The new exhibition will bring the three-year cycle at the Basilica Palladiana to an end. The third and final edition pays tribute to Vicenza's masterpiece par excellence, the Teatro Olimpico, the world's oldest indoor theatre, with an extraordinary discovery: in recent months, the Olimpichetto, a monumental set design that had been talked about for decades and was believed to be lost, has been found in the former municipal warehouses.
It is an almost full-scale reproduction of the entire set of The Seven Streets of Thebes designed by Scamozzi, built in 1948 with the aim of presenting the uniqueness of the Teatro Olimpico to the world. Approximately 8 metres tall and 16 metres long, it is an immense work that can only be reconstructed in a space as extraordinary as the Hall of the Basilica. Between 1949 and 1955, the Olimpico travelled to some of the world's cultural capitals: London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, and even Houston, Texas. It left its mark wherever it went, winning the admiration of critics and artists alike: Guido Piovene, after seeing it in Paris, described it as “more beautiful than the original”.
Precisely because of the difficulties involved in assembling and transporting it, it has never been exhibited to the public since then. The exhibition will be built around the complete reconstruction of the Olimpico and enriched with previously unseen scientific content: the results of 14 months of monitoring Scamozzi's proscenium, conducted by the Superintendency and the IUAV, will be presented and Paolo Vajenti's short film, L'Olimpico, awarded the silver medal at the 1948 Venice Biennale and recently restored, will be screened.
The experience will be immersive, with lights and screenings inside the Hall, and a multidisciplinary programme involving theatre, music and architecture. The project is implemented by the City of Vicenza, the Civic Museums and Gallerie d'Italia, in collaboration with CISA Palladio, Fondazione Teatro Comunale, Accademia Olimpica, Soprintendenza and Forum Cultura.