The Disquieted Muses Grapple with the World - When La Biennale di Venezia Meets History

Freedom for Chile (1973) at Le Muse Disquiete - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) When La Biennale was forced to postpone the International Architecture Exhibition due to the current health crisis, it got creative and dug into its Historical Archives for Contemporary Arts (ASAC) to mark the 125 years that it has been in existence. 

For the first time, all the artistic directors of La Biennale's six different departments -- Art, Architecture, Cinema, Music, Dance and Theater -- have come together to curate Le Muse Inquiete, an enlightening exhibition illustrating how history has crossed paths with the dynamic cultural institution.

Back in the 1890s, the original idea to hold an international art festival in Venice was the brainchild of Riccardo Selvatico, a playwright, poet, and mayor of Venice, who, together with his circle of intellectuals, would meet in Caffé Florian in Piazza San Marco to organize their plans. 

La Biennale's first International Art Exhibition of the City of Venice opened on April 22, 1895 in a purposely-built pavilion in the sprawling gardens of Venice's Giardini sector. Belgium built the first national pavilion in 1907, soon joined by Hungary, Germany, Great Britain, France and Russia, creating individual art embassies where each country could spotlight their talent. 

Aside from interruptions by two world wars (and now the COVID-19 pandemic), La Biennale has taken place ever since, growing into one of the most important global cultural events.

The Disquieted Muses - Photo: Cat Bauer

The Disquieted Muses grabs us from the moment we enter the Central Pavilion. We come face to face with clips from June 14, 1934 of Adolf Hitler landing at the airport on the Lido in Venice and disembarking from a Lufthansa plane where he was greeted by Benito Mussolini. The two dictators hop into a boat taxi along with Giuseppe Volpi, the powerful businessman and president of La Biennale -- who created the Venice Film Festival -- and Antonio Maraini, the secretary general of La Biennale and Florentine sculptor who had a "dazzling career of absolute dominance over artistic life during Fascism."

We weave our way through rooms documenting La Biennale's transformation from a local public institution that organized international art exhibitions into an organization controlled by the Fascists, who viewed the arts as a political propaganda tool. From 1934 to 1938, La Biennale was visited by  Mussolini, Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and the king of Italy, "demonstrating its importance as a stage for new Italian alliances with the world."

In May 1940, war raged in Europe but La Biennale still opened its doors, now totally under Fascist control, with artists chosen by direct invitation or through competitions based on Fascist themes. The Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido had been requisitioned by the armed forces, so the 8th Venice International Film Festival was held in the historic center of Venice at the San Marco and Rossini cinemas, and only Axis allies or neutral countries were allowed to take part.

Military Requisition for Property - Photo: Cat Bauer

Italy was at war in 1942 and La Biennale did not have the staff or resources to open, but geared back up in 1946 after the war. One of the most interesting documents on display is the MILITARY REQUISITION FOR PROPERTY dated May 1, 1947 notifying the Comune di Venezia that elements of the United States of America were temporarily occupying the Palazzo del Cinema.

Model of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Photo: Cat Bauer

Peggy Guggenheim brought her collection -- which included Jackson Pollack -- to Venice in 1948, the same year of the first solo exhibition by 67-year-old Pablo Picasso, who had never exhibited at La Biennale before. A small model of the Greek pavilion where Peggy exhibited her collection is an amazing reproduction of the show with the tiny works of art all in their places.

We journey through the Cold War and the 1950s when Bertolt Brecht was invited to stage Mother Courage and Her Children, but was refused a visa by the Italian government. In 1954, mayhem broke out at the award ceremony in the Sala Grande when Federico Fellini's La Strada won the Silver Lion and Luchino Visconti's Senso was totally ignored. "Visconti's assistant Franco Zeffirelli got in a physical fight with Fellini's assistant Moraldo Rossi, and the police had to intervene to separate them, while La Strada's producer Dino De Laurentiis engaged in a shouting match with Visconti supporters."

In the 1960s Abstract Expressionism arrived on the scene from the United States, bringing an American contingent of Pop artists like Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns to La Biennale. Robert Rauschenberg's controversial 1964 win of the coveted Golden Lion, La Biennale's top prize, created an uproar in the art world.

That is just a small taste of the overwhelming history lesson that awaits you at the Central Pavilion down at Giardini. The titles of the rooms illustrate more of what's in store:

ROOM 1
The Film Festival, 1932-1939

Room 2A
The Biennale during Fascism 1928-1945

Room 2B
The Cold War and the New World Order 1947-1964

Room 3
1968: a year of protests and new ideals

ROOM 4
The 1970s: interdisciplinary and political work

ROOM 5
Freedom for Chile, 1974

ROOM 6
Sofija Guvajdulina, applied music and absolute music

ROOM 7
The Biennale of Dissent, 1977

ROOM 8
The First International Architecture Exhibition and Postmodernism, 1980

ROOM 9
La Biennale and the Society of the spectacle

GIARDINO SCARPA
Tan Dun, traditional music and technology

ROOM 12
The 1990s: from Nation-States to a Global Biennale

ROOM 13
Central Pavilion since 1895

It was fascinating to discover the extent that international events and politics actually play out in the world of art, and the tense equilibrium artists create when they react to the world around them with powerful creative expression. We can only imagine what the current state of affairs will inspire in future Disquieted Muses.

Le Muse Inquiete - When La Biennale Meets History is at the Central Pavilion in Giardini until December 8, 2020. Go to La Biennale di Venezia for more information.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Mysteries of the Month of August & the Divine Feminine- The Sacred Meets the Profane During the "Easter of Summer" - Thoughts on Ferragosto from a Scalding Venice

The Sun - Photo: NASA

UPDATED August 2024

(Venice, Italy) In 18 BC, Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, created the Feriae Augusti, the Festivals of Augustus. Many sources say he consolidated several pre-existing Roman festivals in August to give his people a longer period of time off after their hard work during the harvests. 

Others say the future emperor created the festivals when he was called Octavian to celebrate his conquest of Egypt and victory over Mark Antony, who committed suicide on August 1, 30 BC.

But long before that, perhaps stretching back to 600 BC, the peak summer time we now call the Ides of August — Ferragosto — celebrated divine female energy. Let’s go back in time…

JULIUS CAESAR, THE FATHER OF AUGUSTUS, WAS THE FIRST ROMAN TO BECOME A GOD

How does a man become a god?

Julius Caesar, along with Pompey the Great and Marcus Crassus, was one-third of the "First Triumvirate," a secret Roman political alliance that would deteriorate over time.

General Julius Caesar was the governor of Gaul, a province of Rome. The Rubicon was a shallow river that was the border between Gaul and Roman territory. Caesar knew by crossing the Rubicon with an army he would start a civil war, famously uttering, "The die is cast."

I was surprised to learn that the Rubicon is not far from Venice, just 28 minutes outside Rimini.

The Rubicon - 28 minutes from Rimini - Google maps

At one point Gaul stretched from France, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond, across Northern Italy to the Adriatic Sea. A "history buff" named Dixit on Quora does an excellent job answering the question:

Why did Julius Caesar cross the Rubicon as it is on the eastern edge of Italy when he came from Gaul towards Rome? 

The Rubicon - Dixit on Quora

"You can see that the Northern part of Italy, now called the ‘Po Valley', is North of the Rubicon and is labelled ‘Gaul', more correctly the ‘Province of Cisalpine Gaul'.

The Rubicon is outlined in blue on the above map, and you can see that it ends (or rather begins), in the Apennine mountains (which is that rougher terrain on the left side of the Rubicon).

In Roman times, the Rubicon marked the border between Italy, and Cisalpine Gaul, which was administered separately." Keep reading

To make a long, complex story very short, Caesar finally defeated his rivals at the Battle of Munda during the Great Roman Civil War on March 17, 45 BC.

The ancient games commemorating the founding of Rome in 753 BC seven centuries earlier were already scheduled to be held the next day — chariot races, gladiator fights, and other spectaculars. After Caesar's victory, his propaganda team quickly re-dedicated the celebrations to Caesar -- as if he were the founder of Rome itself.

After years of turmoil and civil unrest, the people of Rome were ready to move on. Caesar was given a house built like a temple. He was the first living man to have his portrait put on coins.

Caesar's family claimed to be descended from the goddess, Venus. He was the pontifex maximus, the chief high priest in the ancient Roman religion. If he became a living god, his name would be Divus Julius — if and when ratified by the Senate.

Caesar’s enemies put a stop to his divine ambitions when they assassinated him on the Ides of March 44 BC -- or so they thought. 

Augustus comes on the scene

Augustus was born Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 BC. He was the grandnephew of Julius Caesar. In his will, Julius Caesar named Octavius as his adopted son and sole heir, so when Julius Caesar was murdered, the 18-year-old Gaius Octavius became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian, one of the wealthiest and most powerful citizens in the Republic of Rome.

Julius Caesar becomes a god

In July 44 BC, four months after Julius Caesar's assassination, Octavian held funeral games in honor of his adopted father, incorporating the games into the celebration of the goddess Venus — games that Caesar had established two years earlier. 

Astonishingly, a bright comet appeared in the skies during the games -- a comet that has since been verified by historical records. 

Comets are hard to ignore

All of Rome witnessed the comet. Julius Caesar had just been assassinated. The games celebrated the goddess Venus. Octavian proclaimed the obvious — that Julius Caesar had become a god and had joined his ancestor, Venus, in heaven. 

Julius Caesar was deified as Divus Julius in 42 BC and was worshipped as a god by the masses. Octavian took the comet as a sign of his own rebirth and the dawning of a New Age. Octavian had become Divi Filius, the son of the divine. (Remember, all this was going on before Jesus Christ made his entrance into the story.)

Head of Church + State = Emperor 

After nearly two decades of conquering and destroying his enemies -- including Mark Antony and Cleopatra -- and expanding Rome's reach, Octavian received the title "Augustus" from the Roman Senate on January 16, 27 BC, transforming the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire with Augustus as its first emperor.

A denarius minted c. 18 BC. Obverse: CAESAR AVGVSTVS; reverse: comet of eight rays with tail upward; DIVVS IVLIV[S] (DIVINE JULIUS) - Image: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc

THE MONTH OF AUGUST

Prior to Emperor Augustus, the month of August was called Sextilis because it was the sixth month in the ten-month Roman calendar. It became the eighth month around 700 BC when January and February were added to the calendar, but was still called Sextilis. 

 

To this day we still use the wrong numbers for the last four months of the year -- September is not the seventh month, but the ninth, yet we do not call it "November" after the Latin word novem for "nine."

 

• September = septem = seven - but is the ninth month
  

• October = octo = eight - but is the 10th month
  

• November = novem = nine - but is the 11th month
  

• December = decem = ten - but is the 12th month
  

Before Julius Caesar came along, the Roman calendar was often manipulated for political purposes. Julius Caesar reformed the calendar on January 1, 45 BC, aligning it with the Sun, and renaming the seventh month "Iulius" after himself, the month in which he was born.

After Augustus came to power, in 8 BC he renamed Sextilis "Augustus," a month dear to his heart, but not because it was the month he was born -- remember, he was born on September 23, 63 BC. From Wikipedia:

Whereas the emperor Augustus Caesar, in the month of Sextilis, was first admitted to the consulate, and thrice entered the city in triumph, and in the same month the legions, from the Janiculum, placed themselves under his auspices, and in the same month Egypt was brought under the authority of the Roman people, and in the same month an end was put to the civil wars; and whereas for these reasons the said month is, and has been, most fortunate to this empire, it is hereby decreed by the senate that the said month shall be called Augustus.

Ironically, Caesar Augustus would die on August 19, AD 14 in the month he created, at the age of 75.

Roman fresco of goddess Diana hunting, 4th century AD, from the Via Livenza hypogeum in Rome

THE VIRGIN MOON GODDESS DIANA

Centuries before Augustus swept onto the stage, Romans had already been celebrating the Nemoralia on the Ides of what-would-become-August. The Nemoralia was a three-day festival in honor of the virgin goddess, Diana. Diana was a complicated goddess -- a triple goddess of the Moon, the hunt and the underworld -- as well as wild animals, virginity, fertility and childbirth, and was often depicted with a bow and arrow.

Worshippers carried torches and candles to the shores of Lake Nemi, a volcanic lake just south of Rome in the city of Aricia, and adorned hunting dogs with garlands of flowers. It was a day of rest for women and slaves, to whom Diana offered protection. 

The Romans co-opted the twelve Olympian Greek gods and changed their names, but the gods retained much of their essential natures.The Romans conflated the virgin goddess Diana with the virgin Greek goddess, Artemis, whose worship stretched back to pre-Hellenic times. Both Diana and Artemis were the daughters of the primary Olympian god, Zeus in Greek mythology, and Jupiter in Roman mythology.

By the time the Romans had conquered the Latin people of Aricia in 338 BC, Diana Nemorensis had been worshipped in the sacred grove of the Arician forest since very ancient times. The Grove of Diana was a healing sanctuary that would grow into a small city with Hellenized architecture and an international clientele. 

The moon goddess Diana was revered by Augustus, who had ties to Aricia on the maternal side of his family.

Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon with a Diadem by
Albrecht Dürer (1514) Rijksmusem

THE VIRGIN MARY

Meanwhile, around 4 BC, Jesus Christ was born to a Jewish virgin named Mary in Bethlehem, a city located on the West Bank in Palestine in the Roman province of Judea, six miles south of Jerusalem. With her husband, Joseph, she had traveled from Nazareth -- 90 miles away -- supposedly in order to register in the census ordered by Emperor Augustus (which in reality did not take place until AD 6).

The Archangel Gabriel had appeared to Mary and told her she would be the mother of the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, chosen above all women on earth for her goodness and purity, fulfilling the prophecy in the Old Testament of the promised Messiah.

At the time of the birth of Jesus, Herod the Great was the King of Judea, a title bestowed upon him by the Roman Senate, with whom he had close relations. Herod died in 4 BC, and his kingdom was divided among three of his sons and his sister. Under Augustus in 6 AD, Judea was turned into a Roman province, and the general population was taxed. The Roman prefect was granted the power of a supreme judge and had the authority to order a criminal's execution.

After Augustus died in AD 14, his stepson, Tiberius, was named emperor. Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect of Judea when Jesus Christ flipped Judaism on its head, and challenged the pagan gods. With words as his only weapon, Jesus was a charismatic leader who could draw a crowd. He claimed God was his father. He rode a donkey into Jerusalem on Passover, surrounded by adoring masses. He went into the Temple, tossed over tables and drove out the merchants, accusing them of turning his Father's house into a den of thieves. He was a threat to the Jews, and an annoyance to Rome.

Around AD 30 or 33, Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus Christ to death, reportedly for claiming to be the Son of God and the King of the Jews. Jesus was crucified on a cross on a Friday and placed in a tomb, his mother Mary and others at the scene.

On Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found it empty. Jesus then appeared to Mary Magdalene and his disciples before he ascended body and soul into heaven forty days later. Rome and the Jews had severely underestimated the power of Jesus Christ.

Christ Pantocrator in the Basilica of San Marco, Venice - Photo: Cat Bauer

CHRISTIANITY  vs. THE ROMANS

As the centuries passed, it became clear that Jesus Christ had founded an entirely new religion, Christianity, with devout worshippers willing to die for their faith. The highest of Christianity's holy days is Easter or Pascha, a movable feast tied to the Moon that celebrates Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. There is a difference between the way the date is calculated between the Western Roman Catholic Church, which uses the Gregorian calendar, and the Eastern Orthodox Church, which uses the Julian calendar.

For its first 300 years, Christianity was viewed by Rome as an illegal religion, and most Roman citizens, who were pagans, sought to repress it. Initially, persecution of Christians was carried out on a local level, instigated by pagan mobs. Christians were forced to renounce their religion and sacrifice to the Roman gods upon fear of death. One particularly gruesome form of capital punishment was damnatio ad bestias, condemnation to beasts, a blood sport reserved for the worst criminals and Christians.

In 68 AD, Mark the Evangelist, Venice's own patron saint and the founder of the Church of Alexandria, was killed by a pagan mob when they put a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he died.

The local persecutions escalated until in 303 AD, during The Great Persecution, the Roman state ordered the destruction of churches, the seizure of Christian property and the burning of Christian texts. Christians were tortured and burned alive or mutilated and forced to work in the copper mines in Egypt.

EMPEROR CONSTANTINE CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY

Constantine the Great put an end to the persecution of Christians in AD 313, together with his eastern counterpart, Licinius, with the Edict of Milan, granting the freedom for each individual to worship as he pleased. Constantine was a pagan who converted to Christianity in AD 312. He decreed that Sunday, sacred to the official Roman Sun god, Sol Invictus, would be a day of rest. He reunited the Roman Empire under one emperor and moved the capital to the Greek city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople, founded in AD 324. He built churches, ordered up Bibles and and promoted Christians to high-ranking offices. Constantine was baptized on his deathbed on May 22 AD 337.

Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica on February 27 AD 380. Similar to how Rome absorbed the Greek gods, it changed the images and feast days of the pagan gods to represent the Christian religion.

Church of Santa Maria Assunta, Torcello, Venice - Photo: Cat Bauer

THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY & THE EASTER OF SUMMER

There is no mention of how the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, died, and it has been a topic of discussion throughout the ages, including whether to call her the Theotokos, the Mother of God, or the Christotokos, the Mother of Christ. For centuries, it was debated whether:

• she died a natural death
• Christ transported her soul to heaven, and on the third day her body was resurrected
• or whether she was still alive at the time of assumption.

The Virgin Mary's ascent into heaven is called the Dormition in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Assumption in the Roman Catholic Church. It is the same celebration with different interpretations. 

The earliest records about the celebration of the Virgin Mary are lost to history, but reference was made to a feast day as far back as the 3rd century. Then in AD 431, during the time Council of Ephesus, it was decided that the Virgin Mary was to be called the Theotokos, "the one who gave birth to God." The Byzantine emperor Maurice (539-602) selected August 15th as the feast of Dormition, the passing of the Virgin Mary from earthly life.

The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates the Dormition of the Theotokos on August 15, and calls it the "Easter of Summer." It is preceded by a two-week fast, broken by a traditional feast with family and friends. The Orthodox Church teaches that Mary died a natural death at the house of John the Evangelist in Jerusalem, surrounded by the Apostles except for Thomas. The Apostles buried her in the garden of Gethsemane. When Thomas arrived three days later, he visited her tomb and found it empty. So, the Orthodox Church believes that Mary died on earth, Christ took her soul to heaven, and then her body was assumed.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Papal State institutionalized the Feast of the Assumption as a Catholic holiday on August 15th and moved the secular Ferragosto festival so it would coincide with the religious festival of the Virgin Mary.

FASCISTS HOP ON THE FESTIVAL

During Fascism in the late 1920s and 30s, the regime organized discounted train trips so that working classes in Italy could have an opportunity to relax and visit the sea or the mountains on August 13, 14, and 15, establishing a tradition of traveling to different regions that continues to this day.

In the Roman Catholic Church, it was not until 1950 that Pope Pius XII made the Assumption of the Virgin Mary part of Church dogma, declaring "that the immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever virgin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven." He did not say whether or not she was already dead.

So in Italy, the pagan festival of the ancient moon goddess, Diana, was absorbed into the Roman Imperial festivities of Ferragosto, which was absorbed into the Catholic feast of the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of God, which was absorbed into the Fascist festivities of Ferragosto...

Happy August from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog