Blank slate for flourishing verses

Regulars of the Venice Film Festival know that, if one is forced to pick something the VFF lacks in, that would be a good meeting place – one that is modern, dynamic, that encourages dialogue and conversation, in short support the essential elements of a festival and the protagonists, actors, directors, film buffs, public… with some good music and good food. An open, elegant, simple space. Is that called ‘smart’ nowadays? Well, since a few years, such a space exists, and is, honestly, the only one that has it all: Isola Edipo. Why is called that? It all comes from the salvaging and upcycling of an old sailing yacht, once used by painter Zigaina and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini in the 1950s and 60s together with other exponents of the Italian worlds of culture and art. For several years now, the yacht has been sailing in the Venetian Lagoon along beautiful, off-the-beaten-track itineraries, and will moor by Riva di Corinto, close to the Film Festival, for a few days. Around her, an island of real life will soon flourish and a welcome chance for interaction between the several languages of cinema. The inventors and mangers of this island and Edipo Re, Sybille Righetti and Enrico Vianello, hired art director Silvia Jop to involve one of the greatest contemporary Italian artists, Emilio Isgrò, to turn the mainsail of Edipo Re into a modern art piece. Said and done. Isgrò is known for his cancellature (lit. ‘erasures’) and in this instance, he erased words from Pasolini’s namesake film, the Oedipus Rex, in what is one of the most successful, consistent, vital homages for Pasolini’s one hundredth year. A simple idea, and a very poetic one, that gifts the Venice Film Festival another piece of modern living essence.

Emilio Isgrò – Una vela per Pasolini
31 agosto-11 settembre 2022
Isola Edipo, Riva di Corinto, Lido