The Italian Cultural Institute was founded by Antonio D’Andrea, former Head of the Department of Italian at McGill University, in 1962. A distinguished italianist, D’Andrea was also the founder, together with Dante della Terza, of The Yearbook of Italian Studies . He believed that the aim both of the journal and of the Institute was to build a cultural bridge between Italy and Canada and in particular between Italy and both the anglophone and the francophone communities.
Located on Doctor Penfield Avenue, next to the Italian Consulate General, in the heart of Montreal’s Golden Square Mile, the Institute has been host through the years to a number of cultural events and to a number of cultural personalities such as Umberto Eco, Alessandro Baricco, Francesco Rosi etc.
The Institute is a centre for cultural and academic activities, a school of Italian language and civilization, a source of information about contemporary European Union, Italy, its regions and its multilayered cultural heritage as well as a venue for art exhibitions, lectures, films, and video screenings.
In addition, the Institute provides the opportunity for cultural collaboration between Italian and Canadian organizations and individuals, in order to facilitate exchange in the field of theatre, music and cinema. It offers information and logistical support to both Italian and foreign public and private operators interested in Italian cultural events in Canada. The Institute supports initiatives which favour intercultural and multilateral dialogue based on the principles of democracy, reciprocal respect and international solidarity. The ICI in Montreal was a founding member of EUNIC Canada cluster and it is often involved in events organized by other cultural offices of the EU countries active in Quebec and the rest of Canada.
Supported mainly by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Cultural Institutes are 83 worldwide; in Canada they are in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The jurisdiction of the Institute in Montreal covers Quebec and eastern Canada.
Detailed information about the activities organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal is available in French, English and Italian on the following website:
http://www.iicmontreal.esteri.it/IIC_Montreal
Information about past activities are accessible through the search window.
The Institute building belongs to the Italian Government. The current premises have a historical value, they belong to the Italian Government and are located near the campus of the University of Mc Gill, on Doctor Penfield Avenue, next to the Italian Consulate General, in the heart of Montreal’s Golden Square Mile. The premises allow class activities (3 small classrooms) and larger meetings (1 large hall). Office activity is conducted in 6 office rooms.
Since its foundation, the directors of the Institute have been the following:
- Sandro Cappelli
- Francesco D'Arelli
- Martin Stiglio
- Angelo Mazzone
- Giovanna Jatropelli
- Elio Traina
- Lucia Cenerini
- Gianfranco Silvestro
- Guido Bistolfi
- Giovanni Battaglia
- Vittorio Politi
- Maria Fortunata
- Antonio D'Andrea
CULTURAL ACTIVITY
In the field of dance and theater, the Institute has hosted, among others, the Italian company Motus, in February 2006 presented the show Enquêtes sur Pre-paradise sorry now, taken from the same piece of work by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Denise Agiman Silvio Orvieto from the “troupe tealtro”, which staged dialogues taken from the work of Franca Rame and Dario Fo in March 2006, then revived in 2007 in the staging of Paul Buissoneau, the Teatro Gioco Vita, who participated in 2008 at the 10th edition of the Festival international des arts de la marionnette. In the same year, the IIC has presented two works of Carlo Goldoni: “L’impresario di Smirne”, directed by Carl Bechard, and The Servant of Two Masters, created by Giorgio Strehler directed by Ferruccio Soleri; in 2009 hosts “La compagnia della Quarta”, with the show of experimental theater “le cento cose”; in April 2010, with the Usine C, presents Icarus by Daniele Finzi Pasca; in September, Toni Servillo interpreted for the Institute the trilogy of vacation by Carlo Goldoni. More recently, Mario Maranzana, Ugo Pagliai, Paola Gassman, Marta dalla Via were also brought to Montreal by the Institute.
In the music sector, organized concerts and / or seminars of soloists and musical ensembles such as the world-renowned Maestro Maurizio Pollini and Mario Duel (2006): the clarinetist, a collaborator of Maestro Muti, Giuffredi Corrado (2007), the choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti for the show of contemporary dance “Le quattro stagioni”, by Vivaldi (2007), the pianist Fabio Marra and soprano Angela Papale (2007): Maestro Manrico Tedeschi, who in 2008 held a conference on Pavarotti, followed by a concert by Makiko Awazu, Arrigo Pola, and the tenor Francesco Verrecchia; the symphonic rock group “Banco del mutuo soccorso” and the Italian International Orchestra (2008), the orchestra of Maestro Gianluca Martinenghi, directed by Natalia Roman, with the soprano and the tenor Giuseppe Varano Gino Quilico, who presented in August 2009, La Traviata; the Maestro Michel Brousseau, who directed a concetro Carmina Burana, the Luca Ciarla Quartet, applauded at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2012, in the autumn of the same year, the 'Institute has collaborated with the progressive group Alex Carpani band as part of the Italian Culture Week 2012, with the band Turin electronics Subsonica. Also highlighting the concert Ludovico Enaudi at the Centre Pierre Peladeau.
Contemporary literature saw the presence, among others, by Nino Ricci and Melania Mazzucco at the Blue Metropolis 2006),by Andrea Inglese at the Rencontre International de Littérature 2006, who will participate, in 2008, Erri De Luca, Gianmaria Testa and Gabriele Mirabassi and in 2009, Roberto Palazzi. In 2007, Melania Mazzucco gives a lecture on her achievements, in 2008, Roberto Saviano presents his scandalous and powerful Gomorra; in 2010, the Institute organized a series of meetings on the case, judicial and literary at the same time, by Massimo Carlotto which they will be participating in person, in 2011 the Institute invited at Blue Metropolis writer Antonio Pennacchi, in 2012, hosts the Premio Strega Edoardo Nesi, and organized a meeting with Marco Malvaldi.In the 2013 the Institute invited at Blue Metropolis Erri De Luca, Gianrico Carofiglio e Lia Levi.
In the movie industry retrospectives of the greatest Italian actors and directors as Bruno Ramirez were organized, who presents here, in April 2006, the Canadian leader, as Marco Bellocchio and Mimmo Calopresti invited by us at the Festival des films du monde de Montréal, held in the summer of that year, as Nanni Moretti, whose retrospective was presented by film critic Jean A. Gili in March 2007 (invited, among other things, to give a lecture in 2011, titled Rome and the cinema).
Together with the Cinémathèque Québécoise, at the Institute National de l'Audiovisual, the electronic journal Hors Champ, the UQAM and Université de Montréal, the Institute presented in March 2008 the work of Godard, Ruis, Rhomer and Rossellini. Massimo Bortone presented in March 2008, the award-winning film “Rosso come il cielo”, and in October, the Institute disseminates the achievements of Antonello Grimaldi (Caos calmo), Matteo Garrone (Gomorra) and Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo). In November 2009, the Institute helped to organize a major retrospective of Pier Paolo Pasolini, as part of the Rencontres internationales du XI edition of documentaire de Montréal, announced in 2010, the presence o f the actress Stefania Sandrelli at the Festival des Films du Monde in Montreal, and invites the director Lorenzo Rossellini to conference his work always in 2010, takes over in collaboration with the Cinémathèque québécoise in May 2011, the works of Fellini, Rossellini, Pasolini Moretti and shot in Rome. In 2012, in conjunction with the exhibition of the internationally renowned photographer Mimmo Jodice, the Institute organizes a screening of a documentary on the museum McCord and great Italian films such as It started in Naples (Melville Shavelson) ciao Professore (Lina Wertmuller) and le mani sulla città (Francesco Rosi) and Napolitan Diary. The Institute co-operates very actively with AP, Film Italia (Cinecittà Holding) and the Italian Trade Commission in promoting Italian films in Canada and supporting the Italian participation at the International Film Festival. The summer events screens films outdoor in the garden of the Institute and other Parks in Montreal.
In photography, the Institute has sponsored events of famous Italian photographers such as Ilvio Gallo under the "Mois de la Photo Italienne" (22); Mimmo Jodice, Neapolitan artist now established around the world, which he exhibited in Montreal Cities sublimes.
In the field of visual arts, the great Italian artistic tradition was witnessed by numerous exhibitions such as the Venice of Memories Sandro Diani, in October 2007, and the exhibition of works by Piero Rasero Turin (Autumn 2010), Caravaggio and his followers, held in Ottawa in 2011.
As part of the scientific production and research, the Institute has invited in 2007 the philosopher Gianni Vattimo's weak thought, and in the same year, the researcher Michela Marzano, in 2010, we organized a series of talks with the philosopher Remo Bodei; autumn 2012 the internationally renowned anthropologist Mariella Pandolfi, Professor at the University of Montreal, presented the exhibition of the photographer and childhood friend Mimmo Jodice, shortly after the Italian researcher in mathematics Manuela Girotti, now settled in Canada, gives a lecture on the practical applications of his subject, and in February 2013, the Institute has organized a series of conferences with Prof. Alessandro Barilli, art historian and theorist of culture, and in March Professor Anne-Louise Fonseca, a researcher at the Université de Montréal, will talk about the carnival in all its forms, from Venice to the carnival of Rio.
PARTNERSHIP WITH LOCAL CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS AND MUSEUMS
- McCord Museum,
- Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal,
- Museum of Contemporary Arts,
- Museum of Civilisation of Quebec,
- Museum Pointe à Calliére,
- Palais Montcalm,
- Chateau Dufresne,
- Casa d'Italia
- Centro Leonardo da Vinci,
- Festival des Films du Monde,
- Festival de Théatre des Ameriques,
- Festival International Films sur l'Art,
- Festival International du Film pour Enfants,
- Festival International de la Littérature,
- Festival Metropolis Bleu.
INSTITUTIONS OF THEATRE AND FILM
- Place des Arts,
- Cinemateca Quebecoise,
- Orchestra Philharmonique du Nouveau Monde,
- Nouveau Cinema, Maison Théatre,
- Teatro du Nouveau Monde
MUSICAL INSTITUTIONS
- Opera di Montréal,
- Orchestra Sinfonica di Montréal
UNIVERSITY
- McGill University,
- Concordia University,
- University de Montréal (UDEM),
- University de Sherbrooke,
- University Dalhousie Halifax.
ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
- Canadian Centre of Architecture (CCA).
MASS MEDIA
- Corriere Italiano,
- Cittadino Canadese,
- Panoramaitalia,
- Radio CFMB 1280,
- Accenti,
- Rai International,
- Telelatino,
- La Voce,
- L'Ora di Ottawa.
