category: cultural project
edition: 2017 - 2020

“Cantieri Viviani – Premio Viviani” is a project by Fondazione Campania dei Festival, funded by Regione Campania and developed in collaboration with the Municipality of Castellammare di Stabia. Created and coordinated by Giulio Baffi to promote knowledge of the dissemination of Raffaele Viviani’s art, the project set up several observatories/workshops on Viviani’s work and cultural, human, theatrical, and musical environment.

“Cantieri Viviani – Premio Viviani” relied on the collaboration of professors Antonia Lezza and Pasquale Scialò. It also involved several scholars and experts of the work of the great Stabian author and actor, including director and playwright Enzo Moscato, Giuliano Longone Viviani, and many more actors, musicians, and artists. It also availed itself of the active participation of production structures of the Campania region, cultural Institutions, music schools, Universities and Advanced Training schools, like Accademia BBAA of Naples, the Archives of Rai broadcaster, the Scuola Italiana di Comix, alongside involving Master’s programs on Performing Arts and Scenography.

The project’s first part launched in the first months of 2017, with the re-opening of Teatro Karol in Castellammare. This part focused, in particular, on promoting a number of activities for young participants. The activities were aimed at encouraging the development of knowledge and creative processes through workshops relating to theatre and music, graphic-design, videos, and photography, writing, and reading.

In 2018, the project’ second phase launched, featuring shows, concerts, workshops, again directed at the city’s young inhabitants, who were also targeted through training programs held in the local schools.

The activities included the inauguration of Forno Raffaele Viviani [Raffaele Viviani Bakery], donated by Fondazione Fanelli, a symbol of job integration of at-risk youths; a workshop on Viviani’s language and playwriting, curated by Antonia Lezza; a music workshop included in the segment “Viviani in culla,” which Pasquale Scialò created especially for kindergarteners; a workshop on “Viviani, i marinaretti della Nave Asilo Caracciolo,” curated by Fabio Cocifoglia; an exhibition of crib art with a section devoted to the  “Cantieri” (workshops) of master craftsmen Antonio and Luigi De Martino, Franco Liguori, Antonio Sbacchi, and Pietro Giordano; and “’A Cantata d’ ‘e pasture,” the workshop’s final performance of young actors, curated by Rosario Sparno; the concert “Omaggio a Luigi Denza,” curated by Giuseppe Finizio; the 

concert-show that Maria Nazionale dedicated to Raffaele Viviani. 

Between 2018 and 2019, the project of digitization of Raffaele Viviani’s Theatre, “Teatro di Raffaele Viviani,” began at the Nicola Cilento and ArtiLab laboratories of Salerno University, which were chosen for having the best equipment.

The six volumes of “Teatro,” edited by Guido Davico Bonino, Antonia Lezza, and Pasquale Scialò (Napoli, Guida, 1987-1994), contain the annotated edition of Raffaele Viviani’s theatrical and music works. The open-access digital collection of Viviani’s works is published by EleA, the open-access archive of Salerno University, which features scientific journals, working papers, collections of books, and historical documents.