The promotion and dissemination of Italian culture in the world has not stopped and will start anew thanks to the possibilities offered by digital technologies, which make it possible to aggregate and coordinate a network of people whose aim is to make Italy and its treasures always feel close, even thousands of kilometers away.

This is the birth of “Stanze Italiane”, a new web platform created by the newly appointed director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, Fabio Finotti, just a few weeks after taking office in the prestigious headquarters on Park Avenue. This initiative will offer – not only to New Yorkers but also to all those who love Italy and what it represents – new contributions on art, literature, music, design and landscape. The website www.stanzeitaliane.it will be available from Monday, March 22, 2021.

“The global health emergency,” says Fabio Finotti, “has moved many activities to the web. We have decided to seize this transformation as an opportunity, taking full advantage of it. We should not see the Internet merely as an environment where to store or randomly gather data. It is, instead, a space that must be designed according to the Italian taste and style, by constructing virtual buildings that share the same elegance and accessibility as the real ones. That is why we will open the “Stanze Italiane”. “Stanza” (“room”) in our language indicates an architectural space, but it is at the same time a literary and musical space: poems and songs are also made of stanzas. In this space – as composite and welcoming as a home – lovers of Italian culture will be able to find what they are looking for: memory and innovation, discussions and in-depth analyses linking the past and the future. Above all, they will find a community of Italians and Italics: those who live in Italy and those who feed on and nourish Italian culture while living outside the peninsula. Our goal here in New York is to bring Italian culture to the United States and the world, and to bring the United States and the world to Italy. Through the “Stanze Italiane” you will all be able to experience the richness and beauty of our hospitality”.

Ten “Stanze Italiane” will be opened in the first months: “Atrio” (dedicated to the Institute, its history, its relationship with New York), “Dante’s Room” (dedicated to our Sommo Poeta), “Stoà” (the portico, a meeting place, a place where to look from the inside to the outside and vice versa), “Galleria” (the gallery, to get to know characters and works of Italian art or linked to Italy), “Auditorium” (a space for cinema, music, television and all forms of audio-visual production up to the Internet), “Caminetto” (the fireplace, for more intimate conversations on characters and books connecting the two sides of the Ocean), “Biblioteca” (the library, to celebrate treasures of the Italian language), and also “Officina del design” (dedicated to the ‘Made in Italy’), “Children’s Corner” (for children) and “Horti” (dedicated to the invention of Italian landscape). We aim to expand our virtual house in the future with other “Stanze” such as the “Cucina” (“Kitchen”), the “Guardaroba” (“Wardrobe”), the “Garage”, the “Palestra” (“Gym”) and the “Soffitta” (“Attic”).

These spaces will come to life thanks to a series of videos, images, interviews and texts all specifically created for the “Stanze Italiane” project with protagonists of the Italian cultural world. The digital storytelling on which the website is based will allow you to browse high-resolution images, which have been transformed into maps of the textual and audio-visual contents of each “Stanza”. The graphic design of the website is built through some symbolic images that are representative of the country and of its relationship with New York, made available by museums, foundations, institutions and private collections, including the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, the MART of Trento and Rovereto, Casa Leopardi, the Renzo Piano Foundation. The soundtrack will include excerpts from pieces belonging to different genres and musical eras related to the different themes of the “Stanze” and all connected with Italy.

The first two “Stanze” will be opened from March 22: the “Atrio” – with a series of historical pictures of the building that has housed the Institute at 686 Park Avenue in New York since the 1960s – and the “Stanza di Dante” to join in the celebrations of the Dantedì (Dante’s Day) scheduled by the Italian Government on March 25 (conventionally considered the day when the Sommo Poeta begins his otherworldly journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise). The “Stanza di Dante” will also display a series of treasures such as “Dante ‘prezioso’ 1321-2021”, a brooch in gold, enamel and diamonds designed by artist Mimmo Paladino and created by designer Cleto Munari, a new object conceived for this year’s celebrations and shown here in preview. In addition to pictures of the jewel, there will be an interview with the artists who conceived and created it led by Alba Cappellieri (director of the Museo del gioiello in Vicenza and Professor at the Politecnico di Milano), in-depth texts and images of the sketches. The “Stanza di Dante” will also contain a video conversation by Fabio Finotti with Giorgio Bacci, Professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of Florence and curator of the exhibition “Dante Ipermoderno. Illustrazioni dantesche nel mondo 1983-2021”, which will tour at several Italian Cultural Institutes, such as those in Moscow and London, from April. The third panel of this “Stanza” will host a video conversation of Director Finotti with Leonardo Frigo, a young Italian artist living in London, who will talk about his latest creation “Dante Alighieri Inferno” dedicated to the first Cantica of the Divina Commedia: 33 violins and a cello entirely decorated with ink drawings illustrating all the cantos of the Inferno.

Among the initiatives that will populate the “Stanza di Dante” in the next weeks there will be a conversation with Pier Alvise Serego Alighieri, descendant of the Poet, who is still in charge with the properties purchased by Dante’s son in Valpolicella; preview presentations of theatrical and musical projects devised for the 700^th anniversary, such as “Il suono di Dante” by Maria Teresa Sartori for the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice; “Intelletto d’amore (e altre bugie)” by the young cellist Michele Marco Rossi with Paolo Aralla and the voice of Andrea Camilleri; the pianist Leonora Armellini with pages by Franz Liszt; the premiere of an opera being prepared in the USA; and as well as more lectures, readings, conferences and conversations.

Among the “Stanze” that will be opened in the coming weeks, there will be the “Galleria” with conversations dedicated to iconic contemporary works of art with art historian Laura Mattioli in collaboration with CIMA. Center for Italian Modern Art in New York. There will also be interviews with artists such as the one with Ezio Gribaudo coordinated by Victoria Surliuga (Professor of Italian Studies at Texas Tech University in Lubbock). The “Stoà” will be inaugurated on March 26 with a video entitled Per riveder le stelle – Una serata tra musiche e poesie, abbassando le luci, produced in collaboration with the Teatro Rossetti of Trieste directed by Paolo Valerio on the occasion of the initiative “M’illumino di meno” by Rai Radio2. At the beginning of April, this “Stanza” will also host a conversation dedicated to “Musica migrante” with Luca D’Ambrosio (blogger of musicletter.it), Umberto Marin (founder of Time for Africa) and some musicians, such as Kora Hero, who have managed to combine the musical tradition of their countries of origin with the suggestions of Italian and European music. Audio-visual documents collected thanks to the collaboration with RAI Italia will also soon be available in the “Atrio”.

From an idea by Fabio Finotti (who is also the author of the texts on the platform), “Stanze italiane” is a project produced by the Italian Cultural Institute in New York – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation with the collaboration of Malina Mannarino (Management Secretary) and Floriana Tessitore (Programming and Production); “Cultura e digitale” manages the website and social media and the art direction is by Venti caratteruzzi. The videos – shot in various locations, thanks to a rich network of collaborators remotely coordinated – are directed by Emanuele Cammarata.