Szenische Lesung: "Artemisia. Die Bild gewordene Rache"

In the organizer's words:

To mark International Women's Day, the Italian Cultural Institute Cologne is presenting a staged reading of the unpublished play "Artemisia. Revenge turned into an image" by Alessandra Giuriola and Michele De Vita Conti.

The texts will be presented by the actresses Chiara Tomei and Lou Zöllkau in Italian and German.

The Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1656) was the first woman to be admitted to the Accademia del Disegno in Florence and, together with Joan of Arc, is considered one of the first icons of feminism. During her career, Artemisia painted large-format pictures with scenes that had previously only been reserved forwell-known men such as Michelangelo, Botticelli, Caravaggio and, last but not least, her father Orazio Gentileschi . However, she was one of the first women to fight - against the customs of the time - to be able to be an independent artist. Artemisia remains a controversial figure to this day.

In her text "Artemisia. Revenge made image", playwrights Alessandra Giuriola and Michele De Vita Conti confront the artist and enter into a direct dialog with her. Inspired by Caravaggio's chiaroscuro technique, which Artemisia masterfully made her own in the course of her career, they present a nocturnal scene characterized by subdued light and unsettling sounds, whose imposing, tangible figures come to life and converse with each other full of irony. In the conversations, it becomes clear that the painter's creatures can adopt opinions and feelings that differ from those of the artist herself.

Born in Venice in 1988, Alessandra Giuriola studied literature, theater and comparative literature at Ca' Foscari University in Venice. Between 2010 and 2015, she worked first as an actress and later as an assistant director, staging her own productions at Indie Kollektive, Opera Estate Festival Veneto and Teatro Ca' Foscari. After a collaboration with the artistic director of TD Berlin, Alessandra Giuriola was engaged as assistant director at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus from 2020 to 2023, where she accompanied productions by directors such as Sebastian Baumgarten, Stephan Kimmig, Laura Linnenbaum, Roger Vontobel, Felix Krakau, Mina Salehpour and Bernadette Sonnenbichler.

Michele De Vita Conti (Milan, June 7, 1965) is an Italian theater director and playwright who has lived in Germany for many years. In over 30 years of work, he has realized performances in Europe and Latin America. As a playwright, he wrote La catena del freddo (2001) and Gli anni chiusi (2004), both of which were selected for the Riccione Prize. More recently, he wrote and directed Lady Macbeth (2018) in France and Italy. In collaboration with Johnny Lodi, he wrote the play Mirage (2006) and, with Giuseppe Battiston, Orson Welles' Roast, a play he also directed (2008), for which Battiston received the Ubu and ETI prizes.

Free admission.

Info: https://iiccolonia.esteri.it/de/gli_eventi/calendario/artemisia-incorniciare-la-vendetta/