Once more this year the United States Pavilion, through the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, will take part in the 5th International Carnival for Children at the Venice Biennale, from 22 February to 4 March 2014 in the Castello Gardens, Venice.
La casina dei biscotti is the title of this year’s event, and the US contribution will be Through the Looking Glass, a workshop conducted in the Central Pavilion of the Castello Gardens. After introduction to certain theatrical experiments in the 20th century, such as the stage sets of Futurism and Dada, the fantastical costumes designed by Picasso and Schlemmer, the marionettes and circuses of Klee and Calder, children will create stage scenery of their own imagining. They will discover the world of the theater and the fairy tale through the magical instrument which is the mirror, an intermediary between two worlds and ways of being, often present in fantasy, fable and poetry. Guillaume Apollinaire said: “The bond that unites costume, sets, and choreography has given rise to a certain surrealism as the expression of a new spirit, and will transform the arts into universal joy.”
Participation in the one-hour long workshop is free, designed for children from 6 to 10 years of age, and scheduled at 3pm on 22 February and at 11am and 3pm on 23 February, 1, 2 and 4 March.
In 1986 Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation acquired the US Pavilion from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, with funding provided by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Advisory Board. Since 1985, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has partnered with the United States Information Agency (USIA), the Fund for Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions, and in recent years with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State for the organization of the US exhibitions at the Visual Arts and Architecture Biennales of Venice.
With thanks to Morocolor Italia S.p.a. for supplying the paints used during the workshop.