Monday: The art students met with Israeli artist Meital Katz Minerbo who gave a lecture about her work concerning the aspects of animality and monstrosity. As a generally more figurative painter, Minerbo utilizes industrial paint as a means of representing real objects in a less traditional manner. Because the paint itself does not dry and is in a constant liquid form, Minerbo works by removing paint rather than applying it. After discussing her work with us, Minerbo met with each of us individually to give us personal feedback on our current independent projects- a very kind and helpful gesture.
Tuesday: Tuesday started off with Italian- it’s hard to believe that it is halfway over! The first two weeks of the course were incredibly helpful and are still useful even as we progress each week. After Italian, we headed over to an array of street art galleries with Professor Shara Wasserman for the Rome Contemporary Art Seminar class. Interestingly enough, a lot of the art was made by international artists, including the famous works by Margaret Keane, who was the subject of a recent Tim Burton movie called Big Eyes. Following our gallery hopping, we went to the reception of digital photography Professor Liana Miuccio whose work focused on the notion of identity and migration in terms of Rome and New York City.
Wednesday: Yesterday the morning began with Jeffrey Blanchard’s architecture history course, resulting in a long, yet incredibly picturesque walk around the city and many palaces, including Villa Farnesina. As we arrived to our final destination, it began raining heavily as thunder boomed in the distance, resulting in an amusing scene of both students and professor running across the streets of Rome to avoid the harsh weather. Luckily, the rain stopped just in time for us to return to the Palazzo so that we could take our Italian quiz! After a seemingly long day, we were able to relax in a productive manner as we watched an Italian comedy called I Soliti ignoti/ Big Deal on Madonna Street, directed by Mario Monicelli. The film, which served as a parody of the American gangster film, was quite important in addressing Italian postwar societal issues in a less explicit way. After we finished watching the movie, we went to the actual location in which the movie was filmed, which was very entertaining and revealing in terms of the actual technicalities of creating a film.
Thursday: With most people leaving for fall break either today or tomorrow, it was an exciting final day of class for many. This morning, we had a meeting with one of the directors of Nero Magazine, an Italian publishing company which is working with the art students to publish an artist’s book! Along with Italian students from the Academy of the Fine art, the art students discussed potential ideas and layouts for the book, which will be published before the end of the semester! With the deadline approaching rather quickly, it should be a fun and interesting experience for all of us to create good work under pressure.
As for now, however, I am preparing for my fall break trip!
Ciao!
-Veronica