THE FILM VERDICT: You have often underlined the uniqueness of the Biennale di Venezia, which encompasses art, architecture, dance, music and theater as well as cinema. You stress that it “has never been just a showcase for talents and films, it has also been a mirror of political, social and environmental criticalities.” How have you been guiding the Biennale – particularly the cinema section – to reflect contemporary issues and what you have called “the transformation of history”?
ROBERTO CICUTTO: Ever since my arrival in 2020 I have realized how, through its relationship with the national Pavilions, along with the artists invited by the curators of the Art and Architecture sections and the directors of the various Festivals (Cinema, Theater, Music and Dance), the Biennale represents an observatory on many of the world’s realities, and not just from an artistic point of view. Also from a political and economic perspective, all the way to the respect for human rights and freedom of expression.
For this reason I would dare to say that the Biennale system is a unique space for the exercise of cultural diplomacy. As far as cinema is concerned, in my role as President I don’t intervene in artistic choices (or for any other Festival). But it’s obvious that since the Biennale represents contemporaneity, the choices made by the festival director can’t help but privilege everything that contributes to the search for new languages (both expressive and technological) by affirmed filmmakers and new talents, bearing witness to the transformations and historical changes as they continue to happen.
THE FILM VERDICT: You have also brought something quite unique to the Biennale: your long experience as one of Italy’s top film producers, from films directed by Sally Potter to Jacques Rivette, from Spike Lee to masterpieces by Ermanno Olmi. How did your work as a producer prepare you to coordinate a cultural behemoth like the Venice Biennale?
ROBERTO CICUTTO: It’s astonishing how organizing the Festivals and Exhibits of the Biennale resembles film production. Each time one constructs a new world that requires deep understanding with the curators and artistic directors, whose selection is the President’s responsibility. With them one starts a journey that leads to the making of the Festivals and Shows, each of which has a work schedule and a fixed time to open to the public. In addition, like in a cinematheque, we are working on the new International Center for Research on the Contemporary Arts, a space where all the proposed contents will become the material for study and research for specialists in the field, students, educational institutions and all those who are interested in the Biennale’s disciplines.
THE FILM VERDICT: So many wars, revolutions, pandemics, economic and climate disasters. So many intelligent films, plays and paintings about history, politics, human rights. Can art really change the world?
ROBERTO CICUTTO: As I have said many times in the course of these four years, the raison d’être for an institution like the Biennale is to verify whether Beauty and Culture can change the world. The Biennale is a laboratory that measures itself against all the current critical issues. And it is lucky to be in Venice, which is itself a unique laboratory of fragility and experimentation. An indissoluble union in which those who arrive measure their own creative work against the highest example of beauty, history and technological miracle that is Venice.
