Italian cultural institute in London - Calendar of events

The Italian Cultural Institute (39, Belgrave Square - London) is the official Italian Government centre for the promotion of culture, offering a wide choice of Italian language classes on all levels, conducted by university-qualified teachers and native speakers.

Free membership of the Institute means free access for you and your guests to an exciting range of cultural activities including film, plays, concerts, book and poetry readings, and exhibitions. Members can also use the library, with more than 25,000 volumes, plus periodicals and a large reference section, with internet access as well. You can also borrow videos and DVDs.

For more information contact the "Istituto italiano di cultura" on 02078231887 or visit http://www.icilondon.info/

This is the Calendar of Events:

Art

Tuesday, June 07, 2011 - Sunday, November 27, 2011

Quayola: Strata Series 2007-2011

The Roman artist Quayola is one of the most interesting figures in the Italian contemporary art scene and he is based in London.In the works exhibited at Strata Series 2007-2011, using digital instruments and computer programmes, the artist deconstructs

Art

Wednesday, September 07, 2011 - Friday, October 07, 2011

SYNECDOCHE VEDUTE

From 7 September 2011, the Italian Cultural Institute in London, in collaboration with the Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, will host Synecdoche Vedute by the artist Flavio de Marco. The exhibition revisits – hence the synecdoche of the title – the

Special event

Monday, September 12, 2011 - Friday, September 30, 2011

Ambassadors of Flavour Project from Sicily at our Bar-Ristorante

The Italian Cultural Institute launched the "Ambassadors of Flavour Project" in November 2010 in an effort to familiarize people with the richness and diversity of Italian culinary tradition. Good food is certainly one of the things Italy is most famous

Music

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Synesthesia

On 15 September 2011 exhibition visitors will be invited to experience Synesthesia, with the renowned storyteller Paolo Nori offering the audience his views of the city in spoken form and Teho Teardo on the guitar and electronics, accompanied by Martina

Cinema

Saturday, September 17, 2011

THE WHITE SPACE (in Italian with English subtitles)

cast: Margherita Buy, Antonia Truppo, Gaetano Bruno, Giovanni Ludeno, Guido Caprino, Maria Paiato, Salvatore Cantalupo, Vincenzo Pacilli ; Maria is waiting for a little girl; she is no longer pregnant but is waiting anyway. She is waiting for her daughter

Cinema

Sunday, September 18, 2011

GIULIA DOES’NT DATE AT NIGHT (in Italian with English subtitles)

cast: Valerio Mastandrea, Valeria Golino, Sonia Bergamasco, Antonia Liskova, Piera Degli Esposti, Jacopo Domenicucci, Jacopo Bicocchi, Sara Tosti, Chiara Nicola, Fabio Camilli, Paolo Sassanelli, Lidia Vitale; country: Italy; year: 2009; film run: 105'

Cinema

Monday, September 19, 2011 - Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Conference on Italian Cinema and the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy

Conference on Italian Cinema and the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy. Includes appearances by renowned actor Fabrizio Gifuni and Massimo Troisi’s scriptwriter Anna Pavignano, as well as multiple contributions by experts from the University

Theatre

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

NAPOLI

We invite you to celebrate the launch of NAPOLI - a chance to meet the team behind the project, be entertained by the cast and hear live music composed for the show by award-winning Cellorhythmics. A Q&A session will follow. 6:30pm Drinks 7:00pm

Music

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Giuseppe Fricelli Piano Recital

Giuseppe Fricelli is a professor of piano at the "Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini" in Florence Over the years he has been invited to hold concerts in various music festivals and concert seasons worldwide as soloist and with chamber music groups He is coming

Cinema

Sunday, September 25, 2011

COSMONAUT (in Italian with English subtitles)

cast: Claudia Pandolfi, Sergio Rubini, Pietro Del Giudice, Miriana Raschillà, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Angelo Orlando, Valentino Campitelli, Michelangelo Ciminale country: Italy; year: 2008; film run: 85' In the early sixties Arturo and Luciana, brother

Literature

Monday, September 26, 2011

Margaret Mazzantini In Conversation with Beatrice Hodgkin to present TWICE BORN (venuto al Mondo)

Winner of Italy’s Campiello Prize for Fiction,Twice Born is Margaret Mazzantini’s international breakout novel.‘Enthralling, compelling and gripping’ Mail on Sunday ‘Unfolds with the whispered, urgent secrecy of a confessional…tense, taut and very graphic’

Literature

Monday, October 03, 2011

Helen Constantine in Conversation with Hugh Shankland will be introducing their new book Rome Tales

These twenty tales offer the delight of exploring one of the world's most enchanting cities through a wide variety of individual lives and epochs Presenting a vivid mosaic of dramatic, comic, and tragic stories, all set in the Eternal City, these twenty

Literature

Monday, October 10, 2011

ROBIN SAIKIA IN CONVERSATION WITH JEFF COTTON to present THE VENICE LIDO by R. Saikia

"I have enjoyed it hugely - and it has taught me lots that I didn't know" John Julius Norwich "Smashing. . . so well brought off I expected sand to sift from its pages while I was reading" Guardian“Warmth, charm and eccentric scholarship” Spectator “

Cinema

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 - Thursday, October 27, 2011

55th BFI London Film Festival

The programme for the 55th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express celebrates the imagination and excellence of international filmmaking from both established and emerging talent. Over 16 days the Festival will screen a total of

Music

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Concert: Marco Mina’ Solo Guitar

Marco Minà was born in Latina, Italy, where he started to study guitar from an early age. He completed his musical studies in Milan at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Music in Milan where he graduated with the best marks under the direction of Professor

Special event

Friday, October 28, 2011

‘Britain, Ireland and the Italian Risorgimento’

To mark the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, the Italian Cultural Institute in London, in conjunction with the University of Wales, Newport, and the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, will host a one-day conference on the theme of ‘Britain,

9/11 - The 10 Year Anniversary

The 9 /11 attacks were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks against targets in New York and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. Hijackers crashed a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. When passengers attempted to take control of the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, preventing it from reaching its intended target in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 died in the attacks.

Suspicion quickly fell on Al-Qaeda, the Islamist militant group. In 2004, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who had initially denied involvement, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden cited U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives for the attacks. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror, invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harbored Al-Qaeda members. Many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. In May 2011 Bin Laden was found and killed.

The destruction caused serious damage to the economy of Lower Manhattan. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is scheduled to open on September 11, 2011. Adjacent to the memorial the 1,776 feet (541 m) One World Trade Center is estimated for completion by 2013. The Pentagon was repaired within a year, and thePentagon Memorial opened, adjacent to the building, in 2008. Ground was broken for the Flight 93 National Memorial in November 2009, and the memorial is to be formally dedicated on September 10, 2011.

Freddie Mercury at 65 today

Bohemian Rhapsody (che tradotto letteralmente significa “Rapsodia Gitana") è uno dei brani più famosi dei Queen. Uscì come singolo nell'ottobre del 1975 e successivamente fu pubblicata sull’album A Night at the Opera. Scritto interamente da Freddie Mercury, questo brano è considerato l’icona del rock progressivo e sintesi della musica moderna che esprime al meglio l’eclettismo musicale della band. Il brano ebbe alcune difficoltà ad essere pubblicato come singolo a causa della sua durata di quasi 6 minuti, un tempo improponibile per un singolo rock dell’epoca. La svolta si ebbe però quando Kenny Everett, un DJ amico di Freddie Mercury, riuscì a trovare una copia del brano, iniziando a trasmetterlo di sua iniziativa durante le sue trasmissioni. Il successo che ne conseguì fu tale che la casa discografica dei Queen pubblicò il singolo, che vinse il disco di platino. La canzone infatti presenta sei parti, caratterizzate da generi completamente diversi tra loro, miscelate con grande maestria tra ballata, hard rock, opera e assolo di chitarra. Per quanto riguarda il vero significato di questo testo, sono state formulate molteplici opinioni, tra cui quella che afferma che Mercury si ricordava di una frase in latino che sentì da piccolo, galileo figurus magnificus, che significa Dio è magnifico e che volle scrivere una canzone inserendo questo messaggio, anche se ancora oggi non si è arrivati a una spiegazione unica ed esauriente. Nel 2000, Bohemian Rhapsody è stata eletta nel Regno Unito canzone del secolo.

Oggi Freddie Mercury avrebbe compiuto 65 anni. Che cosa sarebbe accaduto se fosse ancora vivo? Sicuramente quello che amava fare: incendiare le folle con le sue stravaganti performance...