From July 8th to 14th, 1,500 historic sites in over 300 cities will open to the public.
Exhibitions, guided tours, tours, conferences, lectures, themed experiences, educational activities, and workshops: more than 750 activities are planned for Art Nouveau Week, the international week dedicated to the culture, art, architecture, and decorative arts of the Belle Époque, scheduled for July 8th to 14th.
For the major event, which involves 35 countries around the world and all of Italy’s regions, over 1,500 sites will be open to the public, including villas, private homes, palaces, hotels, and gardens.
Now in its eighth year and promoted by the Associazione Italia Liberty, the event, this year dedicated to the sea, presents itself as an extraordinary, multi-faceted exhibition, narrating the Liberty heritage through hundreds of buildings, collections, archives, artworks, decorative artefacts, and urban itineraries. It is a unique opportunity to rediscover the movement that revolutionized the language of painting, architecture, design, graphics, fashion, cuisine, and craftsmanship between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Of particular significance is the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, a symbolic figure of European Modernism, celebrated through international initiatives and events, especially in Barcelona. Among the many initiatives, eight major international exhibitions inaugurating the festival stand out: “Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Dream of Art Nouveau,” held at the Macklowe Gallery in New York with works by Tiffany, Gallé, Majorelle, and Lalique; and “The Art Nouveau Manifesto. From Metlicovitz to Mucha, a journey through graphic design and the birth of modern visual communication at the Museo Nazionale Collezione Salce in Treviso. In Pesaro, the exhibition “Art Nouveau in Italy.
The Organic Line between Nature and Applied Arts” explores the relationship between art, the sea, and nature through ceramics, naturalistic materials, postcards, and historic photographs. Villa Bernasconi in Cernobbio hosts two exhibitions dedicated to Riga Art Nouveau and the contemporary reinterpretation of the swimsuit through textile design. In Palermo, a major exhibition explores the figure of Giuseppe Sommaruga, one of the leading figures of Italian Art Nouveau, while in Bari, an exhibition celebrates Andrea Speziali, curator of the event and the artist who designed the first Italian stamp dedicated to Art Nouveau and the Poste Italiane folder.
Guided tours will be held around the world, from Spain to Belgium and from Argentina to the United States and Australia, to discover the many facets of Art Nouveau in avenues, villas, palaces, hotels, gardens, and museums. Speziali himself has designed daily guided tours lasting one to three hours in over 300 cities, including access to Art Nouveau buildings generally closed to the public, offering participants a unique experience traveling back in time.
A series of guided cemeteries is also planned in Italy, dedicated to Art Nouveau and funerary art between the 19th and 20th centuries, featuring works by Luigi Orengo, Leonardo Bistolfi, Medardo Rosso, Adolfo Wildt, and Giacomo Manzù. This often-littered heritage is now accessible to the general public through guided tours of chapels, statues, and funerary monuments of extraordinary artistic value.
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