Conferences and Seminars Archives - Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Casanova in Time 1725-2025

The year 2025 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), Venetian by birth and European in his life and work. His historical figure is representative of a world that was slipping away, the Old Regime and the Republic of Venice, but also of the preoccupations of the eighteenth century and the transformations of modern society. His legend has spanned the last three centuries, reflecting the views on the eighteenth century of scholars, historians, artists, filmmakers as well as cultural and political figures. The 300th anniversary of his birth is an opportunity to examine the historical figure of Casanova, his works and their
fortunes, as well as to encourage research into his world and the imagery of the eighteenth century.

The international symposium is organised by the Department of Comparative Linguistic and Cultural Studies of Ca’ Foscari University, with the collaboration of the Società Italiana di Studi sul Secolo XVIII, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Institute for the History of Venetian Society and State, the Ateneo Veneto, the Venice State Archives and Ca’ Rezzonico), the Museo del Settecento Veneziano and the Correr Museum Library, Venice.

programmE

Wednesday 4 June | Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Sala Barbantini

15:00 – 19:00 | institutional greetings

Antonio Trampus

Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia

Introduzione

Andrea De Pasquale

Direzione Generale Educazione, Ricerca e Istituzioni Culturali, MIC Roma

Stampare il Settecento

Michel Delon

Sorbonne Université, Paris

Casanova couleur de rose

Malina Stefanovska

University of California, Los Angeles

La philosophie dans le boudoir et la ‘joie de vivre’

Paolo Bernardini

Università dell’Insubria, Como

I suicidi di Casanova: finzione e filosofia

Lisetta Lovett

Keele Medical School

Suicide: Do Casanova’s views have any relevance to today?

Clémence Carrasco-Vaudon

Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès

Giacomo Casanova le joueur : regard et discours sur les jeux de hasard au XVIIIe siècle

Giulia Delogu

Università ca’ Foscari, Venezia

Foscolo, Casanova e la storia

della Repubblica di Venezia

Thursday 5 June | Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Sala Barbantini

09:00 – 11:00

Luca Lo Basso

Università di Genova

Guido Candiani

Università di Padova

Navigando tra intrighi e potere.

Il giovane Casanova e la Marina veneziana del XVIII secolo

Mirela Mrak Kliman

Biserka Budicin

Jasna Vlahović

Državni arhiv u Pazinu – Archivio di Stato di Pisino

Il confine istriano – punto di contatto fra la Repubblica di Venezia e la Casa d’Austria

Rino Cigui

Centro di ricerche storiche di Rovigno

Orsera nel XVII secolo. Congiunture climatico-sanitarie e agricole

Didem İşler

Bartın Üniversitesi, Bartın

Percorsi mediterranei: Venezia e l’arsenale di Tripoli e John Murray a Costantinopoli

Maddalena Casarini

Universität Regensburg

Casanova in fuga - »Ein zweyte[r] Trenck«?

15:00 – 18:00

Andrea Merlotti

Centro studi del Consorzio delle Residenze Reali Sabaude, Torino

Il conte Sclopis e l’affare della sposa affittata (1769-74).

Una storia con Casanova?

Roberto Ricci

Deputazione Abruzzese di Storia Patria,

L’Aquila – CNR-ISEM, Roma

Giacomo Casanova e il cardinale Troiano Acquaviva d’Aragona

Michela Messina

Museo Sartorio, Trieste

La cifra dell’amore: quattro lettere riemerse di Andrea Memmo a Giustiniana Wynne

Federico Vidic

Istituto di Storia Sociale e Religiosa, Gorizia

Casanova in Vienna: between poetic flattery and embassy duties

Jolanta Dygul

Uniwersytet Warszawski

Casanova come traduttore: il caso delle Turbolenze della Polonia

17:20 – 17:40

Stanisław Świtlik

Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II

La pensée critique de Giacomo Casanova sur le despotisme dans l’Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia

17:40 — 18:00

Piotr Ugniewski

Uniwersytet Warszawski

Casanova et les historiens des bouleversements en Pologne

18:00 — 18:20

Rafał Waszczuk

Uniwersytet Warszawski

Conceptualisation de l’ordre européen dans l’Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia

Friday 6 June | Ca’ Foscari, Aula Magna Ca’ Dolfin

9:00 — 12:30

Tommaso Scaramella

Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia

Casanova e il pudore

Jean-Christophe Igalens

Sorbonne Université

Corps éprouvés

Gregory Dowling

Università Ca’ Foscari

Exploring the legend of La fuite des Plombs

Dino Detailleur

Waregem, Gand/Ghent

Are the Memoirs true or false?

A Memory Approach

Emmanuelle Meunier

Université de Franche-Comté

Réécritures, échos et prolongements: les documents de travail de Federico Fellini au seuil de son Casanova

Sílvia Fernandes

Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Braga

Casanova, les plaisirs et Dieu au Portugal

Michela Zaccaria

Università per Stranieri di Siena

Manon Balletti senza Casanova

Jaroslav Stanovsky

Moravská zemská knihovna v Brně

Casanova et Max Lamberg

Stefano Feroci

Firenze

Sabine Herrmann

Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani

Antonio Croce, l’ultimo amico di Casanova

15 — 17:00

Gianluca Simeoni

CRES, Verona

La versione Childs – Samaran.

Analisi di una edizione mai nata attraverso la corrispondenza di due casanovisti

Laurie A. Preston

McGraw-Page Library Randolph-Macon College

The J. Rives Childs Collection of Casanoviana: The Collection, the Scholar, and the Librarian

Richard Shane Agin

Duquesne University

Maria Elena Versari

Carnegie Mellon University

Casanova tra fascisti e antifascisti

Massimo Stella

Università Ca’ Foscari

Chiara Portesine

Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa

Casanova allo specchio

Saturday 7 June | Ca’ Foscari, Aula Magna Ca’ Dolfin

9 — 12:00

Tom Vitelli

L’Intermédiaire des Casanovistes, Salt Lake City

Translating Casanova into English:

The Case of Lana Caprina

Branko Aleksić

Université Philosophique Européenne, Paris

Lavori d’ingegno : Casanova e Vico

Benjamin Hoffmann

Ohio State University

En lisant en écrivant: de L’Icosaméron aux Minuscules

Marie-Paule de Weerdt-Pilorge

Université de Tours

Mystères et imaginaires de Casanova dans le roman policier français : Conjuration Casanova d’Éric

Giacometti et Jacques Ravenne (2006) et Casanova et la femme sans visage d’Olivier Barde-Cabuçon (2012)

Elena Grazioli

Università Statale Milano

Marco Borrelli

Università L’Orientale, Napoli

Il «ritmo del vivere»: Giovanni Comisso e Giacomo Casanova

Spiritualities and Healing in Global and Transhistorical Perspectives

The conference, dedicated to the relationship between spirituality and medicine from a comparative and trans-historical perspective, explores folk, vernacular, complementary, alternative, indigenous and biological medicine. The healing movements alternative to scientific medicine that challenged the management of the pandemic often have religious and/or spiritual roots and lead to political repercussions of great impact, providing new energy to nationalism, populism and fundamentalism. The conference will bring together anthropologists, ethnographers, sociologists, historians and experts in religious studies.

The conference is organized jointly by the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities (Fondazione Giorgio Cini) the Center for the Study of World Religions (Harvard Divinity School), the Center for the Study of Lived Religion (Università Ca’ Foscari) and the HEAL Network for the Ethnography of Healing.

Spiritualities and Healing in Global and Transhistorical Perspectives is part of the annual thematic programme Democracy and Pandemics, which will be highlighted by the exhibition Venice and Epidemies, taking place at the Longhena Library from 20 June.

programmE

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9:30 – 10am | Welcome Greetings

Francesco Piraino (Fondazione Giorgio Cini)
Giovanna Parmigiani (Harvard University)
Emily Pierini (Sapienza University of Rome)

10 – 11:30am | Panel: Spiritualities and Healing in the Mediterranean and Beyond

Giovanna Parmigiani (Harvard University)
Magic and Healing in Southern Italy: Spiritual Pizzica as a Magical Practice
Theodoros Kyriakides (University of Cyprus)
Magico-Religious Proximity and the Aesthetics of Healing in Cypriot Yitíes and Yiatrosóphia
Francesca Conti (The American University of Rome)
Secret Words Revealed: Gender, Tradition, and Change among Italian Folk Healers and Segnature

Chair: Francesco Piraino (Fondazione Giorgio Cini)

11:30 – 12pm | Coffee Break

12 – 1pm | Panel: Spirituality, Healing, and COVID-19

Bettina E. Schmidt (University of Wales Trinity Saint David)
Non-Ordinary Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Felicia Cucuta (Harvard University)
Au Creux de l’Oreille / In Your Ear: The Curative Potential of Arts during the Pandemic

Chair: Giovanna Parmigiani (Harvard University)

2:30 – 4:30pm | Panel: Spiritualities and Healing in Historical Perspective

Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir and Ali Qadir (Tampere University, Finland)
Mystical Consciousness and Healing: Modern Eastern Orthodox Mystics between Trascendence and Community
Claudia Stella Geremia (Harvard University)
Enchanting Remedies: The Donne de Fora and the Blurred Lined between Magic and Healing (16 th -20 th Centuries)
Silke Felber (University of Arts, Linz, Austria)
Tracing the Pomander: Aromatic Medicine, Colonial Extraction, and the Becoming of the Body in Early Modern Europe
Maryam Abbasi (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
The Zar Ritual: Spirits, Healing, and Cultural Heritage in Southern Iran

Chair: Giovanna Capponi (Universitade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)
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10 – 11:30am | Panel: Healing between Spiritualities and Biomedicine

Emily Pierini (Sapienza University of Rome)
Doctors, Saints, and Spirits: Therapeutic Itineraries between Spirituality and Biomedicine
Géraldine Mossière (Université de Montréal, Canada)
The Work of Energy in Mind-Body Practices: A New Medicine? The Cases of 5 Rhythms and Core Energetics
Cecilia Draicchio (KU Leuven)
Taking Belief Seriously? Looking at the Intersections of Psychiatry and Spiritual Healing in Ghana Through and Old-Fashioned Category

Chair: Joseph Sanzo (Ca’ Foscari Universtiy of Venice)

11:30 – 12pm Coffee Break

12 – 13pm | Panel: Healing Sounds

Jessica Roda (Georgetown University)
Jewish Healing, Sounds, Body, and the Global Culture of Wellness
Zeynep Bulut (Queen’s University Belfast)
Experimental Music as a Sustainable Care Model

Chair: Francesco Piraino (Fondazione Giorgio Cini)

2:30 – 4pm | Panel: Spiritualities, Healing, and Politics

Luis Fernando Bernardi Junqueira (University of Cambridge)
Mental Healing, Nation Building, and Alternative Modernities in Early 20th-Century China
Pilar Morena d’Alò (Newcastle University)
Spirituality as Decolonisation: Co-option and Embracement in Argentine Feminism
Fernanda Gebara (Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute)
Ancestral Medicines, Biocultural Conservation, and the Politics of Recognition: Indigenous Spiritualities as Pathways to Healing the Future

Chair: Giovanna Parmigiani (Harvard University)
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10 – 11am | Panel: Spiritualities and Healing from South America

Giovanna Capponi (Universitade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)
Health Practices in Afro-Brazilian Religions: Navigating Science, Ecology, and Public Health Crises
Piera Talin (Center for the Study of Lived Religion at Cà Foscari University of Venice)
Rite and Treatment in Ayahuasca Religions and Urban Neo-Shamanic Ayahuasca Groups

Chair: Emily Pierini (Sapienza University of Rome)

11 – 11:30am Coffee break

11:30 – 12:30pm Round Table

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The conference will be held in English.

Seventy years of the Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society

One of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s earliest institutes, the Institute for the History of the Venetian State and Society dates back to 1955. Its main purpose for decades has been to make a fundamental contribution to the study of the history of Venice through the collection of documentation, research, the publication of the journal Studi Veneziani and the organisation
of seminars and scientific meetings. This year, through the participation of expert scholars, we are celebrating seven decades of activity by recalling the figures of the directors who have led the Institute, the scientific and publishing experiences, all with an eye to the future. As part of the seminar, volume 87–88 of Studi Veneziani (2023) will be presented.

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Egidio Ivetic
Introduction

Marcello Verga
Full Professor of Early Modern History, University of Florence
Italian Historiography and the History of Venice

Niccolò Zorzi
Full Professor of Byzantine Civilisation, University of Padua
Agostino Pertusi, Director

Antonella Barzazi
Full Professor of Early Modern History, University of Padua
Gaetano Cozzi, Director

Gino Benzoni
Member of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti and former Director of the Institute for the History of Venetian Society and State
A Life Chapter at the Giorgio Cini Foundation

Egidio Ivetic
Director, Institute for the History of Venetian Society and State, Fondazione Giorgio Cini
New Challenges

Marco Pellegrini
Full Professor of Early Modern History, University of Bergamo
Presentation of Volume 87-88 of Studi Veneziani (2023)

moderator

Andrea Zannini
Full Professor of Early Modern History, University of Udine
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Accesso libero fino a esaurimento posti.

Democracy and Pandemics

The Fondazione Giorgio Cini has always had a vocation for dialogue between the humanities and sciences, and is recognised as a place for reflection on global issues.
With the symposium Global Health in the Age of AI: Charting a Course for Ethical Implementation and Societal Benefit, organised last November, it renewed this commitment, inaugurating a new cycle of international meet ings to facilitate the identification of solutions to rise to contemporary challenges.

This year, the symposium Democracy and Pandemics aims to explore how democracies can address the challenges posed by pandemics, approaching the topic from an interdisciplinary perspective. The symposium brings together experts from medicine, economics, politics, sociology, philosophy and law to develop comprehensive and sustainable solutions.

The event underlines the importance of international collaboration, and aims to offer concrete reflections to minimise the human and economic damage of future health crises.

Throughout its history, Venice has been ravaged by dramatic epidemics. Votive basilicas such as the ‘Salute’ and the ‘Redentore’ are traces of this. However, Venice has always been able to react, developing rules and structures to prevent and contain its pandemics. It is no coincidence that words like ‘lazarette’ and ‘quarantine’ originated here in Venice. We will also offer an account of this activity of the Republic, with a series of cultural events organised by the Foundation’s Institutes, ranging from historical narratives to artistic recollections, from theatre to concerts.

Seminar Singing in the air, with masks

From 3 to 5 March, the seminar Singing in the air, with masks, organised in collaboration with Isabelle Moindrot and Giulia Filacanapa, professors at the Théâtre Performance et Societé of the Université Paris 8 and the École Universitaire de Recherche ArTeC – Nanterre, will be held at the Institute of Theatre and Opera.

The seminar, a follow-up chapter to the Singing in the pool seminar hosted last year, focuses on the discovery and study of the theatrical mask, with particular reference to the aerial environment. The students attend a lecture on the history of theatrical scenography by the director, Professor Maria Ida Biggi, who gives them an overview of the research carried out by important scenographers. In addition, the students present can view sketches, masks and preparatory materials relating to some of the productions of set designer Santuzza Calì, whose entire documentary archive is preserved at the Institute.

Workshop with Marco Angius and the soloists of the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto

With his threefold activity as composer, conductor and theorist, Pierre Boulez profoundly influenced twentieth-century musical thought.

On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth, a workshop in the Research- Led Performance cycle focusing on conducting orchestral ensembles is offered. The programme, coordinated by Marco Angius, includes four compositions that reflect Boulez’s sound world: Anton Webern’s Symphony op. 21, Edgard Varèse’s Octandre, Pierre Boulez’s Mémoriale, and Niccolò Castiglioni’s Tropi. Eight young conductors who have shown interest and aptitude for the repertoire in question are to be selected through a call for applications. Practical sessions alternate with theoretical sessions held by Pietro Cavallotti, Paolo Dal Molin, Massimiliano Locanto and Francisco Rocca.

The workshop ends with a concert on 7 March, at 6 p.m., in the Sala degli Arazzi of the Foundation, at the conclusion of a three-day workshop focused on conducting orchestral ensembles, within the Research-led Performance cycle.

The concert programme includes performances of pieces by Niccolò Castiglioni, Tropi (1959, for chamber ensemble), Pierre Boulez, Mémoriale (1985, for solo flute and eight instruments), Edgard Varèse, Octandre (1923, for eight instruments) and Anton Webern, Sinfonia op. 21 (1928).

Concert | 6 p.m.

Eye on Music | Audiovisual Ethnomusicology Projects

Seminar and screening of ethnomusicological films curated by Giovanni Giuriati, Marco Lutzu and Simone Tarsitani

The seminar and film screening are part of a broader initiative called Sguardi Musicali – Audiovisual Ethnomusicology Projects, launched in 2018 by the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies of Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice with the aim of promoting training and production support activities in the field of audiovisual ethnomusicology.

This year’s edition includes a seminar in the morning for Ca’ Foscari Venice University students on the theme of dialogic ethnomusicology, with the participation of anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, filmmakers and musicians. In the afternoon, there will be a presentation of three documentary films, including the film made by the winner of the 2023 Carpitella Grant in its world premiere.

Seminar* | h 11:00 – 13:00

Dialogic Ethnomusicology. Interactions between researchers, filmmakers and musicians

With the participation of:

Valentina Bonifacio, Ca’ Foscari University Venice

Giovanni De Zorzi, Ca’ Foscari University Venice

Ofer Gazit, Ca’ Foscari University Venice

Giovanni Giuriati, Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice

Marco Lutzu, University of Cagliari

Diego Pani, Carpitella Grant 2023, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Antonio Migheli, Su Cuncordu ‘e su Rosàriu di Santu Lussurgiu

Simone Tarsitani, Durham University

*Seminar open to university students

Screenings | h 15:00 – 18:00

Sardinian Music

by Georges Luneau in collaboration with Bernard Lortat-Jacob (1990) | 28 min

Sardinian Masters’ Talk

by Marco Lutzu and Ignazio Macchiarella (2016) | 23 min

premiered in the presence of the director and the singers:

Mantènnere: guarding the sacred sound

by Diego Pani (2024) | 55 min

The Aesthetics of Esoteric Practices: Materialities, Performances, Senses

This conference focuses on the aesthetics of esoteric practices through materialities, performances, and the senses. It aims to explore the extent to which esoteric practices are socially and culturally constructed and effective because they are practiced, performed, sensorily perceived and embodied by participants as practitioners as well as spectators. The conference evolves around aesthetics as the relations between esoteric practices, the practicing individual and their social and cultural environment.

The event is organized jointly by Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities), DFG-funded Center for Advanced Studies “Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective” (CAS-E) at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, and the Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices (RENSEP).

The event will be enriched by a Piano Concert organized by the Institute of Music.

Download the program of the conference here.

Admission is free upon registration on Eventbrite:

– Conference registration (12-13-14 November)
– Concert registration (13 November at 6 pm)

For questions about availability, please contact: civilta.comparate@cini.it

Lucio Fontana: Origins and Imagination

The symposium, a collaboration between the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Institute of Art History and the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, with the support of Intesa Sanpaolo, will be held on December 5th and 6th on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

Lucio Fontana’s vital and inventive work extends and develops over a wide span of time from the 1920s to the end of the 1960s. A career studded with constant experimentation that placed him, from the very beginning, among the pioneers of contemporary art.

In the History of Art of recent decades, the centrality of his figure and work has increasingly emerged, and the new studies, multiple exhibitions and publications dedicated to him have thus been able to restore, especially to new generations of scholars, but also to a wider public, the variety and coherent continuity of his entire creative career. The international conference Lucio Fontana: Origins and Imagination, promoted by the Giorgio Cini Foundation Institute of Art History and the Lucio Fontana Foundation, intends for the first time to take stock of recent and ongoing studies, as well as to promote, at this significant and rich moment, a discussion between scholars who have dealt directly with the artist or whose in-depth studies have touched on Fontana themes that are useful for offering new readings and avenues of investigation: from those more strictly historical-artistic to research concerning the material and conservation aspects of the works.

Over the course of the two days of study, scheduled for 5 and 6 December 2024, there will be the opportunity to explore the imagery and context within which Lucio Fontana’s activity developed, as well as aspects, moments and themes pertinent to his research and critical reception in Italy and abroad.

The futurist roots of his work, the relationship with the sculpture of his contemporaries, the very early creative phase strained between Italy and Argentina, are some of the investigative paths that will be tackled and that will probe the reasons for the author’s current position. A section of the symposium will also be devoted to an in-depth examination of case studies: exhibitions, selected from among the many, that have contributed to building Fontana’s fortune or to promoting particular aspects of his creative parabola, reaffirming his role as a pioneer and the vitality of his research.

The symposium also highlights the interest shown by the Giorgio Cini Foundation in the Italian-Argentine master, the protagonist of several in-depth events hosted and promoted by the Venetian institution: the Exhibition of Drawings and Graphic Works by Lucio Fontana in 1972; the 2014 conference Figurative Art and Abstract Art. 1954 – 2014 and the scholarship Lucio Fontana, Argentinean period: monuments projects and works announced in 2022 once again in close synergy with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, which confirms its increasing commitment to supporting and encouraging scientific projects on the artist.

5 – 6 December | Admission free subject to availability

Download the program

Join the live streaming on the Giorgio Cini Foundation YouTube channel

5 December 2024

6 December 2024

Workshop Research-led Performance | Composer – Instrument – Performer | Violoncello Solo in the Second Half of the 20th Century

This workshop is part of the Research-led Performance series, one of the most popular and esteemed activities at the Institute for Music since its inaugural edition in 2016.

Our guest lecturer for 2024 is Lucas Fels, cellist of the Arditti String Quartet and professor at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. A masterful musician, Fels combines his expertise with a keen interest in philological aspects and theoretical reflection. The workshop will focus on works for solo cello by Italian composers, with particular attention to the collections preserved at the Institute for Music. The following compositions will be studied:

Luigi Dallapiccola, Ciaccona, Intermezzo e Adagio (1945);
Renato de Grandis, Serenata seconda (1970);
Giacomo Manzoni, Freedom (2001);
Ernesto Rubin de Cervin, Omaggi (2002).

The workshop is aimed at young cellists with a strong ability to understand and interpret research and experimental music. The program includes both practical and theoretical sessions, as well as a final concert featuring performances by a select group of workshop participants. The practical sessions will be led by Lucas Fels, while the theoretical sessions, open to the public, will be given by musicologists Gianmario Borio (Director of the Institute of Music and Professor at the University of Pavia), Francisco Rocca (scientific collaborator at the Institute of Music) and Francesca Scigliuzzo (doctoral student at the University of Udine) they will address various aspects of the works being studied. Giacomo Manzoni’s participation is expected.

Call for applications for 8 cellists with scholarships

Download WorkshopVioloncelloBandoING_DEF (dec)

Application deadline: 25 October 2024