The Senate and Congress, the majority anyway, seem to understand the seriousness of climate change. So then why are they content with a bill that seemingly won’t be adequate to fight climate change enough to make a difference — if at all?  This is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, expressing his frustration at lack of movement (so far) on climate change. The fact is, aggressively addressing climate change will change our energy structure and [...]

Charles J. Hanley of the AP  reported that in Canada’s Northwest Territories, the permafrost is melting and the Earth is burping out huge slugs of methane, one of the most potent of the greenhouse gases.  This methane has the potential to drive extremely rapid warming. It’s known as  a feedback loop: As more methane escapes, it traps more heat in the atmosphere, which in turn melts more permafrost, and so on.

The prospects are alarming enough [...]

As the U.S. moves towards a new type of green economy and renewable energy (slowly and painfully)  President Obama has announced an extra $3.4  billion for smart meters and the smart grid.

The funding will be for  ’smart grid’ projects aimed at promoting green power and reducing electricity bills and blackouts.  Dan Reicher, Director of Climate and Energy Initiatives for Google testified this week on the smart grid during the second day of the [...]

Just like with “clean coal”, the same type of euphemistic hope is being stuck on tar sands oil.  Those invested in the industry were even saying it can be “low carbon”.  That was  based in part on assuming carbon capture and storage (CCS) will save the day and allow us to use the dirtiest oil on earth and feel OK about it.    A new report by investors says wait a minute — we can’t [...]

Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins. Children wait after filling containers with water in the neighbourhood of Antimano in Caracas, Venezuela, October 26, 2009. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, on October 22, 2009, called for water conservation, saying low rainfall caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon meant water levels were critically low in the El Guri reservoir, one of the world's largest dams.

It looks like difficulties with the U.S. dragging its feet on climate change [...]

The Future in Five Senses: Echoes of Italian Futurism in New York Architecture and Design

Monday, November 16 6:00pm
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University
FREE

For the “heroic” avant-gardes of early twentieth-century, perhaps no metropolis invited the projection of utopian aspirations more than New York City. The Futurists’ actual presence in New York was minimal and belated. But if the movement drew upon the city’s dynamic example from afar, Futurism, in turn, has contributed to New York’s spaces, textures, and tectonic innovations. Whether double-filtered through the post-war innovations of Italian design, or else absorbed through the wide-ranging ripples of Futurism in multi-media global culture, the movement’s legacies in New York are at once nowhere in particular and everywhere experienced.

Reckoning the space and time that separates (or perhaps joins) the present of New York and the past of the Futurist avant-garde, this panel consider the legacies of Italian Futurism in the built environment. Focusing on the rapports between architecture, design, and the five senses, our panel considers New York¹s place in the history of Futurism, as well as the future of architectural and design practice.

Introduction: Ara H. Merjian, NYU
Panelists: Rodolphe El Khoury, Andre Lepecki, Ted Sheridan, David Humphrey

Organized by Ara H. Merjian and Stefano Albertini. Presented by New York University and Casa Italiana.

more info

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INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

Bergson+Futurism. Speed in thought

November 5, 2009
Universidad Complutense, Madrid

more info

Giovedì 5 novembre 2009, presso la Facoltà di Filosofia dell’Universidad Complutense di Madrid, si svolgerà il convegno internazionale “Bergson + Futurismo. La velocidad en el pensamiento”. (”Bergson+Futurism. Speed in thought”).
La giornata di studi si propone di indagare i rapporti tra il Futurismo e la filosofia di Bergson, ancora non sufficientemente esplorati. Lo slancio vitale, il dinamismo, la simultaneità, l’intuizione, l’impatto dei nuovi media e delle nuove tecnologie, la nuova concezione dello spazio e del tempo: questi alcuni dei temi oggetto del convegno.
Nelle due sessioni (mattutina e pomeridiana) sono previsti interventi di studiosi provenienti dalle principali università della Spagna (Madrid, Valladolid, Granada, Alcalá, Salamanca) e da diversi paesi europei (Francia, Inghilterra, Italia, Polonia, Turchia). Per l’Italia intervengono Antonio Saccoccio, studioso delle avanguardie e fondatore del Net.Futurismo, e Rossella Catanese, esperta di cinema e dottore di ricerca all’Università La Sapienza di Roma.

Elenco dei relatori:

• Daniel Lesmes
• Gulizar Karahan
• Llanos Gómez
• Alessandro Ghignoli
• Antonio Navas Montilla
• Antonio Saccoccio
• Carolina Fernández Castrillo
• Rossella Catanese
• Barnaby Dicker
• Goretti Irisarri Vázquez
• Jordi Carmona Hurtado
• Joaquín Aguirre
• Antonio Dopazo Gallego
• Przemyslaw Strozek (!)
• Lucía Antonini
• Roberto Carlos Obarri

La giornata di studi è stata organizzata per celebrare il centenario della pubblicazione del primo manifesto futurista e i 150 anni dalla nascita di Henri Bergson.

MoMA Film Series Marks Centenary of Futurism with Films

via Artdaily

NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Modern Art presents Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films from the Collection, a series of films from the collection that reflect a vision of the mechanical being in the machine age: endlessly energetic, productive in the factory, free from sentimentality, immune to disease and death, and yet somehow reflective of the human condition. Created for Performa 09’s celebration of the centenary of Futurism, the series will screen at MoMA from November 1, 2009 through January 2, 2010. It includes a diverse selection of films ranging in date from 1917 to the present, from shorts to features, spanning genres from comedies to thrillers. Nuts and Bolts is organized by Anne Morra, Assistant Curator, the Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.

Throughout cinematic history mechanical creatures-robots, androids, cyborgs-have reflected both the discord and the connection between man and machine. In his essay “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,” published February 20, 1909, in the French newspaper Le Figaro, Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) called for a mass cultural movement that would reject the sober and genteel conventions of the bourgeois world and embrace the speed, technology, and dynamism of the early twentieth century. Marinetti breathlessly announced the coming Futurist revolution, in which the heretofore-dark night would be “illuminated by the internal glow of electric hearts.” His veneration of a machine age continued in “War, the World’s Only Hygiene” (1911-15), wherein he averred that the automobiles, trains, and vast machines driving the technology of his day possessed “personalities, souls, or wills,” and presaged the “nonhuman and mechanical being.”

Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films from the Collection is organized in collaboration with Performa 09, and was created after Performa Director RoseLee Goldberg approached MoMA about presenting a series of Futurist-related films from the Museum’s collection.

Futurismo 1909-2009: la velocità e il mito

October 31 - December 31, 2009
Museo Nicolis di Villafranca (Verona)
*In collaboration with MART

Originals from the collection and numerous unpublished photos will be on display including a rare BENZ 8 20ps (1914), a Fiat 501 S Superclulasse Silvani (1924) and the motorcycle Premier 3 ½ hp (1913).

There will also be an video illustrating the exhibition “Futurismo 100: Illuminazioni. Avanguardie a confronto” which was on display at MART earlier this year.

more info

The Department of Italian at Columbia University in the City of New York is pleased to announce Beyond Futurism: F.T. Marinetti, Writer, a two-day international symposium on Thursday, November 12, 9:30am-6:00 pm in the Teatro of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University and Friday, November 13, 9:30-12:30 pm at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York.

Thursday, November 12
9:30am-6:00 pm
Teatro of the Italian Academy
1161 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027
(212) 854-2306

Friday, November 13
9:30-12:30 pm
Italian Cultural Institute in New York
686 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021
(212) 879 4242

Free and open to the public. RSVP: pc2159@columbia.edu

SCHEDULE

Wednesday, November 11, 2009
6:00pm & 9:00pm
Italian Academy

GIRLMACHINE

Featured in PERFORMA09, the renowned biennial for new visual performance art in New York City, GIRLMACHINE will inaugurate the symposium with two performances, one at 6:00pm and another at 9:00pm in the Teatro of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
9:30 - 10:30am
Italian Academy

Opening Remarks
Reading: Francesca Barbi, Manifesto del Futurismo
Preface: Paolo Valesio, (Columbia University), F. T. Marinetti and Extreme Literature

I Panel
Thursday, November 12, 2009
10:30am - 12:30pm
Italian Academy

Moderator: Ruth Ben-Ghiat (New York University)
1. Günter Berghaus (University of Bristol), Marinetti’s Volte-Face of 1920
2. Ricciarda Ricorda (Università di Venezia), Marinetti in viaggio: “Spagna veloce e toro futurista” e “Il fascino dell’Egitto”
3. Gianni Eugenio Viola (Università di Trieste e Siena), L’eco della letteratura del colonialismo nelle prose di Marinetti
Respondent: Millicent Marcus (Yale University)
Reading: Renato Miracco (IIC, New York), Parole in libertà

II Panel
Thursday, November 12, 2009
2:00 - 3:45 pm
Italian Academy

Moderator: Gino Tellini (Università di Firenze)
1. Alberto Bertoni (Università di Bologna), Metriche futuriste
2. Simone Magherini (Università di Firenze), Marinetti e “Lacerba”
Respondent: Amerigo Fabbri (Yale University)
Reading: Flora Ghezzo (Columbia University), Contro Venezia passatista
Graziella Sidoli (Convent of the Sacred Heart, CT), excerpts from Novelle con le labbra tinte
Renato Miracco (IIC, New York), Parole in libertà

III Panel
Thursday, November 12, 2009
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Italian Academy

Moderator: Andrea Malaguti (Columbia University)
1. Leonardo Clerici (Istituto di Skriptura, Bruxelles), F. T. Marinetti iconoclasta: sintassi & editio filologica
2. Cinzia Sartini-Blum (University of Iowa), Futurist Monsters: F. T. Marinetti’s Wireless Imagination in the Light of the Fantastic
3. Barbara Spackman (University of California, Berkeley), Touching the Future: Marinetti’s Haptic Aesthetic
Respondent: Paola Sica (Connecticut College)

Friday, November 13, 2009
9:30 - 12:30am
Italian Cultural Institute in New York

IV Panel
Friday, November 13, 2009
9:30am - 12:30pm
Italian Cultural Institute in New York

Opening Remarks: Renato Miracco
Reading: Davide Rondoni (Centro di Poesia Contemporanea, Bologna)
Moderator: Marjorie Perloff (Stanford University)
1. Gino Agnese (Quadriennale di Roma), Il “parlare scritto” di F. T. Marinetti
2. Beatrice Buscaroli (Fondazione Carisbo), I “Collaudi” alla Biennale di Venezia 2009
3. Matteo D’Ambrosio (Università di Napoli “Federico II”), Gli scritti di Marinetti sulle arti visive
Postface: Claudia Salaris, Marinetti, artista globale
Respondent: Stefano Albertini (New York University)
Reading: Gian Maria Annovi (Columbia University) excerpts from Ventre di donna

Organized by Paolo Valesio - Columbia University

Dedicated to the memory of Luce Marinetti Barbi (1932-2009)

The event will continue at Yale University in New Haven, CT, where the Beinecke Rare Book Library and the Departments of Italian, Slavic and Film Studies will host Futurismo/Futurizm: The Futurist Avant-Garde in Italy and Russia. The sister conference will take place on November 13-14, 2009.

For more information please visit the conference website.

Futurismo/Futurizm: The Futurist Avant-Garde in Italy and Russia

Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14, 2009
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

SCHEDULE

Friday, November 13

3:45 - 4:45 registration
4:45 - 5:00 Opening remarks

5:00 - 6:00 KEYNOTE ADDRESS

The Audacity of Hope: Futurist Aura and National Difference in the Early Manifestos
Marjorie Perloff, Stanford University

6:00pm - 7:00pm Exhibition and Reception

7:30pm Film Screening-L’uomo meccanico by André Deed
Whitney Humanities Center, Auditorium, 53 Wall

Introduction by Angela Dalle Vacche, Georgia Institute of Technology

Saturday, November 14

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

9:00am - 10:30am THE MANIFESTO

Millicent Marcus, Yale University - Moderator

The ‘Venice Preserved’ by F.T. Marinetti
Paolo Valesio, Columbia University

Futurist Chronotopes: The Spatial Politics of the Futurist Manifesto: Italy, Russia, Georgia
Harsha Ram, University of California, Berkeley

‘Il Mio Futurismo’: Reflections on Women and the Italian Avant-Garde
Erin Larkin, Southern Connecticut State University

10:30am - 11:00am Coffee Break

11:00am - 12:45pm LITERATURE

John MacKay, Yale University - Moderator

Marinetti’s Experiments with Acoustic and Visual Poetry: A New Semiotic Approach
John J. White, Kings College

Femminismo e antifemminismo futurista tra Italia e Russia
Cesare De Michelis, Università di Roma Tor Vergata

Aldo Palazzeschi e il Futurismo
Gino Tellini, Centro di studi “Aldo Palazzeschi”

12:45pm - 2:15pm Lunch (on your own)

2:30pm - 4:00pm CULTURAL POLITICS AND THE VISUAL ARTS

Sebastian Zeidler, Yale University - Moderator

Victory Over the Sun / Anguish of the Machines: Utopian Violence in Post-Revolutionary Futurist Theater
Christine Poggi, University of Pennsylvania

Liberating the Italian Colony by the Neva: Italian Futurism and the Cultural Politics of the Late Russian Empire
Sarah Warren, Purchase College, SUNY

For Immediate Release: El Lissitzky and the Topography of G
Maria Gough, Harvard University

4:00pm - 4:15pm Coffee Break

4:15pm - 5:45pm PERFORMANCE

Barbara Spackman, University of California, Berkeley - Moderator

Marinetti’s Total Theatre and the Modernist Conception of Gesamtkunstwerk
Günter Berghaus, University of Bristol

The Statistical Sublime (Marinetti x Mayakovsky)
Jeffrey Schnapp, Stanford University

The Abstract Novel as Futurist Performance Art: The Case of Benedetta’s “Viaggio di Gararà: Romanzo cosmico per teatro.”
Lucia Re, University of California, Los Angeles

PERFORMA 09
SCHEDULE OF FUTURIST EVENTS

Full a complete schedule and information on each project go to

http://www.performa-arts.org/blog

EXHIBITIONS

Nov 1 Opening 3 - 6 PM / Nov 1-22 Regular Hours TH-M 12 - 6 PM,

100 Years (VERSION # 2) at P.S/1 Curated by RoseLee Goldberg and Klaus Bisenbach.  Organized by P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in collaboration with Performa

Nov 3 Opening Reception 7 - 9 PM / Nov 3-20 Regular Hours M-F 10 AM - 4 PM

FUTURIST MANIFESTOS at The Italian Cultural Institute Curated by Renato Miracco.  Presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in collaboration with Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Bologna, Italy.

Nov 3 Opening Reception 7 - 9 PM / Nov 3-20 Regular Hours M-F 10 AM - 4 PM

FEMININE FUTURES, an exhibition on Valentine De Saint-Point at the Italian Cultural Institute Curated by Adrien Sina and Sarah Wilson. Presented by Performa and the Italian Cultural Institute

Nov 6 Opening Reception 6 - 7:30 PM / Nov 1-20 M-F 10 AM - 4 PM

FUTURISTE: WOMEN IN ART AND LITERATURE at Casa Italiana Zerili-Marimò Curated by Giancarlo Carpi.  Presented by New York University and Casa Italiana

FILMS

Nov 2 at 4 PM

L’INHUMAINE AND RHAPSODY IN STEEL at MoMA Organized by Anne Mora.  Part of Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films From the Collection.  With sincere thanks to Sony Pictures Entertainment, Toho Co. Ltd., Lana Wilson, and RoseLee Goldberg.  Tickets $10 / $8 Seniors / $6 Students / Children and MoMA Members free at http://www.moma.org

Nov 3 + 9 at 7 PM

THE FUTURIST CANON, part of The Polyexpressive Symphony: Futurism on Film, at Anthology Film Archives Curated by Lana Wilson (Performa). Presented by Performa. Tickets $9 / $7 Students and Children / $6 Performa and AFA Members, available at the door.

Nov 3 + 11 at 9 PM

FUTURIST-RELATED PERFORMANCE ON FILM, part of The Polyexpressive Symphony: Futurism on Film, at Anthology Film Archives Curated by Lana Wilson (Performa). Presented by Performa. Tickets $9 / $7 Students and Children / $6 Performa and AFA Members, available at the door.

Nov 4 at 4 PM

METROPOLIS AND LA MARCHE DES MACHINES, part of Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films from the Collection, at MoMA Organized by Anne Mora.  Part of Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films From the Collection. Tickets $10 / $8 Seniors / $6 Students / Children and MoMA Members free at http://www.moma.org

Nov 4 + 11 at 7 PM

MAN AND MACHINE, part of The Polyexpressive Symphony: Futurism on Film, at Anthology Film Archives Curated by Lana Wilson (Performa). Presented by Performa. Tickets $9 / $7 Students and Children / $6 Performa and AFA Members, available at the door.

Nov 4 + 11 at 8:30 PM

TRAINS, TRAINS, TRAINS, part of The Polyexpressive Symphony: Futurism on Film at Anthology Film Archives Curated by Lana Wilson (Performa). Presented by Performa. Tickets $9 / $7 Students and Children / $6 Performa and AFA Members, available at the door.

Nov 10 at 7:30 PM

SANDRA GIBSON AND LUIS RECODER: NOT A FUTURIST FILM BUT A FILM WITHOUT A FUTURE at Light Industry Presented by Light Industry. Tickets $7, available at the door.

Nov 12 at 6:30 PM

BALLI PLASTICI at the Museum of Arts and Design Produced by The Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center and the Museum of Arts and Design. Tickets $10 / $7 Performa and MADMembers at http://www.madmuseum.org or call 212-299-7780.

Nov 12 at 7:30 PM

THE FUTURIST IMPULSE AFTER FUTURISM at Anthology Film Archives Curated by Robert Haller.  Presented by Anthology Film Archives.  Tickets $9 / $7 Students, Seniors, and Children / $6 Performa and AFA Members, available at the door.

Nov 14 at 1:30 PM

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY AND THE LEGEND OF JOHN HENRY, part of Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films from the Collection, at MoMA Organized by Anne Mora.  Part of Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films From the Collection. Tickets $10 / $8 Seniors / $6 Students / Children and MoMA Members free at http://www.moma.org

Nov 16 at 8 PM

FUTURIST LIFE REDUX : TRISHA BAGA, CHAMECKI-LERNER, MARTHA COLBURN, BEN COONLEY, GEORGE KUCHAR, LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON, SHANA MOULTON, SHANNON PLUMB, AIDA RUILOVA, MATTHEW SILVER & SHOVAL ZOHAR (THE FUTURE), AND MICHAEL SMITH at Anthology Film Archives Curated by Lana Wilson (Performa) and Andrew Lampert. Commissioned by Performa with SFMOMA and Portland Green Cultural Projects. Presented by Performa and Anthology Film Archives. Special thanks to Sally Berger and Marie Losier. Tickets: $9 / $7 Students, Seniors, and Children / $6 Performa and AFA Members, available at the door.

PANELS / SYMPOSIA

Nov 6 at 6 PM

Futurism and Women at at Casa Italiana Zerili-Marimò, New York University Organized by Ara H. Merjian and Stefano Albertini. Presented by New York University and Casa Italiana.  FREE

Nov 8 at 4 PM

THE UNIVERSE WILL BE OUR VOCABULARY: FUTURIST MUSIC, FILM, AND LITERATURE at The Performa Hub Curated by Lana Wilson (Performa). Presented by Performa. FREE

Nov 9 from 6:30 - 8 PM

BRUNO JASIENSKI: MANNEQUINS’S BALL at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Curated by Daniel Gerould and Frank Hentschker. Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center for Performa 09. Co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York. FREE

Nov 11 from 4 - 7 PM

Shock and Awe: The Troubling Legacy of the Futurist Cult of War at The Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College Organized by Emily Braun, Distinguished Professor, Hunter College. Presented by the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, the Hunter College Department of Art, and Performa. To RSVP or for more information call 212-772-4007.  FREE

Nov 12 - 13 11/12 9:30 AM-6 PM and 11/13 from 9:30 AM-12:30 PM

BEYOND FUTURISM: F.T. MARINETTI, WRITER at Teatro of the Italian Academy, Columbia University (11/12) and the Italian Cultural Institute (11/13) Presented by Columbia University. Organized by the Department of Italian at Columbia University. Co-sponsored by  the Italian Poetry Review, the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna, Centro di Studi “Aldo Palazzeschi” (Università degli Studi di Firenze), the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò (NYU), Crossroads Cultural Center, and Performa.  RSVP to pc2159@columbia.edu FREE

Nov 13 - 14 11/13 5-6 PM and 11/14 9 AM - 6 PM

FUTURISMO/FUTURIZM: FUTURIST AVANT-GARDE IN ITALY AND RUSSIA at Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall Street, New Haven, CT

Presented by the Department of Italian at Yale University.  Register by October 30^th at http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/futurism/registration.shtml FREE

Nov 16 at 6 PM

THE FUTURE IN FIVE SENSES: ECHOES OF ITALIAN FUTURISM IN NEW YORK ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN at Casa Italiana Zerili-Marimò, New York University Organized by Ara H. Merjian and Stefano Albertini. Presented by New York University and Casa Italiana. FREE

PERFORMANCES / EVENTS

Nov 2 at 7 PM

RAGNAR KJARTANSSON AND ALTERAZIONI VIDEO, SYMPHONY N.1 at PS122

Curated by Barbara Casavecchia and Caroline Corbetta. Co-presented by Performa and Performance Space 122. Produced by Performa. Supported by Luhring Augustine, New York and Prometeo Gallery, Milan. Order tickets at https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/203/1254438000000 FREE

Nov 4 - 6 from 12 - 3 PM

MARIJE VOGELZANG / PROEF: PASTA SAUNA at the Performa Hub

Curated by Esa Nickle. Commissioned by Performa.  Supported by The Mondriaan Foundation. FREE LUNCH

Nov 10 - 14, 11/10 - 11/13 at 8:30 PM, 11/14 at 5 + 8 PM

JOAN JONAS: READING DANTE at the Performing Garage A PERFORMA PREMIERE. Supported by Performa Producer’s Circle Member Shane Akroyd. Tickets: $20 / $16 Performa Members http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/84624

Nov 11 at 6 PM + 9 PM

CARLOS SOTO, CHARLES CHEMIN, CHRISTIAN WASSMANN, AND LUISA GUI: GIRLMACHINE at Columbia University Curated by Carlos Soto, Charles Chemin, Christian Wassman and Luisa Gui. Presented by the Italian Academy and the Department of Italian, Columbia University. Suggested donation $10, at the door.

Nov 11 from 6:30-8:30PM

VIVA FUTURISM! REVOLUTION, VANGUARDIA, AND THE MODERN METROPOLIS at El Museo del Barrio Curated by Deborah Cullen and Lynda Klich. Presented by El Museo del Barrio. FREE RSVP at http://www.elmuseo.org

Nov 12 at 8 PM

MUSIC FOR 16 FUTURIST NOISE INTONERS with BLIXA BARGELD, JOHN BUTCHER, LUCIANO CHESSA, JOHN LA BARBARA, NICK HALLET, PAULINE OLIVEROS, MIKE PATTON, ANAT PICK, ELLIOTT SHARP, ULRICH KRIEGER, JENNIFER WALSHE WITH TONY CONRAD, AND GHOSTIGITAL WITH SKULI SVERRISON, FINBOGGI PETURSSON, AND CASPAR ELECTRONICS at Town Hall

A PERFORMA COMMISSION with SFMOMA and EMPAC. Produced and presented by Performa. Curated by Luciano Chessa with Esa Nickle. Thanks to AIR, Art International Radio and the Clocktower Gallery for rehearsal spaces.

Nov 13 at 7 PM

TEXT OF LIGHT: CITY SYMPHONIES OUT OF DOORS on the High Line (14th Street Passage) Curated by Lana Wilson and Esa Nickle. Co-presented by Performa and Friends of the High Line with Rooftop Films. Sponsored by Viper Studios. Special thanks to Anne Morra, MoMA. Tickets $15 / $12 Performa Members at http://thehighline.org/events/all/2009/11/city-symphonies-out-of-doors-text-of-light

Nov 14 at 12 PM

TAN LIN: CHINESE CHALK IN FUTURIST LOT at Museum of Chinese in America Presented by the Asian American Writers Workshop, Museum of Chinese in America, and the Chinese American Association for Poetry and Poetics. FREE

Nov 14 at 4 PM

CHARLES BERNSTEIN and JOHN YAO: THE FUTURISMS OF AMERICAN POETRY at The Asian-American Writers Workshop Presented by the Asian American Writers Workshop, Museum of Chinese in America, and the Chinese American Association for Poetry and Poetics.  FREE

Nov 14 from 6-8 PM

SPEED READING at Definitions Gym, 19 Union Square West at 15th Street Presented by Cabinet Magazine. FREE

Nov 14 at 6 PM

MARTI GUIXÉ: MEALING at The Performa Hub Commissioned and presented by Performa. Curated by Esa Nickle. Supported by the State Corporation for Spanish Cultural Action Abroad. Tickets: $25 / $20 Performa Members http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/85008

Nov 14 at 8:30 PM

BRADLEY EROS: FUTURIST FILM FUNERAL (FFF !!!) at ISSUE Project Room Commissioned by Performa.  Co-presented by Performa and ISSUE Project Room. Special thanks to Andrew Lampert. Tickets: $10 / $8 Performa Members, at the door. https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/85262

Nov 22 at 7 PM

MARINA ROSENFELD: P.A. at Park Avenue Armory Co-presented by Performa and Park Avenue Armory. This performance is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. FREE

Thanks Tairone and Sherrard!

THE POLYEXPRESSIVE SYMPHONY: FUTURISM ON FILM

Anthology Film Archives (NYC)

Presented by Performa, for Performa 09. Although very little remains of early Italian avant-garde cinema, this film program will showcase several groundbreaking films from the 1910s, 20s, and 30s indebted to the Futurist movement, which declared that film was ‘the expressive medium most adapted to the complex sensibility of a Futurist artist.’ Artists to be featured include Marcel Fabre (Italy), Henri Chomette (France), Willy Otto Zielke (Germany), Eugene Deslaw (Ukraine), and Corrado D’Errico (Italy). The program will also present poetic Italian shorts documenting the rise of the mechanical age; rare, early science-fiction films; and the US premiere of the only surviving full-length Futurist film, THAIS (1916), a melodramatic love story made by Anton Giulio Bragaglia. In addition, a special screening of MARCH OF THE MACHINES (1929) - on Wednesday, November 11 - will feature a live performance inspired by its original score, by Futurist composer Luigi Russolo, on a reconstructed intonaromuri, or Futurist noise-intoners.

Curated by Lana Wilson (Performa). Performa 09 (November 1-22, 2009, New York City) is the third edition of the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art performance presented by Performa, a non-profit multidisciplinary arts organization dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of 20th-century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the 21st century.

Program 1: The Futurist Canon
November 3rd + 9th | 7pm

Tina Cordero, Guido Martina & Pippo Oriani
SPEED / VELOCITA
Italy, 1930, 13 minutes, video, b&w, silent.
One of the only Futurist films still existing, SPEED captures the dynamics of the city, with rotating views, whistling machines, articulated mannequins, and homages to 20th-century artists such as Boccioni, Mondrian, L?ger, and Kandinsky, all rhythmically collaged together by Futurist painter Oriani in collaboration with Futurist writers Cordero and Martina.

Corrado D’Errico
STRAMILANO
Italy, 1929, 14 minutes, video, b&w, sound.
A vibrant ‘city symphony’ showing a day in the life of Milan, from factories to farmers’ markets, skyscrapers, nightclubs, and beyond, with sound effects of human voices and machines. Although not officially ‘Futurist’, this film is directly related to Futurist ideas and works, such as SPEED.

Anton Giulio Bragaglia
THAIS
Italy, 1917, 54 minutes (incomplete), video, b&w, silent.
THAIS is considered to be the only surviving full-length Futurist film. In it, the title character plots to seduce her best friend’s crush, and the melodramatic chain of events that ensues leads to a Futuristic final sequence, shot against the visionary set designs of Futurist painter Enrico Prampolini.
Total running time: ca. 85 minutes.

Program 2: Futurist-Related Performance
November 3rd + 9th | 9pm

Luca Comerio
EXCELSIOR
Italy, 1914, 23 minutes, 35mm, b&w, silent.
A grand 1881 ballet that celebrates technology and progress through tableaux saluting turn-of-the-century technological innovations - electricity, the telegraph, and the Brooklyn Bridge, among them - EXCELSIOR was made into a film over 30 years later, as the worldwide interest in Futurism was taking off.

Marcel Fabre
LOVE AFOOT / AMOR PEDESTRE
Italy, 1914, 10 minutes, 35mm, b&w, silent.
The feet of three people act out an adulterous affair in LOVE AFOOT, the only filmed record of Futurist ‘reductionist performance’.

Jacques Feyder and Gaston Ravel
FEET AND HANDS / DES PIEDS ET DES MAINS
France, 1915, 18 minutes, video, b&w, silent.
A mechanical ballet of feet and hands influenced by Futurist ideas.

Claude Autant-Lara
A COLLECTION OF FACTS / FAIT-DIVERS
France, 1923, 20 minutes, video, b&w, silent.
Surrealistic short made early in the career of Autant-Lara, who would later become one of the French ‘directors of quality’ attacked by the New Wave filmmakers, in which a trio of actors (including Antonin Artaud!) jealously confront one another, set to an avant-garde score by Arthur Honegger and others.
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

Program 3: Man and Machine
November 4 + 11 | 7pm

Eugene Deslaw
MARCH OF THE MACHINES / LA MARCHE DES MACHINES
France, 1929, 9 minutes, 16mm, b&w, silent. With live performance by Luciano Chessa on November 11!
An abstract mechanical symphony with a score originally written by Futurist artist Luigi Russolo and now lost, this film will be shown with a special live soundtrack by composer and Russolo expert Luciano Chessa (Nov. 11 screening only). Taking Deslaw’s notes about the process of synching music to images developed by Russolo for this film into consideration, Chessa’s original score will be performed with his reconstructions of the incredible intonaromuri, or Futurist noise-intoners.

Francesco Di Cocco
THE GUT OF THE CITY / IL VENTRE DELLA CITTÀ
Italy, 1932, 13 minutes, 35mm, b&w, sound.
A poetic, experimental, industrial documentary.

André Deed
THE MECHANICAL MAN / L’UOMO MECCANICO
Italy, 1921, 46 minutes (incomplete), 35mm, b&w, silent.
A colossal robot runs wild in an unstoppable crime spree in this rare fantasy-horror epic by André Deed, protégé of George Méliès, that culminates in a wild showdown between the evil robot and another mechanical marvel.
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

Program 4: Trains, Trains, Trains
November 4 + 11 | 8:30pm

Corrado D’Errico
IMPRESSIONS OF LIFE #1: RAILWAY STATION RHYTHMS / RITMI DI STAZIONE, IMPRESSIONI DI VITA N. 1
Italy, 1933, 10 minutes, video, b&w, silent.
Gorgeous documentary depicting a day in the ‘iron world’ - a railway station - by intermingling the repetitive motions of machines with the mechanisms of human behavior.

Henri Chomette
PLAY OF REFLECTIONS AND SPEED / JEUX DES REFLETS ET DE LA VITESSE
France, 1925, 6 minutes, 16mm, b&w, silent.
A beautiful montage of sped-up shots taken from moving trains and boats, highlighting the play of light and motion through superimpositions, upside-down camerawork, and other experimental techniques, made by Chomette, brother of René Clair and a leader of the French ‘pure cinema’ movement.

Willy Otto Zielke
THE STEEL BEAST / DAS STAHLTIER
Germany, 1935, 75 minutes, 16mm, b&w, sound.
Daring collage of rhythms, abstractions, superimpositions, and wild shots of the railroad and other machines, made by the great German photographer Zielke, that was originally commissioned to celebrate the centennial of the Nuremburg-Furth railroad line, and later banned by the Third Reich for “decadent aesthetics.”
Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

Program 5: The Futurist Impulse After Futurism
November 12 | 7:30pm

Curated by Robert Haller (Anthology).
The Futurist movement celebrated the changes wrought by early-20th-century technology: the cyclical energy of the machine, the new city, speed in trains and the automobile, the radiotelegraph, the dematerialization of the body and the erotic, and the transformations of space and time. By the end of the 1920s the Italian Futurist movement faded, but its recognition that a new phase of experience had arrived in the “acceleration of life” (Marinetti) was widely assimilated. This program presents films that were not made from an overtly Futurist sensibility, but which nonetheless acknowledge the revolution announced in Italy in the first years of the 20th century. While most of the Futurist films of the teens and twenties were lost or destroyed in World War II, the Futurist impulse has thrived. -R.H.

Henri Chomette
PLAY OF REFLECTIONS AND SPEED / JEUX DES REFLETS ET DE LA VITESSE
(1925, 6 minutes, 16mm, b&w, silent)
Ralph Steiner MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES (1931, 11 minutes, 35mm, b&w, silent)
Wheaton Galentine TREADLE AND BOBBIN (1954, 8 minutes, 16mm, color, sound)
Francis Thompson N.Y., N.Y. (1957, 15 minutes, 35mm, color, sound)
Hilary Harris HIGHWAY (1958, 5 minutes, 16mm, b&w, sound)
Paul Sharits DECLARATIVE MODE (1976, 20 minutes, 16mm, color, silent)
Bruce Elder SWEET LOVE REMEMBERED (1980, 13 minutes, 16mm, color, sound)
Amy Greenfield WILDFIRE (2003, 11 minutes, 35mm, color, sound)
Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

Program 5: Futurist Life Redux
November 16 | 8pm

Commissioned by Performa with SFMOMA.
Co-presented by Performa and Anthology Film Archives for Performa 09.
The only officially ‘Futurist’ film ever made, VITA FUTURISTA (FUTURIST LIFE) was devised in 1916 by a committee of Futurist artists including Arnaldo Ginna, Giacomo Balla, Remo Chiti, Bruno Corra, and F.T. Marinetti. Comprised of eleven independent segments conceived and written by different artists - with the whole film shot, edited, and generally overseen by Ginna - FUTURIST LIFE directly took up several ideas proposed in “The Futurist Cinema” manifesto written earlier in the same year, contrasting the spirit and lifestyle of the Futurist with that of the ordinary man in a series of humorous sketches, many of which used experimental techniques such as split screens and double exposures. The final, 40-minute FUTURIST LIFE premiered at the Niccolini Theatre in Florence in 1917, as part of a program with four sintesi (very short plays) by Emilio Settimelli and Corra, and live poetry readings by Settimelli and Chiti of the works of several Futurist writers. It was a failure with the audience, who threw stones and other objects at the screen, and was generally forgotten soon after it came out. The only known copy of this film was lost several decades ago, and now all that remain are written accounts by Ginna and the journal L’ITALIA FUTURISTA, as well as a few still images.

Now, for the Performa 09 biennial, Performa and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) have joined together to commission a diverse group of thirteen contemporary American film and video artists - Trisha Baga, Chamecki-Lerner, Martha Colburn, Ben Coonley, Lynn Hershman, George Kuchar, Shana Moulton, Shannon Plumb, Aida Ruilova, Matthew Silver & Shoval Zohar (The Future), and Michael Smith - to create their own, 3-5 minute versions of the eleven segments in VITA FUTURISTA, re-imagining this film in relation to our own future. These shorts will then be compiled into one, all-new version of FUTURIST LIFE for the 21st century, making its New York premiere at Anthology on this evening.

Curated by Lana Wilson (Performa) with Andrew Lampert (Anthology).
Special thanks to RoseLee Goldberg (Performa) and Frank Smigiel (SFMOMA).

FUTUR1SM00GGI: 100 ANNI DOPO IL FUTURISMO TORNA A FIRENZE

October 31, November 9, and December 4, 2009

Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze

PROGRAMMA

sabato 31 ottobre 2009
Cinema Teatro Odeon
Ore 10.30-13
FUTURISMO OGGI
Giornata d’apertura
Saluti di Paolo Targetti, Presidente dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
Introduzione del Direttore dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
Presentazione del programma, Marco Cianchi
Conferenza di Achille Bonito Oliva
L’eredità del Futurismo nell’arte contemporanea
Intervento multimediale di Art Media Studio di Firenze.

lunedì 9 novembre 2009
Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
Ore 10-13
FIRENZE PASSATISTA. UN ARGOMENTO ANCORA APERTO
Serie di relazioni sulle difficoltà e le prospettive del contemporaneo a Firenze, quasi cent’anni dopo la famosa invettiva “Contro Firenze passatista” lanciata da Giovanni Papini nella serata futurista del 12 dicembre 1913 al Teatro Verdi.

Saluti e introduzione alla giornata con lettura di brani dal manifesto di Papini.

Interventi:
-Sergio Givone, Declinare la bellezza al futuro
-Graziella Magherini, Psicologia del contemporaneo a Firenze
-Gianni Pettena, Fenomenologia della pensilina
-Renato Ranaldi, Fuoriquadro senza sconti
-Sergio Risaliti, Il punto. Relazione sul contemporaneo a Firenze

Ore 15-17
IL FUTURO DEL CONTEMPORANEO
Incontro-dibattito su progetti, prospettive, impegni per lo sviluppo del contemporaneo a Firenze e in Toscana.
Organizzazione e coordinamento di Paola Bortolotti.
Hanno confermato la partecipazione:
-Paolo Cocchi, assessore alla cultura della Regione Toscana
-Giuliano Da Empoli, assessore alla cultura del Comune di Firenze
-Marco Bazzini, direttore artistico del Centro Luigi Pecci-Prato
-Arabella Natalini, curatore per EX3, Firenze
-Ludovico Pratesi, curatore scientifico per Palazzo Fabroni, Pistoia
-Sergio Risaliti, critico d’arte, curatore-organizzatore di mostre e eventi
-Alberto Salvadori, direttore artistico Museo Marino Marini e Villa Bardini, Firenze
-Angelika Stepken, direttore Villa Romana, Firenze

venerdì 4 dicembre 2009
Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
Ore 10-13.30
LE ARTI DEL FUTURISMO
Conferenza Cerchi chiusi-cerchi aperti sugli sviluppi e i riflessi nell’arte contemporanea della polemica Papini-Boccioni svoltasi nel 1914 sulla rivista fiorentina Lacerba a proposito dell’introduzione di oggetti d’uso e di materia grezza nella produzione artistica d’avanguardia.
Seguita da relazioni dei docenti dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze su vari episodi storici del Futurismo e le loro conseguenze nell’arte d’oggi.
Interventi:
-Marco Cianchi, Introduzione: Futuristi in piazza San Marco
-Giorgio Verzotti, Cerchi chiusi-cerchi aperti
-Susanna Ragionieri, Marisa Mori futurista
-Mauro Pratesi, Depero e i Balletti Russi
-Flavia Matitti, “Pittura dell’Avvenire”: Arnaldo Ginna tra futurismo ed esoterismo
-Cristina Giorgetti, L’innovazione del gilet futurista
-Marina Carmignani, Esiti del futurismo nella concezione odierna del corpo e dell’abito

VITA FUTURISTA o la Fuga dell’Arte
Mediometraggio di finzione scritto e diretto da Giovanni M. Rossi.
Produzione Movie&Sound per l’Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze.
Basato sulla sceneggiatura dell’omonimo film di Arnaldo Ginna (1916; attori Marinetti, Corra, Settimelli, Balla ed altri; originale perduto) che fu interamente girato a Firenze e per la prima volta proiettato al teatro Niccolini il 28 gennaio 1917.
Al termine della lavorazione il film di G.M. Rossi sarà presentato in anteprima mondiale a Firenze.

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