The Festival
Venice Noir is an initiative of the non-profit cultural organization The Venetian Circle Ets, whose ambition is to make the festival an important annual cultural event in the city's busy artistic calendar, supported by a series of sponsors throughout the Veneto and beyond.
The driving force of the festival comes from its founders, from Studium and its parent company the perfume house The Merchant of Venice, led by Marco Vidal, CEO of The Merchant of Venice. The English programming director is the popular British writer living in Venice Philip Gwynne Jones while David Hewson, author of numerous books on Venice, serves as international director. Giacomo Brunoro, President of the Cultural Association SUGARPULP curates the Italian side of the festival.
Libreria Studium
In April 2022 The Merchant of Venice opened Studium, libreria internazionale e olfattiva a San Marco, Venezia.
This historic and prestigious bookstore has been completely renovated and rebornwith a new concept and offering that strengthens its position as an international outlet for a wide range of books alongside an exquisite showcase of the Merchant of Venice's acclaimed range of perfumes.
Studium is spread over two floors between the Basilica San Marco and the famous Bridge of Sighs, in the heart of the most famous and monumental area of Venice. It has a selection of more than 10,000 titles with a particular focus on Venice and its history, alongside a wide choice of fiction and children's books, art catalogues and titles in English, French, German and Spanish, as well as a section dedicated to the imaginary traveller Corto Maltese designed by the great Venetian master of comics Hugo Pratt. In addition, the Bookstore offers a line of high stationery exclusively developed for Studium and created by the Cartiera Artigianale Toscolano with themes related to Venice and in particular to historic city centre.
On the second floor there is a lounge dedicated to Italian and international fiction, but above all a room dedicated to an unprecedented Perfume Library with literature on the subject and a large "Perfumer's Organ" with over 200 rare essences catalogued as if they were an ancient herbarium, which are used for composition and olfactory training courses.
The management of the bookshop is entrusted to Silvia Bandolin.
SUGARPULP
Born as a literary genre in 2008, as the years went by SUGARPULP first became an Association and then a community of professionals specialised in the conception, production and management of events with high cultural impact. Since the beginning the artistic direction has been led by the novelist Matteo Strukul. The President of the Association is Giacomo Brunoro.