James Bradburne on the future of Brera Modern & its Milanese collections
October 18, 2018
Join us for a special evening with James Bradburne, Director General of the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, on the eve of opening to the public CIMA’s newest exhibition, Metaphysical Masterpieces 1916–1920: Morandi, Sironi, and Carrà
Palazzo Citterio, a historic palace mere steps from the Pinacoteca, was purchased in 1972 to hold the museum’s extraordinary 20th-century collections. At the core of the project Towards the Grande Brera, initially envisioned by the renowned director Franco Russoli (1923-1977), was the desire to expand the collection’s galleries as well as to make a permanent home for the Brera’s incredible holdings of Italian modern art, mostly donated to the museum by prominent Milanese collectors Emilio and Maria Jesi, Lamberto Vitali, and Gianni Mattioli (currently promised gifts on long-term loan). Great connoisseurs and passionate art patrons throughout their lives, these collectors gifted to the Pinacoteca di Brera unique masterpieces of 20th-century Italian art, including futurist paintings by Umberto Boccioni, metaphysical canvases by Giorgio Morandi, and expressionist works by Amedeo Modigliani.
James Bradburne will discuss the fascinating history of these preeminent Milanese collections in addition to providing an exclusive look into the latest developments of Brera Modern at Palazzo Citterio, currently scheduled to open in 2020. Erica Bernardi, one of CIMA’s two fall fellows, will moderate. This event serves as the inaugural public program of CIMA’s 2018-19 season and the first opportunity for audiences to see these extraordinary exemplars of metaphysical art.
Missed the event?
Watch the video here! Part 1; part 2.
Program schedule:
5:30pm: Doors open, exhibition preview and prosecco
6:15pm: Program begins, followed by audience Q&A
7:30pm: Program concludes
8pm: Evening concludes
James M. Bradburne is a British-Canadian architect and museum specialist. He was appointed Director General of the Pinacoteca di Brera of Milan in October 2015, one of twenty such appointments made by the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini as part of a historic shake up of the state museum sector in Italy. From 2006 to 2015 he served as the founding director of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, one of Italy’s first public-private partnerships and Florence’s largest temporary exhibition space.
Erica Bernardi received her Ph.D. from the University Ca’ Foscari in Venice. Her research focuses on Franco Russoli, the art historian, museologist, and director of the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan; most recently she published the book Senza utopia non si fa la realtà. Scritti sul museo 1952-1977, based on her PhD dissertation. She is currently the curator of the Franco Russoli archive and collection, as well as collaborating with the Brera on historical research projects, and coordinating a work team regarding contemporary museology for ICOM – Italy. Read more about Erica’s research and her project at CIMA here.
Bruno Munari: The Lightness of Art
September 18, 2018
Bruno Munari: The Lightness of Art: A book launch and conversation with co-editor Pierpaolo Antonello, contributing authors Nicola Lucchi, Ara H. Merjian, Maria Antonella Pelizzari, and panel discussants Greg D’Onofrio and Steven Guarnaccia
Dubbed a ‘Leonardo Da Vinci and Peter Pan’ of the modern world, Bruno Munari played a key role in practices as wide ranging as concrete abstraction, kinetic art, multiples and xerograph art. He also gained international recognition in industrial and graphic design, through signature objects such as his Falkland lamp (1964) and Abitacolo (1971), advertising material for firms including Campari, and editorial work for Domus and publishing houses such as Einaudi and Bompiani. Munari left an indelible mark as a design theorist and as a children’s author and educator, through the artistic laboratories he toured globally from the mid-1970s.
Bruno Munari: The Lightness of Art (Peter Lang, 2017) constitutes an unprecedented study of the artist. Through original archival research and illuminating comparisons with other artists and movements both within and outside Italy (from Dada and surrealism to Lucio Fontana, Paolo Gilardi and structural cinema), the essays gathered in this volume offer novel readings of both more familiar aspects of Munari’s career (such as his photo-essays of the 1930s and 1940s) and heretofore neglected aspects (including his light projections and performances). Pierpaolo Antonello will introduce this evening, which coincides with the twentieth anniversary of Munari’s death; his discussion will be followed by short presentations from the evening’s panelists, Nicola Lucchi, Ara H. Merjian, and Maria Antonella Pelizzari, Greg D’Onofrio, and Steven Guarnaccia.
Missed the program? Watch the video here.
Please note: CIMA will be live-streaming the program on our Facebook page.
Program schedule:
6pm: Doors open and books for sale
6:10pm: Introduction
6:15pm: Program begins, followed by audience Q&A
7:30pm: Program concludes and books for sale
8pm: Evening concludes
Speaker biographies: (more…)
Alberto Savinio’s “Les chants de la mi-mort”
June 21, 2018
At ISSUE Project Room: 22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201
U.S. premiere of Alberto Savinio’s “Les chants de la mi-mort” with new work by Nick Hallett
Thursday, June 21st, ISSUE Project Room, in partnership with CIMA, presents an evening of experimental opera curated by Lauren Rosati. The program features the first American re-staging of Alberto Savinio’s 1914 avant-garde operetta Les chants de la mi-mort (Songs of the Half-Dead) and the New York City concert premiere of the latest scene in composer-vocalist Nick Hallett’s serial opera, To Music. The performances take place prior to the final weekend of CIMA’s critically acclaimed Alberto Savinio exhibition.
Photos: Jay Isolini courtesy ISSUE Project Room
Originally staged in the offices of Apollinaire’s review Les Soirées des Paris on May 21st, 1914, where it was performed in French and Italian, Savinio’s Les chants de la mi-mort centers around a family drama during the period of the nineteenth-century Italian Risorgimento. Savinio intended this intermedia work, which combined music, literature, theatre, set design, and costumes, as a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk: a total work of art. The operetta’s characters (among them “a mad king” and “the bald man”) and scenic descriptions (including a tower, an equestrian statue, and cannon) inspired the metaphysical paintings of de Chirico. The dramatic text, as well as the piano score, incorporate noises and lighting effects—the sound of artillery fire, the flashing beam of a lighthouse—which are hallmarks of early Italian Futurist theater. The theme of this dissonant, absurdist operetta has very little to do with the Risorgimento itself; rather, its subject matter and mood pertains to Savinio’s conception of “half-death”: a state suspended between dream and reality, requiring an expansion of one’s faculties of perception to understand the world. While documentation of the original costumes and sets has been lost, and there is no information on the relationship between the music and libretto, this modern reconstruction of Les chants de la mi-mort relies on extant materials and primary sources to reimagine the production for new audiences.
The operetta will be presented in two acts: first, a dramatic reading of the libretto by mezzo-soprano Lucy Dhegrae and baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco, with an original video by Reid Farrington and a score of noises by percussionist Clara Warnaar; and second, a premiere performance of the original score by the pianist Kathleen Supové, with vocals by Dhegrae and Diaz-Moresco and additional percussion by Warnaar. The whole production runs 40-50 minutes.
In line with CIMA’s mission to present contemporary artists alongside the work of modern Italian artists, and in the spirit of inter-generational creative dialogue, this evening’s presentation of Savinio’s 1914 opera will also include the New York City concert premiere of the latest scene in composer-vocalist Nick Hallett’s opera-in-process, To Music, a dark comedy that looks at the nature of inspiration and originality through the cautionary tale of a fictional composer’s behavior on social media—a portrait of the artist on Facebook.
Isabella Rossellini in conversation with Yasmine Ergas
June 06, 2018
Fifty years after 1968, Yasmine Ergas and Isabella Rossellini reflect on this tumultuous moment in Italian life, culture, and politics. Exchanging personal stories alongside photographs and documents from the women’s movement, these two life-long friends will reflect on the legacy of this important chapter in Italian history. The conversation will conclude with a question-and-answer period with the audience.
Isabella Rossellini is an actress, filmmaker, author, and model. She has a keen interest in animals and wildlife conservation; she recently completed a 50-city tour with a monologue based on her award-winning series of shorts, Green Porno, Seduce Me, and Mammas. She is also completing her Masters in Animal Behavior and Conservation at Hunter College. Her book about raising heritage chickens at her farm in Long Island, which is run in association with the Peconic Land Trust, has just been published by Abrams.
Yasmine Ergas is a lawyer and sociologist. The founding director of the Specialization in Gender & Public Policy at Columbia University, she is also the co-founder and co-chair of Columbia University Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Council, Senior Advisor to the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and a member of the University’s Committee on Global Thought. She recently co-edited Reassembling Motherhood: Procreation and Care in a Globalized World (Columbia University Press, 2017).
Reflections by the editor: Paola Gribaudo on art publishing
May 15, 2018
Reflections by the editor: Paola Gribaudo on art publishing
From Alberto Savinio to Picasso from Hans Hofmann to Basquiat, Paola Gribaudo has been responsible for publishing over 1,000 books by artists, architects, and writers to audiences around the world. Join us for this special evening of her reflections on her diverse projects, including art books, biographies, exhibition catalogues, and catalogues raisonné on the occasion of the book signing of: Barbara Tutino, Paola Gribaudo: A Thousand and One of These Books. (Skira, 2018)
“The gestation of a book recalls that of a creature: the birth occurs when you pick the book up with both hands, one on top and the other underneath, and then you open it to smell the smell of the printer’s shop and the paper. This tender gesture is the same as a First Holy Communion, when the emotions of the author, the publisher, and the reader are indistinguishable, like water flowing in a system with communicating vessels. A small ceremony, I’d say, that you never tire of because while it is true that the life of humans can be tiring, it is never tiring enough to want to wipe out the desire to start over again from scratch. Paola helped give birth to many, so many books, and for this we are filled with gratitude.”
– Eugenio Alberti Schatz
Missed the event? Watch the video now!
Program schedule:
6pm – registration and viewing of Alberto Savinio
6:20pm – conversation program, followed by Q&A
7:30pm – program concludes, viewing of exhibition
8pm – doors close
“The Ruin of Kasch”: A Night with Roberto Calasso
May 10, 2018
For more than three decades, Roberto Calasso—publisher of Italy’s esteemed Adelphi Edizioni—has been composing a multi-volume work-in-progress, the individual parts of which deal with highly diverse subjects, yet are closely interconnected. In exhilarating and original books such as The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Ka, and K., Calasso has delved into Greek mythology, the work of Franz Kafka, and ancient Hindu lore, among other topics.
Join CIMA and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for a rare opportunity to hear Calasso discuss his work here in the United States, on the occasion of the publication of a new English translation by Richard Dixon of The Ruin of Kasch, the book that launched Calasso’s ambitious series. First published in Italian in 1983, The Ruin of Kasch is one of those rare works that helps us see our entire civilization in a new light. A deep excavation of the history of the French Revolution, with forays backward and forward in time, The Ruin of Kasch is both a labyrinth and a treasure chest, a book about nothing less than the birth of modernity.
Note: This program will feature a conversation between Calasso and author Lila Azam Zanganeh. It is the second of two evenings featuring Roberto Calasso at CIMA. On May 9, Calasso will discuss the writings of Alberto Savinio with Jonathan Galassi, President and Publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, in conjunction with CIMA’s current exhibition.
MISSED THE PROGRAM? WATCH THE VIDEO NOW!
Roberto Calasso is the publisher of Adelphi Edizioni, and the author of books such as The Ruin of Kasch, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Ka, La Folie Baudelaire, The Forty-nine Steps, and The Art of the Publisher, among others. He lives in Milan.
Lila Azam Zanganeh is the author of The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness, published in 2011. Azam Zanganeh has taught literature, cinema, and Romance languages at Harvard University, and has contributed articles to The New York Times, Le Monde, and la Repubblica, and The Paris Review, for which she interviewed Roberto Calasso in 2012. She was born in Paris, and currently divides her time between New York and London.
Roberto Calasso and Jonathan Galassi
May 09, 2018
Join us for a rare opportunity to hear Roberto Calasso discuss the work of Alberto Savinio in conversation with Jonathan Galassi, president of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Calasso is the publisher of Adelphi Edizioni, the Milan editorial house that has over the last forty years embarked on a rigorous project to re-issue Alberto Savinio’s literary oeuvre. Adelphi has to date published some 23 books by the author including, in 1977, the Nuova Enciclopedia—a remarkable and highly original personal encyclopedia with entries ranging from the god Apollo to Josephine Baker, which Savinio worked on throughout the 1940s until his premature death in 1952.
Note: This program is the first of two evenings featuring Roberto Calasso at CIMA, co-presented with Farrar Straus and Giroux and with the support of the Maurice English Poetry Award.
On May 10, Calasso will discuss FSG’s newly issued edition of The Ruin of Kasch, translated by Richard Dixon, with author Lila Azam Zanganeh. The book will be available for purchase and signing both evenings.
MISSED THE PROGRAM? WATCH THE VIDEO NOW!
Roberto Calasso is the publisher of Adelphi Edizioni, and the author of books such as The Ruin of Kasch, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Ka, La Folie Baudelaire, The Forty-nine Steps, and The Art of the Publisher, among others. He lives in Milan.
Jonathan Galassi is the president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The author of three volumes of poetry and a novel, he is also highly regarded as a translator of Italian poetry, in particular the work of Eugenio Montale and Giacomo Leopardi.
Remembering 1968: Richard Nonas, Nicholas Fox Weber, Laura Mattioli
May 08, 2018
2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the year that has become a symbol in Western history of an era of revolutionary political protest and social change. Join us for a special evening with artist Richard Nonas in conversation with Nicholas Fox Weber, Executive Director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and Laura Mattioli, Founder and President of CIMA, as they share memories of and reflect on the import and legacy of 1968.
The month of May in particular marks the 50th anniversary of the student protests in Paris, an uprising that shut down the capital and soon spread to the rest of the country, spurring the occupation of universities and a general strike involving millions of workers. The sculptor Richard Nonas was in Paris at the time, a participant in the protests; Nicholas Fox Weber was at Columbia in the spring of 1968, where student demonstrations closed the campus, and Laura Mattioli was a student at the Liceo Parini, a center of the protests in Milan.
Missed the event? Watch the video now!
Program schedule:
6pm – registration and viewing of Alberto Savinio
6:20pm – conversation program, followed by Q&A
7:30pm – program concludes, viewing of exhibition
8pm – doors close
Alberto Savinio Study Days
April 28, 2018
Day 1: Friday, April 27 (2pm – 5pm; prosecco aperitivo; keynote talk at 6pm)
Day 2: Saturday, April 28 (10:30am – 6pm)
CIMA hosts the Alberto Savinio Study Days on Friday and Saturday, April 27 and 28, 2018. These annual events offer an opportunity for CIMA’s fellows to share their new research alongside other scholars, in the intimate, collaborative environs of the exhibition space—a rare opportunity to discuss the artist’s career while surrounded by numerous examples of his work.
The Alberto Savinio Study Days aim to further investigate the major themes of the exhibition, as well as to offer new insights into the general debate on Savinio’s complex oeuvre, in sessions conceived by the 2017-2018 CIMA Fellows following an open call for papers.
MISSED THE PROGRAM? WATCH THE VIDEOS NOW!
FULL PROGRAM SCHEDULE BELOW. For abstracts of the papers and bios of their authors, click here.
Savinio’s Laboratory: A Journey with Paola Italia
April 27, 2018
As part of the ALBERTO SAVINIO STUDY DAYS, CIMA is pleased to welcome Savinio expert Paola Italia from Rome to present her keynote from 6pm – 7:30pm:
A “creative power-station”: A journey into Savinio’s laboratory through manuscripts, papers, and drafts
Wanderer of the imagination, alchemist of the word, unable to give expression to his extraordinary creativity through one single art, Alberto Savinio left in his papers a precious testimony to his phenomenal intellect. On the centennial of Hermaphrodito (Florence, 1918), Paola Italia takes CIMA’s audience on an exclusive journey into Savinio’s creative process: she will open the doors of the writer’s archive, preserved in Historical Contemporary Archive “A. Bonsanti” at the Vieusseux Archive in Florence, and share excerpts from his manuscripts, papers, and book drafts, providing insight into not only Savinio’s working methods but also the secrets of his creativity.
Paola Italia is Associate Professor of Italian Literature and Philology at the University of Bologna. Her research is devoted to 19th– and 20th-century Italian literature language and philology, including modern authors methods of writing and editing. Italia earned her Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Pisa with her dissertation on Alberto Savinio’s early works (Il Pellegrino appassionato), and has expanded scholarship on the author through subsequent publications. Celebrated for her texts on writers including Leopardi, Manzoni, Bassani, Gadda, Manganelli, Italia has also been recognized for her teaching at the Universities of Magonza, Siena and Rome La Sapienza.
Program schedule:
The event will be preceded by a prosecco aperitivo at 5:30pm. Presentation begins at 6pm, followed by a Q&A.
Missed the event? Watch the video now!
