Musica Libera: Two New Events Join the 70th Venice International Contemporary Music Festival

The 70th Venice International Contemporary Music Festival, directed by Caterina Barbieri, has announced the addition of two new events under the title Musica Libera. These events are scheduled to take place on 18 and 24 October in the courtyard of the Casa di reclusione femminile Venezia Giudecca, a women’s prison in Venice. The performances will be held in the central area of the former Church and Monastery of the Convertite, which forms part of the prison complex.

Musica Libera will present the outcomes of a workshop involving women from the institution, young musicians from Biennale College Musica, and their mentors. The collaborative process brought together these participants to create and perform new work, with the results to be showcased in the upcoming live performances.

The initiative is part of the 70th Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea della Biennale di Venezia, which runs from 10 to 24 October. Musica Libera reflects a broader approach to cultural programming that aims to highlight the therapeutic power of music. Artistic creation is conceived not as a passive object for consumption, but as a possible channel for catharsis and collective transformation.

The sessions that led to Musica Libera were designed in line with the festival’s theme, which is dedicated to childhood and intuition. The process followed a principle of total openness, aiming to create spaces for authentic creative freedom without the pressure of achieving predetermined results imposed from above.

The core of Musica Libera lies in its choral nature, which is based on listening, vulnerability, expressive urgency, and co-creation, rather than on a fixed compositional method. This approach encourages participants to explore artistic expression collectively and to engage in a process that values emotional openness and shared creativity.

Musica Libera is presented alongside Rinasco con l’Arte, another initiative promoted by the Biennale di Venezia. Rinasco con l’Arte is intended to strengthen relationships with penitentiary institutions and is part of the Biennale’s ongoing commitment to outreach and collaboration with such organizations.

The realization of Musica Libera involves the Casa di reclusione femminile Venezia Giudecca, the Department of Penitentiary Administration, and the regional penitentiary administration for Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Trentino Alto Adige. Those interested in attending one of the Musica Libera events must register online via the Biennale di Venezia website, with further details about the registration process to be announced at a later date.