sábado, 29 de febrero de 2020

PRÉSENCES FRANÇAISES À ARCO MADRID 2020 ET RÉCEPTION À L´AMBASSADE DE FRANCE À MADRID


Douze galeries françaises exposent à ARCO Madrid, l’une plus prestigieuses foires d’art contemporain au monde, jusqu’au 1er mars. L’ambassadeur de France, Jean-Michel Casa, s’y est rendu. En étroite collaboration avec l’évènement, l’Institut français d’Espagne accueille les œuvres de trois artistes français.

L’ambassadeur de France est allé à la rencontre des galeristes français présents à celle nouvelle édition d’ARCO Madrid. Jean-Michel Casa a également pu échanger avec sa fondatrice, Juana de Aizpuru, revenant sur sa présence, lors la création de la foire en 1982, durant son stage à l’ambassade de France en Espagne en tant qu’élève de l’Ecole nationale de l’administration. Dans les allées, l’ambassadeur s’est également entretenu avec le président du Centre Pompidou, Serges Lasvignes et le directeur du musée nationale d’art moderne, Bernard Blistène.


En collaboration avec ARCO Madrid, l’Institut français expose, jusqu’au 10 avril, les travaux de trois créateurs français, Françoise Vanneraud, Addelkader Benchamma et Samuel Labadie. « Entre líneas. Apuntes para un paisaje » réunit une trentaine d’œuvres sous le commissariat de Francisco Giaveri et Beatriz Escudero.

L’aide à la création contemporaine est au cœur de l’action du ministère de la Culture. La France compte plus d’une vingtaine de‘centres d’art contemporain d’intérêt national’ sur l’ensemble du territoire. Par ailleurs, depuis 1982, vingt-trois Fonds régionaux d’art contemporain (Frac) ont permis à la France de se doter d’un patrimoine d’art contemporain, comprenant plus de 30 000 œuvres acquises auprès de 5700 artistes français ou étrangers.


FOTOS DE LOS EMBAJADORES EN ARCO, CON LOS GALERISTAS Y CREADORES

https://es.ambafrance.org/Presences-francaises-a-ARCO-Madrid-2020



El miércoles 26 de febrero, la EMBAJADA FRANCESA SE ENGALANÓ PARA RECIBIR EN SU SEDE DE SERRANO,  A LOS INVITADOS CON MOTIVO DE LA FERIA DE ARCO


Efectivamente, el Excmo. Embajador de Francia en Madrid, Jean-Michel Casa y su esposa veneciana, escritora e historiadora, Isabella Palumbo Fossati Casa, que se incorporaron a esta legación en 2019, abrieron las puertas de esta residencia diplomática donde acudieron galeristas, amigos, artistas, marchantes, miembros del cuerpo diplomático, de los Museos que tienen exposiciones vinculadas a Francia en la actualidad en Madrid (el Reina Sofía y Caixaforum), aristócratas como Béatrice d´Orléans y especialistas en Arte como Juana de Aizpuru, fundadora de la internacional y concurrida Feria de Arco en Madrid. 


También estuvo presente la actual Directora de Arco, Maribel López, que se situó en el flanco del Embajador Casa mientras se dirigía a los presentes, que se reunieron en el precioso salón para escucharlo.




Unas palabras elegantes y suficientes, dieron paso al disfrute de la conversación, del ver y dejarse ver, de la degustación de una gastronomía exquisita, con champagne francés, claro, servida con total dedicación en parte por el personal  habitual de la Embajada.



Aprovechando el excelente tiempo que hacía en la noche madrileña, los jardines, tan bellos, dieron más aire si cabe al encuentro, cuajado de sonrisas, de palabras de bienvenida, de miradas, de guiños, de complicidades. La Señora Embajadora, como suele, estuvo pendiente de que todo saliera perfecto y así fue. Los salones de la recepción estaban poblados de grandes jarrones de flores frescas, deliciosas y fragantes.



Una recepción sedosa e insólitamente distendida a la entrada de la sede diplomática, permitió además de gozar de la organización de quienes tienen en sus manos estas fiestas, pero también la visibilidad de la sede francesa en Madrid, de acuerdo con su  reconocido papel hegemónico en el concierto de la UE y el resto del mundo. Todo desplegado con savoir faire y generosidad.


Alicia Perris







jueves, 27 de febrero de 2020

GRIGORY SOKOLOV, UNO DE LOS GRANDES PIANISTAS DE LA ACTUALIDAD, CON LA FUNDACIÓN SCHERZO EN EL AUDITORIO NACIONAL DE MADRID


Grigory Sokolov, piano, Auditorio Nacional, 24 de febrero, de 2020, Sala Sinfónica. Ciclo Grandes Intérpretes de la Fundación Scherzo.

Programa
W. A. MOZART (1756-1791)
Preludio (Fantasía) y Fuga en Do mayor KV 394 (383a)
 Sonata nº11 en La mayor KV 331 (300i) op.6 nº2
 Rondo en La menor, KV 511ca.

R. SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
“Bunte Blätter” op.99



“…Lo que tenía ante los ojos no era ya música pura: era dibujo, arquitectura, pensamiento, todo lo que hace posible que nos acordemos de la música. Aquella vez distinguió claramente una frase que se elevó unos momentos por encima de las ondas sonoras. Y en seguida la frase esa le brindó voluptuosidades especiales, que nunca se le ocurrieron antes de haberla oído…”.

Marcel Proust


Las primeras veces que tocó en España, donde suele realizar giras en distintos teatros, no alcanzó de ninguna manera el prestigio, la seducción y la entrega más rendida que provoca ahora en las audiencias que acuden a escucharlo y llenan las salas. Esta es su decimoctava actuación en el Ciclo de Grandes Intérpretes.

Cuentan las crónicas especializadas, que Grigori Lípmanovich Sokolov (en ruso Григо́рий Ли́пманович Соколо́в) es un concertista de piano que nació en la antigua San Petersburgo el 18 de abril de 1950. A pesar del prestigio internacional que obtuvo tras ganar el Concurso Internacional Chaikovski de 1966, la carrera internacional de Sokolov no despegó hasta finales de 1980. Ya en 2015 le fue otorgado el DaCapo KlassiK Award - Pianista del año.

Había comenzado sus clases de piano a la edad de cinco años. A los siete años ingresó en la Escuela Musical adscrita al Conservatorio de San Petersburgo, donde estudió con la pianista Leah Zelikhman, accediendo posteriormente al citado conservatorio donde fue discípulo de Moisey Khalfin. A la edad de doce años ofreció su primer gran recital en Moscú, donde interpretó piezas de Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Skriabin, Liszt, Debussy y Shostakóvich en la Philharmonic Society.

Captó la atención internacional  con dieciséis años, cuando el jurado del Concurso Internacional Chaikovski en su edición de 1966 presidido por Emil Gilels le concedió por unanimidad la Medalla de Oro. Se recuerda que la decisión resultó ser una sorpresa porque: "El pequeño Grisha Sokolov había resultado ganador en aquella competición y, sin embargo, nadie lo tomó en serio en aquella época".

Fuera de la Unión Soviética hasta finales de los años 80, se situó con visibilidad en la escena internacional con algunos memorables conciertos, como su ejecución del tercer concierto de Rachmaninov en Londres en 1995, que suscitó gran impresión por la maestría técnica y la nobleza de expresión.

Debuta en el 2001 en el festival de Salzburgo,  volviendo del 2007 al 2011, en el 2013 y en el 2014 con música de Chopin. En el 2008 participa en el "Festival pianistico internazionale" de Brescia y Bergamo donde consiguió el premio "Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli".

Con más de cincuenta años de carrera, ha tocado con las mayores orquestas mundiales y con más de doscientos directores, entre los cuales están Valerij Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Trevor Pinnock, Myung-Whun Chung, Andrew Litton, Walter Weller, Herbert Blomstedt, Yevgeni Svetlánov, Aleksandr Lazarev. Y colaborado con orquestas como Philharmonia Orchestra, Concertgebouw de Ámsterdam, New York Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, la Filarmonica della Scala, Münchner Philharmoniker, la Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Últimamente, ha disminuido sensiblemente su actividad con orquesta, concentrándose en los recitales solo, frente al piano o con él, manteniendo al público en un cierto segundo plano, porque guarda para sí la exclusiva penetración en el lugar del templo reservado a los sacerdotes.


La primera parte de la velada, comenzó con el Preludio (Fantasía) y Fuga en Do Mayor KV 394 (383a) de Mozart, luminoso, alegre, sutil, sin embargo, nada fácil de interpretar, por ser la finalización de la primera lectura y comprensión de una partitura: un proceso idiosincrático, íntimo, compartido exclusivamente entre el intérprete y el compositor.

A continuación, y sin interrupciones durante toda el repertorio Mozartiano, ni para aplausos ni para excesivas toses (menos mal), la Sonata no. 11 en La Mayor KV 331 (330i). Se trata de la más célebre de las sonatas para piano de Mozart, particularmente por su final, con innumerables transcripciones y versiones. Constituye desde hace muchos años, uno de los must de los pianistas principiantes y sus maestros. Todo el mundo puede llegar a tocarla ( ¿ ya en cuarto del conservatorio? ), pero a ver quién restituye con propiedad el universo sonoro del compositor de Viena, su imaginario, esa geografía de "nuances" inasibles y aéreas. Su alma.

“Saint Fiux, entre otros expertos,  sostienen que esta sonata sería en realidad la décima de la colección mientras que la precedente en do mayor tomaría el puesto de undécima. Pero, sin embargo Alfred Einstein recuerda una carta datada el 9-12 de junio de 1784 dirigida por Mozart a su padre, en la que éste indica claramente las tres sonatas en do mayor, la mayor y la próxima en fa mayor".

Mozart la estructura en tres movimientos, no en cuatro, como la típica Forma sonata, el Andante grazioso - un tema con seis variaciones, el Menuetto - un minuet y trío y el inefable Rondo Alla Turca: Allegretto.

La Marcha Turca rememora la fascinación que siempre ha existido en Occidente hacia ese Oriente, el de Scherezade, el de Simbad, el del Cantar de los Cantares, en la orilla opuesta, pero olvida con facilidad que el Imperio Otomano en sus sucesivos relevos tribales, consiguió doblegar a Europa y ponerla “a los pies de los caballos”, en sentido literal.

El último movimiento imita el sonido de las bandas turcas de los terribles Jenízaros, (véase el sitio y la Caída de Constantinopla, en 1453 y el fin del Imperio Bizantino), música que estaba muy de moda en la época. La vasta coda mayor, aquella en la que se parece ver entrar al Gran Sultán con ruido ensordecedor de tambores, fue añadida por Mozart en el momento de entregar la sonata a la editorial Artaria. Numerosas producciones originarias de ese fragmento tan conocido imitaron ese diseño, incluida la ópera del mismo Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail (El rapto en el serrallo, KV 384).

Terminó la primera parte, con apenas un ligero apunte de saludo por parte del maestro que se retiró a su camerino raudamente hasta que le tocó el turno a las Bunter Bläter Op. 99 de Robert Schumann. Otro paisaje. Durante todo el concierto, la agilidad, el ataque forte, aunque se oiga piano, claro, las variaciones frescas y renovadas de los matices, la levedad del toque, los rubato, legato y los ritenuti evocadores, hacen que Mozart y luego Schumann se reencarnen en este Sokolov, pletórico de facultades a sus años, como si pasar la sesentena con amplitud no significara, para él, nada.

Los arpegios, los trinos infinitos, gráciles, la potencia fantástica en el rendimiento de las dos manos acompañándose a la par, una sobre la otra, en un despliegue sorprendente, ideal. Todo un manual de ejecución pianística para conocedores intérpretes y oyentes…

Muchas horas de ensayo por las mañanas, 45 minutos por la tarde de los compromisos y modelos pianísticos como Gilels, Schnabel, Solomon, Horowitz, Gould y por supuesto, Rubinstein. Suele concentrarse en un programa al año, que lleva en gira, pero nada de Liszt, ni de Wagner, “por razones humanas y musicales”.

De Sokolov se ha escrito mucho y repetido en el foro: es obligado recordar que sus encore son una parte consustancial del resto de la ofrenda musical que brinda en cada actuación. El artista tiene una especie de número mágico, el seis, y seis han sido esta vez también, las propinas, a un público que, en general, sin precipitarse hacia la salida, se acomodó en sus asientos para el último y generoso brindis final: dos Brahms, Chopin, Rameau,  Rachmaninov y Bach. Nada menos...

(Привилегия, privilegiya)

Alicia Perris
Segunda foto y webmaster, Julio Serrano

miércoles, 26 de febrero de 2020

MARINA CICOGNA IMITATIO VITAE . LIBRI ILLUSTRATI 1° ed. 2019


Scelti con sguardo cinematografico da Marina Cicogna, colpita da tanta bellezza e verità antiche, i dettagli dei capitelli marciani si animano e ci proiettano in storie remote e affascinanti.  Lo stesso effetto producono sui tanti personaggi famosi che ci raccontano le loro emozioni davanti a questi veri  e propri prodigi di scultura, da Valentino a Vanessa Redgrave, da Valeria Golino a Liliana Cavani, da Marina Abramović a Jeremy Irons, per citarne solo alcuni.

Autore

Marina Cicogna è fotografa, sceneggiatrice, ma soprattutto produttrice italiana di grande successo.
Nata a Roma, a palazzo Volpi, sua madre era figlia di Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, creatore, a Venezia, di Porto Marghera e del primo Festival del Cinema al mondo. Il padre, Cesare Cicogna, era un aristocratico milanese. La sua prima lingua è stata l’inglese, poi il francese - appreso in Svizzera durante la guerra - e il tedesco. Più tardi lo spagnolo, di recente ad Acapulco, e il brasiliano -  il Brasile è stato il suo paese più amato. Ora è tornata a vivere a Roma.
Laureata in Arti al Sarah Lawrence College di New York, dopo la maturità classica, ha sempre avuto una grande passione per il cinema.
La Euro International Films, acquistata dalla famiglia, le aveva affidato il compito di scegliere i film da distribuire in Italia. Dopo i grandi successi di L’uomo del banco dei pegni e Belle de Jour e molti altri, decise di produrre il suo primo film Metti, una sera a cena.
La lista dei grandi film prodotti è lunga, da Teorema a Medea di Pasolini, a Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto e La classe operaia va in paradiso di Elio Petri a Uomini contro di Rosi a Mimì metallurgico ferito nell’onore e Film d’amore e d’anarchia di Lina Wertmuller a Fratello sole, sorella luna di Zeffirelli a C’era una volta il West di Sergio Leone a molti altri…
Vinse un Oscar per Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto e più tardi l’onorificenza di Grand’Ufficiale al merito della Repubblica italiana, poi, la morte del fratello Bino e il ritiro dalla Euro.
Progettò Ultimo tango a Parigi e Il portiere di notte per la Paramount, che non vollero produrli, e riuscì a fare Anonimo veneziano. Dopodiché andò a vivere per qualche anno tra Los Angeles e New York.

Di ritorno in Italia le fu offerta la Presidenza di Italia Cinema e ora sceglie con altri due esperti i film a cui dare i finanziamenti del Mibac.

   http://www.marsilioeditori.it/lista-autori/scheda-libro/2970319-imitatio-vitae/imitatio-vitae

WALLACE COLLECTION. FORGOTTEN MASTERS: INDIAN PAINTING FOR THE EAST INDIA COMPANY





The Wallace Collection presents Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company. Guest curated by renowned writer and historian William Dalrymple, this is the first UK exhibition of works by Indian master painters commissioned by East India Company officials in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
"Forgotten Masters showcases the work of a series of extraordinary Indian artists, each with their own style and tastes and agency, whose brilliance has been frequently overlooked until now..."

                                - Exhibition Curator, William Dalrymple

Time Out says:
4 out of 5 stars
"Colonialism didn’t just come for the minerals, spices and priceless artefacts, colonialism came for the art too. As the East India Company tightened its grip on the Indian subcontinent in the nineteenth century, it also grabbed at the arts of the places it was occupying.
This gorgeous show brings together botanical, portrait and everyday scene paintings commissioned by wealthy European patrons. And if nothing else, you have to admit they had taste. The artists they commissioned were the masters of their fields – the greatest miniaturists, portraitists and textile designers of their generations – and now they were in the employ of Westerners. Their work has always been anonymised as ‘Company Painting’, but now, here, the artists are taking centre stage.
There’s compromise involved in that transaction. The patrons didn’t want traditional painting, they wanted watercolours on English paper, they wanted European art, but had to get it with local artists. So Indian artists used European materials, twisting Eastern forms into Western shapes.
The best work is botanical and zoological. The swirling yam by Chuni Lall, the spiralling squash by Rungiah, the hungry stork by Shaikh Zain ud-Din, the cheeky bat with a boner by an artist from the circle of Bhawani Das. The composition of textile designers, the microscopic detail of miniaturists, it’s all here.
Yellapah of Vellore captures ascetics and pujaris, but soldiers in British uniform, too. Ghulam Ali Khan paints dense groups of merchants and courtiers. They create beautiful, detailed worlds.
But this is a story with two sides. The first is a Western narrative of dominance and consumption: the patrons are colonial figures desperate to drain, record and own the culture, flora and fauna of the lands they were occupying. Just as with the physical resources of the subcontinent, this is the consumption of the ephemeral: the hoarding and manipulation of cultural production.
The other side of the story is of artists as opportunists, seizing their chances to make cash, and a name for themselves, off the back of European patronage.
There are little acts of rebellion here – Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya’s refusal to include his patrons in his paintings – but more than anything, there’s a sense of identity winning through. No matter what these artists were asked to paint, or how, or what materials they were made to use, their aesthetics shine through.
These names have been erased for more than a century, now we can watch as, rightfully, they are written back into the history books".
https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/exhibition-forgotten-masters-indian-painting-for-the-east-india-company/

IN MEMORIAM: MIRELLA FRENI. SÌ, MI CHIAMANO MIMÌ (SCORE ANIMATION)



Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan, cond.
(Puccini's La Bohème)RIAM: MIRELLA FRENI. SÌ, MI CHIAMANO MIMÌ (SCORE ANIMATION)



martes, 25 de febrero de 2020

FONDATION CARTIER, PARIS. EXHIBITION. CLAUDIA ANDUJAR, THE YANOMAMI STRUGGLE.


The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is pleased to announce the largest exhibition to date dedicated to the work of Claudia Andujar. For over five decades, she has devoted her life to photographing and protecting the Yanomami, one of Brazil’s largest indigenous group.



I am connected to the indigenous, to the land, to the primary struggle. All of that moves me deeply. Everything seems essential. Perhaps I have always searched for the answer to the meaning of life in this essential core. I was driven there, to the Amazon jungle, for this reason. It was instinctive. I was looking to find myself.
Claudia Andujar

Based on four years of research in the photographer's archive, this new exhibition curated by Thyago Nogueira for the Instituto Moreira Salles in Brazil, will focus on her work from this period, bringing together over three hundred photographs, a series of Yanomami drawings as well as her audiovisual installation Genocide of the Yanomami: Death of Brazil. The exhibition will explore Claudia Andujar’s extraordinary contribution to the art of photography as well as her major role as a human rights activist in the defense of the Yanomami. It is divided into two sections reflecting the dual nature of a career committed to both aesthetics and activism. The first section presents the photographs from her first seven years living with the Yanomami, showing how she grappled with the challenges of visually interpreting a complex culture. The second features the work she produced during her period of activism, when she began to use her photography as a tool among others for political change.

Claudia Andujar came to Brazil, passed through São Paulo, then Brasília, then Boa Vista, and then to the Yanomami lands. She arrived at the Catrimani mission. She was thinking about her project, what she was going to do, what she was going to plant. The way one would plant a banana tree, the way one would plant a cashew tree. She wore the clothes of the Yanomami, to make friends. She is not Yanomami, but she is a true friend. She took photographs of childbirth, of women, of children. Then she taught me to fight, to defend our people, land, language, customs, festivals, dances, chants, and shamanism. She explained things to me like my own mother would. I did not know how to fight against politicians, against the non indigenous people. It was good that she gave me the bow and arrow as a weapon, not for killing whites but for speaking in defense of the Yanomami people. It is very important for all of you to see the work she did. There are many photos of Yanomami who have already died but these photos are important for you to get to know and respect my people. Those who do not know the Yanomami will know them through these images. My people are in them. You have never visited them, but they are present here. It is important to me and to you, your sons and daughters, young adults, children to learn to see and respect my Yanomami people of Brazil who have lived in this land for many years.
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami
Interpreting Yanomami Culture

Claudia Andujar was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1931 and currently lives and works in São Paolo. She grew up in Transylvania, which at the time had recently been incorporated to Romania after years of Hungarian domination. During WWII, Claudia’s father, a Hungarian Jew, was deported to Dachau where he was killed along with most of her paternal relatives. Claudia Andujar fled with her mother to Switzlerand, immigrated first to the United States in 1946, then to Brazil in 1955 where she began a career as a photojournalist.

Claudia Andujar first met the Yanomami in 1971 while working on an article about the Amazon for Realidade magazine. Fascinated by the culture of this isolated community, she decided to embark on an in-depth photographic essay on their daily life after receiving a Guggenheim fellowship to support the project. From the very beginning, her approach differed greatly from the straightforward documentary style of her contemporaries. The photographs she made during this period show how she experimented with a variety of photographic techniques in an attempt to visually translate the shamanic culture of the Yanomami. Applying Vaseline to the lens of her camera, using flash devices, oil lamps and infrared film, she created visual distortions, streaks of light and saturated colors, thus imbuing her images with a feeling of the otherworldly.

Claudia Andujar also developed a series of sober black-and-white portraits that capture the grace, dignity and humanity of the Yanomami. Focusing closely on faces and body fragments, she tightly frames her images, using a dramatic chiaroscuro to create a feeling of intimacy and draw attention to individual psychological states.

Alongside the many photographs taken during this period, the exhibition will also present a selection of Yanomami drawings. After years photographing the Yanomami herself, Claudia Andujar felt it was important to provide them with the opportunity to represent their own conceptions of nature and the universe. She thus initiated a drawing project, equipping members of the community with markers and paper. A selection of these drawings representing Yanomami myths, rituals, and shamanic visions will be presented in the exhibition.
https://www.fondationcartier.com/en/exhibitions/claudia-andujar-lalutteyanomami

THE ARTISTS ILLUSTRATING NEW YORK’S GROWING PROTEST CULTURE


As leftist politics integrate into the mainstream, artists spread the word and agitate for change.

Billy Anania


(courtesy Colleen Tighe)
New York art workers are no strangers to class warfare. In an industry of elite cliques and hierarchies, few can truly advocate for radical change from within. Many of the institutions that once offered promising careers have been exposed for their cynical, greedy motives. As such, artists are turning away from low wages and professional abuse, focusing instead on direct action. Since 2016, young activists have rejuvenated the traditions of socialist feminism and anarchism in public art. Working largely outside of galleries, they are free to openly critique the alliances of capitalism, patriarchy, and government. Functioning as instruction and aesthetic, leftist political artwork links struggles of underprivileged communities with the structures keeping them in their place. Artists popularize their work through digital media, protest materials, and printed zines — usually distributed by hand or for free download.


As left politics integrate into the mainstream, artists show how class factors into racial discrimination and cultural appropriation. Activists of all backgrounds appear with red roses on signs and literature disseminated by the Democratic Socialists of America and their many working groups. Twitter accounts for DSA National Design Committee and Artists for Bernie feature burgeoning artists like Leah Romero, whose miniature paintings place migrant workers on the White House lawn. Another design by Shira Kresch reworks a poster by Shepard Fairey, who is known for commodifying decolonial art, with the phrase “No War but Class War.”


DSA also promotes artwork inspired by campaigns of endorsed candidates, such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders. In a recent portrait, Molly Crabapple shows Sanders with fist raised and hair scattered. Yiddish text reads “Bernie fights for us. Let’s fight for Bernie.” In an illustration promoting the Green New Deal, Crabapple visualizes a future of immigrant women working union jobs in sustainable industries.

While electoral politics offers little more than representation within existing structures, organizations like Decolonize This Place (DTP) decry the marginalizing practices of museums and nonprofits while calling for reforms such as free transit and the abolition of police. Colorful, challenging artwork appears on posters for upcoming demonstrations, most recently #FTP3 #J31. Anonymous artists display these works at bus stops and subway stations, often blending them in with signs and wall panels.


DTP regularly features up-and-coming New York artists on social media. One example, a multi-panel illustration by Reed Hexamer, details how MTA passengers can defend the homeless from police harassment. Hexamer portrays scenes familiar to any subway rider, from a crowded 5 train bound for Union Square to the Manhattan skyline at sunset, in shades of blue, green, yellow, and red. Text bubbles detail systemic causes of homelessness, tips for identifying officers, and helplines to report abuse.


Some artists draw influence from 20th-century socialist magazines like The Liberator, The Masses, and Birth Control Review. Colleen Tighe’s monochromatic illustrations appear in promotions for political organizations, books, websites, and other media. Her design for the 40th anniversary of Labor Notes features a woman pulling back a slingshot over a crowd of strikers. In a black-and-white design for the podcast Season of the Bitch, she depicts a nude trans woman wearing a crown of roses, wielding a scythe and stargazing.


JB Brager applies language and visuals from previous queer movements to contemporary issues. Their illustration ‘Mones Not Drones promotes reallocation of the military budget toward transgender healthcare. Another work shows a curvy femme kicking a can of Safariland tear gas under the slogan “We Like Our Queers Out of Uniform,” borrowed from a 1992 zine by Lesbians and Gays Against Intervention. The phrase “Reclaim Pride” appears in both, alluding to the rainbow capitalism of WorldPride.


Health and fitness factor into activism both individually and collectively. In a strength and conditioning guide, writer Mila P and artist Eros Dervishi describe and demonstrate different stretches and breathing methods for insurgents. Gender-nonconforming bodies appear in orange ski masks alongside images of protests and tributes to deceased comrades. Released by Inhabit, an online platform and publisher emphasizing practical skills to counter corporate monopolies and climate change, the guide draws a throughline between individual autonomy and collaboration to fight oppression.



Organizer and educator Mariame Kaba periodically posts free zines of art, poetry, and prose on her blog Prison Culture. In the Lifeline Zine, she interweaves inspirational quotes from famous writers with letters and art by New York prisoners. A poem by Izumi Shikibu appears beside the painting The Roads by Joanne Armour, an inmate at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, which has colorful streaks flowing like exotic bird feathers. This juxtaposition feels appropriate as a summation of the new left’s goals for political art: to elevate unheard voices, long silenced by greed and brute force, with imagery and symbolism that are accessible to all.

https://hyperallergic.com/540802/new-york-city-leftist-protest-art/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=D021420&utm_content=D021420+CID_84591b0cf78333d7a8c7dab53467abe4&utm_source=HyperallergicNewsletter&utm_term=The%20Artists%20Illustrating%20New%20Yorks%20Growing%20Protest%20Culture

WHAT ARE THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY LIONS READING? THE GREAT GATSBY AND BELOVED


As part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, NYPL has outfitted the marble lions that flank its main branch entrance with their very own copies of two books chosen from librarians’ 125 favorite titles.

Valentina Di Liscia


One of NYPL’s famous lions reading its own, lion-sized copy of Beloved by Toni Morrison (photo by the author)

The marble lions that flank the entrance to The New York Public Library (NYPL)’s majestic main branch in Manhattan are now doing more than stoically welcoming visitors and serving as climbing posts for over-active children. As of February 14, New York City’s most cherished stone felines are doing what one does at a library: reading books.
In celebration of its 125th anniversary, NYPL released a list of 125 titles for adults from the last 125 years developed by librarians across its three-borough system. Patience and Fortitude — the nicknames given to the lions by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the 1930s to boost New Yorkers’ spirits during the Great Depression — have been given their very own copies of two titles from the list: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Beloved by Toni Morrison (who was an NYPL trustee).
The addition is particularly exciting because NYPL’s mascots have not always enjoyed the luxury of accessorizing. In December 2013, Patience and Fortitude donned holiday wreaths for the first time since 2004, when a restoration discovered damages to the century-old marble likely caused by adornments. A time-lapse video provided by NYPL, below, shows how the lovable beasts were outfitted with the giant novels, complete with cut-out circles for their paws.
Personally, I would have liked to see Fitzgerald’s book retitled The Great CATsby, but I guess you can’t have it all.

According to an NYPL spokesperson, top 125 lists for kids and teen lists will come out later this year. In the meantime, adults will get the lion’s share.

https://hyperallergic.com/544129/what-are-the-new-york-public-library-lions-reading-the-great-gatsby-and-beloved/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=D022520&utm_content=D022520+CID_cfbb28260647b03fdab9ea21bde36010&utm_source=HyperallergicNewsletter&utm_term=What%20Are%20the%20New%20York%20Public%20Library%20Lions%20Reading%20The%20Great%20Gatsby%20and%20Beloved

domingo, 23 de febrero de 2020

COUNTRYSIDE, THE FUTURE. GUGGENHEIM NEW YORK.


Countryside, The Future is an exhibition addressing urgent environmental, political, and socioeconomic issues through the lens of architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, the think tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). A unique exhibition for the Guggenheim Museum, Countryside, The Future will explore radical changes in the rural, remote, and wild territories collectively identified here as “countryside,” or the 98% of the Earth’s surface not occupied by cities, with a full rotunda installation premised on original research. The project presents investigations by AMO, Koolhaas, with students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Wageningen University, Netherlands; and the University of Nairobi. The exhibition will examine the modern conception of leisure, large-scale planning by political forces, climate change, migration, human and nonhuman ecosystems, market-driven preservation, artificial and organic coexistence, and other forms of radical experimentation that are altering landscapes across the world.


Countryside, The Future is organized by Troy Conrad Therrien, Curator of Architecture and Digital Initiatives, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, Rita Varjabedian, Anne Schneider, Aleksander Zinovev, Sebastian Bernardy, Yotam Ben Hur, Valentin Bansac, with Ashley Mendelsohn, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Digital Initiatives, at the Guggenheim. Key collaborators include Niklas Maak, Stephan Petermann, Irma Boom, Janna Bystrykh, Clemens Driessen, Lenora Ditzler, Kayoko Ota, Linda Nkatha, Etta Mideva Madete, Keigo Kobayashi, Federico Martelli, Ingo Niermann, James Westcott, Jiang Jun, Alexandra Kharitonova, Sebastien Marot, Fatma al Sahlawi, and Vivian Song.

https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/countryside

ARSENICO E VECCHI MERLETTI Teatro Coccia Novara 22 febbraio 2020


D’accordo che a Carnevale ogni scherzo vale, ma in questo periodo carnascialesco al Coccia di Novara bisogna andarci con l’antidoto, infatti dopo Donna di Veleni ecco che porta in scena l’esilarante Arsenico e vecchi merletti con le due interpreti che rappresentano una cospicua parte del teatro italiano del ‘900.

Di Joseph Kesserling
Con ANNA MARIA GUARNIERI e GIULIA LAZZARINI
Traduzione di Masolino d’Amico



Martha Brewster                                        Anna Maria Guerrieri
Abby Brewster                                            Giulia Lazzarini
Giula Stone                                                 Maria Alberta Navello
Teddy Brewster                                          Mimmo Mignemi
Mortimer Brewster                                               Paolo Romano
Jonathan Brewster                                    Luigi Tabita
Dottor Einstein                                          Tarcisio Branca
Reverendo Stone e Signor Spooner        Bruno Crucitti
Sig. Johnson- Tenente Rooney               Francesco Guzzo
Agente Mullihgan                                      Daniele Biagini
Agente Brophy                                            Lorenzo Venturini

Regia Geppy Gleijeses
liberamente ispirata alla regia di Mario Monicelli
Scene  di Franco Velchi
Musiche Matteo d’Amico
Artigiano della luce Luigi Ascione

Produzione Gitiesse Artisti Riuniti

La scena è quella classica con le due porte laterali, la scala centrale che porta alle camere del piano superiore ed al centro il tavolino, dove le due amabili signore accolgono i ‘loro signori’, ovvero gli inquilini ai quali affittano le camere.
Sul tavolino, oltre ai bicchieri di cristallo, talvolta compare una bottiglia di rosolio, la quale, insieme alle due deliziose signorine Brewster diviene protagonista, anzi ‘la protagonista’: si tratta infatti della bottiglia di rosolio, con cura amalgamato con veleni, che le signorine servono appunto ai ‘loro signori’ quando li vogliono aiutare a lasciare questo mondo con il sorriso sulle labbra. I cadaveri, ormai tredici, vengono seppelliti dal folle nipote Teddy nel canale di Panama, ovvero nella cantina dell’abitazione. Un susseguirsi di situazioni esilaranti trasformano il noir in un quadretto quasi ‘per bene’.


La Compagnia teatrale è veramente abile nella recitazione, utilizzando tutte le tecniche possibili per divertire il pubblico che infatti si diverte. I personaggi sono tutti ben definiti e senza nulla di caricaturale riescono ad immergere lo spettatore in una situazione quasi reale. Ovviamente non mancano alcune gags, sempre nel totale buon gusto e senza esagerazioni, che rendono lo spettacolo decisamente gradevole e le due ore ed un quarto filate e senza intervallo, scorrono sul filo del divertimento.

Sinceramente ogni interprete meriterebbe una nota di plauso ed una descrizione dell’interpretazione dei vari personaggi, ma la presenza in scena di due pilastri del teatro italiano, inevitabilmente catturano i consensi, anche in relazione alla loro età ed all’immutabile se non migliorata capacità interpretativa. Si sta parlando di Giulia Lazzarini e  Anna Maria Guarnieri rispettivamente nei ruoli di Abby e Martha.

Il tempo per loro, artisticamente parlando,  non pare trascorso e con vitalità inaspettata utilizzano la camminata, l’apertura delle porte con un colpo di sedere, i maliziosi sorrisini d’intesa, l’assoluta freschezza interpretativa che portano ad assistere ad una rappresentazione ‘reale’, tanto sono credibili e convincenti.

La regia di Geppy Gleijeses è ispirata alla prima di Mario Monicelli, che quelli della mia età ricordavano perfettamente.

Un plauso!
Renzo Bellardone