Articles by: Natasha Lardera

  • Events: Reports

    Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe

    Giovanni Acquaviva, Guillaume Apollinaire, Fedele Azari, Francesco Balilla Pratella, Giacomo Balla, Barbara (Olga Biglieri), Benedetta (Benedetta Cappa Marinetti), Mario Bellusi, Ottavio Berard, Romeo Bevilacqua, Piero Boccardi, Umberto Boccioni, Enrico Bona, Aroldo Bonzagni, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Arturo Bragaglia, Alessandro Bruschetti, Paolo Buzzi, Mauro Camuzzi, Francesco Cangiullo, Pasqualino Cangiullo, Mario Carli, Carlo Carra, Mario Castagneri, Giannina Censi, Cesare Cerati, Mario Chiattone, Gilbert Clavel, Bruno Corra (Bruno Ginanni Corradini), Tullio Crali, Tullio d’Albisola (Tullio Mazzotti), Ferruccio Demanins, Fortunato Depero, Nicolaj Diulgheroff, Gerardo Dottori, Fillia (Luigi Colombo), Luciano Folgore (Omero Vecchi), Corrado Govoni, Virgilio Marchi, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Alberto Martini, Pino Masnata, Filippo Masoero, Angiolo Mazzoni,  Torido Mazzotti, Alberto Montacchini, Nelson Morpurgo, Bruno Munari, N. Nicciani, Vinicio Paladini Aldo Palazzeschi (Aldo Giurlani), Ivo Pannaggi, Giovanni Papini, Osvaldo Peruzzi, Carlo A. Petrucci, Ugo Piatti, Zdenka Podhajska, Ugo Pozzo, Enrico Prampolini, Riccardo Ricas, Maria Ricotti,  Enif Robert (Enif Angelini Robert), Romolo Romani, Rosa Rosa (Edyth von Haynau), Ottone Rosai, Luigi Russolo, Valentine de Saint-Point, Antonio Sant’Elia, Bruno Sanzin (Bruno Giordano Sanzin), Alberto Sartoris, Emilio Settimelli, Gino Severini, Mario Sironi, Ardengo Soffici, Mino (Stanislao) Somenzi, Tato (Guglielmo Sansoni), Thayaht (Ernesto Michahelles), Lucio Venna (Giuseppe Landsmann) and Růžena Zatkova.
        

    These are the names of the Italian Futurism artists featured in the exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909---1944: Reconstructing the Universe currently on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, until September 1st, 2014.

    Curated by Vivien Greene, Senior Curator, 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art, this multidisciplinary show features over 360 works by more than 80 artists, architects, designers, photographers, and writers.

    “We worked hard to finally have this show mostly because there has never been such a large scale exhibition on Italian Futurism in the United States before. We felt the time had come to introduce the American public to a branch of Italian art they are not familiar with. Italy is mostly known for its classics... the ancient Romans, the Renaissance... but there is so much more than that. This specific exhibition has the goal to enrich the general knowledge of Italian art and introduce an avant-garde movement that was incredibly influential in the development of modernism.”

    “Futurism was launched in 1909 against a background of growing economic and social upheaval. In Marinetti’s “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,” published in Le Figaro, he outlined the movement’s key aims, among them: to abolish the past, to champion modernization, and to extol aggression. Although it began as a literary movement, Futurism soon embraced the visual arts as well as advertising, fashion, music and theater, and it spread throughout Italy and beyond. The Futurists rejected stasis and tradition and drew inspiration from the emerging industry, machinery, and speed of the modern metropolis.”

    Italian Futurism, 1909---1944: Reconstructing the Universe  unfolds chronologically, juxtaposing works in different mediums as it traces the myriad artistic languages the Futurists employed as their practice evolved over a 35-year period. The exhibition begins with an exploration of the manifesto as an art form, and proceeds to the Futurists’ catalytic encounter with Cubism in 1911, their exploration of near-abstract compositions, and their early efforts in photography.

    Ascending the rotunda levels of the museum, visitors follow the movement’s progression as it expanded to include architecture, clothing, design, dinnerware, experimental poetry, and toys.
    Along the way, it gained new practitioners and underwent several stylistic evolutions—shifting from the fractured spaces of the 1910s to the machine aesthetics (or arte meccanica) of the ’20s, and then to the softer, lyrical forms of the ’30s.

    Aviation’s popularity and nationalist significance in 1930s Italy led to the swirling, often abstracted, aerial imagery of Futurism’s final incarnation, aeropittura. This novel painting approach united the Futurist interest in nationalism, speed, technology, and war with new and dizzying visual perspectives. It is no coincidence that the last painting exposed at the very tip of the museum is Tullio Crali's.

    Before the Parachute Opens (Prima che si apra il paracadute), where you see the parachutist dive into the void, a void that is in movement and dizzying... look at the painting and then look over at the museum and all that art in the surrounding “void.”

    The exhibition is enlivened by three films commissioned from documentary filmmaker Jen Sachs, which use archival film footage, documentary photographs, printed matter, writings, recorded declamations, and musical compositions to represent the Futurists’ more ephemeral work and to bring to life their words-in-freedom poems. One film addresses the Futurists’ evening performances and events, called serate, which merged “high” and “low” culture in radical ways and broke down barriers between spectator and performer.

    Italian Futurism concludes with the five monumental canvases that compose the Syntheses of
    Communications (1933–34) by Benedetta (Benedetta Cappa Marinetti), which are being shown for the first time outside of their original location. One of few public commissions awarded to a Futurist in the 1930s, the series of paintings was created for the Palazzo delle Poste (Post Office) in Palermo, Sicily.

    The paintings celebrate multiple modes of communication, many enabled by technological innovations, and correspond with the themes of modernity that underpinned the Futurist beliefs.
  • Facts & Stories

    A Closer Look at Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: A Biography Through Images

    “Gioacchino is always very shy and private, but we are happy he is opening up and telling us about his family history.” With these words, journalist and professor Antonio Monda, captured the overall feeling of the audience of Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo who attended the book presentation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, A Biography through Images (Alma Books 2013). Its author, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi shared with his readers, rare photographs and anecdotes from his family archive as well as his own memories of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, “the prince of Lampedusa, who was a gentleman scholar with a passion for English and French literature, a rare breed of Siclian aristocrat with a rather international upbringing who led a very private life,” Stefano Albertini, the Casa's director said.

    Prince Lampedusa was also the author of The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) a novel that chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Risorgimento. After living through the upheaval of World War II, the author fell into a lengthy depression, and thus began to write as a way to fight it off.

    “Lampedusa didn't see his novel published - it was refused by publishers, such as Vittorini who was a political editor and this was not a political novel - and his name became a staple of world literature only a few years after his death,” Albertini added.

    The Leopard, which had been labeled as “unpublishable” became the top-selling novel in Italian history and is considered one of the most important novels in modern Italian literature. It was finally posthumously published in 1958 and it stirred a bunch of attacks, as the conservatives were against its portrayal of the decadence of both the nobility and clergy and the leftists elements saw the novel as a tool of harsh criticism of Italian unification and the destruction of the nobility. “Sciascia attacked its political point of view,” Monda explained, “while Caramella called it immoral.”

    In 1959 the book won the Strega Prize, Italy's highest award for fiction and in 1963, it was turned into a film directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster. In 2012, The Observer named it as one of “The 10 best historical novels of all time.”

    More details, unpublished pictures from Lampedusa's private albums and documents from his family archive can be found in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, A Biography through Images.

    Born in 1934, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, is the cousin and adopted son of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, as well as the Italian editor of Lampedusa’s works and executor of his estate. He is dear to New York City, as he has been the director of the Italian Cultural Institute. He is Professor of Music History at the University of Palermo and he has written several books on opera and major composers such as Rossini, Stravinsky, Berg and Mussorgsky. This new book explores all the people and places that were dear to the great Sicilian master and are essential to further understand his work.

    “This is almost like a Power Point presentation,” Gioacchino Lanza joked as he was showing slides and commenting on ancestors who were sleeping with each other or trying to poison each other. As you leaf through the book's pages, even before the text starts you see a black and white picture of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in the gardens of Villa Piccolo in the Autumn of 1956 followed by images of ancestors dating back to the 1600's and an oil on canvas reproduction of the the Tomasi palace that same palace that was bombed and pillaged by Allied forces in World War II.

    The book contains invaluable critical as well as biographical material and is a must have for any admirer of The Leopard and its writer. The biography features a foreword by Lampedusa's renown biographer David Gilmour.

  • Life & People

    Nella Città Nuda, Stories of Humanity in the NYC Subway

    How many times a day do you find yourself in the subway? Going to work, returning home, going to your yoga class or to that new restaurant that Time Out has just reviewed. You are standing squished between a bunch of strangers and look around or you just sit down and lose yourself in the latest thriller by your favorite author.
            

    “The subway car is a very democratic place. When you're in the subway there is no distinction between you and the others, we're a all the same,” author Gay Talese told the audience of Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo' who had gathered to see the presentation of author Antonio Monda's latest book, published by Rizzoli, Nella Citta' Nuda, Le Mille Anime di New York (In the Naked City, the Thousand Souls of New York).

    Why was he talking about the subway car? Because Monda's book is “a collection of pictures he has taken with his iPhone while riding the subway from the Upper West Side, where he lives, to the West Village, where he works (at NYU) and back,” Stefano Albertini explained at the beginning of the presentation. “When he first started taking these photographs of fellow travelers he was posting them on facebook and I told him that one day someone would find him out and beat him up... while luckily that did not happen and now this book is the result of that experiment.”

    In Nella Citta' Nuda “Antonio made a selection of some of the hundreds of photographs he took and wrote a short story for each one of them. The result is a sort of Spoon River Anthology of living people, those we rub elbows with everyday in the subway,” Albertini said before introducing the panel of authors eager to ask Monda some questions. In addition to the aforementioned Talese, the presentation was attended by author Colum McCann and writer for The New Yorker, Judith Thurman.

    To sum things up we can say that all their questions brought us the following as a long, complete answer:“The book features fifty stories and each one of them incorporates my beliefs and my obsessions,” Monda declared. We are talking about moral, ethical, social, religious and even cinema-related issues. Abortion, for example, is addressed in two, opposing, points of view, one for it, the other against it. There are prayers, as the prayer of a homosexual guy who wants to love his man in the eyes of God.

    “You can never see the faces of the people portrayed in the pictures, they cannot be recognized. Their faces are blurry, out of focus and many are shot from the back. Since I was a child in Rome, I would get on the subway, look at the people around me and chose someone and make up their story. I have never stopped doing that,” Monda added.

    And so we meet “Nymph,” one of the many characters of the book, an older woman, really well dressed, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer. Monda read her story, in Italian as the book still needs to come out in English, a story that could even belong to your grandmother. Nymph, this is the nickname her deceased husband gave her, doesn't even know where she's going, but she's in that car. and as it is taking her to some unknown location, it is making her travel through time in her head, with her thoughts and memories... and someone with such romantic and lovely memories can really be someone condemned to forget them all?

    “When working on the book at times I would get inspiration from the photograph and write the person's story, others I already had a story I wanted to tell and I looked for the best person to incarnate it. I even picked a couple of real life events.”

    Lena il Mostro (Lena the Monster), for example, is based on a New York City piece of news: the “Killer Nanny,” by the name of Yoselin Ortega, the nanny accused of butchering the two children in her care back in October 2012.  “I tell the story from her point of view,” Monda explained. Good that the woman portrayed in the picture cannot be recognized as been picked to portray a crazy killer might just not be the best feeling in the world.

    “As I was reaching my goal of 50 pictures/stories I realized that the overall tone of the book was rather bleak, so it was time to add some light to it and write some stories that are more funny and relaxed than others. No matter what their tone is, these stories are all part of me, a reflection of my nakedness, as I present to you all my obsessions. But I am not the only one to be “naked” here, they're naked too, as they are presented in all their humanity. ”

    To read more about the book >>

  • Events: Reports

    Gigi D'Alessio & his Romantic Valentine’s Day Concert in NY



    I-Italy was able to catch singer Gigi D’alesso before his arrival in the City and had the chance to ask him a few questions. The Naples-born singer has sold 12 million copies and achieved 100 platinum awards during a 20 year career.
     
    February 14th is an important date for you and New York City. In 2011 you had a concert at Radio City Music Hall, a legendary venue, what do you remember of that experience, and what are you bringing to your North American audiences this time?
     
    “New York’s Radio City Music Hall is the temple of world music, the greatest artists of all time have performed there. That definitely was one of the most emotional experiences of my career. I remember it fondly. It was the realization of a lifelong dream, despite all the sacrifices I had to endure, I made it there… but it was also a stimulus for the future. It was a destination and at the same time a stepping stone for new projects.”
     
    The Italian superstar has released his 18th studio set Ora, via Sony Music on February 4th, followed by the kick off of his world tour with a seven city concert run of the continent on February 7th . Ora features D'Alessio in collaboration with Neopolitan musician Enzo Avitabile on the track Notte di lune storte while the song Serpente e sonagli features words penned by the legendary Italian lyricist Mogol and includes the voice of Anna Tatangelo, D'Alessio's life partner who will be joining him on stage in the US and Canada.
     
    Tell us about your collaboration with Enzo Avitabile for the song Notti di Lune Storte. How important collaborating with other artists is for you?
     
    “Notti di Lune Storte is one of the most significative songs of the new album. A singer’s artistic career runs parallel to his personal life, and often certain aspects of the latter are disregarded.
    Once you get home after a bunch of engagements have taken place, you realize that things have changed and you are totally unaware of it. You understand that change is unavoidable and that you have held a supporting role, not a starring role, in your life. Collaborating with other artists is a way to enrich your artistic growth and a way to share something unique, in this case with a great artist and friend named Enzo Avitabile.”
     
    Tell us about Ora, how did it become the song that defines the new album?

    “Ora is a piece that I wrote with my audience on my mind. I was thinking of all those who have supported me since the beginning of my career. It is a direct homage to my fans. Its lyrics have developed, in the immediate, Ora, Right Now. Its immediacy fits perfectly with the new project.”
     
    You have publicly declared that this is an album that you could have written only after having turned 40. How do you describe your music of today and that of when you started? How did you evolve?

    “My music and the desire to sing are still the same, but the contents and the messages I want to convey through my songs have changed. You reach a certain artistic maturity mostly because you reach a personal maturity, simply by growing older. Experiences and emotions are lived differently during your life cycle. I hope I am able to communicate this evolution through all my songs.”
     
    Has being from Naples been influential on your musicality?

    “Neapolitan music, in all its authenticity, is an Italian product that is still exported abroad despite the new influences and trends that have saturated the music market.”
     
    FOR DATES AND INFORMATION:
  • Life & People

    Diabolically Fascinating: the General of Noise in the Waters

    Supported by Amnesty International and lionized by Italian critics, Noise in the Waters is a dark, intense work for voice and music, by the Italian company Teatro delle Acque, that protests the indifference of Fortress Europe to the everyday tragedy of refugees from Africa, who have perished for years in the Strait of Sicily on fruitless sea voyages to escape massacres and starvation in their homelands.

    The play, at La MaMa until February 16, stars actor Alessandro Renda and multi-instrumentalists Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso. Renda plays a soul of the underworld, clad in a general's uniform, who has been charged with making a census of the dead at the bottom of the sea, bringing order to a desperate state of bookkeeping.

    Alessandro Renda entered Teatro delle Albe through the non-scuola (non-school) workshops the company has run in the high schools of Ravenna since 1991. He appeared in the company's celebrated production of "I Polacchi," inspired by Alfred Jarry's "Ubu Rex," and in nine other productions. He heads the company's video division.

    He was interviewed by I-italy after a successful performance.

      Before being part of this project, were you personally interested in this topic?

    Ravenna is my city, it's where I grew up and where I got to know the Teatro delle Albe, but I am originally from Sicily. I've always been interested in the stories of the Mediterranean, of Sicily, of its past and crossings. Theater feeds a certain affinity to the observation of the world that surrounds us, in particular of those stories that are not always told, or are not given the appropriate attention. So when I, Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari, stayed in Mazara del Vallo to do some research, we realized that there was too much left unsaid on this topic. The migrations in the Mediterranean and the more than 2000 dead, from the year 1988 to today, are often portrayed by the media as minor news,  as minor statistics, numbers with no faces or stories. By being in Sicily we had the chance to meet people and listen to the tales of their desperate voyages to Europe in search of a different future.

    The research process was completed with some essential reading: the books by Gabriele Del Grande and Fabrizio Gatti. But this approach is not new to the poetic of our theater, we are always trying to become a “world” through relations and encounters. Teatro delle Albe, in its thirty years of activity, has always been particularly interested in “the other,” the others... from the griots of Senegal in the ’80s, to the topic of “interbreeding”, the “non-school” and the Dyonisiac energy of the adolescents.  

    Four years have passed since the debut of Noise in the Waters in Ravenna, has it evolved through the years?

    The show debuted in the summer of 2010 and overall it has not changed. Here in New York it has been presented in a totally different space that has been designed by Ermanna Montanari specifically for La MaMa, but the essence of the show remains unchanged. Furthermore, the beauty of theater is that every night Noise in the Waters “changes.” Every night is a new “opening night” for us and for the audience attending the show. The Mancuso brothers and I, have a different dialogue every time. But there is no explanation for this, it is just magic. There are people who have seen the show several times, and every time they have felt differently.

    How is acting in a foreign language and how does it affect your representation of the General?

    In the Italian version, the General at times speaks to the audience and to the spirits in Arabic. For the General the addition of some parts in English is basically meaningless. Actually, he is the one and only citizen on an imaginary island in the middle of the Mediterranean. This strange and diabolical character is used to being “infected” by the languages and the stories of the dead and the spirits he is forced to count. Years back in the Mediterranean there was a special language called Sabir, it was a mix of Sicilian, Arabic, Catalan and Turkish. It was a service language. That's how English is for the General here in New York. My English is bad, but the feedback from the local spectators has been extremely positive and on stage, that language that is foreign to me becomes mine and the words of the General are brought to life.

    The General is based on Gaddafi, how did you create him?

    Gaddafi is the historical figure that has inspired Marco Martinelli in the writing of the monologue/short poem, and me in the acting. There was something diabolically fascinating in that figure. Savagery and the grotesque cohabited in him. On one side he was an uncompromising dictator, on the other he had an almost theatrical personality (let's not forget the Berber tents he used when traveling abroad, his Army of Amazons and the fancy sunglasses). In order to give shape to the General of Noise in the Waters, he was essential, just to avoid falling into the trap of sentimentality. This General, at times hideous and ferocious, others silly and grotesque, is not someone that different from us. It's almost our dark side, our evil shadow, it talks of us. At times he is scornful towards these victims, he creates discomfort in the audience while other times he himself is overtaken by the tragedy of some stories, as in the case of Jean-Baptiste, a poor child, or of Sakinah, a young woman.

    When in Mazara del Vallo, you videotaped some testimonies, is there a story that has particularly affected you?

    During our long stay in Mazara del Vallo, where we have conceived the show, we have heard tons of stories. I used my camera as my personal notebook. I even went to Lampedusa to see the “cemeteries of the boats.” Each and every story has left something behind. They're all stories of similar abuse, although each and every story, each face, each voice is its own reality. I was struck by a woman, who in the show we renamed Jasmine, who, when asked if, given the chance to retake that trip, she'd do it again she replied, shyly but firmly “NO.”

    ----

    New York
    Rumore di Acque a La MaMa
    La MaMa - First Floor Theatre
    30 gennaio - 16 febbraio
    giovedì-sabato ore 19.30/domenica ore 14.30
     www.lamama.org

    Eresia della Felicità a New York
    Workshop dal 15 gennaio. Esito finale del workshop (a cura di Marco Martinelli e Alessandro Renda): 11 febbraio
    Middle School-Liceo campus
    406 East 67th Street
     www.lascuoladitalia.org

    Incontri
    Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò/New York University
    28 gennaio - ore 18.00
     www.casaitaliananyu.org
    Istituto Italiano di Cultura di New York
    5 febbraio - ore 18.00
     www.iicnewyork.esteri.it

    New Jersey
    Laboratorio Marco Martinelli e Ermanna Montanari 
    Life Hall Dance Studio 
    4 febbraio - ore 10.00 -12.30
    www.montclair.edu/inserra/events
    Laboratori alla Montclair State University
    Laboratorio Enzo e Lorenzo Mancuso
    Leshowitz Recital Hall
    13 febbraio - ore 10.00 -12.45
    www.montclair.edu/inserra/events

    Rumore di Acque alla Montclair State University
    Leshowitz Recital Hall-John J. Cali School of Music
    18 febbraio - ore 19.00
     montclair.edu/inserra/events

    Chicago
     Rumore di Acque al Links Hall
    Links Hall - STUDIO A
    21 e 22 febbraio - ore 19.00
     linkshall.org

    La tournée del Teatro delle Albe negli Usa è sostenuta da La MaMa, La Scuola d'Italia Guglielmo Marconi, NY, Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies at Montclair State University NJ, NYU (Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò e Center for European and Mediterranean Studies), gli Istituti Italiani di Cultura di New York e Chicago e la Northwestern University of Chicago, IL.

    Per maggiori informazioni:
     www.teatrodellealbe.com/ita/albe-negli-usa
    www.casaitaliananyu.org
  • Art & Culture

    Remembering The Jews of Rhodes

    On July 23, 1944, the Nazis deported almost the entire Jewish population of the island of Rhodes, while the Italian authorities, who had been in charge of the island since 1912 to the Armistice of September 8, 1943, stood by.

    This historical fact is the central theme of the deportation of the Jews of Rhodes, by filmmaker Ruggero Gabbai, which was presented at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' as part of the program dedicated to the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

    Presented in collaboration with the Primo Levi Center and based on research conducted by Liliana Picciotto and Marcello Pezzetti, The Longest Journey weaves together testimonies of three Jews who have survived Auschwitz – Stella Levi, Sami Modiano and Albert Israel.

    “70 years ago the Jewish community of Rhodes came to an end and so did my life,” Stella Levi told the crowd after the screening of the film, “What the documentary cannot tell is what I lost: my father's home, my roots... and since then I haven't found it. I feel estranged everywhere I go or I feel as a guest. What is most horrible is that I never found out the reason why. Why, right at the end of the war they came to pick up 1800 people, including the grandmother of a friend of mine who was 104 years old, for what? And 23 days for what? What kind of furious hatred could bring what we used to call civilized people, the Germans, who gave Western civilization so many great artists, to act that way. Why? Does any one of you have an answer?”

    Stella Levi was 19 when she was deported. She had no idea what was going on and, just like the others, she did not do anything to prevent that from happening. “We did not know we were going to die.”

    “We were very isolated,” she continued to explain, “The Italian and German newspapers were always giving us the news that the AXIS FORCES were winning the war. When we would listen to the BBC broadcasts we did hear that there were persecutions but all that sounded so far away – in Germany, in Poland, we never thought they would come to Rhodes. And indeed for almost 8 months the Germans did not touch us. They were in Rhodes from October 1943, when they took over, and they did not give us the impression that they would take us away or anything of that sort.”

    The Germans arrived a list of names prepared by the Italians who had had a census, “they would have had no way to identify the Jews.”

    Natalia Indrimi of Centro Primo levi added that “This is a story that still needs  a lot of research. The archives of the Italian police were thought to be lost but were recently found in the archives of the Greek police. The German commander who was responsible for the deportation in the whole of Greece was tried, however they really do not know what happened in Rhodes. The SS arrived after months that the Germans had taken military control of the island in fact there were very limited troops. The civilian administration remained in the hands of the Italians until the day of the deportation and the exact story of what happened in Rhodes is still an open field of study.”

    “All the other ethnic groups just stood by and watched,” Stella Levi added, “what hurts me the most is that we were not under apparent threat but our world was destroyed and nobody did anything. The Greeks, for example, were a little more anti-semite and they were against us because they wanted the island to themselves plus they knew the Jews were more pro-Italian than pro-Greeks. No private helped the Jews, only the Turkish Consul helped the Turkish citizens, but we were left to our destiny.”

    When the documentary was been shot curious passers by would ask what the topic was, and when told, many, especially those of an older generation that could possibly have lived through that historical moment, would just walk away in shame.

    In the documentary Stella Levi tells the camera that she felt most betrayed by the Italians who did nothing to help out yet she defines herself an Italian. “Of course certain core feelings that I have are Jewish but everything that defined me comes from Italian culture... its beautiful literature, the music, the poetry... they gave me my sensitivity to what's beauty, to what is appreciation of good things, to elegance. This is what I am.”

    Stella, one of the 150 survivors, did not move back to Rhodes but moved the the US in 1947, today she receives a pension from Germany and one from Italy, but “it doesn't mean anything, doesn't fix anything. How can you repair a broken heart?”

  • Art & Culture

    NYU. Voice to the Migrants Lost at Sea

    On the occasion of the US Premiere of the performance of Rumore di Acque (Noises in the Waters) by Teatro delle Albe at La MaMa Theater, Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò presented a panel discussion with scholars and artists who analyzed Marco Martinelli's book, published by Bordighera Press and translated by Thomas Simpson, which is the source of the play.

    The panel, moderated by Teresa Fiore, Montclair State University, included Marco Martinelli author and director, Alessandro Renda, actor and videographer, Ermanna Montanari, actress and set designer, and Francesca Degiuli, sociologist from Farleigh Dickinson University. Teatro delle Albe, founded in 1983 by Marco Martinelli, Ermanna Montanari, Luigi Dadina and Marcella Nonni, is one of the most important theatre companies on the Italian and international scene.

    Rumore di Acque is the tragic account, accompanied by the music of the Mancuso brothers, of the desperate deaths of immigrants in the Mediterranean. Set on a volcanic islet in the strip of sea between Europe and Africa that has been the location of a devastating tragedy for the past fifteen years, the play is an intense and grotesque monologue on an every day tragedy that is widely spoken about in Italy but in torpor. In this case, theater is the occasion to explore the sociological, literary, and artistic aspects of this topical issue in Italy today.

    “Last July, Pope Francis made an unexpected visit to Lampedusa, an island off the Southern coast of Sicily to pray for the hundreds of African migrants who die at sea trying to reach the coast of Italy escaping hunger, war and all sorts of exploitation in their countries. For many people around the world, it was the first time they became aware of this ongoing massacre,” Stefano Albertini, director of Casa Italiana, explained in his invitation to the event. “Something changed in the public eye,” Martinelli continued, “people woke up to the issue and this gave us strength, gave us more prominence. The performances have increased and we are now ongoing a US Tour.”

    Some facts, “October 3rd, 2013 is known as the day of the Tragedy of Lampedusa. 518 migrants were traveling to Sicily from Eritrea. Just a few miles from land the boat caught on fire and sank. 155 people were picked up, the rest died at sea,” Francesca Degiuli said. “These tragedies are not uncommon.

    More than 7000 people died in that stretch of water between 1994 and 2013, but it is difficult to come up with a specific number in regards of immigration because you never know how many people are on those boats. These are people who are feeling from areas of conflict and unrest and oftentimes this is the last leg of a much longer journey.”

    An interesting fact to know is that, differently from common belief, the majority of illegal immigrants residing in Italy is not coming in by boat “but they come in by plane with a visa, then they overstay or they transit to another country. Yet the people we are now talking about are the ones who try the most desperate routes to get into the country and often lose their lives doing so,”  Francesca Degiuli continued.

    Specifically Rumore di acque depicts a soul of the underworld, wearing a general's uniform, who has been employed by the the Ministro dell' Inferno (a play on words for Ministro dell' Interno) to make a census of the dead at the bottom of the sea, bringing order to a desperate state of bookkeeping. The General, played by Alessandro Renda, is standing on a small volcanic islet, a gateway to the kingdom of the dead, whose "policy of welcome" is opposed to the driving away of the migrants who landed there.

    In a scratchy, distorted voice, he tells, with his monologue, the stories of the faceless dead lost, refugees named Sakinah, Yusuf, little Jean-Baptiste and Jasmine. His indifference, his anger toward the fish, “pigs of the sea,” who render the bodies faceless and make his job hard, and his sardonic tone makes the audience very indignant to his indifference.

    “I based my character on Gaddafi,” Alessandro Renda said, “He was a strange character. He was a cruel dictator, a controversial man of power but also a curious 'showman,' with female Amazonian bodyguards.” “We read his speeches, looked at his photographs,” Martinelli said, “But it would’ve been too easy to take it out on him, to palm the blame off on this sly and bloodthirsty dictator. He’s certainly guilty, and very much so, that umpteenth incarnation of Pa Ubu, but what about us? Are we innocent or guilty? Can I say I’m not responsible for all the tragedies that happen elsewhere?”

    The play is in Italian with some fragments acted out in English and English supertitles. Martinelli's words are interwoven with poetic and lyrical music by Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso - voice, harmonium, baglama, Turkish flute and marimba.

    Performances: January 30 to February 16, 2014
    La MaMa E.T.C. (First Floor Theater), 74A East Fourth Street
    >>>

    Presented by La MaMa E.T.C. in association with Teatro delle Albe, Ravenna Festival, Regione Siciliana, Circuito Epicarmo, Sensi Contemporanei in collaboration with Teatro Italiano Network powered by KIT-Kairos Italy Theater.
  • Art & Culture

    Raphael's The Madonna of Foligno Travels Back

    The Madonna of Foligno portrays a  Sacra Conversazione, a Holy Conversation, the Virgin Mary, seated on clouds and surrounded by angels, is holding baby Jesus and other holy figures (St. Jerome, St. Francis of Assisi, St. John the Baptist and  Sigismondo de' Conti) seem to be in conversation, a conversation that excites the curiosity of the viewer who wants to be part of it. 
     

    As St. John points to Jesus, he clearly looks out to the viewers, pulling them in, while St. Francis points directly at them and looks at the Christ Child. 

    Between the Saints there is an angel and behind them there are the towers of Foligno. The iconography in the painting was inspired by a story from the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend): on Christmas Day, the Virgin and Child are said to have appeared to Augustus before a solar disk, surrounded by angels, and the emperor, refusing to be worshiped as a god, is said to have recognized the greatness of Jesus and consecrated the site of the appearance of the Virgin Mary.

    The painting is one of many masterpieces drawn by Raphael, a major representative of the Italian High Renaissance.  Dating back to 1511, the painting was executed for Sigismondo de' Conti, chamberlain to Pope Julius II, and it was first painted on a wood panel and later transferred to canvas. 

    Upon completion, the painting was in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli on Rome, where Sigismondo was buried in 1512. In 1565 it was moved by Anna Conti, a descendant of Sigismondo, to the monastery of St. Anne in the town of Foligno itself, and it remained there for more than two centuries... until the arrival of Napoleon (1799) who brought it to Paris. After the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, the painting was returned to Italy and showcased in the Pinacoteca Vaticana.

    Now after two centuries, Eni, Italy's leadingmultinational oil and gas company,  has taken Raphael's masterpiece back to Foligno, precisely in the church of the monastery of St. Anne, its previous home.

    Before its trip to Foligno, crowds were able to admire the masterpiece at  Palazzo Marino, in Rome. 240.000 visitors stopped by to explore its many aspects, relating not only to the work itself, its painting technique, its conservation, and the extraordinary personality of the artist, but also to its history, closely tied with the territory. 

    The town of Foligno had the wish to have Raffaello' s masterpiece back even for just a short time. Now, Eni and the Vatican Museums have made this dream come true.

    Eni has worked hard, in the past few years, to bring art to a wider public: the formula was first developed in 2008 as an opportunity for dialogue and exchange, with the main objective of exhibiting a single work and offering space for new interpretations. The idea is to do things differently, without having a classic exhibition but to display a masterpiece in a unique environment. Each presentation is also supported by several in-depth tools, aimed particularly at children who can learn a lot about and from art.

    Thanks to Eni, in the past six years, over 1.2 million visitors had the opportunity of admiring masterpieces such as: Caravaggio’s The Conversion of Saint Paul (2008, over 160,000 visitors), Leonardo da Vinci’s Saint John the Baptist (2009, 180,000 visitors), Titian’s Woman with a Mirror (2010, over 190,000 visitors), Georges de La Tour’s Adoration of the Shepherds and Saint Joseph the Carpenter (2011, 210,000 visitors), and Canova’s Cupid and Psyche with Gérard’s Psyche and Amor (2012, 227,000 visitors).

    All these masterpieces from centuries ago continue to enjoy surprising popularity, now, just like back in time, they bring travelers, pilgrims and visitors together in contemplation of their sublime beauty.
  • Dining in & out: Articles & Reviews

    Celebrating Spaghetti al Pomodoro

    Italian culinary specialties are known for being simple yet delicious and one of the staples of Italian cuisine is Spaghetti al Pomodoro. You need just a few ingredients: spaghetti, extra virgin olive oil and tomatoes (fresh or canned). Then to season the prepared dish you might use some fresh basil and/or grated Grana Padano.

    A simple Spaghetti al Pomodoro is probably one of the No1 choices of any hungry Italian and  on January 17th, this delicious dish was celebrated worldwide ( in New Zeland, in the USA, in China, in Italy, in South Africa and in the Emirates) during the seventh edition of the International Day of Italian Cuisine.  In New York City the celebrations were held at the Theater of the International Culinary Center and were led by Chef Cesare Casella, the school's Dean of Italian Studies.

    The event, organized with the collaboration of the Italian Trade Commission Office of NYC and of GVCI, the Virtual Group of Italian Chefs, a “network of chefs, restaurateurs and culinary professionals working in the Italian cuisine industry outside Italy,” is a further effort to say NO to imitations and fake, Italian sounding products that are multiplying all over. It is also a way to promote not only real Italian ingredients and recipes, but also chefs and restaurateurs who are fighting every day to protect authenticity.

    “Here at the International Culinary Center we teach students to respect the ingredients and the simplicity of Italian food. We realize that people around the world use what they find at hand but following the need to make sure what they make is made the right way,” chef Cesare Casella said. “When I make Spaghetti al Pomodoro I use Italian noodles, Italian canned tomatoes and Italian extra virgin olive oil.”

    The day started with demonstrations & a tasting where the ingredients of Spaghetti al Pomodoro were presented individually: First Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil, introduced by Livia Rinaldi of the Consorzio Nazionale degli Ovicoltori, then Grana Padano cheese, explained by Elisabetta Serraiotto, and Tomatoes, introduced by the event's moderator Alessandra Rotondi. All three emphasized the importance to look out for fakes and look for the signs that are there to guarantee authenticity.

    For example how can you recognize real Grana Padano? “Outlined diamonds containing the words “Grana Padano” are branded on the rind of the forms at origin. This mark, permits the identification of Grana Padano even if sold in pieces or grated, as it appears on the packaging of any product. “Each form is made according to strict rules,” Lou di Palo explained but each product has its different nuances. It all depends on the region of Italy where the cheese is produced and the individual characteristics of the producer. It is always good to ask the person selling you the product where it comes from and its age. A younger piece is more mild while an older one is more pungent and granier, less creamy.”

    Right after that, the Best Emerging Italian Chef in New York Award and the Italian Cuisine in the USA Awards were handed out. The honorees were: - Lou Di Palo, owner of Di Palo Selects in New York City, Chef Francesco Farris of Restaurant Zio Cecio in Dallas, Texas and Walter Potenza, chef and owner of Potenza Restaurant and Italian Cooking School in Providence, Rhode Island Lastly. The Grana Padano Italian Cuisine Award for the Best New York Emerging Chef was given to Justin Smillie, Executive Chef of Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria.

    The event continued with a step by step preparation of the recipe by three talented chefs, all three under 35: Luca Signoretti  from Ristorante Roberto’s in Dubai, Matteo Bergamini from Ristorante SD26 in New York and Enrico Bartolini from 2 star Michelin rated Ristorante Devero in Milan.  Each chef had his own tricks and techniques but no matter what all three preparations were equally delicious... and all three perfectly cooked al dente!

    During the demos there were live video conferences with restaurants in Italy: the President Restaurant in Pompeii and the Villa Torretta Hotel in Milan. There we could see local chefs celebrating  the International Day of Italian Cuisine. When asked what his secret is, chef Paolo Gramaglia of the President Restaurant answered “there are no secrets, only good ingredients.”
  • Art & Culture

    View Stop Gun Violence - 2nd Amendment

    Stop Gun Violence - 2nd Amendment, is a powerful installation by artist Annalisa Iadicicco on view at La Mama Gallery (located at 6 East First Street)  until the end of the month as part of the collective “La MaMa Family Show.” Artists who have worked at or collaborated with La MaMa throughout the past 5 decades have contributed a piece of artwork, with no media restrictions. “The result is a salon style exhibit that truly represents the La MaMa spirit.” In the past, Annalisa has collaborated on a series of video installations for “Clowns Ex Machina,” a clowns show by creator and director Kendall Cornell.

    “The piece 2nd Amendment is made of metal, a discarded street sign, plexiglas and L.E.D.
    lights. (size 54"x54")” explains the proud Caserta native and adopted New Yorker, Annalisa Iadicicco, “My work is made up of  reclaimed materials & photographs, and sculptures. By combining raw found materials with photographs, I build frames that would create a context and emotional environment for the images. I use materials such as rusted corrugated still metal, cor-ten, reclaimed wood, rusty nails. These humble materials might be found passing a N.Y.C construction site or maybe along an adventure to an old farm upstate. This process led me to discover a three-dimensional world for my art; using reclaimed material found along my urban travels I create sculptures that speak of social injustices and environmental problems. Breathing new life and re-purposing material that would otherwise have been left to wither and age in anonymity compels me to create my art. Each piece inevitably goes through multiple incarnations before it reaches its final state.”

    The stop sign featured in 2nd Amendment  was given to Annalisa by one of her patrons. She found it while cleaning her basement, among other junk and an American flag. She immediately thought of Annalisa's art and brought it to her one day and she said “here, I’m sure you’ll do something with it.”  And she did!

    So let's talk about this last piece on view at La Mama Gallery.
    “The artwork highlights the controversial issue of gun control in American politics,” Annalisa explains, “For the last several decades, the debate regarding both the restriction and availability of firearms within the United States has been characterized by a stalemate between a right to bear arms enshrined in the 2nd amendment to the United State Constitution against the responsibility of government to prevent crime.”

    How did you get the idea of this piece?
    “The piece was inspired by the recent school and mass shootings in the United States, with the current social and political conversation on gun control becoming so mainstream I felt the need to express my opinion and become active through my art and actions. Having grown up in one of the toughest rural areas of Naples, I have seen first hand the damage guns and gun violence can cause and the harm they inflict on neighborhoods. With this project I wanted to increase awareness and create conversations with the hope to change perceptions and influence change.”

    Why is it important to take a stance pro/against such a topic like gun control?
    “The debate over gun control is a very complex topic. It's important to understand and listen to both sides since they both have rights with valid concerns and believes. I have learned it through the interesting dialogues that my installation have raised among viewers, what needs to be done is not to let the belief of either sides interfere with mere facts.”

    How does art raise awareness on what is going on around us?
    By presenting an idea that everyone can relate to, encourage conversations and take actions based on the idea they discovered.

    The installation inspired the creation of a T-shirt. The "Stop Gun Violence T-shirt" is a universal message of peace that raises funds and drives social awareness for charitable initiatives. For every T-shirt sold 15% will be donated towards non profit organizations focused on reducing violence by empowering disadvantaged youth, women and their families through educational programs.

    “I believe in using art as a means of bringing people together, generating awareness and promoting social change,” Annalisa concludes.

    Here the promotional Video about "Stop Gun Violence T-shirt":
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