Cultural Regeneration

STRAPLINE

ITALIAN JOURNAL VOLUME 20. NUMBER XI. 2014

Cultural re-Generation

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IN THIS ISSUE EDITOR’S JOURNAL 5 CONTRIBUTORS 7 NOTABLE 12

CULTURAL RE-GENERATION CLAUDIA PALMIRA ACUNTO Editor-in-Chief LAURA GIACALONE Associate Editor GIANLUCA MARZIANI LUDOVICA ROSSI PURINI BARBARA ZORZOLI Columnists MAURO BENEDETTI Photography MARIA VANO Translations and Proofreading MOLLY WANGEN-BECKER Editorial Assistant VITO CATALANO Social Journal Photography

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EDITOR’S JOURNAL

SIGNS OF NEW LIFE

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ecession in Southern Europe has been on the world’s radar for the past year, with Greece and Spain’s economies brinking on insolvency.

Italy straddles the line; with its renowned outward cool, the country is perhaps gearing up for that smashing, game-changing save that will surprise everyone.

On these pages, we explore the talents and minds that show the spark of innovation and creativity is alive in Italy. In fact, perhaps the challenges of the times will inspire profound resourcefulness in an entirely new phase.

I am personally wowed by what I see in the entrepreneurial realm. As Alberto Onetti writes, Italians are embracing entreprenurialism more and more (“The Wake Up Call to Start Up, page 22). The intense difficulties in establishing a business in Italy – a myriad of regulations and legal checkpoints akin to a high security airport – force these entrepreneurs that to become resiliant and purposeful.

In Rome, I’ve met in particular dozens of Italian women who are branching out on their own, utilizing the internet and social media in new business models– both of which are counter-intuitive to the highly interpersonal Italian style of business.

It’s wonderful to present Tim Parks on Zibaldone in the context of our theme, “Cultural Regeneration”. He quotes Leopardi: “It’s sad indeed when a man reaches the moment when he feels he can no longer inspire anyone else. Man’s great desire, the great drive behind his actions, words, looks and bearing right up to old age is his desire to inspire, to communicate something to his spectators and audience.”

SOME OF THE INSPIRING SPEAKERS AT THE FIRST EVER TEDXROMA (2014): PETER LUNENFELD, KRISTIN JONES AND OSCAR DI MONTIGNY.

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CONTRIBUTORS

COLUMNISTS Laura GIACALONE

Italian Journal Associate Editor Laura Giacalone is an Italian journalist based in Rome. She works as a contributing editor and translator for a number of bilingual art magazines, academic journals and publishing houses. She was the editor-in-chief of the Italian quarterly Filmaker’s Magazine and lived in London for two years, where she worked as a writer and editorial assistant for Phaidon Press, contributing to the three-volume book Phaidon Design Classics (2006). She has translated into Italian the American novels Paper Fish (Pesci di carta, Nutrimenti, 2006) by Tina De Rosa and Shattered (La finestra sul bosco, Fanucci, 2010) by Karen Robards, and a variety of academic papers, screenplays, feature articles and advertising campaigns for international publishers and multinational companies. Her world is made of words, and she loves it.

Gianluca MARZIANI

Critic and curator based in Rome, Italy, Marziani focuses on the visual arts. He is the artistic director of the Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive in Spoleto and the artistic director of the Rocco Guglielmo foundation. He is the curator of the Terna award and participates in the Rai5 television program “Personal Shopper.” For the IED Roma, he runs a visual arts program. He has curated many shows in both galleries and museums, is the author of two theoretical books and numerous catalogs. He writes about art for all media imaginable. His website is www.gianlucamarziani.com.

Ludovica ROSSI PURINI

Ludovica Rossi Purini was born in Rome, Italy. Ms. Purini has built collaborations and concert series with the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C., the American Academy in Rome, the U.S. Embassies to Italy and the Holy See, Stony Brook University, several world-class conductors, orchestras and chamber music groups and many other important cultural institutions and venues. She is founder and president of the not-for-profit cultural association Compagnia per la Musica in Roma, and has been the President of the Honorary Patrons Committee for Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, member of the Executive Board of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome, a Supporting Patron Associate of the Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome, a Knight of the Keyboard Charitable Trust and sits on the Board of the American Friends of the Budapest Festival Orchestra - among many other appointments. Most recently she became a member of the International Board of the American Foundation Project Rebirth and was appointed as advisor to the Center of Italian Studies at Stony Brook University in New York. She is currently working as creator and director of an international project entitled Rome Rebirth that will take place for the first time in Rome in 2013. Ms. Purini has received notable honors from various cultural foundations and institutions, including a recent award from the City of Rome, in recognition of her commitment to the Arts.

Barbara ZORZOLI

Barbara Zorzoli is a journalist and movie critic, radio and TV host, writer... and an actress for fun. She says she lives ‘up in the air’ between Genoa (her birthplace) and London (where she interviews actors/actresses and directors, attends premieres and visits movie sets). She is a contributing editor for Vogue Italia, the Italian Vanity Fair, Film doc and many other cinema magazines. She is a correspondent for the world’s most important international film festivals. She also writes about soundtracks for www. colonnesonore.net. Thanks to her passion for musicals she wrote the booklets for the entire DVD collection dedicated to Fred Astaire (Fred Astaire Collection, Edizioni Master, 2007). As movie critic she gives cinema lessons (in Genoa at Palazzo Ducale and The Space Cinema Porto Antico). This year, she is a member of the Genova Film Festival jury (July 2-8).

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8 CONTRIBUTORS

CONTRIBUTORS Letizia AIROS

Letizia Airos is the Editor-in-Chief of i-Italy.org.

Barbara ALFANO

Barbara Alfano, a native of Italy, is professor of Italian at Bennington College. Her first publication, the collection of short stories Mi chiedevo (I Was Wondering), came out in Italy in 2009 (Manni Editori). Alfano completed her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, in 2004. Her academic work, mainly on contemporary Italian narrative, stands at the intersection of literature and ethics, and focuses on identity, love, travel, and first-person accounts.

She was published in Italica, Forum Italicum, Variaciones Borges, L’anello che non tiene, and Storie: All Write. (Photo by Briee Della Rocca.)

Silvia ANNICCHIARICO

As an architect, in addition to professional activities, she is involved in the fields of research, criticism and teaching. Since 2007 she is the Director of Triennale Design Museum. From 1998 to 2007 she was Custodian of the Permanent Italian Design Collection of La Triennale di Milano, since 2002 she has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the design sector, from 1998 to 2004 she held a temporary post as a Professor within the Degree in industrial design of the Politecnico di Milano. From 1998 to 2001, she was assistant editor of the monthly design magazine “Modo”, and she collaborated with several newspapers and radio stations and is the editor of exhibitions and books both in Italy and abroad. She is a member of the Triennale di Milano Scientific Committee for Design, Manufacturing and Handicraft.

Federico CAPITONI

(b. 1980, Rome), music critic and musicologist, writes for the national newspapers La Repubblica and Il Sole24Ore. He contributes to the most important Italian music magazines such as Classic Voice and Amadeus. He also edited Rondò, a classical and jazz music magazine. Creator and host of radio programs about music for Radio Rai, Radio Città Futura and Radio Vaticana, he is currently the music manager of artivu. tv (a web TV dedicated to music, theatre and dance). Graduated in Mass Communication and in Philosophy from La Sapienza University of Rome, he teaches History and Sociology of Music and is the author of several books on music: Copio dunque sono (2009); Guida ai musicisti che rompono (2011); La verità che si sente (2013).

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CONTRIBUTORS

CONTRIBUTORS Diego CARMIGNANI

Born in Rome in 1980, Diego Carmignani has worked as a journalist specializing in pop culture, especially music and cinema. He has written and interviewed for journals, newspapers, magazines and websites, as well as TV, and co-authored several books. He has worked for National Public Radio and Radio Rai, and is currently a radio host for several radio stations: Isoradio and FD4. He helped to relaunch allmusic radio. “People have the bad habit of judging other people and nations according to their taste in music.”

Domitilla DARDI

With a degree in Art History and a PhD in History and Criticism, for several years she has focused her interests on the study and research of the history of design. From 2003 to 2007 she taught History of Industrial Design and Contemporary Art History in the Department of Architecture of Ascoli Piceno (Camerino). She began collaborating with MAXXI-Architecture in 2007, and became its design curator in 2010.

She has been Professor of History of Design in the three-year Master’s course of the European Institute of Design in Rome since 2007. In December 2009 she became the Delegate of Culture of ADI Lazio. She conducts training courses, performs research and consults for various companies in the industry and is also a copywriter.

Since 2010 she has been one of the editors of Flash Art Design and a member of the Italian Association of Historical Design. Her articles have appeared in journals of architecture and international design, and she is the author of numerous books, including: Achille Castiglioni (Testo e Immagine, Torino, 2001), Il Design di Alberto Meda. Una concreta leggerezza (Electa, Milano, 2005), Il Campus Vitra, una collezione di Architetture (with F. Argentero, Meltemi Editore, 2007), Lampade e Negozi 2 (Federico Motta editore, 2007), Il design in 100 oggetti (Federico Motta, 2008), Interior Yacht Design. Abitare tra cielo e acqua (with M. Paperini, Electa, Milano, 2009), Universo Rietveld (with M. Casciato, 2011), Il design del bagno nella cultura di impresa (with C. Martino, 24 ore cultura, 2011), Eero Saarinen (24 ore cultura, 2011), Eero Saarinen architetto (24 ore cultura, 2013), Anni Cinquanta (24 ore cultura 2013). She lives and works in Rome.

William HOPE

William Hope lectures in Italian language and cinema at the University of Salford, G.B. He has published the monographs Curzio Malaparte - The Narrative Contract Strained and Giuseppe Tornatore: Emotion, Cognition, Cinema, and edited the volume Italian Film Directors in the New Millennium in 2010. He is a member of the editorial board of Studies in European Cinema and is currently co-ordinating a research project entitled “A New Italian Political Cinema?”. http://italianpoliticalcinema.wordpress.com/

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10 CONTRIBUTORS

CONTRIBUTORS Alberto ONETTI

Alberto Onetti, Chairman and President, Mind the Bridge Foundation. Forwardlooking, dividing his time between Italy and the United States, Alberto works on bridging technology to business. He is a seasoned serial entrepreneur with core competences in corporate strategy and finance. Among the others, he founded, together with Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol, Inc., a mobile personal cloud company based in Silicon Valley with R&D in Europe. Alberto is Professor of Business Administration and Entrepreneurship. His academic career is divided between Italy – where he teaches Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Insubria in Varese – and the United States, where he is regularly visiting the San Francisco State University since 2006. In 2009 he has been appointed as Chairman of the Californian Mind the Bridge Foundation, its mission is to inspire, educate and stimulate a new generation of young European entrepreneurs and create startups inspired by the methods and successes achieved in the Silicon Valley. Through the seed venture fund Mind the Seed, whose he is Partner, Alberto concretely invests in the best startups to create successful international ventures. Since 2014 Alberto has been selected

by European Commission to help drive the Startup European Partnership (SEP), the first integrated platform to support growth and sustainability of European companies. Alberto Onetti has authored and co-authored insofar over 100 publications, regularly blogs and writes for some important newspapers, and frequently tweets (Twitter: @aonetti).

Tim PARKS

Born in 1954, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard before moving to Italy in 1981. He is author of fifteen novels, including Europa short-listed for the Booker Prize, as well as four memoirs covering aspects of life in contemporary Italy: Italian Neighbours, An Italian Education, A Season with Verona and Italian Ways. His many translations from the Italian include works by Moravia, Tabucchi, Calvino, Calasso, Machiavelli and Leopardi, while his book Translating Style fuses literary criticism with translation analysis. He runs a post-graduate degree in translation at IULM University, Milan, and is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books.

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Notable i-Italy Editor Pays Tribute to Massimo Vignelli

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he first time I interviewed you, I stepped into your home, what in my imagination was a temple of design, almost afraid. And it certainly was a temple.

The light seeped through a huge window and proceeded through an elongated living room.

The silence was deep but it was as if music had been playing in the background, maybe Mozart…

At the end of the room, on the left, a big black desk. A metal sheet, one of those used to cover road works on the streets of NY, that only you could have thought of using in this special way… to draw on.

Seated around that table we had our video interview and right there – but I didn’t know it yet – we would have other long timeless chats…

I started off by asking you why you had left Milano. “It’s too small – you said – too provincial. The ceiling is too low. I came to NY thinking that the ceiling would be higher here, only to discover that the ceiling here doesn’t exist at all”.

This reply marked the beginning of our friendship. Now I know. In a few incisive words you made me understand my own choice to live in NY. Our association started pretty much straightaway, in fact on that day when you, during an official presentation, decided to broadcast that same interview on a big screen. It took me by surprise.

I knew the contents were good, but I dreaded your aesthetic judgment. Yes, I was truly afraid of you. When I saw you introducing it with such pride, seated in a corner of the room I cried happy tears.

Timeless conversations. This is what I would call our afternoons spent talking. We talked about design, but not only. And it was normal for you. Design was in every breath you took, your scrupulousness touched every topic.

‘Scrupulousness’, a word that could sound boring, but it was never such with you. Your pencil would draw it, with those precise hands that I’ll never forget. There was order and also the chaotic order, that part of you that you slowly unveiled to me. The famous ‘Canone Vignelli’, that formula, so fundamental for the new generations, those rules that instead of compressing creativity helped developing it.

I had a pure intellectual in front of me, with an approach to life dense with curiosity, with continuous desire to study, to go below the surface, always and in any which way. With that push to consistently do better, even the same things, but better…

We talked and I had the impression that my questions would not only be answered, but would themselves give you something in return. You asked me all sorts of things, your curiosity growing exponentially as soon that a technological topic would come up.

I remember when I handed you my iPhone to touch a QR and

watch a YouTube video. Your eyes, your smile, your voice, turned into those of a child amazed at the latest discovery. Steve Jobs, you so loved talking about him…and then the computer and all that had to do with it… Even with the troubles you said you encountered using it… but maybe that wasn’t the problem. Maybe it was just that the pencil simply ended up prevailing. A battle you couldn’t win. But I remember clearly when you stood next to Mauro Sarri while he was transferring your drawings onto the computer… How much attention looking for accuracy in what he was doing. And then, always beside you, your MacBook Air, your IPad, your iPhone.

It’s true, the pencil always prevailed. Something else that surprised me once was a piece of paper abandoned on your desk before you were due to leave for somewhere. A list of what you needed to bring with you. A list that was not written, but drawn with extreme detail, from the underwear to the ipad charger.

Massimo, you supported our editorial project like few have!

And you did it with endless generosity, by following it closely, but at the same time with respectful distance. You saw our magazine coming to life, advising us on how to simplify the graphic, presenting us with a new logo, discussing its contents with me.

There have been two moments when you grabbed your pencil suddenly, in your usual manner, and you did for us, in front of us.

I’ll never forget those moments: when you started rethinking our logo and when you designed our car, our Fiat 500. The pencil, that black and white drawing, and those pastels to colour it. Fascinating. The initial insecurity of your hand, so beautiful, searching for direction, looking for the perfect traits. Then soon after the confidence of your mind that knew the right path.

And you never stopped interacting with us, asking for our advice…

A tricolour 500? It could have been aesthetically dangerous.

You Massimo knew that from the very beginning. You wanted to design it yourself, and that’s why you said: “Letizia I can’t let i-Italy drive around NY in an ordinary car. You’ll see, it’ll stand out and it will be beautiful.”

And how can I forget the day you saw it realized?!

We drove it to your doorstep and you started walking around it. Ten times? At least. You liked it, even though the red wasn’t exactly what you expected. But you liked it. And the evening of the ‘La fondazione’ Gala you chased me saying: “Listen Letizia, I want to go back home with you, in the little car!”

The editorial staff of i-Italy adored you. You’re in everybody’s heart. When we worked together, filming, you’d interact with everyone, you’d remember their names, one by one. You wanted to find out more about them and Iwona, our photo reporter, who loves Italy and writes about it, was probably your favourite.

NOTABLE

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Notable Elegant. Unique. Design by Lella, an overview of the work you have produced together, not only design, but interiors, furniture objects, set-ups, fashion, jewellery. An electronic book that summarizes your whole life together, but that, above all, celebrates Lella and women. Women in the design world. All women.

We have many memories of you Massimo, even though we’ve only known each other for three years. And now that you’re not with us anymore, I can’t think of anything else but those hours spent together in your home. We won’t have any more of those moments.

I remember with how much anticipation you waited for the arrival of new furniture to hide some books that distracted your eyes in the living room. Anyone would expect Massimo Vignelli looking for an expensive designer solution…

But the man that I consider - without the slightest doubt - the greatest contemporary designer, could also love IKEA. You told us with firm conviction how fantastic and economical you deemed some of the solutions the Swedish brand proposed. And sure enough you picked one of those for your books.

And I then realized that the intellectual had once again taken over. You studied her, you studied her disease, you studied her mind. You asked your intelligence to help you love her even more.

Lella. A few months ago you issued a tribute to her. Amazing.

I know that distributing in an electronic format was a conscious choice of yours. Your acceptance that the net has won over the paper – paper that has been fundamental in your design – but I sincerely hope that it could soon be published, for it to become a book that we can touch.

Women, young people, children, couples at work together. They were all important reference points for you. You respected the feminine universe in a way only few know how to.

You loved the young, in a way that was critical and constructive at the same time. You were extremely close to children.

It was very easy for you to empathize with other couples. And it happened to me when you met my partner. You welcomed him into your life. You two would talk about politics, not one of my favorite topics. You gave us plenty of advice which I hope we’ll be able to follow.

I’m about to conclude this recollection of you, addressed to you before anyone else. And I’ll do it by publishing one of your emails that revealed to me, once again, your greatness, not just intellectual, but also human.

“Thank you for sending me the copies of the i-Italy magazine and especially for the space dedicated to me. You truly are a darling. The magazine is improving and becoming increasingly more real… in the text of the interview there is a big interpretation and translation error, but don’t worry, the readers won’t notice….You translated ‘scala’ (scale) with ‘scalinata’ (staircase). The point is that I wasn’t talking about staircases, but about scale as an intangible value. In Italian you’d use the same word, and it’s the context that changes the meaning. If you replace ‘staircase’ with ‘scale’, you‘ll see everything will be right again. I wasn’t talking about staircases, really not…! Try and read that paragraph again and you’ll see the difference. As I said don’t worry, it’s not a scientific publication, otherwise I would leave a bad impression, here no one will notice…(at least I hope).”

The greatest contemporary designer. I regret that Italy, once again, hardly realized it.

I know, you said it Massimo: it’s all because of the ceiling!

Massimo. Massimo the Great. n - Letizia Airos “It’s All Because of that Ceiling. For You, Massimo, Wherever You May Be.” May 30, 2014. Reprinted from i-Italy.org

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Notable Gucci Revives Classic Ginori Patterns

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ichard Ginori, the historic porcelain maker located in Florence, recently presented their 2014 table collection in collaboration with Gucci. The collection included fine tableware with traditional Ginori trademarks such as specific dusting techniques and brush strokes.The company, founded in 1735, in the Sesto neighborhood of Florence, is known internationally for their luxurious tableware items; all handcrafted with an unparalleled sophistication and an immaculate attention to detail. After filing for bankruptcy in January of 2013 though, the company was bought by front-runner Florentine fashion house, Gucci, for $16.8 million. Gucci wanted to give new life, new direction, to the failing company. “There are two essential factors that are pivotal to restructuring and re-launching Richard Ginori: respect for this historic brand and investment in its future,” said the president and chief executive of Gucci, Patrizio di Marco, in an interview with The New York Times. n

Polish Film Recalls Dante

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olish director Lech Majewski’s new visionary film, Field of Dogs, was released on April 17.

Field of Dogs tells the story of a man numbed by grief, living in a dream world.

After losing both his girlfriend and best friend in a car accident, Adam finds solace only in creating a fake reality intricately based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. The allegory and symbolism present in the masterpiece parallel Adam’s internal struggle to understand the loss of his loved ones.

Majewski, a great appreciator of Italian art, cinema and literature, had long been intrigued by the brilliant Italian poet, and has been quoted saying “His incredible imagination has no equal, his powers of description, the construction of a world of symbolism and then its excellence in being able to describe at the same time personal episodes, people he knew, friends and enemies, and to talk to all, in his time, to posterity. From here, in my small way, I started with the idea of Oneiric.”

In Field of Dogs, Majewski views the world on an intimate level, searching the deep and darkest parts of the mind and exposing them to the audience. He brings to light, in a modern, relatable nature, the divine mystery that is life. He has resurrected the unparalleled brilliance of Dante Alighieri. n http://www.movieplayer.it/film/articoli/lech-majewski-rileg-

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Notable London Exhibit on Italian Style

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he prestigious London museum of art and design, Victoria and Albert Museum, showcased “The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945–2014,” earlier this year. Sponsored by renowned Italian fashion powerhouse Bulgari, the show presented the most comprehensive display on the history of Italian fashion to date.

The exhibit provides an in-depth look at the country’s post Second World War attempt to revive the mentally and financially drained nation through the textile industry—a conjunction between factory restoration in the mid 40’s and a growing artisanal presence helped fashion to become a mainstay of the recovery effort.

After years of deprivation and wartime poverty, a thirst for luxury, for glamour existed. And Italy provided. From finely tailored suits to dazzling couture gowns, Italian high fashion won the world over.

“This isn’t just a celebratory show,” says curator Sonnet Stanfill. “Of course there are beautiful cloths displayed throughout the exhibition, but we wanted to look at Italy and it’s own fashion future. It’s important to play their history forward.” n

Photographer in Orbit

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uca Parmitano made history this summer when he became the youngest astronaut on a long-term assignment to the 2013 Space Station mission.

In May of 2009, Parmitano was selected as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, and in 2011 the ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) nominated him for the 2013 ISS mission. Under a bilateral agreement between the ASI and NASA, Parmitano became the fourth Italian citizen to fly to the Space Station. He was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan in May of 2013 on a Soyuz TMA spacecraft.

Parmitano’s mission, ironically entitled “Volare,” involved conducting physics/

biological research, participating in spacewalks, and docking ESA’s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle. After 166 days, he landed safely back on Earth on 11 November 2013.

ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, Simonetta Di Pippo, expressed her enthusiasm about Luca, and the direction his presence at the Space Station will bring to the future of European space exploration, “Luca is a member of the new class of ESA astronauts, and he will be a perfect space ambassador to promote the benefits of human spaceflight on Earth. His assignment brings the certainty that Europeans will be part of a new era of the utilization of the International Space Station, an era with broader exploration ambitions.” n

16 NOTABLE

Notable The Health of the Oceans Two speeches to the United Nations General Assembly on maintainting the health of the planet’s seas Remarks by Ambassador Sebastiano CARDI, permanent representative of Italy to the UN

I

am honored to welcome all of you to this gathering, and pleased to be among such distinguished and knowledgeable leaders.

“Alarms have been sounding over the health of the oceans and seas for years now. Indeed, many of us are already facing stark realities and the prospect of losses beyond anything imaginable just 50 years ago. The oceans and seas have been transformed from friends of humanity to almost enemies by harmful human activities such as burning fossil fuels, transporting marine species from one habitat to another, overfishing, and unsustainable and dangerous waste disposal. The ocean food chain has been disrupted, fish populations are retreating, and sea levels are rising. The oceans are becoming harbingers of devastation, danger, and loss.

“Italy is hardly immune to these effects. Surrounded by the seas, Italy has already suffered loss and destruction from the angry response of the seas to the activities I have just listed. We are investing heavily in the future of our shores and islands through a series of efforts to fight pollution and erosion. We are establishing protected areas and sanctuaries. We are monitoring aggregations of invasive species to reduce their negative impact on marine ecosystems.

“One example. For a thousand years the city of Venice has enjoyed a productive and culturally rich life in symbiotic relationship with the sea. For Venice the

sea has been both shelter and provider of material and cultural wealth. Traditionally this relationship has been depicted in art as the “marriage” between the city and the sea. But now the sea has turned into a major threat to the survival of the city and its way of life.

“Ever since the 14th century we have taken measures to safeguard and maintain the relationship of the Venetian lagoon with the sea. In recent years we have had to take major steps to protect Venice from the collective impact of human activities on the health of the sea and the surrounding land. A massive program is underway to protect and rebuild the lagoon habitats, rehabilitate polluted sites and strengthen the barrier islands and jetties. Our purpose is to make Venice live forever, happily married to the sea ……

“Venice is one battle and we will fight it valiantly. This battle has already taught us a very important lesson: the odds are enormous when we address the health of the oceans and seas. Even before a local challenge, no single community, no single country or group of countries, can go it alone. The only way to halve or reverse the damage already done is by joining forces and working together. Building on existing principles and rules of international law, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the international community must double its efforts to protect the oceans and seas. We must develop appropriate forms of cooperation to increase sustainability in the use of their resources.

“Some industrial practices have had a

SEBASTIANO CARDI

“WE ARE INVESTING HEAVILY IN THE FUTURE OF ITALY’S SHORES AND ISLANDS THROUGH A SERIES OF EFFORTS TO FIGHT POLLUTION AND EROSION.” Ambassador Cardi devastating impact on the environment.

At the same time, we must remember that technology is also a powerful tool. Combined with a new global awareness of the fragility of the oceans and seas, technology can change the world for the better.

“We are now poised to formulate the new development architecture. Therefore, we need decisive global responses in the form of global commitments. And one of these commitments must be the preservation of the capacity of the oceans and seas to guarantee the well being of the planet and its inhabitants.

“I am confident that our discussion today will have a strong impact on how we perceive the vital role that the oceans and seas have on our way of life, and guide us toward a common vision and a common path. A deeper understanding can only inspire in us a greater desire to safeguard future generations from even a partial loss of the capacity of the oceans and seas to provide for the peoples of the planet and preserve our way of life.

“Thank you.” n

NOTABLE

Notable

JAN ELIASSON

Remarks by UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan ELIASSON

I

am pleased to have the opportunity to address you today. I commend the Governments of Italy and Palau for organizing this important event focusing on the critical issue of how to achieve healthy oceans and seas.

“As a young naval academy graduate, I learned much about the richness of, and respect for, oceans the seas. That deep bond has only grown over the years.

“There is hardly any aspect of our civilization, of our interconnected world and global economy, and of our life-supporting ecosystems, that is not in some way linked to oceans and seas.

“We depend on them for jobs in fisheries, shipping and shipbuilding, ports and tourism. They are crucial sources of food and nutrition, the primary regulator of the climate and an important sink for greenhouse gases. A very high percentage of global trade is seaborne.

“Yet despite our dependence on oceans and seas, we are not doing enough to conserve, protect and sustainably manage their resources.

“Human activity and climate change are hampering the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and their related ecosystems. Some of the negative factors are overexploitation, illegal, unreported and destructive fishing practices, criminal activity, marine pollution from litter and land based sources, as well as increased sea temperatures, sea level rise and ocean acidification just to name a few.

“At the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, Member States recognized that these problems must be confronted head on. They pledged to protect and restore the health, productivity and resilience of oceans and marine ecosystems, and to maintain their biodiversity. And they set forth forwardlooking, interconnected and integrated actions in some 20 areas. These commitments represent a remarkable consensus on the way forward.

“The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is of course a key touchstone for this work, along with other international legal instruments.

“The oceans are our common heritage and responsibility. We at the United Nations look forward to working with all stakeholders to achieve healthy oceans and sustainable development for all, recognizing that oceans and seas are critical to the development of many countries, not least small island developing States.

“The Secretary-General remains committed to supporting Member States in addressing ocean-related challenges and protecting marine biodiversity. Reaching our goals will require conservation, but also innovation, not least including through the power of technology. I look forward to the ideas that will be presented here today. I wish you a productive meeting. Thank you." n

“WE AT THE UNITED NATIONS LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH ALL STAKEHOLDERS TO ACHIEVE HEALTHY OCEANS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL, RECOGNISING THAT OCEANS AND SEAS ARE CRITICAL TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MANY COUNTRIES.” Deputy Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

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NOTABLE

19

Notable

Seen – and Understood – at the Frick

F

rancesco Mazzola (1503–1540), called Parmigianino after his birthplace Parma, was one of the most prolific and celebrated artists of the 16th century.

Known as “Raphael reborn,” he was renowned for his portraits. Today his exquisite portrait of an unknown woman called the Schiava Turca (Turkish Slave) is an icon of Parma. The painting has rarely been seen outside its home institution, the Galleria Nazionale di Parma.

Parmigianino painted the Schiava Turca in the early to mid-

1530s. For centuries the Schiava Turca has eluded interpretation and, to date, no proposed identity for Parmigianino’s mysterious woman has been convincing.

However, with this current rare display of the sumptuous painting, a new interpretation of its sitter and the painter’s intentions have also emerged. The show’s title, “The Poetry of Parmigianino’s Schiava Turca,” hints at the novel view of the painting: its link with words, poetry and most likely a very certain female poet of the artist’s time. n

20 STRAPLINE

CULTURAL Business

Literature

Cinema

Music

22 The Wakeup Call

26 The Zibaldone

34 Historicizing the Dream

38 Italian Composers Now

by Alberto ONETTI

by Tim PARKS

30 La Strega!

53 Mapping Contemporary Italian Literature

by Laura GIACALONE

by Barbara ALFANO

35 Now Playing: Politics

by William HOPE

by Federico CAPITONI

41 Defining Mike Cooper

by Laura GIACALONE

44 Italy’s Rockers

by Diego CARMIGNANI

STRAPLINE

21

RE-GENERATION Design 46 Designer Exports

by Domitilla DARDI

47 Designed in IT

by Silvana ANNICCHIARICO

Art

Science

Fashion

48 Nuova Wave

24 Inside a Neuroscientist’s Mind

54 New Faces in Italian Fashion

by Gianluca MARZIANI

by Ludovica ROSSI PURINI

by Barbara ZORZOLI

22 CULTURAL REGENERATION

THE WAKE UP CALL TO START UP Italy’s new business ventures may revive the national economy

by Alberto ONETTI

The subject of the “startup” is becoming headline news even in Italy.

We could say it’s about time, too, given that data confirms that startups are powerful job creation engines. (In the U.S. startups contribute to roughly 20% of job creation and represent approximately 3% of overall employment.) (1)They are therefore a kind of mechanism for industrial system renewal. Without them, the productive system antiquates and begins to suffer the effects.

This is exactly what has happened to our country. If we look at the Italian macroeconomic data (a virtually zero average growth of GDP since 2000), the image of a stagnant country that is no longer able to grow (“Zero Growth”) clearly emerges.

There are many reasons but the bottom line is that there is an industrial mechanism unable to renew itself. Indeed, as is clear from the illustration on the right (which summarizes the results of a study conducted by the University of Insubria, Varese research center, CrESIT, of which I am the director), it is the older ones that generate almost all of our gross domestic product, while the most innovative contribute less than 10%. At the same time, the weight of the base economy (the manufacturing sectors, the socalled “production economy”) declined progressively from 22% to 18% since the beginning of the millennium, in favor of the service economy. But, as noted by John Kay, you cannot just have “an economy of hairdressers.” The services are by definition ancillary to the productive economy. If that begins to fail, all else is destined to also fail, taking with them the wealth and competitiveness of a country.

How can this inexorably negative trend be stopped?

The only possible way is to undergo a complete reboot of innovation through the use of startups that, as mentioned, are the engines necessary to renew a productive environment. Therefore, we embrace the high success that is presently occurring with startups in Italy and welcome this extremely positive news.

The fact that many people, young and old, are venturing onto this scene is signaling a new fascination with startups, resulting in the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs in Italy – the same phenomenon that we saw in fact decline during the Sixties and Seventies when fewer companies were established.

This is perhaps the biggest and most positive change that we are witnessing in recent years in Italy. Doing business seems to be back in fashion, to be perceived as a positive challenge. Media has begun to gradually give it attention and even the po-

litical world has started to notice (we have a law that regulates innovative startups).

Young people in Italy are beginning to perceive the startup as a mode of entry into the working world. The Mind the Bridge Survey 2013 shows that 20% of Italian startups have been formed by people just entering the labor market precisely through the creation of a startup. For young people, building their own company is emerging as an alternative to seeking a job. This is a strong signal of discontinuity, at least in terms of culture, in a country where previous generations have been raised and educated with the myth of the “job.”

I am not able to say with definitive certainty whether the choice of entrepreneurship is deliberate or is a necessity imposed by the serious crisis we are presently experiencing. In fact, the same Mind the Bridge Survey 2013 shows that 50% of our startups are initiated by people who, in the face of difficulty/dissatisfaction with their current work situation, are reinventing themselves as “startuppers”. The question that arises in this regard is whether these startup companies are able to grow and create value or are intended to be temporary stopgaps for people who cannot find employment opportunities.

The risk is that this enthusiasm will transform itself into a bubble. Having a startup is notoriously difficult (“fucking hard”, to borrow an expression from Tara Hunt which is perhaps a little direct but effective), with low rates of success (in the words of a search for Shikhar Ghosh Harvard Business School, 75% of startups are doomed to fail). Cultivating enthusiasm is important, but avoiding the illusion of simplicity is even more important; by entering into such a state of widespread pessimism (“the apathetic generation”), in a couple of years we would find ourselves in a new situation of generalized despair (the “burnt-out generation”).

Our analysis suggests that only 30% of Italian startups have the basis and skills to succeed. Behind these companies are teams characterized by diverse backgrounds with the right mix of technical knowledge, managerial skills and an international mindset.

It is no coincidence that they were able to raise capital. It is with these startups and skills where we must work to write Italian success stories.

There is talent in Italy. It only needs patient cultivation (success doesn’t happen overnight), optimism (negativity only clips one’s wings) and sometimes healthy stubbornness (because success rewards perseverance). n

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Courtesy Noi Italia

Courtesy Mind the Bridge

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TOP: INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTION TO ITALIAN GDP RIGHT: PERCENTAGE OF SELFEMPLOYED BUSINESS IN ITALY BASED ON REGION.

DOING BUSINESS SEEMS TO BE BACK IN FASHION, TO BE PERCEIVED AS A POSITIVE CHALLENGE. MEDIA HAS BEGUN TO GRADUALLY GIVE IT ATTENTION AND EVEN THE POLITICAL WORLD HAS STARTED TO NOTICE.

Endnotes 1. Data refer to the US (Source: Haltiwanger, Jarmin, and Miranda (2010), “Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young”, NBER Working Paper 16300). A report recently published by OECD shows that small newly-created firms (not including the financial business) represent around 11% of the overall employment and account for more than 33% of the total job creation (OECD calculations are based on the OECD DYNEMP data collection, July 2013).

The Mind the Bridge Foundation is a non-profit corporation, based in Italy and United States, founded by Marco Marinucci in 2007 and chaired by Alberto Onetti. The goal of the Foundation is to foster a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem, spur more innovative ideas, and reinvigorate the new venture economy, providing entrepreneurship education, 360 degrees. Mind the Bridge provides startups, investors and managers with direct exposure to the most experienced, entrepreneurial ecosystem in the world, the Silicon Valley. The ultimate goal of Mind the Bridge is to help create in Europe a new generation of entrepreneurs and success stories. www.mindthebridge.org

24 CULTURAL REGENERATION

INSIDE A BRAIN SCIENTIST’S MIND An interview with Martin M. Monti

by Ludovica ROSSI PURINI

M

artin M. Monti (born May 24, 1978) is a professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the departments of Psychology and Neurosurgery. A Bocconi University graduate (2002) in Economics and Social Sciences, he specialized in the integration of cognitive psychology and game theory. In 2007 he obtained his PhD from Princeton University in Psychology and Neuroscience, working on the neural basis of reasoning. Between 2007 and 2010 he was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Medical Research Council Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK, working primarily on disorders of consciousness. His research on vegetative states was named one of the “100 most interesting news of 2010” by Discovery Magazine, and he was recently named “Rising Star” by the American Psychological Association.

When not busy studying the brain or talking about science, you are apt to find him sitting at the piano or the controls of a Cessna 172 in the skies of Baja California.

Your course of study up to graduation was carried out in Italy. From your biography not only does your Jewish identity emerge to a great sense, but also your internationality in both a personal and professional way, in large part due to your ancestry. What does it mean to you to be Italian, and how did your Italian education become part of your identity?

Martin MONTI: My Italian identity is embodied in the idea of the Renaissance man, meaning the perfect eclecticism of knowledge. Currently, my research takes place in two very diverse fields, namely

the relationship between language and thought on one hand and the definition of states of consciousness on the other. This versatility of interests is connected to the Italian educational system that, at least in the years in which I attended, guaranteed an open approach to knowledge and was essential in making every student capable of processing a choice based on a wealth of knowledge.

The system, and certainly the influence of the surrounding environment, put me in a position to identify the problematic aspects in acquired knowledge and to ask questions in a very general way.

Do you consider yourself one of those Italians who “escaped abroad” or was it rather that your education, which was also influenced by Italian culture, was something extra that allowed you to begin a journey elsewhere at this stage of your life, widening your horizons?

MM: Undoubtedly, in a system like the Italian one the transition from one research field to another, as I did from economics to neuroscience, is more difficult and complicated. However, I cannot define myself as a fugitive but rather a person who has had an opportunity abroad after having had other, albeit different, ones in my country of origin. Besides, my fascination for neuroscience was born in Italy while attending a course at Bocconi University, and in our country there are actually quite notable institutions such as Santa Lucia in Rome, Carlo Besta and San Raffaele in Milan.

In recent years, the reality is that we take for granted that Italy’s youth are

going abroad to improve their studies, and are beginning to understand the problems of them not returning. The data on youth employment are dramatic and the world of work seems an illusion, especially for high-level professions where we import low-skilled workers and export intelligence that do not return. Have you noticed this problematic aspect in your experience?

MM: I absolutely consider myself a very fortunate person because despite the strong competition that exists (as in all work situations) in the academic world, I have not yet had a problem in finding a place where I could conduct my research; which makes me feel that I could one day return to my home country. However, without any doubt whatsoever, Italy must make it easier for young researchers to become integrated into the system.

This may perhaps be considered the biggest difference with the American system in which I work. Here the norm is that the young researcher is treated from the outset as one who in the next decade will

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WHAT IS LACKING IN THIS FIELD, AND ON WHAT WE ARE CONCENTRATING OUR EFFORTS IN MY LAB, IS AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE NEURAL FINGERPRINT OF CONSCIOUSNESS IS. HOW IS THE FEELING OF BEING CONSCIOUS CREATED BY THE INTERACTION OF BILLIONS OF NEURONS?

bring “probably” the most knowledge and increased awareness in the research community: consequently the problem of competitiveness and obstructionism do not exist, and the relationships are a spirit of partnership and support.

For several years you have dealt with research in the field of residual consciousness in persistent vegetative state patients. In particular, as an expert in this field, you were also called upon to examine and test Ariel Sharon. There have been many scientific advances in recent years in this area -- what innovative developments do you think there will be in the near future?

MM: Over the past 5-10 years we have learned a lot (even though we still know very little!). Perhaps what we have truly learned so far is how little we knew of what it means to lose consciousness and, more importantly, how do you figure out whether an individual is or is not conscious. For example, we learned that the tools which we believed ca-

pable of discriminating conscious from unconscious patients may actually give erroneous results in many cases. What is lacking in this field, and on what we are concentrating our efforts in my lab, is an understanding of what the neural fingerprint of consciousness is. How is the feeling of being conscious created by the interaction of billions of neurons?

What mechanisms are broken when we lose consciousness following severe traumatic brain injury – what happened, for instance, with the F1 champion Michael Schumacher – and what chances exist of “reigniting” consciousness? These are the questions which we are trying to answer at the moment.

Another area where you conduct research is the relationship between mind and language. What form do your studies take and what might the practical application of new knowledge in this area be?

MM: “My research, in general, is in gaining understanding of some of the more

25

profound and characteristic aspects of our human nature; this specific field certainly embodies my interest in the relationship between language and thought.

Language is so deeply embedded in our minds, and is unique in the animal kingdom (but is not the “only one”!), which makes it natural to wonder if it actually has to do with all those activities that only humans can do – how to send ships to other planets, build devices to communicate via satellite, and much more.

I could then say that this aspect of my research is, at least for the moment, focused on understanding how the human mind works, and the more practical implications right now are those related to understanding what happens in the mental faculties of an individual who has lost the ability to express themselves verbally.

How must the laws of a country, in particular Italy, keep up with the advances in science and new discoveries?

MM: Science and the rules of society are not easily-reconcilable worlds. My job as a scientist is to increase knowledge and make it more accessible to those who cannot do my job. What I hope is to raise the level of openness to what knowledge is being generated by scientific research.

Moreover, that the community then decides, through modern democratic means, how this knowledge should be translated into social choice. Unfortunately, however, what is more and more often evident is a form of “inflexibility”, in a social point of view, that leads people to talk without really knowing or understanding, effectively eliminating the possibility to grow through dialogue; transforming any opportunity of growth into a battle to assert the superiority of one point of view over another. n

26 CULTURAL REGENERATION

The Zibaldone Translating Leopardi for contemporary readers

by Tim PARKS

L

eopardi was himself a practiced translator and in line with the Zibaldone’s constant attention to language, or rather languages, he includes the word ‘translation’ in his index and lists 27 entries that deal with the subject: one of the first immediately positions translation withi n the force field – one of the book’s dominant themes – that sets a detached, manipulative intellect in conflict with emotion and spontaneity: “There’s no doubt that what is most beautiful in the arts and in writing comes from nature and not from studying or affectation. But a translator is obliged to use affectation, I mean he has to struggle to express himself in someone else’s style and personality and to repeat what another person said after that person’s fashion and manner. So you can see how unlikely it is that fine literature is going to be well translated, since a good translation would inevitable be made up of properties that jar with each other and seem incompatible and contradictory. Likewise the mind, spirit, and capacities of the translator. This is especially true when one of the main qualities of the original consists in its not being affected, but natural and spontaneous, something the translator of his very nature cannot be.”

Certainly one of the first problems the translator faces in the Zibaldone is that the voice is uninhibited and spontaneous to the point of impatience, piling up clauses one on top of another in Leop-

ardi’s habitual sense of scandal at the distance between reality and received wisdom. Some sentences are monstrously long and bizarrely assembled, shifting from formal rhetorical structures to the most flexible use of apposition, juxtaposition, inference, and implication, the whole being liberally peppered with abbreviations, foreign terms, and etc. It is also an eccentric voice, if only because in the early nineteenth century ‘proper’ Italian was spoken and written by fewer than 5% of Italians, and of course Leopardi’s Italian had been overwhelmingly learned from books, mainly old books, largely foreign books, his range of personal acquaintance, at least in the early and most prolific years of the diary, being drastically limited to his family’s circle of friends in the fairly remote and backward town of Recanati. Most of all, though, this is a voice under strain, working at the limit of the writer’s youthful mental powers as he seeks to turn intuition and reflection into a history of the human psyche, often using his own shorthand terms and constantly latching onto any syntax that comes his way, old or new, to keep the argument moving forward. In general, reading this prose, it is almost impossible, even for the native speaker, let alone the English translator, to separate out what is the standard language of the time, what deliberately archaic, what idiosyncratic, and so on.

In addition to this personal, urgent spoken flavor – something absolutely essential for both our enjoyment and understanding of the author’s ideas – there is nevertheless the fact that the Zibaldone is also a scientific text, an immense work of anthropology, psychology and philosophy, in which accurate and consistent use of terminology is of the essence. Here

matters are made more problematic by the fact that over the years Leopardi himself alters the sense he gives to some key words as his understanding of his subject deepens; amor proprio, for example (selflove or self-regard) which at the beginning of the work is more or less synonymous with egoismo (egoism, selfishness, self-centeredness) is gradually but in the end emphatically distinguished from it, self-regard now being seen positively as an essential precondition of any kind of project or enthusiasm, while egoismo becomes the automatic, crass, unthinking and selfish protection of one’s own interests and safety, a quality more associated with fear and retreat than with hope and openness.

Meantime a word like “illusion” which at the beginning of the book might seem to have the meaning that we would normally attribute to it, of something incorrect and ingenuous, a false projection, an error to be put aside as soon as possible, soon takes on its more characteristic ‘Leopardian’ sense of ‘that sort of belief or enthusiasm or hope’ that allows us to act as if life had some meaning and purpose: hence love between man and woman is an ‘illusion’; likewise Christianity, religion, beliefs of all kinds, patriotism, and friendship. In general an illusion, for Leopardi, is something worth cultivating and sustaining, a spring for positive action, even if this means deliberately fooling oneself and being less lucid than one might be. Indeed to understand Leopardi’s use of the word ‘illusion’ and its changing validity in different periods of the human psyche’s development is to understand his sense of the pathos of the modern human condition, on the one hand bent on applying reason to destroy illusion, and on the other in desperate

CULTURAL REGENERATION

need of some principle to give it a sense of purpose; except that in a meaningless world any such principle could only be, as Leopardi sees it, an ‘illusion’.

Yet if, as translator, one should decide to be guided above all by the criterion of accuracy, by a search for the absolute, academic, scientific equivalent of all the terms used, as if the only thing that mattered were the semantics of the debate, Leopardi himself warns of the dangers. “... exactness [in translation] does not necessarily mean faithfulness, etc. and another language loses its character and dies in yours, if yours, in receiving it, loses its character, something that can happen even if none of your language’s grammatical rules have been broken.”

Hence style and voice, and likewise the play between individual voice and common language are both crucial to Leopardi.

“Perfect translation consists in this, that the translated author does not seem, for example, Greek in Italian or French in German, but the same in Italian or German as he is in Greek or French. This is what’s difficult and not possible in all languages ... In German it’s easy to translate in such a way that an author is Greek, Latin, Italian or French in German, but not so that he is the same in German as he was in his language.

He can never be that in the language of translation, if he stays Greek, French, etc. In which case the translation, however accurate, is not a translation, because the author is not like that, I mean doesn’t sound

S. FERRAZZI. GIACOMO LEOPARDI, 1820. OIL ON CANVAS. RECANATI, CASA LEOPARDI

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28 CULTURAL REGENERATION

COVER PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF PENSIERI DI VARIA FILOSOFIA E DI BELLA LETTERATURA” (VOL. VI), BY LEOPARDI. (SUCCESSORI LE MONNIER, FIRENZE 1900.)

for example to the Germans the way he does to the Greeks or French, and doesn’t produce in German readers more or less the same effect he produces in the French readers.”

So, the translator approaching the Zibaldone finds himself obliged to be semantically precise, otherwise the subtlety of the debate Leopardi is engaged in will be lost, but attentive too to the shifting meaning of the terms as the diary progresses; at the same time he is encouraged to reproduce, mimic, or ‘affect’ (to use Leopardi’s word), the vitality and excitement of the text, which is itself an enactment of the tension between intellect and emotion, a tension that forms such a large part of the book’s subject matter, and finally he must try to do all this in such a way that Leopardi’s voice has the same sound to an English ear as it does to an Italian.

This last injunction simply cannot be respected. Leopardi’s idiosyncratic use of language will always have a very special flavor to Italians, coming as it does just before the country’s unification and the systematic linguistic standardization that was gradually imposed in the second half of the 19th century. All Italian schoolchildren study a little Leopardi and for all of them that voice is absolutely individual and memorable, in part for the particular way it orders the words in the sentence and then again for its creation of a curiously intimate atmosphere of archaism, something achieved, curiously enough, without actually referring back, whether lexically or syntactically, to any previous use of the Italian language that ever was. A translator can hint at these idiosyncrasies and curiosities, but he or she simply cannot reproduce the full effect of this highly individual author on

“ONLY POETS INSPIRE IN ME A BURNING DESIRE TO TRANSLATE AND TAKE HOLD OF WHAT I READ” - Giacomo Leopardi his fellow native speakers.

At the practical level, paragraph by paragraph one is looking at questions like, Do I keep the page-long sentences as they are, or do I break them up? Do I make the book more immediately comprehensible for English readers than it is for present-day Italians (for whom footnotes giving a modern Italian paraphrase are sometimes necessary) ideally aligning the reading experience with that of the original text’s contemporary readers (though actually there were no contemporary readers since the Zibaldone was not published until long after Leopardi’s death)? Above all, do I allow all the writer’s Latinisms – most but not all entirely standard in Italian – to come through in the English, using words of Latin origin, something that would inevitably give the prose a more formal, austere feel, or do I go for Anglo-Saxon monosyllables and phrasal verbs to get across the work’s curiously excited intimacy?

All of these questions relating to approach and style, many of them typical of

any translation project, but some of them absolutely specific to Leopardi and the Zibaldone, were, in the case of this particular translation, unexpectedly complicated by the fact that just as I got down to work a team of seven translators and two specialist editors based in Birmingham, England, published the first unabridged and fully annotated English edition of the Zibaldone, a simply enormous task.

So now there was the further question of whether I should look at their version before starting mine, after finishing, or not at all.

Well, it only makes sense after finishing a difficult translation to check another version of the same text if there is one; there is no point in publishing something with straightforward semantic errors if these can be avoided by looking at someone else’s efforts. On the other hand there would equally be no point in my producing a translation that was merely an echo of theirs.

In the event I decided to look at the Translator’s Note in the new edition and a few parts of the translation that did not correspond to the extracts I was translating, just to get a sense of how they had dealt with the various issues of style. Immediately I realized that these translators had faced a greater dilemma than I did.

Seven translators and two editors would all have heard Leopardi’s voice and responded to his singular project, his particular brand of despair, in their own ways; but one can’t publish a text with seven (or nine) different voices. Strategies must have been agreed and a single editor must ultimately have gone through all 2,000-plus pages to even things out.

This no doubt meant establishing a standard voice that all the translators could write towards and making certain decisions across the board, particularly with

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29

ALL ITALIAN SCHOOLCHILDREN STUDY A LITTLE LEOPARDI AND FOR ALL OF THEM THAT VOICE IS ABSOLUTELY INDIVIDUAL AND MEMORABLE respect to key words, the overall register, lexical fields, and so on. In any event, after reading a few random paragraphs of the translation itself I felt reassured that my work would not merely be a duplication of theirs, if only because I heard the text quite differently than they did.

As I had expected, the Birmingham translation, if I can call it that, proved immensely useful to me, at the checking stage, after I had completed a first draft of my own version, in that it did indeed save me making a number of mistakes.

In this respect I had a considerable advantage over them since vice versa a consideration of my translation would have saved them some mistakes. A translation of this kind is immensely complex and no one is so accurate and perfect that he cannot gain from comparing notes with another person who has covered the territory. I am immensely grateful to have had the chance to see their work. My version is definitely the better for it.

However, what most struck me when finally I read the corresponding passages of the Birmingham translation – produced as I said by seven different translators – was the absolute uniqueness of each reading response, which is the inevitable result, I suppose, of the individual background each of us brings to a book, all the reading and writing and listening and talking we’ve done in the past, our particular interests, beliefs and obsessions. I hear Leopardi in an English that has a completely different tone and feel to the one my colleagues have collectively aimed at. I just hear a different man speaking to me—a different voice, in particular a voice that looks forward in its tone and insistence and sheer, raw energy to such writers as Gadda, Beckett, Bernhard, and Cioran, men who very largely shared Leopardi’s lively, corrosive

pessimism and profound sense of irony.

What is at stake of course is readability, and although one would never want to sacrifice subtlety of thought for ease of reading, it is also true that if a long text seems stylistically clumsy and incompetent, it begins to lose authority and credibility. Italians will always read Leopardi, however arduous, because he is a mainstay of their culture, a figure whose influence on the writers and poets of the twentieth century was simply enormous.

English speakers will read him if he seems worth reading, and not otherwise.

In any event, the more I worked over this translation, which turned out to be by far the most challenging I have ever tackled, the more I came to the conclusion that, beyond the duty of semantic accuracy (which always remains), all I had to do (all!) was to sit down, for a few hundred hours, and perform this Leopardi—in the way that seemed most right, most authentically close to the tone and the feel of it at the moment of my translating (since every translation would be somewhat different if we had done it a month before, or a month later, or even an hour); just to hear the text and experience it absolutely as intensely as I could, allowing myself, which fortunately was not difficult, to fall into Leopardi’s caustic way of thinking about things, then to express this in English, perform it in English, my English, not an affected, pastiched 19th century English, as he performed it, sitting at his desk, writing in Italian, his very peculiar and special Italian. The falseness of affectation, I decided, which Leopardi felt was inevitable in any translation, could at least to some extent be overcome by a more than willing affinity, an even perverse identification, with his project, my passion for his pessimistic Passions. In this regard it’s worth

noting that I undertook this translation – a rare privilege – not, as alas so often in the past, because I needed or even wanted the work, quite the contrary, I did not want the work, I already had far too much work, but out of a lasting admiration, sympathy, attraction, call it what you will, to Leopardi. I was glad, on signing the contract, to think that I would be sitting beside Leopardi for a few months.

And I firmly believe that this state of affairs changes the way we work. Leopardi himself, in a period of depression wrote that “only poets inspire in me a burning desire to translate and take hold of what I read”. The Zibaldone is not poetry, but Leopardi is certainly a writer who rouses that excitement in me to take hold of the text and put it before the reader with the intensity I feel when reading it.

Towards the end of this selection, Leopardi writes: “It’s sad indeed when a man reaches the moment when he feels he can no longer inspire anyone else. Man’s great desire, the great drive behind his actions, words, looks and bearing right up to old age is his desire to inspire, to communicate something to his spectators and audience.”

It’s seems clear that he felt he was arriving at that point. But his very ability to express the idea proved him wrong. The translator’s task throughout this work is to go on proving him wrong, to go on showing that Leopardi’s thought is still a source of inspiration and excitement. n

From “Translator’s Note”, Giacomo Leopardi, Passions, translated by Tim Parks, Yale University Press, 320 pages, $26.99, Publication Date: September 30th, 2014

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1

2

3

4

8

10 7

6 5 1. ITALIAN WRITER ALBERTO MORAVIA WITH GUIDO ALBERTI; 2. THE BILLBOARD OF THE 9TH STREGA PRIZE; 3. NEAPOLITAN DRAMATIST, DIRECTOR AND ACTOR EDUARDO DE FILIPPO; 4. THE NYMPHAEUM OF VILLA GIULIA, ROME; AWARD-WINNING WRITERS: 5. MELANIA G. MAZZUCCO (2003); 6.UGO RICCARELLI (2004); 7. MAURIZIO MAGGIANI (2005); 8. SANDRO VERONESI (2006); 9. ANTONIO PENNACCHI (2010); 10. NICCOLÒ AMMANITI (2007); 11. TIZIANO SCARPA (2009); 12. EDOARDO NESI (2011); 13. WALTER SITI (2013). 14. PAOLO GIORDANO (2008);

9

14

12 13 11

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31

La Strega!

The list of winners of Italy’s prestigious book award – from its inception to the present 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981

Ennio Flaiano, Tempo di uccidere (Longanesi) Vincenzo Cardarelli, Villa Tarantola (Meridiana) G. B. Angioletti, La memoria (Bompiani) Cesare Pavese, La bella estate (Einaudi) Corrado Alvaro, Quasi una vita (Bompiani) Alberto Moravia, I racconti (Bompiani) M. Bontempelli, L’amante fedele (Mondadori) Mario Soldati, Lettere da Capri (Garzanti) Giovanni Comisso, Un gatto attraversa la strada (Mondadori) Giorgio Bassani, Cinque storie ferraresi (Einaudi) Elsa Morante, L’isola di Arturo (Einaudi) Dino Buzzati, Sessanta racconti (Mondadori) Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Il Gattopardo (Feltrinelli) Carlo Cassola, La ragazza di Bube (Einaudi) Raffaele La Capria, Ferito a morte (Bompiani) Mario Tobino, Il clandestino (Mondadori) Natalia Ginzburg, Lessico famigliare (Einaudi) Giovanni Arpino, L’ombra delle colline (Mondadori) Paolo Volponi, La macchina mondiale (Garzanti) Michele Prisco, Una spirale di nebbia (Rizzoli) Anna Maria Ortese, Poveri e semplici (Vallecchi) Alberto Bevilacqua, L’occhio del gatto (Rizzoli) Lalla Romano, Le parole tra noi leggere (Einaudi) Guido Piovene, Le stelle fredde (Mondadori) Raffaello Brignetti, La spiaggia d’oro (Rizzoli) Giuseppe Dessì, Paese d’ombre (Mondadori) Manlio Cancogni, Allegri, gioventù (Rizzoli) Guglielmo Petroni, La morte del fiume (Mondadori) Tommaso Landolfi, A caso (Rizzoli) Fausta Cialente, Le quattro ragazze Wieselberger (Mondadori) Fulvio Tomizza, La miglior vita (Rizzoli) Ferdinando Camon, Un altare per la madre (Garzanti) Primo Levi, La chiave a stella (Einaudi) Vittorio Gorresio, La vita ingenua (Rizzoli) Umberto Eco, Il nome della rosa (Bompiani)

1982 Goffredo Parise, Sillabario n. 2 (Mondadori) 1983 Mario Pomilio, Il Natale del 1833 (Rusconi) 1984 Pietro Citati, Tolstoj (Longanesi) 1985 Carlo Sgorlon, L’armata dei fiumi perduti (Mondadori) 1986 Maria Bellonci, Rinascimento privato (Mondadori) 1987 Stanislao Nievo, Le isole del paradiso (Mondadori) 1988 Gesualdo Bufalino, Le menzogne della notte (Bompiani) 1989 Giuseppe Pontiggia, La grande sera (Mondadori) 1990 Sebastiano Vassalli, La Chimera (Einaudi) 1991 Paolo Volponi, La strada per Roma (Einaudi) 1992 Vincenzo Consolo, Nottetempo (casa per casa, Mondadori) 1993 Domenico Rea, Ninfa plebea, Mondadori) 1994 Giorgio Montefoschi, La casa del padre (Bompiani) 1995 M. Teresa Di Lascia, Passaggio in ombra (Feltrinelli) 1996 Alessandro Barbero, Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr Pyle, gentiluomo (Mondadori) 1997 Claudio Magris, Microcosmi (Garzanti) 1998 Enzo Siciliano, I bei momenti (Mondadori) 1999 Dacia Maraini, Buio (Rizzoli) 2000 Ernesto Ferrero, N. (Einaudi) 2001 Domenico Starnone, Via Gemito (Feltrinelli) 2002 Margaret Mazzantini, Non ti muovere (Mondadori) 2003 Melania G. Mazzucco, Vita (Rizzoli) 2004 Ugo Riccarelli, Il dolore perfetto (Mondadori) 2005 Maurizio Maggiani, Il viaggiatore notturno (Feltrinelli) 2006 Sandro Veronesi, Caos calmo (Bompiani) 2007 Niccolò Ammaniti, Come Dio comanda (Mondadori) 2008 Paolo Giordano, La solitudine dei numeri primi (Mondadori) 2009 Tiziano Scarpa, Stabat Mater (Einaudi) 2010 Antonio Pennacchi, Canale Mussolini (Mondadori) 2011 Edoardo Nesi, Storia della mia gente (Bompiani) 2012 Alessandro Piperno, Inseparabili. Il fuoco amico dei ricordi

(Mondadori) 2013 Walter Siti, Resistere non serve a niente (Rizzoli) 2014 Francesco Piccolo Il desiderio di essere come tutti (Einaudi)

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ORIGINAL LETTERS TO STREGA

FROM CESARE PAVESE (1950) FROM CARLO EMILIO GADDA (1966)

FROM ELSA MORANTE (1967) FROM DINO BUZZATI (1967)

FROM EUGENIO MONTALE (1969)

FROM ANDREA ZANZOTTO (1971) FROM GUIDO PIOVENE (1971)

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PENNED BY SOME GREATS

FROM PRIMO LEVI (1966)

FROM ENNIO FLAIANO (1966)

FROM IGNAZIO SILONE (1975)

FROM FEDERICO FELLINI (1974).

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34 CULTURAL REGENERATION

HISTORICIZING THE DREAM A documented eye on America

by Barbara ALFANO

T

he history of the Italian migration to the United States has received renewed and particular attention in some Italian artistic productions of the 2000s. A novel and two films in particular stage that history as their main character, and not merely as the backdrop of the story: Melania Mazzucco’s novel Vita (2003), Nanni Moretti’s documentary The Last Customer (2002), and Emanuele Crialese’s film Nuovomondo (2006). These three artistic productions are rooted in a narrative space where the stories of the individuals and history are inseparable, where the Italian tradition of narratives of the self recounts history with a clear intent, and in so doing reappropriates the phenomenon of migration to the United States.

“Migration represents a topic that Italian writers at large have considered marginal,” writes Stefania Lucamante (Lucamante, 2009, p. 294). For paradoxical as it may seem, the Italian writers’ lack of attention to the phenomenon of the great migration (ca.

1870–1921) is directly proportional to the large space that the American myth occupies in Italian literature, in its positive and negative representations, as well as in its problematization. These seemingly irreconcilable aspects are the two sides of the same coin – the Italian intellectual’s modus operandi. Martino Marazzi, in commenting about the failure of Italian intellectuals to pay attention to the migration experience, which he calls “the long standing unease of the Italian intellectual toward another Italy” (Voices 292), explains that this other Italy, so far from home, is not “easily defined using the tools of abstract ideology, an Italy, therefore, that is not easily compatible with the ritual apologias and curses uttered in relation to the New World” (Marazzi, 2004: 292). Echoing Marazzi, Lucamante writes, “[…] Italian writers and their literary products are firmly tied to their social and political context, often driven by an ethical and ideological pursuit in their endeavors” (Lucamante, 2009: 295). It helps to quote Giaime Pintor’s essay on Elio Vittorini’s anthology of American writers, Americana (1943), as an example of what Marazzi and Lucamante state: In our words dedicated to America much may be ingenuous and inexact, much may refer to arguments extraneous to the historical phenomenon of the United States as it stands today. But this does not matter because if the continent did not exist our words would not lose their significance. This America has no need of Columbus, it is discovered within ourselves; it is the land to which we turn with the same hope and faith of the first immigrants, of whoever has decided to defend at the price of pains and error the dignity of the human condition. (Pintor, 1945).

Pintor’s America is an ideological mirror. As he admits that “the historical phenomenon of the United States” may be extraneaous to his discourse, he reclaims America as an object of desire charged with political significance, for he was writing in 1943, at

the end of Fascism. The “hope and faith of the first immigrants” are thus removed from the historical, geopolitical context of the United States to become an analogy that illustrates and better explains the hope and faith of the Italians moving towards freedom.

The historical habit of Italian intellectuals to rely on abstract ideology, together with the conspicuous role that such abstract ideology played in the building of the nation soon after the Risorgimento, have made it difficult for those intellectuals to take into consideration that distant, “other Italy” (Lucamante, 2009: 295),2 until recent times.

In terms of narrative modes, the shift has happened at the level of the perspective, leaving untouched that solid Italian tradition of narratives of the self in search of identity, which means that there has been no abrupt movement from using images of America in order to talk about oneself to looking at history tout court.

The American dream remains central to all these narratives that involve matters of identity and America. What shifts is the attention to who is dreaming the dream – and in these latest literary and filmic productions, the dreamers are the Italian emigrants. n

Endnotes 1 This article is an extract from “Chapter Five” of: Barbara Alfano (2013), The Mirage of America in Contemporary Italian Literature and Film. © The University of Toronto Press, 2013. Toronto Buffalo London. Www. utppublishing.com. Printed in Canada. Reprinted with permission of the publisher. The text has been slightly modified for this venue.

2 Lucamante writes, “In an effort to build the young nation of Italy in the late nineteenth century and years thereafter, Italian intellectuals could not bring the displaced other Italy into their ideological paradigm – that Italy settling in the States and other foreign nations by the 1870s.

For some, those Italians who migrated were not even conational. It appears that the mere discussion of migration during that time would have greatly damaged the ideology and construction of a unified nation.” (Lucamante, 2009: 295).

Alfano, Barbara (2013), The Mirage of America in Contemporary Italian Literature and Film. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Lucamante, Stefania (2009), “The Privilege of Memory Goes to the Women: Melania Mazzucco and the Narrative of Italian Migration”. Modern Language Notes. Vol. 124 No 1 pp. 293–315.

Marazzi, Martino (2004), Voices of Italian America: A History of Early Italian American Literature, with a Critical Anthology. Trans. Ann Goldstein.

Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

Mazzucco, Melania (2003), Vita. Milan: Rizzoli.

Moretti, Nanni (2002), dir. The Last Customer, documentary. Sacher Film.

Pintor, Giaime (1945). “Americana”. Aretusa. Vol. 2 March pp. 5-14.

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TONI SERVILLO IN VIVA LA LIBERTÀ (2013) BY ROBERTO ANDÒ

35

ANGELO PISANI IN FUGA DAL CALL CENTER (2008) BY FEDERICO RIZZO

NOW PLAYING: POLITICS An overiew of contemporary Italian films starring the State

by William HOPE

T

he stimuli fuelling the creation of politicized cinema in Italy in the new millennium are arguably sporadic, and have difficulty in coalescing into a coherent force compared with periods of the 20th century in which cinema and politics converged with a greater sense of collective purpose. In periods such as the 1960s, the work of film-makers was influenced as much by the political ferment caused by decolonisation in areas of South America and Africa as by the battles for emancipation and collective rights within Italy itself.

Socio-political upheaval in remote areas of the world was perceived as profoundly relevant to domestic struggle within an advanced capitalist economic context, and from a cinematic perspective, it gave rise to films such as Gillo Pontecorvo’s La battaglia di Algeri (1966), while Ansano Giannarelli’s Sierra Maestra (1969) related the story of an Italian journalist arrested in Venezuela for supporting rebels, a scenario that reflected the position of certain European intellectuals who were uncertain, in Marina Piperno’s words, ‘whether to stay in Europe and focus on local politics or go out there and engage in guerilla warfare’ (Fantoni Minnella, 2004: 336).

Decades later, despite the Arab Spring uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East, revolts against worsening living conditions and against unaccountable, corrupt political elites, the populations of countries like Italy have struggled to feel any great affinity with this revolutionary moment. The underlying dynamic of the way Italian film-makers now derive meaning from events in remote areas of the world has also changed drastically.

Inspiration is no longer drawn from revolutionary activity abroad as in the 1960s, but rather from the way narratives can be used to unveil the extent of the subjugation of the inhabitants of distant regions – as in feature films such as Gianni Amelio’s La stella che non c’è (2006), in which an Italian engineer witnesses the disturbing side of Chinese industrialization; Francesca Archibugi’s Lezioni di volo (2007), which charts the immersion of two middle-class adolescents from Rome into the destitution of India’s metropolises, and in lesser-known documentaries such as Filippo Ticozzi’s Lettere dal Guatemala (2006), which sheds light on the fate of many Guatemalans under the dictatorship of Rios Montt.

But Italian directors have arguably been more incisive in their depictions of Italy’s domestic socio-political contexts, representing the increasing inequal-

ity of the struggle between Capital and Labour as a consequence of worsening working and living conditions across the peninsula. Capital has altered its appearance forms and modes of subjugation, as memorably depicted in a scene in Paolo Virzì’s Tutta la vita davanti (2008) where the telephonist Sonia (Micaela Ramazzotti) is dismissed and quickly escorted out of a call centre by an immaculately dressed, silent enforcer. Films such as Tutta la vita davanti and also Fuga dal call center (Federico Rizzo, 2008) also emphasize how management uses tactics such as formal dress codes, first name terms, and prestigious job titles in environments such as call centres as a means of concealing the precarious workforce’s subjugation and as a way of blurring distinctions between different class interests, a tactic assisted by many workforces themselves who have lost any semblance of class consciousness and solidarity.

Within Italian cinema as a whole, glimmers of personal ‘impegno’, or socio-political commitment, illuminate the more progressive sectors of the industry, but without being galvanized by an external political momentum of the kind that characterized the 1960s. The work of directors such as Daniele Vicari strikes an engaging balance between acute political dissections of events that

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SABRINA FERILLI AND MICAELA RAMAZZOTTI IN TUTTA LA VITA DAVANTI (2008) BY PAOLO VIRZÌ

have shaped Italian society and the way these experiences have been internalized within people’s micro histories – phenomena such as the mass redundancies at FIAT in the early 1980s (Non mi basta mai, 1999); State brutality in Genoa at the G8 summit in 2001 (Diaz – Non pulire questo sangue, 2012); and the mass migration of Albanians to Apulia in the early 1990s – (La nave dolce, 2012). A growing number of actors are also shaping their careers around discernibly political projects, while – in turn – shaping such projects themselves. Toni Servillo’s film career, for example, has moved beyond socially aware films exploring phenomena such as the implications of organized crime on individuals, e.g. Paolo Sorrentino’s Le conseguenze dell’amore (2004), and Claudio Cupellini’s Una vita tranquilla (2010), to more intricate roles that require Servillo to internalize and somehow articulate complex and often overwhelming political forces (Il divo, Paolo Sorrentino, 2008; Noi credevamo, Mario Martone, 2010; Bella addormentata, Marco Bellocchio, 2012; Viva la libertà, Roberto Andò, 2013).

To ensure the production of featurelength films with politicized themes that would have difficulty in reaching the public domain, or which would remain at the level of short films, other actors have taken directorial roles and used their profiles to galvanize what have clearly become heartfelt projects, for example Luigi Lo Cascio’s depiction of an ecologist’s confrontation with the establishment in La città ideale (2013) and Valeria Golino’s meditation on euthanasia in Miele (2013). Production and distribution companies such as Domenico Procacci’s Fandango have provided important outlets for challenging cinematic work by directors such as Daniele Vicari

and for artists such as Sabina Guzzanti (Le ragioni dell’aragosta, 2007) who have had other forms of media such as television closed to them as a result of political influence. Sacher Film has continued to perform a similar role for the anti-establishment critiques of Nanni Moretti, the company constituting a model of what can be achieved when politicized filmwriting, acting, direction, and production coalesce.

The main criterion fuelling the creation of many of the films mentioned in this article has been a perceived necessity – sometimes urgent – to generate a greater visibility for given questions that have often been obscured by a discernible political design. Many of these films are calculatedly counter-hegemonic, rooted in opposition to the prevailing societal emphasis on materialism, individualism and the depoliticization of past and present, and they reject escapism in favour of open confrontation. Ultimately it is only confrontation that will bring about change, and a cinema that is “able to modify the relationship between the spectator and reality” (Fantoni Minnella, 2004: 144) – a political cinema for the new millennium – has a vital role to play in this process.n

TAI LING AND SERGIO CASTELLITTO IN LA STELLA CHE NON C’È (2006) BY GIANNI AMELIO

TONI SERVILLO IN IL DIVO (2008) BY PAOLO SORRENTINO

ALBA ROHRWACHER IN BELLA ADDORMENTATA (2012) BY MARCO BELLOCCHIO

Quotations translated and taken from Maurizio Fantoni Minnella (2004) Non riconciliati: politica e società nel cinema italiano dal neorealismo a oggi, Torino: UTET libreria. This article is taken from the forthcoming volume Un nuovo cinema politico italiano?

Volume 2, edited by William Hope and published by Troubador Publishing.]

GIOVANNA MEZZOGIORNO IN LEZIONI DI VOLO (2007) BY FRANCESCA ARCHIBUGI

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LUIGI LO CASCIO IN LA CITTÀ IDEALE (2013)

BY LUIGI LO CASCIO

JASMINE TRINCA IN MIELE (2013) BY VALERIA GOLINO

TONI SERVILLO IN UNA VITA TRANQUILLA (2010) BY CLAUDIO CUPELLINI.

TONI SERVILLO IN LE CONSEGUENZE DELL’AMORE (2004) BY PAOLO SORRENTINO

LA NAVE DOLCE (2012) BY DANIELE VICARI

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38 CULTURAL REGENERATION

ITALIAN COMPOSERS NOW

by Federico CAPITONI

It is not easy to give an overview of contemporary music in Italy. Throughout academies and generations, the developmental timeline is extremely diverse. But there is one trait that is common to all composers, even the most daring and innovative: a constant connection to tradition. Every experiment, each new thing, takes its cue from the classical teachings of the wide-ranging European school – including avant-garde – from which no one wants to completely free themselves. Perhaps because it is impossible: even if you want to escape by “killing the root”, the assumption is that there is always a root to eliminate.

Obviously, there are more highly-valued Italian composers than those listed below, but this gallery offers an almost complete spectrum of styles, schools and age.

Francesco Antonioni (1971) Perfectly comfortable in the present age, Francesco Antonioni is a composer who uses all means, language and technology which he has at his disposal. A lover of short forms, which are also very modern, he always tries to say everything in the most concise form possible, whether in compositions or orchestral performances.

The use of multimedia and the inclusion of a symbolic performer in the compositions was an original idea. This is the case of Benché ’l parlar sia indarno, for orchestra and conductor, of the Chatopera for musicians, DJs and performers, or Musica al telefono for wind quintet and narratives.

Giorgio Battistelli (1953) Battistelli is one of the Italian composers by which new generations set their standards. Gifted with a wonderful imagination that works overtime to find original rhythmic solutions, he has a strong propensity for the theater. He has recently transformed some Italian neorealism cinematic masterpieces to the theater, such as Miracolo a Milano and Divorzio all’italiana.

His best known work is certainly Experimentum Mundi (1981), a symphony for construction tools (chisels, planes, mallets, etc.) with which Battistelli explores the possibilities of rhythm through the “concrete” sounds.

ANTONIONI

He is also a music organizer and artistic director. Among these events is his own festival Play-It, now in its third year, which takes place in Florence and involves four days of concerts by contemporary Italian authors, some of whom are often premiering.

Carlo Boccadoro (1963) This composer from Marche is among those who, more than others, demonstrates the current direction of contemporary music.

An eclectic musician, Boccadoro’s combinations of various styles in his compositions has gained him a wide audience. His artistic history can be divided into two phases: the first is the neo-tonal, contrary to avant-garde, and the second is his current one, in a sense renewing his search for less conventional means. He studied in Milan, where he majored in piano and percussion instruments and became a prolific composer. He is also the author of several books and director of a major ensemble, “Sentieri Selvaggi”, which, thanks to a solid schedule of concerts has helped the spread of contemporary music, especially those of America and new compositions by young Italians.

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BATTISTELLI

BOCCADORO

CAMPOGRANDE

CARRARA

COLASANTI

39

FEDELE

Nicola Campogrande (1969)

Silvia Colasanti (1975)

With thirty recordings and hundreds of scores already to his name, Nicola Campogrande is one of Italy’s most promising composers. Also known internationally, he has been commissioned more and more by theaters of great importance. This success comes despite not being part of the established classic music scene. Campogrande is among those who have made the choice of total compositional freedom, liberating himself from an obligation to be stylistically reminiscent of the great masters. He has remained true to the common concept: a composer must write the music he likes. Campogrande writes for orchestra and quartet, has written orchestral collaborations with “pop” musicians, and composed soundtracks for art and film exhibitions. He is also a radio host and director of the magazine Sistema Musica, a journal of musical events in the city of Torino.

Born and trained in Rome, Silvia Colasanti is the most-performed Italian composer. She has won numerous awards and last year was invested with the title of Chevalier by the President of the Italian Republic. She has studied under such teachers and masters as Azio Corghi, Pascal Dusapin and Wolfgang Rihm. Her writing, clear and technically impeccable, is expressed mainly through string instruments which often bring to mind the sounds of Ligeti and Penderecki (a classic example is her Sentieri di sangue for string orchestra). Top interpreters are racing to play her pieces: Capriccio a due is a violin duet written on commission of Salvatore Accardo. Her theatrical production portfolio is rich, and include award-winning works appreciated by critics and audiences such as La metamorfosi (by Kafka) and the productions for children, Il sole, di chi è? and Le avventure di Tom Sawyer.

Cristian Carrara (1977)

Ivan Fedele (1953)

Carrara is among the most unique composers on the contemporary scene because he has chosen a very personal path: that of “sacred music” and consonance. His music has nothing experimental about it, does not search for acoustics and harmonies, but rather flows from an intent to communicate. In fact it is not only widely-liked and appealing to all audiences, but performed by many musicians. Its distinctive quality is that it is sacred music, but without the words, so that the spiritual dimension is therefore expressed only through the structure of its sounds. Carrara uses this approach whether it is for an orchestra (some representative pieces are on the album Liber mundi) or piano; whether for the theater or pop songs. His name is also linked to the song by Antonella Ruggiero, Canzone tra le guerre, a contestant at the Festival of Sanremo.

Trained at the School of Azio Corghi and Franco Donatoni, Ivan Fedele has created a very personal repertoire; however deliberately recognizable as having roots in a concept of the great masters of avant-garde: the awareness in music. Each of his compositions always has an underlying artistic concept that is more than just entertainment: it is as if he would merge every acoustic measure into one dimension of comprehension of the wider world of sound.

His musical portfolio is very diverse in its nature and instrumentation. His Boréales and Australes for piano are very fascinating, where Fedele explores the timbre of the instrument through various means such as resonances. The echoes and spatial arrangement of the music play a large part in his productions, inspired by a philosophical concept of phenomena that plays into orchestral scores like those for solo instrument. Among his most important works are: Ali di cantor, Antigone, Duo en résonance. He is currently director of the Venice Music Biennale.

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GUASTELLA

MORRICONE

SCIARRINO

STROPPA

Virginia Guastella (1979)

Salvatore Sciarrino (1947)

A young composer from Palermo and winner of several awards as a writer and performer, Virginia Guastella has mastered the most varied compositional styles. She engages easily and smoothly in symphonic, vocal or electronic music (which she also teaches at the conservatory), and at the same time writes jingles for television. An accomplished pianist, she has also brought about, together with drummer Claudio Trotta, the project “Duo improbabile”, with whom she produces concerts that give a wink to both progressive and jazz rock. In 2008, with Pax virginis (cantata for baritone and orchestra), she won the composition competition “Strumenti di Pace” in Rovereto.

Among the deans of our music, he is the most famous Italian composer abroad. Self-taught, over the years he has formed a very personal style that has been largely influential. In particular, his innovations are in the usage of the voice, in the 20th century known as one of the most difficult stages in which to try. After Schoenberg’s Sprechgesang, his idea of singing as “breathing” was the last great development in vocal music. In a more generally sense, Sciarrino calls his music “liminal”, in other words on the threshold of something else, for the most part silence: the long pauses, the abyss of the “pianissimo” only skims the dimension of the silence, never touching it fully, in a game of perception that stimulates the listener.

His portfolio of compositions is wide-ranging over almost all genres: symphonic music, chamber, the theater. Some of his most fundamental works are Aspern, Luci mie traditrici, Da gelo a gelo, Lohengrin. Many of the lyrics that Sciarrino puts to music are drawn from Japanese poetry, and much of the instrumental music is a personal and unusual reworking of the great writers of the past, especially Mozart, Gesualdo and de Machaut.

Ennio Morricone (1928) The most world famous living Italian composer’s name is linked to the cinema, but this is only the most evident aspect of his art.

Morricone is also the author of what he calls “absolute music”, namely for concert, not written to accompany images. Graduating with Goffredo Petrassi, the Roman composer has written for various instruments and for orchestra, according to a very academic style in which, however, you can always see his penchant for melody. His choral music compositions are particularly appreciated and include unique experiments such as Echi (for choir and violincello ad libitum). Morricone, who has a long and rich career, is also among the members of Nuova Consonanza, an association for contemporary music begun in 1959.

Morricone’s contribution to Italian pop music is also notable, having created some of the most important arrangements of many hit songs of the 60s.

Marco Stroppa (1959) He is one of the most important influential composers for electronic music. He studied in Venice with Alvise Vidolin, and then at the IRCAM in Paris, after having also studied computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. For Stroppa, electronics is not a trivial means for making music, but a way of thinking and conceiving, as the use of electronics comes together to create the music at the structural level. The concept at the basis of his pursuits is the projection of sound in space and, in this sense his most representative works are Traiettoria (for piano and electronics) and Spirali (for string quartet and electronics).n

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41

DEFINING MIKE COOPER An interview with the musical artist who calls Rome his home

by Laura GIACALONE

F

or the past 45 years Mike Cooper has been an international musical explorer, film and video maker, installation artist and visual artist pushing the boundaries of his work. Initially a folk-blues guitarist, he is as responsible as anyone else – and more so than many – for ushering in the blues boom in the U.K. in the late ‘60s. He plays lap steel guitar / electronics and sings.

With his roots lying in acoustic country blues he has, arguably, stretched the possibilities of the guitar even more than his better known contemporaries Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne, etc. by pursuing it into the more avantgarde musical areas, also occupied by contemporary guitar innovators such as Elliott Sharp, Keith Rowe, Fred Frith and Marc Ribot, with an eclectic mix of the many styles he has practiced over the years. Ranging freely through his own idiosyncratic original songs, traditional country blues, folk, free improvisation, pop songs, exotica, electronic music, electro-acoustic music, and ‘sonic gestural’ playing utilising open tunings and extended guitar techniques. He also composes and performs live music for silent films, as well as for his own films and videos, which are often screened in his live performances. His full length video Hotel Hibiscus City is on You Tube in 14 parts. His list of recorded works run into the hundreds.

An improviser, composer, video maker and graphic artist, you’ve been defined as “the icon of post-everything music”, a definition that seems to fit well with the fragmentation, hybridization of genres and linguistic multiplicity of contemporary culture. How does this find expression in your music and art?

MIKE COOPER: “We seem to live in a time where people are expected to be ‘specialists’ but some of us seem to have decided early on in our career that this was some kind of a lifestyle and creative trap. Over Christmas and New Year 2013/14 I spent a few weeks in Sri Lanka, a mixed Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic and Christian culture. Admittedly they have just had a civil war which was religious but at the moment they are getting along with each other. When I returned to Italy I looked up the history of Buddhism and to my surprise I discovered that Buddhism spread as far as northern Greece and North Africa. There are Buddhist graves just outside Alexandria. We are constantly being asked to consider and respect borders; national, cultural and artistic. All fabrications of our modern society. In the past people moved freely, both geographically and culturally and those that moved spoke many languages.

‘Hybridization of genres and linguistic

multiplicity of contemporary culture’ has been going on for a long time around the world and I personally try to dispose with ‘borders’ in my work – hence I liked the description, by Lawrence English, of my work as ‘post-everything’.”

You have been a part of the international experimental musical scene for over 40 years. What brought you to leave your home country, England, at a certain point of your life and career, and move to Rome?

MC: “I left England at the end of 1988 and moved to Rome for love and politics... bread and roses maybe? I came to Rome because the person that I have spent the past 26 years of my life with was already living here, and when we met I was ready to leave England again (I had lived in Australia, France, Germany and Spain before) because it had become unbearable under Margaret Thatcher, so that meeting made me very happy in more than one way.”

Since you are both an outsider and insider of the Roman cultural life, having played with many Italian musicians and artists, I would like to hear your impressions about the contemporary musical scene in Italy, Rome in particular.

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MC: “I actually only really know about cultural life in Rome. Italy, for all its unification, is still fragmented into different cities and cultural scenes. We in Rome, most of the time have no idea what is going on for instance in Torino or Bologna.

This also extends down the ladder into different scenes and social groups within Rome itself. I am a member of a big band that dedicates itself to playing improvised music. At the last meeting it was around 26-28 musicians. A few weeks ago while I was working putting up my installation ‘A White Shadow In The South Seas’ at Teatro In Scatola near the Ponte Testaccio, someone came into the gallery and said ‘Luca Miti is recording with a big band of invited musicians across the road in a centro-sociale’. Luca is one of Rome’s contemporary music composers.

First of all we had no idea there was a ‘centro-sociale’ in that area and when we went across the road we were confronted with a room filled with musicians, most of them unknown to us. Not only that but also the audience, which was quite a few, were mostly strangers to us. We had never seen any of them at one of the many concerts our big band has played in Rome. Also recently I went to another improvised music night organized

by Franco Ferguson, who organizes evenings of what he calls ‘Improring’ music, with again a collective of musicians, at the Fanfulla in the Pigneto district of Rome. Again, I knew hardly any of those taking part and again I knew hardly anyone in the audience.

A few years ago there was a healthy, underground, alternative, music scene and we had some festivals of more avant guard music that were subsidized by the ‘commune’ (local council) but slowly the funding has been cut from us and chan-

nelled into the more ‘establishment’ venues such as the Auditorium concert halls etc. We are at zero funding level now and so the scene is relying on mostly local musicians or artists or Italian musicians who organise their own tours and happen to be passing by here. There is no money to bring international artists to the venues where ‘creative’ activity takes place.

page.”

Places such as the Auditorium with its vast concert halls are not going to present anything that doesn’t fill the place and the audience for any creative contemporary music is small. Rome is a small city, barely 4 million, compared with London, New York and Paris for instance and the percentage of a cities population as potential audience is probably less than one percent.

In most venues the going rate of pay for an evenings music is around 150/200 euro for a solo artist or a group. Hardly a living wage and in fact hardly any of my close circle of musician friends here are professional musicians. They all have other means of earning a living such as teaching. This in turn is beginning to effect the music I am beginning to see/ hear being played; these financial restrictions and artistic isolation that this can bring about. Even though the Internet gives people access to the musical world at large the live experience of music is still the one that affects people the most, I have no doubt about that, both from a listening perspective and a playing and creative inspiration point of view.

There is another scene here in Rome, of which I am not a part or member and it is connected with academics, contemporary composition and electro-acoustic music. But I can’t comment on it as I am not a part of it apart from to say that for me the words ‘academic and creative artist’ don’t sit well together on the same

MC: “I have not seen the Sorrentino film and part of the reason I have not is exactly the reason you mention. The golden age of post war Italian film makers has passed and I am not that interested in contemporary Italian film. Maybe I will go and see this film as so many people have spoken about it. I gave up going to see Italian film makers making folkloric representations of Italy and Italian society always full of all the usual cliches. I have read various reviews of this film and an interview with the director who said: ‘The film is called The Great Beauty, and I wanted to compare and contrast the beauty of the city itself with people who don’t realize that this beauty is all around them.’ Wouldn’t that be its dead beauty though? I have heard various interpretations of this film. The Hollywood Reporter thinks that it portrayed a ‘...vision of moral chaos and disorder, spiritual and emotional emptiness.’ So I really need to see it.

Often when I have been in far away countries and you get into a taxi for instance and the driver asks you where you are from and you say you live in Italy they almost always immediately reply ‘Ah – Italia, football and mafia eh!’

There was a conversation recently in one of the British newspapers about the MAXXI (Rome’s latest contemporary art gallery) and how it was having trouble coping. There were a lot of comments underneath saying things like well Rome

As the Oscar-winning film by Paolo Sorrentino, “La grande bellezza”, has superbly portrayed, in these days Italy does not seem to be able to keep up with its past artistic and cultural greatness. Is it also true in the musical field?

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doesn’t really need to care or worry about contemporary art as it has all this historical stuff which is what the tourists expect and come to see, but then further down Romans began to comment saying things like ‘Hey, but we live here. We see that stuff everyday and we need to see some new stuff.’ The MAXXI ran out of money before it was even opened which has turned it into a curators nightmare I would think and I dont think ‘sound art’, for instance, has penetrated the consciousness of any of the curators they have had there at all yet.

Sound art in Rome has been presented in the past but usually funded by the cultural foundations from other countries based here in Rome and in their venues. The Goethe Institute, British Council, Swiss Institute etc. but funding has been or is being withdrawn slowly from them I hear.”

Compared to the British or other international contexts, how is the life of a musician in Italy? What are the challenges and opportunities of producing music in this country?

MC: “I would like to start the answer to this question with a quote from one of my favorite film makers who is from Thailand: ‘It’s like we are underground, in a cemetery... the sky is the earth... We are hibernating, sleeping all the time and we don’t know it. We are dreaming that there is plenty of oxygen.’ (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) I think the problems of being a creative musician here in Italy are not that different here in Italy than perhaps the rest of the world right now apart from what I spoke about earlier the isolation from inspiration in the form of being exposed to new and exciting stuff.”

Who are the most interesting Italian artists you have played with or would recommend to a foreign music enthusiast eager to know what happens in the local musical panorama?

MC: “I am really only familiar with the music of my close circle of friends here in Italy and a few people in other cities.

As I already mentioned we have a big band here in Rome which was started as an open orchestra to explore what is known as ‘conduction’ – a way of generating improvised music in a controlled environment by using sets of signals such as hand gestures or written cards which don’t tell you what or how to play but are more like suggestions for the musicians to consider using. It is usually credited to the late Butch Morris as being its inventor. The saxophonist/compo ser John Zorn has explored its use a lot as well.

Our orchestra has grown to about 26/28 members right now. It is open to anyone who wants to join and it seems to be a self regulating system and no one has been asked to leave yet (ha ha!!).

Elio Martusciello is a member. He is an Electro-Acoustic composer and a teacher of Electronic music who also makes video. He is also a ‘conduction’ (conducted improvisation) artist who travels internationally. He usually plays prepared table top guitar in the orchestra.

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He is also a member of a trio called Ossatura, a free improvising trio in which he plays computer. It also features Fabrizio Spera on drums and percussion and Luca Venitucci who plays keyboards and accordion. Luca is another musical wanderer in terms of genre. An extreme talent on any keyboard instrument he also likes to vocalize and sing. As a group they tend toward exploring the quiet minimal zone of improvised music.

Fabrizio also plays with me and a double bass player Roberto Bellatalla in our group Truth In The Abstract Blues, which as the name suggests has something to do with blues music. We tend more towards the abstract version of it though. ‘One foot in the blues, one foot in the abstract’ as Jimmy Giuffre put it.

Roberto lived in England for 20 years or more and played with many of the expat South African jazz community that were living there.

Further afield there is Paolo Angeli a Sardinian musician. Paolo plays a version of Sardinian guitar which he has modified and he plays with a bow, like a cello.

He travels and plays internationally and in fact lives part of his time in Barcelona. In Sicily there is Domenico Sciajno a computer and video composer. These people are all pretty exciting.”n

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2 4

5

Afterhours 1

ITALY’S ROCKERS

3

Ten masters of the land’s most un-native musical genre

by Diego CARMIGNANI

T

he Land of Song with San Remo as its patron saint, Italy is not really a house of rock. Rock as an attitude, absolutely: demolish the rules, sweat on stage, shoot straight for the gut and on to the heart, happily join in “sex and drugs”. Its rock scene has always been like an underground beehive teeming with activity, an underground phenomenon, but has emerged into the light of day. This last stage of a decades-long musical journey has gone through highs and lows, excellence and shooting-stars. If today we can speak of rock revival, it has not arisen from a state of deep coma. Our quality music more or less has its center in influential (socially and politically) songwriters like De André and De Gregori – both a popular blessing and a curse for a healthy development of rock – but international acclaim comes from other fronts, such as the celebrated progressive ‘70s rock of bands like PFM or Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. The crucial year was 1997, when the “post-everything” album Tabula rasa elettrificata of CSI conquered the top of the Italian charts: a synthesis of anxiety and energy, the diary of a trip from a decadent West to Mongolia, recorded by a band that used to be called CCCP. A triple somersault for the country of “Volare”: the time had come, and slowly but surely, steadily these successful exceptions became the norm and began to rule. Below are ten suggestions for your listening pleasure, between the usual suspects and wonderful newcomers, selected from a gluttonous mass of Made in Italy products worthy of export: I invite you to sail your ship into the rocky waves and navigate your way to pleasure island.

Proud captains of the national rock team, born in 1986 and centered around the charisma and talent of Manuel Agnelli, Afterhours have had a distinctive international scope since their first album in English, later proven by their fraternal collaboration with Greg Dulli of the Twilight Singers, whose musical style is very similar to theirs. With meaning and purpose throughout their phases, Afterhours have raced three generations of fans through almost abrasive dark lyrics, gentle ballads and hymns. We bestow on them the title of trailblazers who have paved the way for the national revival of rock: from the live collective experience of “Tora! Tora!” in 1990 to their most recent compilation / tour “Il Paese è reale.” [Photo 4.]

Marlene Kuntz Creators of the cornerstones of typical 1990s rock, Marlene Kuntz first and foremost represent the translation of what was coming out of the States at the time (Sonic Youth and the Pixies) in the local alternative rock scene, but are also the guardians of the redhot coals of their countrymen CCCP / CSI, whose bassist Gianni Maroccolo later became part of the Piedmont band. Reinvented in a less corrosive (and significant) form in the 2000s, Marlene survive as the most daring performers of the end-of-the-century fever pitch, probably the last truly significant musical era throughout the world. [Photo 3.]

Calibro 35 A handful of super-prepared musicians, armed with a plethora of varied and valuable experience, revamped the soundtracks of the “Italian detective film” sub-genre, which today we call “Tarantinoesque”. It is here that Calibro 35 began, debuting in 2008: since then, they have ascended on multiple levels, landing on a now-solid identity, honing technique, inspirations and influences, while always keeping in mind the lessons of the sub-genre pioneers Morricone and friends. Today, among music being exported is Calibro, with publications and exhibitions in Japan and the U.S., a sign of how certain soundtracks can be a valuable and lasting accompaniment to our lives. [Photo 8.]

Elio e le StorieTese (EELST) Irony is a serious matter and EELST exist to prove it. For more than twenty years they have ridden the crest of the wave and become known to the general public thanks to their many appearances on TV. The band from Milan is a music machine without peer, capable of combining humorous lyrics / gag (we are talking

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9

6

8

10

7

about the crests of the genre, not about jokes) to a musical eclecticism that has no univocal origin: Frank Zappa, Earth, Wind & Fire, opera, disco, metal and their Italian predecessors Skiantos.

Their live shows are always multi-dimensional, where the concert ends up as stand-up comedy while the spectators’ chants mingle with convulsive laughter. [Photo 10.]

Subsonica Active since 1996, the hybrid rock + electronic band called Subsonica gathers together the best of the creative hotbed of Torino, in many ways the modern capital of alternative music. The reason for the overwhelming success of the band is the perfect synthesis created by its leader Max Casacci: a mix of urban subculture and imaginative dance, melody and experimentation, underground political social centers and mainstream large arenas. More than a classic band, Subsonica are indeed a multi-tentacled creature, charged with pulsing electrical shockwaves, always open to collaborations and fed by five (very different) talents, its tentacles entering and exiting from the parent to go hunting for other projects. A single intermittent but always positive current. [Photo 6.]

Baustelle Along the journey between refined songwriters and epic orchestral power slashes, the evolution of Baustelle has had the good luck of brushing along diverse borders but has never been in short supply of the dandy style that marks the singers of outright decadence: a narration dominated by the irritability and bad-tempers of young love, flows among alcoholic nostalgia, murder ballads and fetishes as capable of sweeping one away to stylish Parisian bistros as to a polluted beach in the province. Each disc rises and falls, as bipolar as the two voices of the group, Rachel Bastreghi and Francesco Bianconi, a combination of male and female voices that resembles and brings to mind Serge Gainsbourg. [Photo 5.]

Teatro degli Orrori The din of guitars and fiery passionate words as an antidote to awaken consciences. The resounding success of this band, having gone out with a delayed bang about ten years ago, personifies the verve of its front-man Pierpaolo Capovilla: the vocal stylings of Carmelo Bene, rebellious spirit of Pier Paolo Pasolini and the restlessness of the 2000s. Gloomy, by definition, Teatro degli Orrori represent the cultured face of our rock, navigating between typically Italian criticalities and literary references of all genres, draw-

ing on and paying homage to the likes of Huxley, Mayakovsky or Ken Saro-Wiwa. At the center of their lyrics is our contemporary culture offered in all its unpalatable rawness and handed down to posterity. [Photo 7.]

Zen Circus From an irreverence bordering on embarrassing come Tuscany’s Zen Circus. With a rebel yell originating from the depths of the underground political / youth social centers, they have reached the highly-creative ranks of their influential punk-rock predecessors such as Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes, partner on the album “Villa Inferno.” After their first works in the English language, their viscerally indie-punk attitude joined to Italian, to produce ruthlessly cruel and sneering messages aimed at a nation mired in vice and devastating shame. An urgent mission best accomplished through the auspices of rock. [Photo 9.]

Bud Spencer Blues Explosion In the footsteps of the White Stripes and taking their name from the genius of Jon Spencer (not to mention good old Bud), drummer Cesare Petulicchio and guitarist Adriano Viterbini are a duo riding astride through traditional blues and dynamic punk, unique in renouncing the sacredness of the lyric to beautifully tranfer the sounds of the Italian language to totally alien landscapes. A furious cover (“Hey Boy, Hey Girl” by The Chemical Brothers) set the duo in motion, since then becoming more closeknit, and highly sought-after, at their best in live performances, full of sharp dialogues and highly sophisticated improvisations.

Two horses intended for a much larger stage. [Photo 1.]

...A Toys Orchestra Colorful talents from the rock of southern Italy (precisely, from Campania), the band led by Enzo Moretto has just a couple of songs in Italian, while the rest of their repertoire is a continuous pursuit, in the British language, of multiple references, with a taste of pop-rock that makes them highly amenable, but never prisoners of the rules. In time, their Beatleseque sound gave them a master key to access a range of sound that goes from psychedelic electronics to more experimental songwriting, with a production rarely seen, omnivorous and like that of the contemporaneous Arcade Fire. It is not a coincidence that the individual members of the Toys are courted left and right as session musicians. [Photo 2.] n

46 CULTURAL REGENERATION

DESIGN DESTINATIONS Curator of Rome’s MAXXI Museum describes a recent Italian phenomenon and the exhibition it inspired

by Domitilla DARDI

ABOVE: FRANCESCA LANZAVECCHIA. LONG LIKE A VOYAGE. SKIRT DESIGN. LEFT: GIOVANNI INNELLA AND TAL DRORI, CAMBIAVALUTE. FORMAFANTASMA STUDIO. ASMARA. BLANKET DESIGN.

I

f every discipline has its maps and migratory flows, for design it has been ultimately necessary to rewrite a real and actual geography. Until 15 years ago, for example, Italy was for the most part a big attractor for artists from all over the world, flocking to the fold to produce the legendary label Made in Italy. Recently, a previously uncommon phenomenon has been added to this history: the export of their talents. In fact, today many young Italian designers straddle national borders in search of a distinctive design. Those designers, who wish to deal with not only industrial production but with an experimental vision, found in Italy perhaps the same low attention level being given at the level of training as at their entry to the profession. This is the reason why they migrate towards great international schools, where they meet peers from areas traditionally accustomed to this phenomenon of emigration, often due to lack of design-oriented industries.

This lack of production is what created, in countries such as Holland, Belgium, England and Switzerland, schools of excellence that have, as a consequence, invested in a design that goes beyond the industry, on a path that could simply be defined as more art-oriented. In these schools some of the most fertile minds of contemporary design are growing, the artists often finding favor with the critics and specialized press as early as their public debut through their Master’s thesis. They are usually directed towards the major cultural institutions, collectors and galleries in an industry that lacks foresight. On the other side their interests lie in experience and design in a world that is not a copy of an existing formula, but rather the vision of what is to come, the as-yet-unknown. If this project does not then work in the industry, it is probably more due to this, to its now con-

genital myopia, the difficulty to take risks in the context of a crippling crisis that calls for reassurance from the market, therefore favoring repetition rather than innovation. All this then goes well with the re-discovery and self-production of handicrafts or small production / issues. These are ways of production that allow the designer control over the end result, without compromising if not the effort then the commitment. Many of these young designers become like wise researchers, half-scientist and half-artist, little alchemists of the third millenium. They journey in the discovery of obsolete processing techniques, old materials to be reinvented with contemporary ideas. Sometimes their research, thankfully, brings them back to their homeland, to an Italy so rich with past knowledge and raw materials, where invention has always been the goldmine.

In “Design Destinations” – an exhibition hosted at the MAXXI in Rome from May 26 to October 5, 2014 – we tried to tell some of these stories. Seven Italian designers, who have moved to complete their training in Eindhoven, one of the newest birthplaces of research, have been commissioned to design an object that would show their path of growth. The idea was to show how the choice of destination (such as the Netherlands) is already a design for a professional destiny, a decision that can affect future employment and, at the same time, a way to explain the direction of design research. Very different projects emerged from them, responding from imaginations already highly-developed and full of personality. These objects are “symbolic”, able to narrate an experience which in this case is also a small autobiography. All are united by a sense of attachment not so much to their homeland or to the country that hosted them, but to the need to feel at home in the land of design and creative thinking. Wherever it is. n

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Designed in IT. The Triennale focuses on new Italian design while redefining its scope

by Silvana ANNICCHIARICO

E

very now and then one finds oneself, sometimes inadvertently, on the traces of what is new, putting on a pair of old, worn glasses and adopting points of view that may well be tried and tested, but that are not always able to grasp the transformations under way. In 2007 Triennale Design Museum presented The New Italian Design, an exhibition that has the primary aim of avoiding this error – in other words, it intends not to fall into the trap of necessarily compressing the new into the already known.

Trying not to lock up the present in the theoretical and conceptual paradigms that have made it possible to read and interpret the past.

That in many ways pioneering exhibition arose out of an evident methodological rift. One that was debatable, possibly, but conscious and explicit: the conviction that in order to form a picture of the

VIEW FROM THE NEW ITALIAN DESIGN EXHIBITION AT CENTRO CULTURAL LA MONEDA, SANTIAGO CHILE.COURTESY TRIENNALE DESIGN MUSEUM

new scenarios and new practices of Italian design, it was better not to rely first and foremost on the intuitions, decisions and suggestions of some demi-god curator, but rather to start out from collective consultation in order to create a detailed map of the complex, ever-changing world it was facing.

processes put into effect by the generations that came after his own – examined all the nominations and completed them with the information he already had at his disposal. This was followed by the selection of the designers – both individuals and groups – who were then invited to take part in the exhibition.

As though building a social network, advisors, companies and institutions were all involved and applications were requested. The invaluable work of nominations that had been carried out in previous years was taken up again and given systematic form, taking from trade magazines and from the SaloneSatellite in a constant, consistent way.

Masters of design, researchers and scholars were all questioned and dialogue was entered into with schools, universities and training centres. In the end, the selection committee chaired by Andrea Branzi – a Master who, not coincidentally, was interested in investigating the

The map did not just concern furniture design but examined a far more ample area, in order to pinpoint all the new forms – from food to communication – that design had been entering into in recent years. There were not just traditional product designers but also those who worked on the web, graphics, fashion and textiles, as well as copywriters, jewellery designers, multimedia designers and those who create play environments and who work with digital images, through to those who work with style and narrative.

In other words, all-round designers: not just architect-designers but also art directors, consultants, and service and

48 CULTURAL REGENERATION

communication organisers, up to those who carry out research and experiments.

In a country that continues to be basically gerontocratic and that does little to promote generational replacement and the so called “young”, we felt there was a pressing need to give voice, space and visibility to young Italian creativity, refuting the cliché that design ended with the close of the twentieth century. The first result of this work was the creation of a database, which is now available not just for the institutional activities of the Triennale Design Museum but also for companies, institutions and, more in general, for the whole design system.

This map was of course still partial and incomplete, and inevitably patchy.

But precisely because this was clear to us, we took it upon ourselves to implement this database and to improve it constantly over time.

The New Italian Design arose out of this ongoing work to implement and complete it, and it has led to a map being drawn up of young Italian creativity through to the present day.

After travelling to Madrid (2007), Istanbul (2010), Beijing and Nantou (2012), Bilbao, San Francisco and Santiago Chile (2013), The New Italian Design presents a selection of 282 projects by 133 designers. The selection covers a very multifaceted panorama, ranging from furniture design to communication design, through to food, the web, jewellery and graphics, in a broad, organic vision – as we were saying – of the creative processes of design. The objects on show range from mass-produced objects to small self-productions, often close to

handicraft work. But the contrast between self-production and mass production is not key to this exhibition. Rather, self-production, experimentation and research actually give energy and life to industry, which itself encourages experimentation.

Contemporary design is to be found in a decidedly different model from the one that dominated in the age of the “Masters”. In those days, design culture aimed to create finished, functional products, whereas today – in what has in a certain sense become a “mass profession” – design generates processes more than products, and appears primarily as a form of self-representation of the designer’s ability to imagine, create and innovate.

Today’s new designers are neither the heirs nor the pupils of the various Munaris, Magistrettis and Castiglionis. They are something else. Insisting on thinking of them as “little” masters means expecting to be able to continue forcing them parasitically into twentieth-century paradigms that no longer hold true. It means doing an injustice to them and to their diversity and originality, as well as to the design system as a whole. Finding one’s way around the new, ever-changing world of Italian design, which is made of team effort and horizontal movements more than individual, vertical actions, requires no nostalgia for a golden age that has had its time.

What is needed is a new ability to explore and take risks, and possibly even lose one’s way, only to find it again. The New Italian Design exhibition by Triennale Design Museum is an attempt to move in this direction. n

THIS PAGE: VIEWS FROM THE NEW ITALIAN DESIGN EXHIBITION AT CENTRO CULTURAL LA MONEDA, SANTIAGO CHILE. COURTESY TRIENNALE DESIGN MUSEUM

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ANTONIO COS. BARCHETTA, 2002.

COLLECTION.

GUMDESIGN. THE TEETOTALER, THE MODERATE, THE EXCESSIVE, 2009.

GIANNI SEGUSO.

FRANCESCA LANZAVECCHIA. OUR CHAIR, 2009. SELF-PRODUCTION, WITH HUNN WAI.

FORMAFANTASMA. MOLDING TRADITION, 2010. SELFPRODUCTION

BRIAN SIRONI. ELICA, 2009.

MARTINELLI LUCE

DOTDOTDOT. CULTURA ELEVA, 2008.

PLUSDESIGN GALLERY

MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI MALERBA. PIANTAMA, 2010. SELFPRODUCTION

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50 CONTEMPORARY ART

NUOVA WAVE A selection of contemporary artists out of Italy to note

by Gianluca MARZIANI

P

resent times have gifted us with some wonderful visual surprises. Gone are the days when the aesthetic quality seemed cumbersome, with the light of center stage brightly shining on the process behind the work – on the painting that intensifies and develops the representation, the expressive styles that transcend the uncertainties of postmodernism. Great artists search for the specific style that sets them apart from all others, an autonomy which frees them from pre-existing forms of art and any set-in-stone formula. Today it means to take from the past without overdoing it, so that the final shape is a juxtaposition of its origins and not just a reminder of the similarities to its inspirations. The work accumulates and synthesizes, wiping away those memories in a sense that is classical but arises from a contemporary mix. After all, you are following the anthropological evolution of the web, the new social soul, living consciousness that affects actions and determines our position in the world. Here the most interesting artists reflect the process of the digital language, developing ideas with a thought method similar to that of computers. Hence the revival of a hybrid painting that is unclassifiable, neat and tidy in appearance but in reality unsettling, dramatic, as unstable as the society in which we live. A hyper-realistic approach to painting, with excessive expressionism or obsessive perfectionism. In reality, a black and white method with no grey areas to connect genres and archetypes fills a passionate and powerful framework, alive in its transformation, “bad” to the right extent.

STEFANO ABBIATI (Milan, 1979) scours the photographic universe of the web, the magazines and blogs, paper and digital archives, seeking that certain something held in the semantic ambiguity of the image, that touch of infectious insanity pulsing beneath the surface of “normality”. The digitalized photographs are the starting point, the root of the artist’s painting process.

The finished image seems immersed in a cloudy mist, floating under water, in a type of geological stratification that transports the image away from pure realism. The work brings the essence of life into sharp focus before it all then dissolves, to the point where the work resembles a foggy trip down memory lane. A cerebral painting, like a mind that processes, records, overlaps, fixes, alters, removes...

SILVIA ARGIOLAS (Cagliari, 1977) invents scenarios combining the fairy tatle with the horror style of Maurice Sendak, populated by anthropomorphic creatures, struggling with the rawest essence of primordial life. A playful appearance hides links with archaic rituals, Pagan cultures, regional traditions along the dramatic thread that connects life and death. To do so, the artist paints in a spirited and expressive manner, bulimic in the rhythm of color, but without losing control of the essence, the details, the moods. You feel an emotional tension that accompanies every story, every character, every action, confirming the symbolic attitude that balances the emotions within the work. The artist’s relationship with the Sardinian culture is hinted at, filtered like a coded message through her gazes, confirming in a technological world how valuable one’s roots still are.

STEFANO ABBIATI. I RACCHI, 2013. MIXED MEDIA ON BOARD AND PLEXIGLASS. 87 X 115 X 9 CM. COURTESY ROMBERG.

OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP: SILVIA ARGIOLAS. IL BENE E IL MALE DENTRO LO STESSO UOMO, 2013. 31.49 X 39.37 INCHES. PRIVATE COLLECTION, ITALY.

CONTEMPORARY ART

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MAURO MAUGLIANI (Tivoli, 1967) uses a technical perfectionism, capturing the soul of his protagonists with a frontal framing technique. His portraits are hyper-realistic representations of a particular human nature, achieved through methodical processes that amaze and catch you off-guard. The paradox is all within the portrayed subjects, clearly “photographic” yet anomalies, extremes, stripped naked to a brush that personifies the baring of the soul. Herein lies the value of hyperrealism as an emotional instrument, a forceful moral activator that challenges us to look in detail at diversity, old age, the flesh, the repressed beauty. But above all, Maugliani mixes “beautiful” and “ugly” without making any distinction, without stamps of judgment, without an established hierarchy. An image literally representing an open heart.

FRANCESCO IRNEM (Rome, 1981) creates his paintings with meticulous attention to the process behind the work. He starts with an idea that man is bound to mass media, architecture, to contemporary landscape. This idea becomes portraits in which some fragments are missing, as if stripping away a layer of paint to reveal the hidden beauty underneath; hence the rationale of blurring some parts of buildings, to highlight the complexity of the vision and the value of conceptual architecture; hence the pieces of newspapers cut and pasted together to conjure up new images, faces and words. Irnem does everything in the style of Gerhard Richter, where perfectionism touches and surpasses its digital appearance, leaving the work to linger in its power of pictorial appeal and creativity, its timeless quality.

ALESSANDRO PASSARO (Mesa (BR), 1974) has a beautiful synthesis with pictorial materials. His is a dirty, but controlled, brush, where the dense and high color builds the scenes and their emotional poignancy. There are figures, alone or with others, put in slightly unorthodox positions but clearly recognizable. The depth of perception focuses on the context in which we find the subject, as if the internal and external become comingled beyond realism. You see a person seated and understand that the chair on a floor of water is not normal. See strange contortions of the body, anomalous objects, cameras, fairytale characters, bits of blue sky ... the sum of the elements breaks the symbolic linearity and organizes a world, the result of an artist who designs the bare bones of a cerebral journey with explosive results.

TOP: ALESSANDRO PASSARO. ASPETTATIVE SUL VUOTO, 2013. OIL ON CANVAS. 100 X 120.

LEFT, MIDDLE: FRANCESCO IRNEM. CONVERTIBLE 3#, 2014. OIL ON CANVAS, FRAME. 27.56 X 22.05 INCHES. PRIVATE COLLECTION. MAURO MAUGLIANI. EGO TE ABSOLVO, 2013.

BIC/INK ON CANVAS. 188 X 114 INCHES. PALAZZO COLLICOLA ARTI VISIVE, SPOLETO. COURTESY ROMBERG GALLERY.

52 CONTEMPORARY ART

LEFT FROM TOP: NICOLA PUCCI. INTERIOR WITH DIVERS, 2013. OIL ON CANVAS. 63X74 INCHES. ANDIPA GALLERY LONDON. GIULIANO SALE. UNTITLED, 2014. OIL ON CANVAS. 15.75 X 19.69 INCHES. ALESSANDRO SCARABELLO. UPPERCRUST, 2012 (INSTALLATION VIEW). ACRYLIC AND OIL ON CANVAS. 73.62 X 60.62 INCHES. COURTESY THE GALLERY APART, ROME.

NICOLA PUCCI (Palermo, 1966) takes from drawings or photographs, using them as foundations which give a painting body (the form), soul (the emotional key, more and more relevant in recent times) and brain (the conceptual signs resulting from aesthetic process). The artist creates plausible yet absurd scenes, containing people committing ritual actions in closed rooms. Imagine a man seated and a screaming monkey that are doing something unusual and touching. Or four divers around a tiny pool inside a room. Two scenes that explain Pucci’s flair for the absurdity in the realism, a moment before the scene becomes surreal. A look across the dynamics of the soul, on the symbolic displacement, on the value of the photographic here and now. A painting that re-designs portraits and their aesthetic codes.

GIULIANO SALE (Cagliari, 1977) silently assails you, capturing your emotions through the purity of an archaic painting, ageless in its empathic essence. The concepts are taken from Carrà’s evocative landscapes, from symbolism which has maintained the historic framework of the twentieth century. From here Sale’s landscapes are reborn, his world nocturnal and enlightening, where the air pulses with desolation and failed expectations. People and places intersect in his painted stories, through mysterious glances and calm sea coves, small houses and deserted countrysides, solitary trees and threatening skies. The silence is overpowering, but is a deafening silence, fallible, destined to be imminently shattered. We decide what that will be, leaving the questioning spirit of the canvas to the fates. Giving the painting back the moral compass of its conscience.

ALESSANDRO SCARABELLO (Rome, 1979) creates scenes in a theatrical style, as if they were Baconian scenes in which the soul expresses anxiety, the turbulence behind the focused postures, the scarce props, the realistic but expressive colors. His work defies a thematic order and cannot be pigeonholed; yet it all seems understandable: we see some figures in centerstage, posing for a portrait in a nearly empty room. Anyone would think this a typically posed portrait, in effect the scene reminds us of an aristocratic full-length stance; but nothing is as it seems, focus on the faces and you will understand that it shows the dark side of power, the hidden obedience, quiet fierceness, the related violence. A truly fierce painting. n

LITERATURE

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MAPPING ITALIAN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

by Laura GIACALONE

T

racing a map of contemporary culture is always a difficult task, especially when it comes to literature, where visibility, high sales and international recognition are not always a synonym for quality. Most of the time, in fact, interesting or avant-garde cultural phenomena occur under the surface of the publishing market, far from the spotlight of literary prizes. Bestseller lists and literary awards should therefore not be taken as an exhaustive guide to contemporary literature. Many talented authors often come from small publishing houses, which hardly have access to institutional forms of recognition. It is not infrequent, however, that promising writers launched by small or medium publishers are later picked up by major publishing houses and become literary successes. This has been the case for such brilliant authors as Andrea Bajani, Nicola Lagioia, Giorgio Vasta and many others.

Any attempt to draw a map of Italian contemporary literature is made even more difficult by the recent development of new media, which offer aspiring writers the possibility to get their manuscripts off their desks and into the marketplace, thus breaking the bottleneck of traditional distribution. The vast, largely unexplored world of self-publishing is, however, not always a breeding ground for talent, but can rather be a multiplier of mediocrity and amateurism.

In this context, literary prizes can be a helpful, although by no means conclusive, criterion for mapping some relevant trends in the fragmented, ever-changing Italian literary scene. In Italy there are currently about 1,800 literary prizes. One of the most prestigious is Premio Strega, annually awarded to the best work of

fiction by an Italian author. Among its winners are some of the greatest masters of Italian literature, such as Ennio Flaiano (1947), Cesare Pavese (1950), Alberto Moravia (1952), Giorgio Bassani (1956), Elsa Morante (1957), Dino Buzzati (1958), Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1959), Natalia Ginzburg (1963), Primo Levi (1979), Umberto Eco (1981), and many others. Begun in 1947 within the literary circle hosted in Rome by intellectuals Maria and Goffredo Bellonci, the prize established itself as a vehicle for cultural reconstruction in the postwar and post-Fascist Italian society, with the support of Guido Alberti, owner of the company that produces the famous Strega liqueur. Over the years, it has remained an essential reference point for those who wish to get an insight into the Italian literary scene.

However, if we look at the award-winning writers of the last decades, can we really say that the new generation of literary talents has been able to keep up with the great masters of the past? In his interesting book The Barbarians – An Essay on the Mutation of Culture, famous Italian writer Alessandro Baricco claims that, for the gatekeepers of traditional culture, the rise of young ambitious outsiders is experienced as a sort of barbarian invasion. Whether we are talking about wine, soccer, classical music or books, the new protagonists of contemporary culture seem to have no sense of history, value spectacle over specialization, quantity over quality, and have steered the world towards a mutation that appears as threatening as a “loss of soul”.

This alleged eclipse of highbrow culture is, in Baricco’s view, strictly related to a different way of undergoing experiences brought about by the all-contemporary phenomenon of connectivity, which

the author evocatively describes as “breathing with Google gills”. This has inevitably changed the panorama of contemporary literature as well as the very concept of “book”. If we look at best-seller lists, we actually find an impressive number of books coming from, or heading to, “somewhere else”: “books that have had films based on them, novels written by television personalities, stories set down on paper by people famous for one thing or another”.

Rather than longing for a paradise lost, we should focus – suggests Baricco – on the revolutionary extent of this phenomenon. While Barbarians favor “books whose instructions are given in places other than books”, literature’s self-referentiality is suddenly broken: “The book, in and of itself, is not a value. The value is the sequence.”

Going beyond any self-righteous evaluation of what is good or bad, and interpreting cultural change as a complex, multi-layered combination of social, technological and linguistic factors, Baricco writes a compelling manifesto of our contemporary culture, which brilliantly pushes forward the boundaries of the old “apocalyptic vs. integrated” intellectual opposition (Umberto Eco, 1964).

There where Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino, with his remarkable The Great Beauty (2013), takes a breathtaking picture of today’s Italian decadent landscape, Alessandro Baricco finds the foundation for a powerful hymn to contemporary cultural apocalypse. Readers are therefore invited to start a spectacular descent into the new barbarism, a journey that will never cease to frighten as much as amaze us.n

54 FASHION

NEW FACES IN

MASSIMO GIORGETTI

ANDREA INCONTRI

SARA BATTAGLIA

by Barbara ZORZOLI

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reativity, innovation, fantasy, style: these are the keywords to success for the emerging designers. The fashion industry has always celebrated talented fashion designers because they explore new ideas. There’s a new wave of Italian fashion designers, young and talented, who have an incredible ability to get on with people and stay tuned in to all areas of popular culture and creativity in order to bring a fresh perspective to their brands, like Francesca Liberatore. Francesca studied at the legendary Central Saint Martins in London, followed by stints with Jean Paul Gaultier and Viktor & Rolf. Then Liberatore started teaching in fashion schools as well as launching her own line. In 2009, she won the Next Generation competition from the Camera Nazionale Moda Italiana.

Massimo Giorgetti started modeling at 17 so he learned sewing techniques and settled into fashion design by age 24. After launching MSGM in 2008, none other than Vogue Italia chose Massimo as a finalist for its “Who’s on Next” competition in 2010; Pitti Uomo also invited him to show MSGM at the most recent Pitti Italics.

Growing up in the countryside of Milan, Andrea Incontri was awed by visits with his mother to “The City” where she would pick up clothes and textiles at high-end retailer La Rinascente. Considering his grandparents also owned a tailoring shop in Italy’s fashion capital during the 1950s, a career in fashion seems like a natural step. With a background in accessories, Incontri launched his line in 2009. Since those early days, he’s branched out to menswear, and recently he added womenswear.

Sara Battaglia grew up putting on fashion shows with her sister, sewing the clothes themselves to present to their family on Barbies. After she grew bored with design school,

FASHION 55

Italian Fashion

ANDREA POMPILIO

MAURO GASPARI

she apprenticed with a few accessories brands before launching her own.

Menswear designer Andrea Pompilio knew he wanted to be a fashion designer at eight years old, but Pompilio only just launched his line two years ago catching the attention of Giorgio Armani. Pompilio presented his first women’s capsule collection this past January, which he hopes to soon turn into a full women’s line.

Born in Brescia, Mauro Gasperi knew he wanted to become a fashion designer after graduating from an artistic high school. He took his talents to Florence’s Polimoda, Italy’s prestigious design school, before scoring jobs with companies like D&G. In 2008, he launched his own line alongside a flagship boutique in his hometown. A year later, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana selected Gasperi to take part in its own version of the Fashion Incubator – which he won. n

FRANCESCA LIBERATORE

56 PHOTOGRAPHY

LIGHT ON

Val D’Orcia

photography by Mauro BENEDETTI

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In the romanticized hills of Tuscany emerges a land whose remarkable patrons maintain as a live painting. Since the Renaissance, the perfect configurations of trees, pathways and multi-colored slopes of Val D’Orcia have mesmerized artists and onlookers for the wondrous curation of that which is inherently incorrigible – the landscape.

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60 SOCIAL JOURNAL

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Social Journal Boca Raton Museum of Art Patron’s Reception

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Social Journal Queen For A Day Off-Broadway Reading

St Stephen’s Cultural Center Foundation Art Opening

TedX Roma 2014

66 FACE FILE

face file

ABEL FERRARA

by Rose MINUTAGLIO

O

ften violent and buzzing with sexual energy, the films of Abel Ferrara reflect the bad boy style their author exudes: rogue, provoca-

tive, yet alluring.

Perhaps it is this exact combination that makes him the ideal auteur for Pasolini, the biopic about the legendary and controversial film director from Rome, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Shooting for the film began on January 28th, 2014, with Willem Dafoe in the title role.

Since the age of 16, Ferrara has dedicated his life to making movies. With over a dozen cult classics under his belt, the director has made a definitive cinematic mark on the world. From vengeful, blood spurting flicks like The Driller Killer (1979) and Ms. 45 (1981) to intense psychological thrillers such as Bad Lieutenant (1992) and King of New York (1990), Ferrara’s film repertoire is fascinating, disturbing and anything but sane.

A native New Yorker, Ferrara has both Italian and Irish blood, and was raised Catholic (a complex spiritual stamp that would affect much of his work). He attended the film conservatory at State University of New York at Purchase, where he quickly showed a predilection for exploring the ambiguity of life. Characters in a Ferrara film are hard to label. Good and evil are never easily identified—everything is intricate. Much like life. For Ferrara, there are no easy answers.

“Me, personally, I don’t need to push myself. I don’t need to sharpen my own knife and slit my throat. I’m trying to chill it and find an equilibrium and a balance to my work. The pain and suffering—it’s all there. It’s there in the world, so it’s in the world of the movie. Even if you’re a poet sitting in your room writing a poem, you’re still in the world,” said Ferrara in Interview magazine.

Many critics agree he has a unique ability to project raw emotion onto the screen, and so some film buffs will be anxious to see how that transfers to Pasolini. Considered one of the most important Italian intellectual minds of the 20th century, Pasolini shocked audiences with scenes of intense violence and unorthodox depictions of sexuality. His films were highly controversial at the time of their release, an intriguing parallel to Ferrara that has not gone unnoticed by fans. Some of Pasolini’s noted works include Accattone (1961), Salò, or the

“THE PAIN AND SUFFERING– IT’S ALL THERE. IT’S THERE IN THE WORLD, SO IT’S IN THE WORLD OF THE MOVIE. EVEN IF YOU’RE A POET WRITING A POEM, YOU’RE STILL IN THE WORLD.” 120 Days of Sodom (1975) and Theorem (1968).

“Pasolini was not just a great film director, he was a philosopher, a poet, a journalist who wrote editorials, a communist but a Catholic who opposed birth control, a radical, a freethinker on every level,” said Ferrara of his subject.

Pasolini’s aura moved to another level when he was murdered at the age of 53, just weeks before the premiere of Salò.

His killer repeatedly ran him over with his own car — and Ferrara’s biopic will explore this violent, mysterious end.

“There are not a lot of people about whom you could say that their death changed the course of history, but Pasolini was one,” he said. Ferrara’s penchant for unearthing the mystery – the provocative questioning inherent in his works – keeps his fans and audiences in suspense. n

STRAPLINE

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68 STRAPLINE