Collective of drag artists and show production in and around Venice.
The House of Serenissima is Venice's drag collective, an artistic project to bring the drag art of queer people living in Venice to stages and public places.
Founded in 2021 from a rib of the Queer We Go collective following the sinking of the Zan DDL to fight against homolesbobitransphobia, the House of Serenissima takes up the concept of communities of drag performers who identify with a shared artistic project.
The House of Serenissima is a militant art group that aims to
- Giving a space to people who want to try drag
- Propose an alternative to Venice's leisure offer, beyond spritz - finger food and big events for tourists and private parties for big wallets
- Giving a voice to queer people
- Creating shows with a political content
The House produces on Veneto stages, both militant and non-militant. It also offers turnkey shows or collaboratively written together with the cultural organisations that host them.
Variety in every sense
House actions include drag shows, indoors or outdoors, but also make-up workshops, debates and other cultural activities that educate queer and allied people about integration and awakening their civic consciousness.
The House welcomes drag performers of all kinds, more classic drag queens, as well as king and non-binary performers, as well as bio queens (women in women's clothes) and bioking (men who transform into drag kings).
The company is characterised by the fact that it combines art and politics, without renouncing its taste for comedy and passion for drama...
Why Venice
The House of Serenissima could not exist if not in Venice. An open project in a closed city.
Venice is closed because it is inaccessible to its own inhabitants. Residents who leave are replaced by tourists, who do not contribute to the creation of human relations and the development of the social fabric.
The House of Serenissima is primarily aimed at the (few) students and residents looking for activities for their leisure time.
The House's connection with the territory, i.e. Venice and its surroundings, is a distinctive sign.
The reduced cultural offer of the lagoon city has created gaps in the availability of leisure and meeting places that go beyond the experience of stalls, drinking and eating.
Over time, we identified the need to create a project that could on the one hand satisfy the demand of queer people to experience drag art by producing on stage and on the other hand enrich the cultural proposal for people living in or passing through the city.
