VIA LUCIS
SALVATION
XIV artistic-devotional path dedicated to Santa Geltrude Comensoli from Bienno

An evening in which art and faith will come together in the splendid setting of our medieval village illuminated only by thousands of candles and braziers, a magical combination that will transport the guest back in time to a distant era.

BIENNO
February 22, 2025

Meeting at 8.00pm
via Contrizio (entrance to Piazza Benvenuto)

CREDITS:

directed by PIERR NOSARI

artistic direction CINZIA BONTEMPI

stage consultancy GIOVANNA TASSELLI

narrator TINO BELLICINI

singing ANGELICA DELVECCHIO

accordion LUCIANO SANZOGNI

audio and lighting EVENT SERVICE by Kevin Vielmi

with the participation of:

AMICI DI CATERINA Association, ARTI E MESTIERI group, “VOLONTÀ” Civic Band, GRUPPO ARMONIE choir, LE OREGE DE HOI choir, SANTA GELTRUDE COMENSOLI Nursery School

thanks for your availability:

COME ERAVAMO Choir, SAMOVAR COMPANY, C. GOLGI Darfo Musical High School, LA MAISON Dance School

thanks:

SACRAMENTINE SISTERS Bienno and Bergamo, CAMPOLUNGO Bienno Association - ALPINI Group of Bienno - PALIO DEI CANTÚ Bienno Association and all the citizens of Bienno for their help and availability

PRESS RELEASE:

Like every year, the Via Lucis, a devotional route dedicated to the local Saint Geltrude Comensoli, now in its 14th edition, returns to Bienno, a medieval village in the province of Brescia, belonging to the club of ‘The Most Beautiful Villages in Italy’.

This event is the result of a synergy between the Sacramentine Sisters, the parish church and the municipality of Bienno.

On 22 February 2025, the streets and squares of the village, lit only by candles, will be the fascinating setting for the story of the life, thought and works of the charismatic foundress of the Institute of the Sacramentine Sisters.

Once again this year, the artistic direction of the event is taken care of by Cinzia Bontempi, just as the direction has been entrusted, for the second year running, to Pierr Nosari who, availing himself of stage consultancy by Giovanna Tasselli, continues on his path of telling the story of the Saint's life and spirituality with a contemporary slant, inspired mainly by themes that have emerged in the world over the last 12 months.

For this reason, looking at the many scenarios of war as well as natural disasters, such as the flooding in Valencia, which endanger the lives of countless people, the word Salvation was chosen as the theme of the Via Lucis 2025.

The scenes, the floral decorations curated by the Associazione Amici di Caterina (Association of Catherine's Friends), the sound interventions and the light installations that will punctuate the route, which will start from Piazza Benvenuto Mendeni and arrive, as always, at the Church of Saints Faustino and Giovita, will all revolve around a particular episode in the life of the Saint, which jeopardised her plan to found her own religious congregation: the declaration of bankruptcy, by the Court of Bergamo in 1889, of the first Institute she founded.

The meeting point for participants in the Via Lucis is set for 8 p.m. on Saturday 22 February, in Piazza Benvenuto Mendeni where, against the backdrop of Palazzo Simoni Fè, the Banda Civica ‘Volontà’ will perform, accompanying the actor/narrator Tino Bellicini in the recounting of the events of 1889 and the school children in a scenic action inspired by the concept of the ‘Message in a bottle’, one of the symbols of the request for help and salvation.

Leaving the square, participants in the event will walk up Via Contrizio (Contrizio's Street) to reach Piazza Roma, where the members of the Associazione Arti e Mestieri (Arts and Crafts Association) will symbolically represent the work and effort required to get out of a dangerous situation.

Their presence will be accompanied by the singing of the Le Orège de Hoi choir, directed by Lorena Avanzini, who will intone ‘Grazie montagna’, on the words of the Bienno mountaineer Battistino Bonali, who tragically fell, together with a climbing companion, in 1993 during a climb in Peru.

From the square, the public will take Via Re to reach the parish church: along this stretch they will be accompanied by light installations inspired by the Saint's handwriting, as well as by the music of accordionist Luciano Sanzogni and the singing of Angelica Delvecchio, a young talent from the Liceo Musicale Golgi in Darfo.

Arriving near the parish church, the participants will meet the narrator who will tell how Mother Geltrude managed to overcome the danger of bankruptcy and, arriving at the parvis, they will be greeted by the singing of the women's choir Gruppo Armonie, directed by Ferdinando Mottinelli, which will accompany an evocative video projection on the façade of the church, which will conclude the Via Lucis.

As per tradition, at the end of the last scene, participants in the route in honour of St. Gertrude will enter the Church of Saints Faustino and Giovita for a moment of Adoration, underlining the devotional nature of the event.

For the second year running, the direction of the Via Lucis has been entrusted to PIERR NOSARI. After graduating as an Actor from the ‘Alessandra Galante Garrone’ School of Theatre in Bologna, he graduated in Semiology of the Performing Arts at the DAMS in Bologna, with a thesis on Autobiographical Theatre, and specialised by attending the Advanced Training Course in Television, Opera and Theatre Direction at the Academy of Arts and Crafts of the La Scala Theatre in Milan.

He has signed several theatre productions (the most recent, ‘Ho ancora paura del buio (viaggio nella mente di Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne’, debuted in September 2024 as part of the FestivalFilosofia di Modena), corporate videos and documentaries, including ‘OfflagaDiscoPax’, financed by the Emilia Romagna Film Commission, and ‘Subbuteopia’, on the game of Subbuteo, one of the first crowdfunding history cases.

In 2022, he founded The PLAN Way, a communication and visual storytelling agency with a focus on cultural and artistic realities, and collaborates with several production companies as script and/or video editor. www.pierrnosari.com

For the conception of the scenes, this year the director involved GIOVANNA TASSELLI, set designer and painter. Born in Milan, she has always been fascinated by the combination of arts and professionalism inherent in the world of entertainment.

After art school, she continued her training at the Brera Academy and the La Scala Academy. She works as a freelancer in the field of theatre and corporate events.

Pure pictorial research is an essential stimulus for his profession, however, over the years, he follows his natural aptitude for diversification by drawing on a background of both design and graphic-pictorial training.

He explores professional contexts related to the applied arts and deepens his technical skills in the field of digital graphics and 3D modelling.

This is how Tasselli Creazioni was born, designing jewellery and fabrics, delving into the path that leads the idea to become a product, where colour and design dialogue with the machine. In addition to working for companies, he develops his own fabric collection exhibited in 2022 together with the Bes luminous boxes, ‘guardians of sleep’ (featured in Via Lucis 2024), at the fuori salone of Milan Design Week.