Italian Fellows Retrospective

Project location: Italy, Rome
Project start date: October 2010 - Project end date: March 2011
Project number: 2010-60
Beneficiary: AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME

Final Report: American Academy in Rome show ACCADEMIA STANZE PERSONE

The Nando Peretti Foundation grant was awarded to create an event entitled ACCADEMIA STANZE PERSONE which provided a retrospective of work by fifteen artists (architects, composers, designers, poets and visual artists) who had been Italian Affiliated Fellows at the American Academy in Rome between 2006-11. Three Italian artists each year are selected for residencies at the AAR of 3-4 months. The Italian Affiliated Fellowships are funded by the annual McKim Medal Gala; the Elsa Peretti Afffiliated Fellowship in Design for 2011-13 is funded by the Nando Peretti Foundation.

Visual artists, architects and designers whose work was displayed included Manfredi Beninati, Carola Bonfili, Flavio Favelli, Giovanna Latis, Luca Nostri, Paola Pivi, Marco Raparelli, Gianmaria Sforza, SISSI, Nico Vascellari, and Luca Vitone. Composer-Fellow Emanuele Casale's work 7 (2005) was performed by the MDI Ensemble at the opening event; composer-Fellow Filippo Perocco's works Sonetti fragili (2009), Sul tasto: intavolatura per fisarmonica (2006, rev. 2010) and Little Cards for the AAR (2010) were performed by Ensemble L'Arsenale. Poet-Fellows Massimo Gezzi (L'attimo dopo/The Instant After, 2009) and Guido Mazzoni (I Mondi/The Worlds, 2010) also read from their work in Italian at the opening event, with new English translations read by Damiano Abeni and Moira Egan.

The show was curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, Director of Rome's MACRO Museum, and AAR Programs Associate Lexi Eberspacher. The concept of the show was to open the American Academy in Rome, and some of the spaces in which its artists live and create, to the Roman public. Accordingly, the show took place in the two Art Gallery rooms at the AAR (paintings by Beninati; Pivi's I wish I am fish; Vascellari's Gnawing my own teeth behind a closed door, SISSI's installation Self-portrait with Mirror, Vitone's interventions to old engravings, Nostri's photographs) as well as in other public spaces of the McKim, Mead & White building: the Founders' Atrium (a lighting installation by Latis), Salone (work by Latis and Favelli), Billiards Room (a new pool-table cover by Favelli), Bar (portraits by Raparelli), Dining Room (Bonfili's window transparencies) and Cryptoporticus. The show opened with a performance and reception on January 21, 2011 and ran until March 3, 2011, with the Art Gallery open for visits by the public from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Approximately 400 people attended the opening of the show (a smaller group of invited guests joined the AAR community for dinner after the opening), and approximately 100 visitors saw the show during its run.

An extensive press campaign resulted in listings for the show in various Italian media outlets (including Exibart, Il Giornale dell'Arte, Il Messaggero, Trova Roma and the news agency Italian Network) and a short article in Flash Art.


think global, act local
you are here: Home  > Projects:  Cultural/Artistic or Europe  (or Both)  > 2010-60  > Final Report