ARTISTS

VALERIO FESTI

A life in the piazza

During the sixties and seventies, when artists were looking for innovative forms of expression, and trying to remove themselves from the prevailing provincialism of the era, Valerio Festi chose as his stage the piazza, the city, the sky.

While studying the "science of entertainment" at the University of Bologna, Festi began to experiment with new forms of theatrical communication to involve and excite his audience.

Through the poetry of the Renaissance and Baroque traditions, Valerio Festi unites visionary fantasy and theoretical research.

Using the splendor of the ephemeral, but charged with political and cultural significance, his spectacles celebrate grand social events. Maestro Festi creates his esthetic and artistic imperative: "il fin, la meraviglia" - in other words: the goal is creating amazement, surprise and astonishment.

For over thirty years, Festi’s work has been to conceive and execute projects in open air for festive occasions and ceremonies, from the Concert For Fireworks, synchronized to music, to the creation of scenic machines that capture the audience’s imagination; from the decoding of the language of a town or city to the modern translation of the syntax of civic and religious celebrations.

Throughout, Festi gives shape and a voice to the events and creates images in which an entire community can see itself.

Valerio Festi, in a close artistic and lifetime union with the stage director, playwright and dramatist Monica Maimone,

creates a new art form: event architecture. This master of his craft transforms urban places and spaces, giving meaning to celebratory occasions with a new dimension.

His creations inject energy and new life into traditional celebrations such as Christmas, New Year, and Carnival; provide an opportunity for reflection and introspection in religious celebrations that honor the virtues of the Saint, or civic occasions; and allow for meditation, mourning and a sense of hope in places such as Kobe, where light architecture celebrates rebirth every year in commemoration of the horrible earthquake.

Throughout his career, Valerio Festi has developed and produced events of grand proportions.

His work has reached over two hundred cities, including Paris, Moscow, Madrid, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Prague, Reykjavik, Houston (where he was awarded the USA Architects Association medal), Milano, Bogota, Bejing, Lisbon, Bilbao, Sydney, Toronto, Torino (where he was associated with the Opening Ceremony of the 20th Winter Olympic Games) and Rome, where he created the Opening Ceremony of the 13th FINA World Championships in the spectacular Marble Stadium in 2009.