Those who stay (or arrive) in Venice in August will find a less-than-usual crowded city, that offers the opportunity for a visit at a different pace and to calmly ‘get lost’ inside more than one hundred exhibitions between Arsenale and Giardini, or at all the magnificent exhibition venues scattered everywhere.

Some of them are closing in August: Markus Lüpertz at Palazzo Loredan, Tony Cragg at the Glass Museum (Murano), In search of Fioretta at Ikona Gallery, Claude Cahun / Marcel Moore at the Alberta Pane Gallery, Traits to remeber at 193 Gallery. But there’s also a big opening: The Human Comedy – Memento mori by Ai Weiwei at the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, the result of a collaboration between the Chinese artist and activist and the glass masters of Berengo Studio.

The screening programme of Circuito Cinema invites you to open-air cinema on the beach at the Lido and in Campo San Polo. Also in theatres are the masterpieces of Japanese direcgtor Hayao Miyazaki.

Live jazz evenings are scheduled at Laguna Libre in Fondamenta Cannaregio and on the terrace of the Carlton on the Grand Canal. Classical music, on the other hand, can only be at home at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory, with concerts held by its students.

Every year on August 26 the Guggenheim Collection dedicates a concert to the memory of the legendary Peggy, on the day of her birthday.

By the end of the month the limelight will shine on the Venice International Film Festival directed by Alberto Barbera. After 90 years the Lioness of the Lido is still roaring!