2011 April | Cornell in Rome

Archive for April, 2011

Apr

[Internship] Student Interview 2: Christina Chaplin, Cornell University ’12

By jk749 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

Christina Chaplin is a Fine Arts student at Cornell University, class of 2012. Her concentration is photography and painting.

Can you give us a brief description of the organization that you are working for?

Sala 1 (Sala Uno) is a small exhibition gallery in neighborhood of San Giovanni, just south of central Rome. The space is owned by curator Mary Angela Schroth. Sala 1 is a non-profit art organization that holds artistic exhibitions without intent to sell.

What are your responsibilities?

Interior of Sala 1. Photo Credit: Christina Chaplin

I am working on two specific projects. The first one is for the press office of the Iraq Pavillion at the Venice Biennale. I do lots of translations from Italian to English: press releases, reception invitations, and grant applications. I am also working for the “Save the Stairs” project, a fundraising project for restoration of the S cala Sancta. We are trying to restore the frescoes of an important religious pilgrimage site.

Could you explain more about Venice Biennale?

The Venice Biennale, now in its 54th edition, is one of the most important contemporary art fairs in the world. It takes place from June 4th until mid November. The biennale is a great chance for upcoming and established artists to display their work. I am going to stay in Italy for 2 weeks after school is out to attend the official press opening and setup for the Biennale.

What have you learned? Have you had any difficulties?

The internship has been a good experience in learning how to deal with responsibilities. Difficulties have been the interaction with people in the workspace due to language barriers and the technical difficulties of the space–which is quite typical of non-profit organizations.

What is your time commitment?

10 hours a week. I spend up to 5 hours outside of the gallery.

How has this experience influenced you and your future plans?

Now I understand in more detail the different aspects of gallery ownership and exhibition spaces on a technical level, which could potentially influence me when curating my own show.

What is your favorite aspect of the internship?

Interacting with the artists that exhibit in the space or work for the Venice Biennale.

- Sunny Kim

Apr

Happy Easter!

By lmh94 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

Thanks to the helpful staff at Cornell In Rome, I was able to attend a once-in-a-lifetime event: celebrating Easter Mass with Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square. It was truly an unforgettable experience.

- LH

Apr

Off the Beaten Path in Venice

By lmh94 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

The City of Venice has long been a source of inspiration and wonder for the world. Despite its reputation for tourism, Venice is a year-round home to many people: students, families, farmers and fisherman, leaders in the tourism industry, and both Italian and international homeowners. During our Northern Italy field trip last week, City and Regional Planning students set out to look past the gondola rides and tourist havens and find this hidden, “real” city of Venice.

In the busy Piazza Santa Margarita, home to university students and local public schools, 17 planners met with a local Venetian who held the title “Magistrate of the Waters.” This position, which dates back to the 1500s, manages the relationship between the built environment of Venice and the delicate, ever-changing natural environment of the Lagoon. In beautiful, poetic language, the Magistrate described the interconnectedness of the two realms, and expressed hope that we consider Venice the ultimate example of modernity despite its near 1200-year-old existence. While modern is often the last adjective one would think of when describing Venice, the city has survived multiple natural disasters and military occupations because of its adaptive citizenry and receptivity to technological assistance.

To learn more about the year-round Venetian lifestyle, we traveled an hour North by boat to explore the small fishing island of Burano. Our professors led a tour of the 80-unit public housing complex intended to ease the rent burden on Burano famers and fisherman. Although located on a single plot of farmland, it was designed to echo the canals, alleys, and campos (small piazzas) of the famous Venice of St. Mark’s Square, but articulated and painted in the unique style of Burano.

Riding the ferry through the Lagoon back to central Venice, I realized that although we had set out to find something real behind the façade of tourism, in reality there is no separation between the two. The icons of the city – St. Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, Rialto Bridge, Palazzo d’Oro, the Grand Canal – are integrated in the daily life of residents just as much as they are impressed on the fantasy of tourists. The city’s canals, winding streets, monumental bridges and secret passageways, which seem incredible, beautiful, even Disney-fied, are in reality solutions to an infrastructural problem in a unique environment. The culmination in Venice of that which is old and new, surreal and functional, monumental and personal, results in exactly what the Magistrate of the Waters described: a testament to the modern city.

Apr

[Internship] Gallery Opening: Simon Edmondson and Marcelo Salvioli

By jk749 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

On Monday April 4th, the Spazio Nuovo gallery held an opening for two artists from abroad: Simon Edmondson and Marcelo Salvioli. Edmondson is a London-based artist who currently lives and works in Madrid and Salvioli is an established art director in the film and theater scene in Argentina.

As an intern at this gallery, I have been involved in various advertising and promotional aspects of preparing for the opening. My responsibilities that related to the event included translating/revising press releases in English, creating index and catalog documents for each artist, sending out invitations, and contacting clients and sponsors.

Although I spent most of my work hours on computer working on Word documents, all that effort and time seemed to pay off at the actual event. The opening was a huge success; the gallery and a separate lounge space across from the gallery were all packed with people. Both of the artists were present, as were many influential art historians and curators from the Italian art scenes.

One interesting fact of Rome art gallery scene is that the same group of people will see each other over and over again at all the art openings. Rome itself is a small city; the Roman art scene is even smaller. I noticed that even some clients and art critics who have visited our gallery already recognized me since I was one of a few ‘new’ additions.

After the gallery opening, a private dinner party that was held at a beautiful apartment near the Spanish Steps. One of the collectors of the gallery was generous enough to provide the space and catering service for a small group of clients invited. I was very lucky to be able to see such a lovely apartment in Rome – the city seemed even more beautiful from the rooftop terrace. It was a great ending for such a long, eventful day. I am already looking forward to the next gallery opening in July.

- Sunny Kim

Apr

Michaelangelo Pistoletto at Cornell

By vbj3 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

Shara Wasserman, our professor of Modern Art in Italy and Stan Taft, the art studio professor, arranged for artist Michelangelo Pistoletto to come and speak to the Cornell Community on Tuesday April 19th. This event was well attended by both Cornell in Rome students and staff as well as members of the community and students from other study abroad programs.

This particular event was incredibly exciting for Cornell because of the prolific accomplishments of Pistoletto as one of Italy’s foremost contemporary artists. Pistoletto has shown in museums around the world and his exhibition of his mirrored and reflective paintings, installations and other art is currently being shown at the MAXXI museum of contemporary art here in Rome.

Pistoletto was a pioneer of the Arte Povera movement in Italy in the late 1960s. In this contemporary art style, many artists were using materials of “poor” quality, mostly common things that anyone could find. Pistoletto’s primary example of this is Venus of Rags. It is a copy of an ancient sculpture holding up a pile of clothing provided by his viewers, as a sort of interactive sculpture. This particular sculpture has appeared a number of times in our exploration of modern art in Italy and has many variations.

Venus of Rags. Image from Pistoletto's official website

The artist began his presentation by discussing his intrigue with reflection, a path of investigation which led him to use gold and silver reflective surfaces as his paintings’ backgrounds. He transitioned into varnished black backgrounds and then later into polished stainless steel. A lone figure or a group of figures were painted onto these polished panels. The viewer is both the figure’s company as well as an onlooker.

One of Pistoletto's stainless steel paintings with the reflection of its viewers. Image from Pistoletto's Official Website

Pistoletto went on to speak about the concept of self-portraits, and that in many cases a self-portrait is a very lonely figure centered on the canvas. By using a reflective surface, the artist becomes surrounded by the company of his admirers.

As students of art, Shara’s class opened our eyes to the artistic community here in Rome and to a greater understanding of the artistic process of which Pistoletto spoke. Pistoletto described a striking element in his work by using a quote:“When a work is done, it is no longer a possibility, but a realization.” Throughout the semester, the art students have been working on self-guided continuous projects. One exercise we had to do was to take down all previous work and put it away so that we could only focus on the most pressing matters. In my opinion, this kind of cleansing is exactly what Pistoletto was referring to. Once something is done, it is realized and complete no matter what it is, and the artist moves on.

Apr

Student Internship Interview: Susan Yue, Brown University ’12

By jk749 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

Susan Yue is an exchange student from Brown University, class of 2012, majoring in visual arts, public policy and education.

1. Can you give us a brief description of the organization you are working for?

It’s called Fondazione Pastificio Cerere. A literal translation would be “Foundation of the Cerere Pasta Factory” (Cerere is the goddess of wheat). Located in the neighborhood of San Lorenzo, it is one of the few non-profit contemporary art organizations in Rome that provide artist studio residencies for established and emerging artists. The organization was initiated by Gruppo San Lorenzo, an artist’s group constituted by Roman artists such as Giuseppe Gallo and Marco Torelli. In the 1970s they transformed the original pasta factory into art spaces, and the place was revitalized in 2004 with new artists. The foundation awards young artists grants for one year of free residency and an opportunity to be exhibited in the MACRO museum of contemporary art.

2. What are your responsibilities?

I’m a cultural translator working for the Executive Director and his assistants. I make frequent studio visits and talk with the artists. I also give tours to visitors. Currently I am working on developing a press release (booklets) for American audiences.

3. What is your time commitment for the internship?

It takes me about 45 minutes each way to reach the Fondazione, and I go there twice a week. Work hours depend on how long they need me.

4. What have you learned from the internship? Any difficulties?

The biggest difficulty would be the language barrier. Still, the foundation has provided me with a glimpse into the contemporary art scene in Rome, which has quite a bit of entrepreneurial aspects to it; the foundation itself has some pro-profit mechanisms. The organization revitalizes the cultural space in San Lorenzo and attracts attention of young and educated people near the university area.

5. What is your favorite aspect of your internship?

I enjoy meeting the artists a lot; they are an eclectic group of people creating very different kinds of art. Giving tours to curators and introducing new artists to the curators is an enjoyable experience as well. It was meaningful to see how such an international art residency could enrich and help the community and create strong bonds.

- Sunny Kim

Apr

La Pivellina

By svh22 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

La Pivellina, which translates to “the little one” in English, is an extraordinary movie filmed and produced by Italian filmmaker Tizza Covi and the Austrian director Rainer Frimmel. This beautiful film shows an almost awe-inspiring level of restraint which allows viewers to develop a deeper level of empathy with the characters. It is a simple story of a husband and wife, carnival performers, who happen upon an abandoned two-year-old girl, and what then follows from that chance encounter.

The film was screened at Cornell in Rome, where we were joined by Tizza Covi, the writer of the film and one of its producers. The talk that followed gave me a much deeper appreciation of both the film and the film production process. Tizza explained their approach to filmmaking in great detail and I would be doing her a disservice to to recount it too summarily. However, I will explain several basic methods that were employed and the impact they had on the film. Firstly, all of the film’s actors are non-professionals, simply playing themselves in the context of the story. In order to build a rapport with those involved, the producers decided to live in the community throughout the filming. Additionally, and this was perhaps the most important aspect, the film was produced chronologically, with each scene filmed in sequence. Because of this, the growth of the characters is palpable; the viewer enters the film feeling like a stranger but by the end feels like a part of characters’ world. You can see the actors becoming more comfortable around each other and the filmmakers, producing a powerful emotive thread throughout the movie.

I could say much more about this film, but I sincerely do not want to spoil it for any future viewers. You can find a trailer for the film here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMY-lUW-Zz8

Before the screening of the film Profs Shara Wasserman and Carolina Ciampaglia organized a brief field trip to visit San Basilio, the neighborhood in the film. There we were able to meet the main protagonist, the no longer two-year-old girl from the film and see the community that she lives in. It was quite extraordinary to see the ways in which the filmmakers were able to capture the spirit of their location.

-SH

Apr

American Curves

By lmh94 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

“Reader, if you seek his monument, look about you.”

With this quote, Thomas Campanella began his lecture on Thursday March 31, entitled “American Curves: The Urban Infrastructure of Clarke and Rapuano.” Describing the influence of Clarke and Rapuano – fellow Cornellians! – on the New Deal-era New York Metro area, Campanella discussed some of the most famous and innovative infrastructural additions: the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Peter Cooper Village, Stuyvesant Town, John F. Kennedy Airport, Shea Stadium, and the 1960 World Fairgrounds.
Both Clarke and Rapuano became right-hand men to the infamous Robert Moses, fabricating some of the most rapid upheavals in both physical infrastructure and urban life that New York has ever seen. Pioneering the Bronx River Parkway, Clark reinvented the genre of park motorways, a feat that Campanella describes as “highly engineered but is at the same time steeped in a Romantic past.” During the New Deal, Robert Moses hand-selected Clarke to work at the newly consolidated Parks Department of the five boroughs. Clarke, in turn, selected Rapuano, a gifted young landscape architect, to become his protégé. Both Clark and Rapuano, under the guidance of the contested ideals of Robert Moses, sought to reconcile tradition with modernity in the built environment. The monument to Clarke and Rapuano? You need only travel to New York City and look about you.

-LH

Apr

Field Trip to Tuscany

By vbj3 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

The images of Tuscany that are seen in car commercials, on calendars, on the covers of books and magazines, and on the Internet hardly do justice to the majesty that is the Tuscan landscape. Our first stop on our Tuscan tour was to La Foce, an estate turned hotel/resort that was originally built in the 15th century as a hostel for pilgrims traveling in the area. The estate was restored by in the 1920 by Iris Origo, a prolific author, and is now maintained by her daughter. The gardens, including Tuscany’s iconic road that snakes down a hillside, was designed by landscape architect Cecil Pinsent.

Gardens and Countryside at La Foce

After La Foce, the group made its way to Pienza, an idyllic Tuscan town. Its historic center is a UNESCO world heritage site and the physical buildings and landscape are visually preserved and kept up. The group had a lot of time to wander the narrow, picturesque streets and indulge in Tuscany’s famous cuisine.

One of the towers of Pienza

On our final leg of the trip we headed off to San Gimignano, another small Tuscan town that practically defines the word “quaint”. Our group headed over to their famous bookstore and then to a contemporary art gallery showing the works of Michelangelo Pistoletto and others. Pistoletto is scheduled to give a talk at Cornell in Rome and we are all incredibly excited to hear from a contemporary Italian artist right before the Venice Biennale. We had quite a bit of free time to explore this little town and amongst the small touristy shops were some incredible examples of Tuscan pottery and wood carving, I was personally awed by a shop selling olive tree wood bowls and utensils. During dinner we were able to taste some of the famous Tuscan Chianti and even a white Chianti made right outside of town.

The light from a small store at dusk

The group standing in the central square listening to a lesson about the town

A booth in the main square. Students bought delicious candy, nuts and dried fruit here.

Pistoletto's mirrored obelisk

Our dinner concluded with some bangs coming from outside. We realized that there was a firework show to celebrate the beginning of Lent.

Fireworks off of the tower

Apr

Spring Break – Barcelona & Madrid

By jk749 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

For the Spring Break, I spent 9 days in Spain visiting Barcelona and Madrid. I had never imagined Spain to be such a splendid country – IT WAS BEAUTIFUL.

In Barcelona, I was lucky to have great weather during my entire stay. I got to enjoy the ocean, mountain, and the grand boulevards filled with amazing stores. Shoppers, Barcelona IS the place to go.