Project Description
VIVERE A VENEZIA
VIVRE À VENISE
INSIDE VENICE
IdeaBooks, Viareggio 2014
Actes Sud, Arles 2014
Rizzoli, New York 2014
Curated by Toto Begamo Rossi
Photographs by Jean François Jaussaud
Preface by James Ivory
Venetian Heritage contributed to the publication of the book, which illustrates a selection of public and private Venetian interiors. Its introduction is by the film director James Ivory, a honorary member of Venetian Heritage.
“[…] I stood on the deck and looked into the brightly lit windows of the passing palazzi. Sometimes I saw into what seemed to be luxurious rooms: modern looking drawing rooms with smart contemporary sofas and big lighted lamps, with shadowy, wonderfully painted beams above […] the big windows I looked up into were mostly shut, so I couldn’t hear the owners’ talk or laughter, or music from the radio, or from phonograph records (the first LPs had just come on the market everywhere), or hear any convivial sounds of ice clinking in highball glasses as you can in summer, or the popping of champagne corks – all sounds I supplied myself as I peered in. Sometimes I could see the lucky occupants moving about. I was the eager outsider with my nose pressed against the glass, looking in with longing eyes, as my vaporetto crossed the Grand Canal from stop to stop […]”
In his evocative introduction, American film director James Ivory relate his experience as a young man visiting the city on the lagoon.
The city’s magic is revealed in this book through two unique parallel routes, two itineraries devised by the author to conjure up in the reader the emotion of amazement and of gratitude for the beauty that Ivory speaks of, when in his youth he dreamed of crossing the threshold of fascinating places and of discovering hidden treasures, calle after calle.
The volume is divided into chapters describing the different quarters of Venice. The story of each sestriere is told through select private residences, some historic and others contemporary, varied in style and taste depending on those who live there, often inaccessible, and now for the first time offered to the eyes of the reader. Following the proposal of this first itinerary in a series of “treasures”, accessible to all but only known to a few, which guide the reader setting out on a path to discover museums, churches, synagogues and public building to which recent restoration has given new life and splendor.
The volume is available in Italian, English and French.