ZEROSCENA – meeting with the Italian artists at Caffè Letterario dell’Emeroteca dell’Arte
The meeting with Cesare Pietroiusti, Zeroscena, and Carola Cappellari at the Emeroteca dell’Arte in Mestre represented a moment of public sharing of the research developed within the framework of CAFE – Redefining Café Houses as Unique European Cultural Heritage, a project that investigates the role of European cafés as spaces of cultural production, the layering of memory, and the construction of collective thought.
Through different languages and methodologies, the three contributions explored the café not only as a physical place, but also as a cultural device. Zeroscena’s artist-designed sugar cubes examined practices of conviviality and exchange; Carola Cappellari’s photographic project dedicated to Caffè Florian reflected on the relationship between image, memory, and heritage; Cesare Pietroiusti’s research reconstructed the café as a cultural infrastructure, a place where art, philosophy, and public debate have historically intertwined.
More than a simple presentation of results, this “Café with the Artists” took shape as a space for discussion around contemporary forms of cultural heritage valorization, bringing research, artistic practices, and critical reflection into dialogue.
Special thanks to the Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia and the Emeroteca dell’Arte, whose contribution helped make this meeting an opportunity to rethink the café as a cultural ecosystem and as a place where heritage is not only preserved, but continuously reinterpreted and reactivated through new narratives.
Photo by Alessandro Vangi.
The event is part of the CAFÉ project, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.