Teaser and music by Pierandrea Villa
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Biographical notes on speakers and abstracts by session
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Villa Vittoria
The area of Valfonda and its vicinity, near the historic complex of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, has housed monasteries, gardens and residences of the patrician families of Florence since the Middle Ages, belonging to the Bartolini Salimbeni, the Rucellai, the Corsini and the Strozzi who here they built the ‘Villino’ Strozzi in the lands and horti of their possession, later renamed Villa Vittoria. The first works were started in 1869 by the Marquis Carlo Teodoro Strozzi of Mantova, under the initial direction of Giuseppe Poggi, former chief architect of the urban projects of the city of Florence, at that time Capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The villa, built between 1886 and 1891 and later enlarged in 1925 to a design by Michelucci, expresses the new needs of the family that already owned several properties in the city such as the Palazzo Strozzi in Mantova, in Piazza Duomo, now the headquarters of the Tuscany Region . The three crescent moons, family crest, are still visible in the decoration of the doors, of the floors and the walls of the Villa. In 1931 it was sold to the Count Alessandro Contini Bonaccossi and takes the name of Villa Vittoria in honor of the owner’s wife. Giò Ponti and Tommaso Buzzi are called to design part of the rooms in an elegant neo-classical style of the 1930s, enriched by the owners’ art collection, one of the most prestigious of the time. The Contini-Bonaccossi collection is dispersed at the death of the owners and Villa Vittoria is acquired in 1964 by the Autonomous Tourism Company which transforms it, respecting the original forms and furnishings, into an international congress center designed by architect Pierluigi Spadolini. Since then it has been the fulcrum of the national and international conference activities of Florence and neighboring cities. Since 1990, Villa Vittoria has become the property of the Tuscany Region and has been managed by Firenze Fiera S.p.A.
Congress at a glance
| Date | Time | Events | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, September 1st | Afternoon /Evening | Opening Ceremony | Sala Verde and Villa Vittoria Garden |
| Monday, September 2nd | Session 1. The Mystical Mind as a Divine Artist: Visions, Artistic Production, Creation of Images through Empathy Session 2. Artist, Power, Public | Firenze Fiera, Villa Vittoria | |
| Tuesday, September 3rd | Session 3. Art and Nature. Cultures of Collecting Session 4. Art and Religions | Firenze Fiera, Villa Vittoria | |
| Wednesday, September 4th | Offsite | Around Florence and Tuscany (Prato, Pisa, Lucca, Siena) | |
| Thursday, September 5th | Session 5. De/sign and Writing Session 8. The Ghost in the Machine: The Disappearance of Artists, Critics, Viewers? | Firenze Fiera, Villa Vittoria | |
| Friday, September 6th | Session 6. Building an Icon: Architecture from Project to Product Session 7. Matter and Materiality in Art and Aesthetics: from Time to Deep-Time Session 9. Voyage - Connecting Session between Firenze 2019 and São Paulo 2020 | Firenze Fiera, Villa Vittoria |