Wednesday 6 July, 6.30pm
A conversation about tennis, arts, culture and life, on the occasion of the 135th edition of The Championships, Wimbledon – the oldest tennis tournament in the world.
With Alessandro Belluzzo (President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in the UK), Mara Santangelo (tennis player), Milena Naldi (historian and tennis writer), Prof. Massimo Riva (Tennis player and Brown University) and Prof. Luca Viganò (King’s College London, UK).
Alessandro Belluzzo is Founder Partner of Belluzzo International Partners and Trust&Wealth. He graduated from Bocconi University in Milan with two degrees, in Economics and Law. Alessandro is a Barrister and the President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in the UK since 2019. He is amongst the authors of the book Il tennis a Bordighera dal 1878 a oggi. Il primo Circolo in Italia, la nascita della racchetta SIRT e il Centro Piatti, written by Gisella Merello and published by Alzani.
Mara Santangelo is a retired tennis player, who reached a no. 27 world ranking in 2007. She won 1 WTA title in 2006 and 9 titles at the doubles. In 2007, with Alicia Molik, she won the French Open, becoming the first ever Italian woman to win a doubles Grand Slam title. She retired in 2011 and is now Manager of the Fed Cap team and President of the Federazione Italiana Tennis.
Milena Naldi: historian and ancient art consultant storica e consulente d’arte antica, she studied History of Art in her hometown of Bologna, then continued her studies at the Università degli studi di Milano. She curated art exhibitions, writes articles and books, organises cultural tours in Italy and abroad. When she is not busy talking about the beauty of art, she loves playing tennis. Co-author of the book “Il tennis nell’arte. Racconti di quadri e sculture dall’antichità ad oggi” with Gianni Clerici, Mondadori, 2018, she has been writing the column “tennis e arte” in the magazine “Il tennis italiano” since February 2020.
Massimo Riva: After a short career as a junior tennis player in Italy, Massimo completed his education and went on to pursue an academic career in the United States. He is Professor of Italian Studies and Modern Media at Brown University in Providence, R.I, USA, where he also directs the Virtual Humanities Lab. With his students, he has pioneered award-winning digital humanities projects such as the “Decameron Web,” and “The Garibaldi Panorama and the Risorgimento Archive.” His latest publication is a digital monograph entitled Shadow Plays: Virtual Realities in an Analog World, published by Stanford University Press in June 2022.
Luca Viganò: Luca is Professor at the Department of Informatics of King’s College London, UK, where he heads the Cybersecurity Group. He is also a playwright and screenwriter. His works have been published and produced in Italy, the UK and Russia. His latest play, “L’Incrocio delle Righe”, is about the tennis players Alice Marble and Gottfried von Cramm. The play was among the 5 finalists of the Premio Riccione per il Teatro 2021, the most prestigious Italian playwriting award.
The Italian Cultural Institute will not admit anyone showing covid-19 symptoms such as a continuous cough, a cold and a temperature. You are strongly invited to wear face covering during events, maintain social distancing and use wall-unit sanitizers, as a matter of courtesy to the clinically vulnerable. We keep windows open whenever possible to ensure ventilation and thoroughly clean our rooms before and after each event. Thank you for your co-operation.
We reserve the right not to admit any late comers.