ISSN 2411-0795
Keywords: performing arts, theatrical festival, Venetian carnival, cultural code of the Venetian carnival, cultural identity, spatial code, iconic ensemble of mass spectacle
Shevlyakova D.A. Performance Arts: Spatial Code of the Venice Carnival. // Theory and History of Art. 2024. N 3/4, p.284–295

The article reveals the spatial cultural code of a collective theatrical festival — the Venetian carnival. Based on the analysis of carnival events, considered as the actualization of proxemic subcodes, three dominant spatial dimensions are identified: water (horizontal), celestial (vertical) and geographical with a predominant eastern vector. In the celestial subcode, the descending vector prevails, which is divided into three semiotic spheres: sacred, value-normative, institutional-historical. Thus, it is the celestial space that has a special potential to generate a spatial code and is the spatial dominant of the holiday.