C’era una volta / Once upon a time / ایک دفعہ کا ذکر ہے / Érase una vez / Na ishte nië herë / كان يا ماكان / Ghe gera ‘na volta / Il était une fois / Er was eens / এক দেশে ছিল এক / Era uma vez / Noong unang panahon / Одного разу / A fost odată / Bir zamanlar
4 works of art in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection inspire 4 stories told by people with migratory backgrounds that are learning Italian.
Once Upon a Time is a collection of plurilingual stories written by 60 students of Venice’s C.P.I.A. (Adult Learning Center), who visited the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and participated in the social inclusion program, I Go to the Museum.
During their visit, each class observed and analyzed one of the following works on view: Umberto Boccioni’s Dynamism of a Speeding Horse + Houses (1915), Vasily Kandinsky’s Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2 (1913), René Magritte’s Empire of Light (1953–54), and Joan Miró’s Dutch Interior II (1928).
The four works inspired as many stories, conceived and written by the participants with the help of their teachers. The students then recorded each story in the studios of Radio Ca’ Foscari.
Gallery
The stories are told in Italian, with parts in the narrators' mother tongues. Their transcription helps us understand each story, following a creative writing process and highlighting the similarities and differences of the languages used—Albanian, Arab, Azeri, Bangladeshi, Flemish, French, English, Italian, Pashto, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian, Urdu, as well as Neapolitan and Venetian—in terms of sounds, spelling, and meaning.
Once Upon a Time is organized by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, in collaboration with MILE, Museums and Innovation in Language Education at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice’s CREL (Center for Research in Educational Linguistics), with the crucial technical support of Radio Ca’ Foscari.
The Horse Who Searched for the Secret
Narrator and Leone/Lion: Javid Hasanov (Azeri)
Cavallo/Horse: Renier Hueting (French, English, Flemish)
Tartaruga/Tortoise: Claudia Meneghetti (Venetian)
Fenice/Phoenix: Michela Perrotta (Neapolitan)
Story by the C.P.I.A.’s B1 level class
The Rainbow Mountain
Narrator: Nizar Ahmad (Pashto)
Il vecchio mago/The Old Wizard: Yousaf Khan (Pashto)
La fata/The Fairy: Nada Mallat (Arab)
Il cacciatore/The Hunter: Yassen Mohammad (Urdu)
Il lupo/The Wolf: Erdonit Berisha (Albanian)
Il pastore/The Shepherd: Oswaldo Pedroza Riascos Ithier (Spanish)
Story by the C.P.I.A.’s eight grade class
Happiness Beyond the Clouds
Narrator: Ludmila Chitan (Romanian)
Chiara: Michela Perrotta (Italian)
Bruno: Gustavo Cesar (Portuguese)
Albero/Tree: Khristine Rios (Tagalog)
Sole/Sun: Svitlana Zolotarenko (Ukranian)
Story by the C.P.I.A.’s B1 level class
The Spider’s Dance
Narrator and il drago/the Dragon: Dojsi Janollari (Albanian)
Il pastore/The Shepherd: Irini Dervish (Albanian)
Il bambino/The Little Boy: Robin Islem (Bangladeshi)
La donna violino/The Violin Woman: Karina Lutsenko (Ukranian)
La volpe/The Fox: Oswaldo Pedroza Riascos Ithier (Spanish)
Story by the C.P.I.A.’s eight grade class