he directed the photography section at the European Institute of Design in Turin and the Italian Foundation for Photography. For over 15 years a journalist and photography critic for the pages of Vivimilano and Corriere della Sera, from 2005 to 2014 he was also director of Contrasto and vice-president of the Fondazione Forma in Milan.
the technical
scientific commitee
Research and exhibition activities are coordinated by the technical-scientific committee chaired by Luca Massimo Barbero, director of the Institute of History of Art of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and composed of Emanuela Bassetti, president of Marsilio Arte, Chiara Casarin, head of cultural development and communication for the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, artistic director Denis Curti and Luca De Michelis, managing director of Marsilio Arte.
partnership
The Foundation can rely on strategic partners such as the Fondazione di Venezia, committed to the appreciation of photographic language ever since the purchase of the Casa dei Tre Oci in the 2000, and the San Marco Group, leader in Italy in the sector of paints and varnishes for professional construction, which confirms its solid bond with the experience of the Tre Oci.
The technical sponsors include Distilleria Nardini, the first distillery in Italy with over 240 years of history and tradition, Grafica Veneta, leader company in the publishing and printing of books and volumes, iGuzzini, international leader group in the sector of the architectural lighting, NeoTech, an I.T. services company specialising in the creation and development of audiovisual design layouts.
Originally used for the warehouses of the customs service, the site took on its current form in around 1870. In 1952, with the birth of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, the building became a boarding school and in 2007 was restored and turned into an exhibition centre. It is located in the north-east zone of the island of San Giorgio: on one long side it overlooks the adjacent foundations of the Darsena Grande; on one short side it looks out over the lagoon, which is visible from the interior thanks to two large, spectacular windows.
The building of the former boarding school consists of around 1850 square metres structured over two levels, has been the subject of significant refurbishing and restoration work in order to enlarge and optimise the spaces, carried out by the Studio of Architects Pedron / La Tegola with the special participation of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, which has allowed the installation of light, movable walls, which, like theatre scenes, will be re-adjustable to suit the various exhibition layouts, with a view to the sustainability of the cultural enterprise. The bookshop, with a layout design created by the Paolo Lucchetta Retail Design studio, has been conceived as a bookshop proper and a fundamental space of welcome and encounter, and will offer an extensive range of its own publications, with specialist journals, magazine, essays, design articles and iconic objects.
Where to find us
Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
Vaporetto San Giorgio stop, line 2
Opening hours
Open every day from 11am to 7pm.
Closed on Wednesdays
Informations
phone.:+39 041 2412330
email:
A joint initiative
Partner
Technical partners
Official radio
With the special
participation of
Official Green Carrier