2009 - April/May
Cultural and Artistic Paths
Veneto Jazz Winter
The calendar until May for the diverse souls of contemporary Jazz.
To trace the routes is the work of an artistic director, proposing a vision, albeit personal, that at the same time takes into account the needs of the public and the places. This winter review is no exception as it extends until May and puts on show many diverse souls from contemporary music research. Next to well known names, the program welcomes emerging talent, some for the first time in Italy, others unknown to the main public.
After the exploits of Esperanza Spalding, young double bass player and singer and among the new stars of jazz (she will also be with us next summer), Aca Seca (4th April, Teatro Villa dei Leoni, Mira, Ve) and Hiromi (17th April, Teatro Accademico, Castelfranco Veneto, Tv) are other artists to keep an eye on. The first, never heard in Italian festivals, represent the new Argentinean folk music: excellent collaborations (one among others from Pedro Aznar from the Pat Metheny Group) and unexceptionable technique, go straight to the heart, with sensitivity and humility. Hironi, Japanese pianist, in spite of an exceptional mentor, Chick Corea, with who he recorded live, is not seen very often in our country: a prodigy, with an perfectly modern vision of improvised music, that takes in funk, rock and classical. Myron Walden, versatile saxophonist, and Aruan Ortiz, innovative Cuban pianist, lead a quartet that incorporates oriental and African sounds (3rd April, Auditorium San Nicolò, Chioggia, Ve). It’s the contemporary jazz from across the Atlantic on stage in Chioggia. The Auditorium Maxlive di Costabissara (Vi), in my opinion one of the most modern spaces in Veneto for live music, hosts the most Pop name on the bill, reinvented for a jazz collection that explores different territories and takes into account the experimental results of the research by every artist. ’Pomodoro Genetico’ by Antonella Ruggiero, memorable voice of Matia Bazar, is the emblem: it’s an unpublished and surprising work created with the keyboard player and arranger Roberto Colombo, and has inspired two video artists Fabio Massimo Iaquone and Luca Attili (4th April). A performance of music, voice and images that meets my idea of contemporary performance able to cross the boundaries of acoustic music, making use of other means of artistic expression. The other voice in the review, Teresa Salgueiro, ex-leader of Madredeus, reinvents herself as a soloist and, accompanied by Lusitania Ensemble who include some of Portugal’s finest musicians, present a repertory dedicated to the music past and present from this country (19th April). Authentic funk from James Browns’ pupil, Maceo Parker, one of the few on today’s scene who can embody that full-blooded sound without concessions(18th April), while Nick The Nightfly, friend and historic voice of Radio Montecarlo Nights, has the date for traditional swing, with his fabulous orchestra (9th May). Other artists on the edge enrich the review, like Enzo Jannacci, who I have always considered very “jazz” for his narratives of odd tempos, improvisations and movements(16th May). His son Paolo and other good jazz players will accompany him in this project.
The curtain has just gone down on Nu Fest, the electronic music festival in Padova that put on show djs and international artists in the theaters and clubs (Mouse on Mars, Plaid, and Eivind Aarset). A new chapter in the story of Veneto Jazz which in the past has already supported this contamination. Nicola Conte with his Nu jazz is one of the European references (24th April, Teatro Vivaldi, Jesolo, Ve).
Dossier: Culture and Innovation
Tomorrow Now and digital culture
The philosophy of the language of art at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation.
Among the operators of culture and art, the foundation of Bevilaqua La Masa in Venice is also concentrating on the problems that emerge from the relationship between contemporary art and the most stringent technological note in the production of the work. This devotion is not shown only in the interest at the moment of exhibition, the installations and performances, but also and above all for the desire to understand a type of “philosophy of the language of contemporary art”. Full Story
ZOOM
Living as a protagonist
NYHabitat, the choice to live a different life in New York.
A city across the ocean, a far away place, a destination to reach not only in the imagination. To live her beyond walking her streets, through her monuments or the places that, before arriving, we admired in a blurred edged postcard. That which is a dream holiday you desire to turn into reality, feeling it run like a shiver on your skin carrying you away with the emotions that this experience creates. It means to be part of the city, breathe the same way of life of those who were born and live in the place. Approaching a museum, a theater, a harbor as if we could still smell the perfumes and odors of what for a week, a weekend, we had left behind. It means to gain the same freedoms that only those who call it “home” can give. Full Story
Cultural and Artistic Paths
A nomad amongst calli and skyscrapers
Jim Dine, between Venice and New York.
A restless and nomadic artist, Jim Dine (1935) - the most European protagonist of American Pop Art - lives in an existential condition that fluctuates between the two Atlantic coasts. Nevertheless, He once wrote, during the years of Pop Art that he was not completely at home in New York “because he wanted to paint”. His present working residences are in Connecticut and the countryside of the South of France. But his preferred locations, according to his declarations, are without doubt New York and Venice. The first city configures in his birth as an artist, in the second he found his most congenial creative references. His consecration into the international art scene, at only twenty nine, resulted following the Venice Biennale in 1964. He wanted to live for long periods in the lagoon city - to see Giovanni Bellini every day, he declared - setting up a memorable anthological exhibition in 1988 at the International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro. The work of Jim Dine has therefore all the evidence of a doubly inspired source: on one side the great Venetian painting, in particular his beloved Bellini, and on the other side the form of the uninhibited American “Popular Imagery”. It is however exactly from this interweaving; this “cèliniano” journey between the two coasts of the ocean, between New York and Venice, that one of the more interesting figures of international art in our time was born.
Cultural and Artistic Paths
The evolution of the mark
From the historic avant-garde to the latest trends in contemporary art. Until the ‘zero grade’ of painting, interpreted for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection by the British artist Jason Martin.
March 21 - May 17 2009 the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents “Themes and Variations: From the Mark to Zero”, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero. This exhibition draws upon the museum’s permanent collections from the early 20th century to the post World War II period and charts the progress of the pictorial mark chronologically and thematically: from typography to collage, from letters to numbers, to the iteration of gesture, of signs, eventually sublimating into monochrome, beyond which the only possible condition is the void.
Works of Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism: within the radical experimentation of this explosive period, letters, numbers and the printed word participate as full players in the creative process—plucked from the real world, manipulated and then rendered with their original linguistic and communicative dimensions still intact. From the works by Carlo Carrà, Kurt Shifters, and Joseph Cornell, to the new grammars of a similar language in the 50s by Mimmo Rotella and Daniel Spoerri, the printed word structures and defines images but with a resonance that convulses the visual syntax. On the one hand language dialogues with matière and image, as in Georges Braque’s multi-media works and the collages of Juan Gris; on the other, the grid laid down by Piet Mondrian’s repetitive marks creates the new space of Georges Vantongerloo’s Neoplasticism, which in turn nourishes the minimal precision of John McCracken. Basic units of language evocatively colonize the surfaces of works by Osvaldo Licini and Bonfanti to the point they become mute writing. Sometimes the act of painting transforms into a form of scripture, on canvas or any other support; at other times, artists investigate the foundations and responsiveness of different visual codes.
Writing is also geometry and color, rendered in the lyrical, intermittent and visionary spaces of Tancredi Parmeggiani, Mark Tobey, and Carla Accardi. Elsewhere script and writing merge in an abstract and symbolic punctuation, expressed in apostrophes and dots that may visually or physically violate the support itself, with holes and cuts, as in the canvases of Lucio Fontana and Dadamaino, and in the work of the most recent generation of artists, represented here by Riccardo De Marchi and Arcangelo Sassolino.
The obsessive repetition of a symbol or a sign leads ultimately to a condition of zero, a kind of ‘tabula rasa’ in which pure paint combines with a minimal and monochrome surface: the monochrome inscribes the infinite into the finite and is articulated in densely painted and plastic works with the concreteness and physicality that derive from their relation to surrounding space.
As a ‘variation’ of this theme, the exhibition includes a one-man show of painting, “Vigil” by British artist Jason Martin, who has been invited to interpret grade zero with a series of canvases specifically created for this exhibition. Jason Martin is among the most interesting painters of the generation of Young British Artists and he has been invited to present a sequence of monochromes, refined in texture and luminous in tone, poised between painting and sculpture. Visitors can enjoy free guided visits of the temporary exhibitions, daily at 3:30pm.
Cultural and Artistic Paths
“Where it was, how it was”
Elisabetta Fabbri: an architect and the art of restoration.
The world in which we live in is full of memories of the past but it rarely occurs to us to think that the present that we are witness to, with which we live and which plays a part in our everyday lives, is the result of precious and often passionate work of artists, restorers architects or archeologists, few of their names remembered. A great number of paintings from the past are still with us thanks to interventions that have impeded the decay caused by the passage of time and, often, negligence of man, not to mention the frescoes, thankfully removed from the walls before certain extinction. Leonardo’s “The Last Supper”, that seemed to be destined to disappear completely, was saved thanks to the miraculous and patient intervention, lasting twenty years, of the restorer Pinin Brambilla Barcellon. Even Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel are still enjoyable in their original chromatic splendor, after the last courageous, although very criticized, cleaning intervention.
The architectural examples are even more eloquent. Today St.Mark’s Square seems the same as we see in the paintings by Canaletto and Guardi. But in reality the bell tower we see today is a copy of the one that collapsed in 1902 and rebuilt in 1912. Also the Fenice, “rebuilt” after the disastrous fire in 1996, doesn’t it look the same as the one we saw in the unforgettable opening scene from the film “Senso” by Luchino Visconti, made in 1954? In reality, this reconstruction, which perpetuates “artificially” atmospheres and sensations of the past, gives the illusion that time has passed unaffected, without accident or traumas. In the process of the latest colossal resurrection of The Fenice the contribution by the Venetian architect Elisabetta Fabbri seemed particularly pleasant. We owe to her sensitivity and determination that the new Fenice doesn’t make one weep for the one destroyed in the blaze thirteen years ago. The new theater, fortunately, is not a cheap not an inert copy of the previous one but retains the warmth and unmistakable atmosphere, which were part of the glorious, old theater. Elisabetta Fabbri is particularly proud of this result, obtained with a philological method and as well with a care of every detail, due to the impact that she brought to the work, a year from its completion, with the, unplanned, addition of a set designer. “Developers don’t completely understand the role of a project” says the architect. “They have the job of constructing in respect of times and costs but cannot predict what will happen. The aesthetic result is not problem for them. For the decoration of the theater they were calling the best Italian craftsmen to prepare prototypes, as if, by costing single pieces of work, the miracle would happen on its own. Strengthened by the experiences gained in other projects, like that for the Scala Theater in Milan, I convinced the Prefecture commission that we needed a single person, to coordinate all the decorative work in the theater, to redesign it “as it was and where it was”. He was not necessarily an architect but a person who can work to rebuild the places out of the time. And thus the developers were forced to call a set designer: Mauro Carosi. The decision was taken at the end of 2002. There was not much time at our disposal, and so all the decorative apparatus in wood and papier mache was made off site and then put into place. For the decoration on the ceiling, which was originally frescoes, we used the same procedure as there wasn’t enough time to create them directly. It seems incredible but the decorators could only use the scaffolding for forty days because we then had to begin the work on the flooring. In any case, all the work was finished in good time and the new Fenice had its inauguration in December 2003 as planned”.
Elisabetta Fabbri graduated in architecture at I.U.A.V. in Venice in 1998 presenting a thesis on “The recuperation of the Arsenale in Venice”, which has an almost predestined feel, because the young Venetian architect was subsequently confirmed as one of the more authoritative experts in the field of recovery and restoration. Not just simple restoration of the surface or the decorative aspect, as some may have been led to believe, because hers, clarifies Elisabetta Fabbri, are interventions by an architect. Like the one in 2003, at the Scala in Milan, where she was in charge of the projection and artistic direction of all works of reconstruction and restoration of the monumental parts of the theater.
Elisabetta is a young and fascinating woman, with an enchanting smile. But her sweet appearance shouldn’t fool you. At work she acts with firmness and determination, which many men would envy. This was recently put to the test, when she was assigned by the artistic direction for restoration work and recovery of production at the San Carlo Theater in Naples. Work that won the enthusiasm of the maestro Riccardo Muti and herself who considers it the flagship of her already intense work.
It doesn’t seem, all in all, that the professional interests of Elisabetta are limited to only theatrical restoration, a field in which she has, on the other hand, demonstrated an exceptional talent. We are convinced that other, adventurous and inedited goals are waiting. We will certainly be hearing about them.
ZOOM
When ‘Italians’ are one of the family
Culture, art, music, design, style and quality gastronomy as fil rouge. On 35th Street, a ‘multiuse’ restaurant has been born Zorzi NYC: a platform for the relaunching the image of Italy.
An all round Italy. An Italy stamped by culinary stereotypes. In short, an Italy of exquisite class. This is the Belpaese that the restaurant “Zorzi NYC” has recently risen in the heart of Manhattan in Midtown East, intends to present. A ’multiuse’ establishment which doesn’t present itself to the New York public as an ordinary restaurant. Zorzi NYC aims to become a showcase for Made in Italy in the Big Apple, where it will actively and pragmatically promote the products, style and Italian culture. A refined gathering place, where they speak Italian all hours of the day or night, where adventurers can get to know the best of the gastronomy, the music, the art of Italy. But also to plan new business opportunities between Italy and the United States. Full Story
ZOOM
A Cadillac from P.J. Clarke’s
Continuing the legend of the historic Saloon.
Nat King Cole baptized it “the Cadillac of hamburgers!” and since we have tried it we have fallen into a sort of alimentary dependence that makes us return as soon as possible to P.J.Clarke’s, 915 Third Avenue (corner 55th Street), Manhattan, New York City.
Crispy bacon, a not too invasive cheese, onion rings and at least ten ounces of succulent meat, tasty and fragrant, next to half a cucumber of acknowledged digestive and fat fighting qualities, in times of crisis like these they make the “Cadillac”, accompanied by the crunchy “P. J. Home Fries” and by a fresh and always fragrant Brooklyn Lager Full Story
Dossier: Culture and Innovation
Passion for joint efforts
The mission of “Location 1″
In downtown Manhattan, in Location 1, the word “convergence” is associated with making-art and above all the technology that can intervene to support the artists. Location 1 is a space dedicated to art, a type of no-profit corporation that since 1997 has been supported by the economical interventions of foundations, private contributors and other corporations sensitive to the artistic theme. In its spirit of action, the interest in the phenomena of convergence begins with the idea that meetings between artists who use new media and others (performers, visual artists etc.) can reveal rich stimuli. With this belief, in fact, the expressive characteristics that emerge through the art works produced through the new technology puts itself at the center of the artistic activities that gain ground in Location 1. The content and not just the form of these works, in effect, seem to constantly provoke an urgency of reflection on the terms that characterize the imaginary linguistics and the fruition associated with innovative technology in general: accessibility, sharing, broadcast (in the sense of electronic broadcast), feedback, interaction. After all, from the first point on the action manifesto of the space, it is held that the internet is something that is connected to content, not only with the idea of ‘transmitting’ - in the technological sense of the word.
It is reflecting on the contents due to technology, therefore, that we arrive at the necessity to rethink the art forms and their possibility of transmitting something. Encouraging the convergence between the arts, in the philosophy of Location 1, means also to act until the artistic operators can make use of the new technology to communicate their own initiatives and stimulate various artistic activities. For example, between 2002 and 2004, Location 1 promoted and developed an action program - the DNA (Downtown Networks for the Arts) - dedicated to putting together the artistic operators active in Manhattan through precise support interventions generated by a “technological package”, a combination of hardware and software adapted to encourage the promotion and diffusion of their activities. This type of activity was created with the intent of encouraging not only the convergence of artistic language, but also that of the operators supporting the DNA network. Putting into practice a real and true language, in short, of technological inspiration and directed at the communication and production of works of art.
Cultural and Artistic Paths
The most important Home Run
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra: a life in the Yankees, in memory of the ones who didn’t make it.
A different story, a story of one not born on Italian soil but who is for Italy the symbol of the realization of the American Dream, the proof that you can get anything thanks to commitment, tenacity and the strength to believe in a dream. A story that has its roots in Milan and that ends in the U.S.A., as quick as the baseball on the diamond or the bullets of war.
Born in a small Italian quarter of St. Louis, called, almost ironically, “The Mountain”, Lawrence Peter Berra is the son of Pietro and Paulina, Milanese immigrants in search of their fortune. From a small boy he was passionate for a sport unknown in Italy; baseball. For the boys in the street you needed little to play. Full Story
