Luciano Damiani
As part of the celebration we have arranged a free guided tour of the Teatro di Documenti, the wonderfully atmospheric multi-level theatre designed and built by Damiani himself, excavated from a seventeenth-century “grotta” (cave). The tour will include an exhibition entitled “Astrazioni Geometriche” (Geometric Abstractions) plus a selection of film clips featuring his work and a permanent display of scenic props, footwear and apparel, posters, sketches and working designs. Visitors can also admire the “Banco Ottico”, an optical device created to project designs in their real dimensions.
INFORMATION
The conferences will be held in either English, French, Spanish or Italian with simultaneous or consecutive translation.
The Casa dell’Architettura is located a short stroll from Rome’s Termini mainline station with direct link to Fiumicino airport.
General organisation: International Festival of Scenic Arts (IFSArts)
in collaboration with The Scenographer (International Journal of Set & Stage Design)
Sadly, I’ve only learned of this event today. I wish I could have been there. Because Luciano Damiani wasn’t just a great scenographer, maybe – in my view – the greatest of the 20th century. But because he was a great, great man. I feel honored to have been in contact with him since the 1990s. He was an artisan and an artist, and he was the only scenographer to really understand one of the most difficult, enigmatic pieces ever written, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” (fortunately he was able to realize his ideas in 1967 for Vienna’s Staatsoper). Maybe because he – rightfully – saw that “Don Giovanni” was not about a certain, supposedly evil character, but about the irony of our short lives in general. Thus he didn’t create the environment for a bad raper who deserved to be punished, but confronted the audience with beauty and bright sunlight. Because beauty is more important than moral values. Which of course is a very Italian way of looking at life. They know that beauty is absolute, while moral values are relative. And they know that absolute things are more relevant than relative ones. Luciano Damiani was a master of creating space and light, because he knew and understood what life is about. I miss him terribly, terribly. There are many great scenographers around, but there is no Luciano Damiani.