La Spezia, Saturday is the White Night of Museums

This Saturday, March 17, the city of La Spezia, on the occasion of the traditional celebrations for the feast of the patron saint St. Joseph, is preparing to experience the White Night of Museums: all the civic museums will be open free of charge until midnight to welcome La Spezia’s citizens and non-members alike to an evening of art that adds to the festive atmosphere that, this weekend, will characterize the entire city. All museums open until midnight (the CAMeC from 6 p.m., the Palazzina delle Arti from 7 p.m. and the Lia Museum and Ethnographic Museum from 9 p.m.), with free admission (and of course the museums will be open according to their usual hours throughout the day). But that’s not all: special events are also planned for the festival, including tastings in front of works of art with the well-established Tastin’ Paintings event, exclusive guided tours, and exhibition openings. Let’s see the program in detail.

At CAMeC - Modern and Contemporary Art Center, appointment with Tastin’Paintings. A new way to taste paintings and see wine (in two replicas, at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.). Two guided, modern and visionary tours led by art historian Luca Bochicchio and oenologist and taster Jacopo Fanciulli, through which to get to know and experience art and wine at the same time; a performative and collective mode of museum visit and tasting in which to learn about both the current exhibitions and the wine heritage. The public will be invited to dwell on some of the works on display, which will be paired with wines selected for affinities of perceptual and territorial convergences: an entertaining sensory short-circuit ensues that will allow them to ’taste’ the works and ’see’ the wine. Admission to the Camec is free but the tasting has a cost of 3 euros per participant (maximum 20 people per group by mandatory reservation at the CAMeC box office or by calling +39 0187 734593 and 0187 727530)

At the Palazzina delle Arti, at 7 p.m., opens the photography exhibition Cesare Salvadeo. Lives in Transit, dedicated to the activity of the La Spezia photographer whose research since the 1960s has unfolded through reportage photography with a social background and street photography; specifically, the exhibition privileges a series of shots in which the artist’s gaze has focused on life, in incessant passage, in the spaces of the La Spezia station, an iconic place/non-place on whose nature Salvadeo himself thus expresses himself: “And here, in this place where the crowding, the temporary transit, the hubbub in a babel of languages are hallmarks of a world on the move, one witnesses incredulously the human loneliness, the voluntary isolation in one’s own thoughts, the gazes lost in the void or on the plastic plate where a sad hot dog towers next to a coke or on the display of a cell phone, a computer.” It will be possible to meet the artist. Admission is free.

At the Giovanni Podenzana Ethnographic Museum, at 9 p.m., there will be the show Batiston ressüssità. La Spezia Carnival in the Late Nineteenth Century through the Cansonete, produced in collaboration with Piergiorgio Cavallini, and it will be possible to visit the exhibition Carlevà. Il carnevale alla Spezia tra Ottocento e Novecento (Carnival in La Spezia between the 19th and 20th centuries), which will close on Monday, March 19, and which focuses on the canzonetta, a typically La Spezia product, the only living and authentic voice of the people, and a pungent means of satire and polemic. The museum has an almost complete collection of them thanks to the tireless collection work of Giovanni Podenzana, who among other things was one of the promoting figures of carnival parades and floats. The evening performance offers the chance to hear live some of the texts recited by the dialect company La n’è mai tròpotàrdio and accompanied by music by Livio Bernardini and Egildo Simeone. Admission is free.

At the Amedeo Lia Civic Museum there will be the meeting Art in the Balance. Works of art in emergency situations, with two replications (9:30 and 10:30 p.m.). This is a meeting with professionals in the field, in collaboration with the Department of Civil Defense of the City of La Spezia, National Fire Department-Provincial Command La Spezia, National Mountain Rescue Corps-La Spezia. In conjunction with the exhibition L’Aquila’ s Post-Quake Landscapes [2009-2017], pertaining to the L’Aquila earthquake and the delicate phases of reconstruction, it will be possible to hear from the viva voce of the operators who participated in the emergency missions about their experiences. The occasion will also feature canine units with dogs that took part in search operations for the missing. Admission is free here as well.

Also during the day, special opening with free visit to Villa Marmori, home of the “Giacomo Puccini” Conservatory: the exceptional guide will be Andrea Marmori, director of the Lia Museum, and the visits will be preceded by a musical piece by the Conservatory’s director, maestro Federico Rovini (piano) and deputy director, maestro Endrio Luti (accordion).

Image: the still life room at the Lia Museum. Ph. Credit Finestre Sull’Arte

La Spezia, Saturday is the White Night of Museums

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