Bibliomancy
NERO with Giulia Currà, Cora Baratti (Il Salotto delle Preziose)
Date
18:00 – 20:00
Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale
Bibliomancy is an ancient divinatory practice centred on dialogue with the book as an object. A question is posed and one prepares to receive an answer from the text; then the pages are opened and one’s gaze falls upon a passage. In the simplicity of this gesture, one discovers an oracle within the book and, in chance, a poetic and poietic force – or perhaps one denies that chance exists.
Con te con tutto is ‘a call to come together’, and it is in this spirit that NERO extends the invitation from Lungomare to take part in the Public Program to Giulia Currà, who in turn called on Cora Baratti, bringing Il Salotto delle Preziose into the Italian Pavilion: a space and a time for sharing the magical, through the revival of practices and knowledge bound up in witchcraft and esotericism.
NERO and Il Salotto delle Preziose therefore propose a bibliomancy session in order to bring different voices into resonance – visions and presences from our world as well as others.
Limited places available; registration required no later than three days before the event by writing to: iscrizione@lungomare.org
Giulia Currà
Giulia Currà (she / they / Pisces with Libra rising) has been a removal worker, artist, curator and witch since 1988. Her work focuses on redefining the profession of removals – situated within the context of the legacy of the ‘Southern Question’ – and the concept of the fragile body through poetic and magical gestures. Founder of Traslochi Emotivi and Casa Cicca Museum, she collaborates with Gilda Von Rümelin on ‘excessive’ texts, with Cora Baratti on Il Salotto delle Preziose, and writes for publications such as Flash Art and Zero. She won the thirteenth edition of the Italian Council’s talent development programme with her research project If you move something happens.
Cora Baratti
Cora Baratti (she / they / Gemini with Pisces rising) has been an interdisciplinary artist, witch, activist and researcher since 1997. A PhD candidate in Gender Studies and Modern History at the University of Bari, her research focuses on gender-based violence and the reinterpretation of the figure of the witch, exploring the political and poetic potential of magical thinking and collective memory. She has presented her work in national and international contexts and collaborated on various collective projects. She works regularly with Marijke De Roover and Giulia Currà, with whom she founded Il Salotto delle Preziose in 2023.