Semiotics · Performing Arts · Architecture

Rocco Mangieri

Architect, semiotician and performer.

Specialist in semiotics, socio-anthropology of the arts and the performing arts.

Position
Professor & Emeritus Researcher, Faculty of Arts, Universidad de los Andes (ULA) · Laboratory of Semiotics and Socio-anthropology
Origin
Born in Ferrara, Italy — Mérida, Venezuela
Practice
49 years of practice
Biography

About


Professor and Emeritus Researcher at the Universidad de los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela), where he directs the Laboratory of Semiotics and Socio-anthropology of the Arts and promoted and coordinated the creation of the Faculty of Arts. Born in Ferrara (Emilia-Romagna, Italy), he is trained as an architect and semiotician: DAMS (University of Bologna) with Umberto Eco and Omar Calabrese, and a PhD in Philology and Semiotics, summa cum laude, from the University of Murcia (Spain).

Founding member of the Venezuelan Association of Semiotics, staff member of the IASS, International Association for Semiotic Studies, and member of the scientific committee of the FELS, Latin American Federation of Semiotics, as well as of the AISS, Italian Association of Semiotic Studies.

He currently serves as:

  • Teaching and research in semiotics, performing arts and media.
  • Director of the Laboratory of Semiotics and Socio-anthropology of the Arts, Faculty of Arts and Design.
  • Lead of current research on Caribbean polyrhythm, the Mediterranean and the culture of hospitality, and the rhythms of the city.

Education & training

  1. 1956-1959Primary School. Scuola statale Edmondo de Amicis. Bologna-Italy.
  2. 1967-1970Visual arts: design and painting. Experimental Center of Visual Arts, Caracas.
  3. 1970-1976Architect and urban designer. LUZ University. Maracaibo.
  4. 1974-1978Laboratory in contemporary dance (Victor Fuenmayor, Paris); stage with Arrianne Mousckine (Theatre du Soleil); Seminar with Tadeusz Kantor, Caracas: Workshop and seminar in theater(Berliner Ensemble).
  5. 1980Advanced seminar in Graphic Design for TV.
  6. 1982Seminar in Semiologie du film: analyse des images.
  7. 1982Advanced seminars in Semiotics(prof. U. Eco).
  8. 1983Postgraduate seminar in Semiotics of film.
  9. 1986-1987Postgraduate program in Social Science.
  10. 1990-1993Undergraduate program DAMS- Bologna University.
  11. 1992Postgraduate program in Visual Semiotics.
  12. 1992Stage in Semiotics of film(prof. Francesco Casetti)
  13. 1992Advanced seminar in Esthetics(prof. J.F.Lyotard).
  14. 1996Stage in Semiotics of taste(Prof. Erik Landowski), Semiotique et identité visuelle,( Prof. J.M.Floch).
  15. 1998-2001Postgraduate program Dottorato in Filología e Semiótica.
  16. 1992 and 2013Seminars and workshops in performing arts and anthropology of theatre.

Member of

  • IASS-AIS, International Association for Semiotic Studies
  • AISS, Italian Association of Semiotic Studies
  • AFS, French Semiotic Association
  • FELS, Latin American Federation of Semiotics
21 awards · 1968–2024

Awards and Honours


  • Emeritus Researcher, Universidad de los Andes (ULA), Mérida (2024).
  • Annual Award for Social Science Research, Regional Council, Ministry of Science and Technology of Venezuela (2018).
  • Award and honour in research in human and social sciences, Council for Scientific, Humanistic, Technological and Arts Development (CDCHTA), ULA, Mérida: 1998, 2000, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016.
  • National Award to Critical Thinking, Caracas Mayor's Office (2015).
  • ONCTI-MPP Min. Science and Technology Researcher, Level 3 (2010-2012, 2013-2015).
  • Award and honour for the book Online Telepolitics: for a semiotics of the media (Monte Ávila Editores), Ministry of Culture, Caracas (2014).
  • Award and honour in the Festivals of Movement, editions 2001, 2007 and 2014.
  • National award and honour by the AVS, Venezuelan Association of Semiotics, VII International Congress of Semiotics (2012).
  • National Book Award, Venezuelan National Book Center (CENAL), Ministry of Culture, for the book Three ways, three subjects: Eco, Lotman, Greimas (Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid) (2007).
  • Special prize for non-conventional art, Small-Format Salon, Faculty of Arts, ULA (2007).
  • Special doctoral thesis prize and honours, summa cum laude by unanimity, University of Murcia, Spain (2001); candidate to the special thesis prize of the Spanish Ministry of Education (2002).
  • Scenographic design award, Toledo International Theatre Festival, Spain (2001).
  • Award and honour in the execution of installation-performances at the second and third art exhibitions of the University of Murcia, "This is not art..." (2000-2001).
  • Award and honour in research in the human sciences, PEI-CDCHT.
  • Special award and honour from the Ministry of Culture of Venezuela (1992).
  • Artistic Direction Award for children's television series, Televisa, Mexico (1987).
  • Award for the film script "Los Inmigrantes", with Luis Zelcowitz (TV series for Maraven and Venezolana de Televisión), ANANC, Caracas (1986).
  • Award and honour from the Museum of Barquisimeto for the exhibition "Diseño a Diario: apuntes e imágenes de lo cotidiano", National Council of Culture (1985).
  • Award and honours for the undergraduate thesis in Architecture "Space, Design and Media in an Open University System", summa cum laude, Universidad del Zulia (1976).
  • Photography Award, Regional Photography Exhibition, House of Culture-Athenaeum of Barquisimeto (1969).
  • Municipal Prize of Literature, House of Culture and Government of Lara State (1968).
Teaching & research

Work


Between 1991 and 1993 he worked as a consultant for cultural and outreach programs in the Emilia Romagna Region (Bologna, Italy), and designed and produced an international traveling exhibition on the "Visual History of Italian immigration in the world" ("Lo sguardo altrove"). Since 1992 he has been directing the program of International Meetings of Semiotics, in which Umberto Eco, Omar Calabrese, Paolo Fabbri, Eric Landowski, Francisco Vicente Gómez, Alfredo Cid Jurado, Antonio Pero and Roberto Pellerey have participated. He founded the Center for Aesthetic Research at the Universidad de los Andes in 1996, and was a member of it (ULA 2002-2006).

Professor with exclusive dedication of the Faculty of Arts of the ULA since 1995. He has taught, researched or extended in the following universities:

  • Central University of VenezuelaMedia School, School of Arts
  • Simon Bolivar University, VenezuelaDirectorate of Continuing Education
  • José María Vargas University, VenezuelaFaculty of Architecture and Art
  • Polytechnic University of Barquisimeto, VenezuelaDepartment of Audiovisual Media
  • University of Buenos Aires, ArgentinaNational Institute of Arts, IUNA
  • University of Zulia, VenezuelaFaculty of Architecture and Design
  • University of Bologna, ItalyDAMS, Discipline of Art, Music and Entertainment
  • University of Murcia, SpainFaculty of Arts and Philosophy
  • University of Alicante, SpainDepartment of Integrated Philosophies
  • University of Navarra, SpainDept. of Performing Arts
  • Pontifical University of Sao Paulo, BrazilPostgraduate in Semiotics and Communication
  • University Institute of Monterrey, MexicoDepartment of Semiotics

Among many others you can see in the Dossier.


98 works · 1978–2026

Books & Papers


2026

  • El cine que se repite: narrativas polirrítmicas del Caribe (in press)

  • Los ecos de Eco: el pensamiento de Umberto Eco en América Latina y el Caribe (in press)

  • Semiótica de los entornos performativos

  • Corporeidad

2025

  • Ascoltare la foresta amazzonica: paesaggi sonori, ascolti profondi e processi di traduzione intersemiotica tra pratiche biosemiotiche e arti performative Link

  • Semióticas acusmáticas: escucha, cuerpo y propioceptividad en el podcast de ficción DOI Link

2024

  • Double bind cities Link

  • Contribution to Semiotics now DOI Link

2023

  • Isole, mappe, labirinti. Lo spazio nei romanzi di Umberto Eco Link

  • Kinesferas expandidas: danza y performance en tiempos de confinamiento DOI Link

  • I can’t breathe: contagio, revuelta y artificación Link

  • Pandemic semiosphere and global network: the space turn in Juri Lotman’s model Link

  • Atlas Spielraum: a partir del site-specific como espacio de maniobras personales DOI

  • Las artes del cuerpo como celebración de la vida y el encuentro DOI Link

2022

  • A semiosfera pandêmica como agenciamento de sentido, formas de vida e turbossemiose

2021

  • Relendo a semiosfera pandêmica a partir da teoria corpo-rede de Eliseo Verón

  • El verdadero rostro de los Libertadores

  • Semiotics as a transdisciplinary field: about description and sensitivity (in press)

  • Cuerpos suspendidos: una pequeña silueta al borde del abismo

2020

  • Pablo Agudelo: huellas del arte moderno colombiano y su proyección internacional

  • Pandemics semiosphere and global networks: the space turn in Lotman’s model of culture

  • La caja semiótica: o cómo enseñar semiótica del arte sin caer en el olvido Link

  • Espacios personales en las artes performativas: sobre el cuerpo situado y extendido en la poética de Oskar Schlemmer Link

2019

  • I can’t breathe: contagio, revuelta y artificación

  • Al alcance de mis dedos

2018

  • Embodiment and presence in performing arts: the semiotics turn

  • Gainsborough effect: sobre la fotografía de guerra

    Este cambio en el discurso y de las narrativas de la imagen de guerra venía avanzando progresivamente ya a partir del final de la Guerra Fría y el acontecimiento de la caída del muro de Berlín.

  • Samurai dance: the semiotics and aesthetics of action in Japanese videogames

    La teoría semiótica de los mundos posibles narrativos, introducida con intensidad entre los años ochenta y noventa ha mostrado su eficacia a través de sus modelos y nociones teóricas

  • Proxemics and kinesics in social mass movements

  • La casa de las ocho puertas: para una semiótica del acontecimiento

    En estos años recientes he vuelto sobre la reflexión de la significación del acontecimiento pero desde una perspectiva muy distinta a la metáfora del accidente y la catástrofe, a la manera, por ejemplo, de Jean Baudrillard o de Paul Virilio.

2017

  • Multimediality, art and literature

  • Kinésica y proxémica en entornos urbanos: ritmos, entrainments y sincronizaciones Link

    Este trabajo de investigación tiene como foco principal el estudio de la signicación de los ritmos de la vida cotidiana a través de las interacciones y sincronizaciones de los cuerpos en los espacios públicos.

  • Tokio postures: cuerpo, gesto y dispositivos en entornos urbanos de alta aceleración Link

    Este ensayo aborda el tema de la kinésica, la proxémica y las posturas del cuerpo desde una pers- pectiva semiótica, sociológica y etnográfica. Forma parte de los resultados de un proyecto más amplio sobre los ritmos urbanos contemporáneos en el cual participan fotógrafos, diseñadores, cineastas, bailarines y etnógrafos.

  • The Lotman model and geopolitics of time-space

  • Para una semiótica de los objetos

  • Intermedialità: arti visive e letteratura

2016

  • Semiótica del transmedia: Prison Valley

2014

  • Online Telepolitics: for a semiotics of the media

  • Il corpo e il dono

    La donación de órganos es un espacio semiótico complejo, polémico y contractual pero sobre todo pasional. Las campañas visuales y de diseño gráfico se insertan en redes de producción de sentido y de resistencias simbólicas.

2013

  • The anthropology of the body in Eugenio Barba

  • Semiótica y diseño gráfico en Venezuela

    El diseño gráfico implica una semiotica. De hecho nadie podría negar dentro de ciertos límites epistemológicos que hacer una imagen o un producto gráfico implica (incluso fuera de toda mirada semiótica específica) una operación visual...

  • Sémiotique des arts vivants

2011

  • Dreams, delirium, filming: Spellbound by Alfred Hitchcock

  • As transfigurações do corpo presidencial através do entorno das mídias

  • Retrobus, metafore del tatuaggio

  • Pittura e retorica: gesti, indici, vettori

2010

  • Continuo y discontinuo: para una semiótica de la danza

    La danza, para constituirse en objeto semiótico, debe ser biplanar(Hjelsmlev 1968). De hecho lo es aún en el caso de los movimientos corpogestuales-rítmicos más sencillos dotados de ciertos niveles de expresión y de comunicación social como las pequeñas “frases” y sintagmas kinésicos que hacemos moviendo el cuerpo ( total o parcialmente)...

  • Bodies in action: theater, dance and multiculturalism

  • Lector in urbis

    Las ciudades, los espacios considerados como lugares urbanos, pueden ser abordados como un texto o conjunto de textos espacio-temporales dotados de sentido, de efectos de sentido que se expresan a través de las formas de vida urbana,de los “estilos urbanos”...

2009

  • Bodies in action: semiotics of movements

2008

  • Hermetic Venus: secret codes in The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

  • Labyrinths, encyclopedias, islands: space and narrativity in the work of Umberto Eco

  • Labyrinths, islands, pendulums: the semiotics of space in Umberto Eco

  • Internet users and pornographers: semiotic on the net

2007

  • Manual de Semiótica

  • Smetti di soffrire: raptus e messa in scena

  • El cuerpo del Che: el gesto que indica

2006

  • Modi di produzione segnica nell’Isola del giorno prima di U. Eco

  • Rituales de contacto a través de las maneras de mesa

2005

  • Semiosis and pragmatics of color: the banner

2004

  • Three ways, three subjects: Eco, Lotman, Greimas

  • Imagografía: elementos de semiótica visual

    Através de la palabra-amalgama LETRAimagoGRAFIA vamos a designar en principio algunos conceptos y propuestas teóricas aplicables en el espacio de la teoría y la práctica del diseño gráfico y las artes visuales.

  • Unfolded bodies: theory of the interface and virtual realities

  • Figures of begging: the immobility

  • Dematerialize-repeating-collecting

  • Towards an Experimental Faculty of Art

2003

  • Weisen des Bettelns

  • Nature as an encrypted text

2001

  • L’architettura del buon gusto

  • Puppets and mannequins: the sacred dimension in the work of Tadeusz Kantor

  • The war in the film and in the human imaginary

  • The figure of the animal in Rubens

2000

  • Las fronteras del texto

  • Six isotopies for the next millennium: Black-Hermes

  • Brief philosophy of the Monster

1998

  • El objeto cultural y sus sentidos

  • La arquitectura en el film: géneros, estilos, poéticas

  • The architecture of good taste: rhetoric and style

  • Semiotics in Venezuela: perspectives and trends

  • From The Name of the Rose until The Pendulum of Foucault

  • Cuadernos de Investigación y Documentación (series, 14 issues)

1997

  • Lector in urbis

1995

  • Reproductibility and allegorical arts: semiotics of fake

1994

  • Elements of urban semiotics

  • Imaginary cities, real characters

1992

  • Per una semiotica degli oggetti

  • Il corpo cieco: semiotica dello spazio nell’Odissea

  • Teoria e finzione nei romanzi di Umberto Eco

1990

  • Semiotics of space and comedian

  • Architecture and meaning: the metaphor of language

1989

  • El saber de la imagen

  • Gestuality and proxemics in ethnic dance: the Tamunangue

  • Rhetoric of the landscape: postcards I–II

1986

  • The dance of shapes: the objects

1984

  • The architecture of film

1979

  • Architectural codes in latinoamerican city

  • Semantics of the visual perspective

1978

  • Code and message in Frank Lloyd Wright

Correspondence

Contact


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